In these blogs I’ve shared situations where I have erred professionally. My weak defence has been that I didn’t know any better at the time! By delving into and contemplating different areas of research, I’ve been able to reflect on and reinterpret many of my experiences – good and bad, and I’ve shared those with my […]
Did Covid affect exercise trends? Although it has its critics, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is recognised internationally as the leading organisation for exercise and fitness professionals. Since 2006, this body has conducted an annual survey of health and fitness professionals working in or around the fitness industry – all to explore industry […]
I stumbled across this the other day thinking it might be useful as we work our way out of another lockdown. Swearing or cursing are frowned on as a form of communication, but there may be some redeeming qualities of cussing. Ljung (2011) swears that the Ancient Egyptians were the first recorded swearers, documenting donkey-based […]
Closed Chain Exercises Minds 1139 words – estimated reading time: 4 min, 56 sec Full disclosure, this is an ‘I told you so’ blog. Despite my ongoing rants and critiques, I’ve rarely been proven right – sigh!!!. Back in the late 1980s and early 90s most of my work was in exercise rehabilitation. I loved […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 min, 45 sec With so many in the population struggling to be habitually active, it is timely to reality check some of the contemporary health promoting activities that have proliferated globally. Both the fitness and sport industries enthusiastically beckon people to come join them. Their pitches pale, however, compared to the […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 min, 13 sec As buzz words go, ‘functional’ is everywhere. Functional fitness has even made it into the top fitness trends for the past few years (Thompson, 2019). I know the term ticks many boxes and implies that something is real, authentic, and a natural part of life, but I’m not […]
Estimated Reading Time: 2 min, 36 sec Awareness of the importance of physical activity (PA) for health and wellbeing has ballooned thanks to various public health initiatives. That appreciation for the value of PA has however rarely translated into action as levels of inactivity in most populations have remained unchanged (Szymczak et […]
How many does it take to claim you are active? Estimated Reading Time: 3 min, 29 sec Physical activity guidelines for health and wellbeing are something that I have grappled with over the years. I’ve already written about some of those concerns (Health harshening the exercise buzz?). One of my worries is that those guidelines […]
Things that don’t add up: the puzzling challenges of placebos Estimated Reading Time: 3 min, 59 sec As noted last blog, there is mounting evidence that placebos seem to defy traditional reasoning by somehow producing meaningful results. In their systematic review, Hurst et al. (2020) found a small to moderate (around 5%) placebo benefit for […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 min, 10 sec Over my career I’ve thoughtlessly disparaged hundreds of gadgets, exercises, training techniques, supplements and suggested superfoods – discounting all as simply placebos. I’ve done this when the science and logic seemed shonky, but without really knowing much about, or appreciating the complexity of placebos. I can spell the […]