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 […]
937 words; estimated reading time 4 mins, 41 secs. Stimulate your mind I find the whole gimmick culture that plagues sport, exercise, and health absolutely fascinating. The thought processes and craftiness of the people who think up, and market these things is as intriguing as the vulnerability and gullibility of the people putting their money […]
Finding and evaluating information. 3090 words (that’s a lot!) : estimated reading time: 15 mins, 27 secs. A guide There are arguably many ways that personal research could be done; I’ve tried to approach this from an exercise professional’s perspective. Hopefully, some or all of this information will be helpful in some way. You may want […]
1385 words; estimated reading time: 6 minutes, 55 seconds. Reflecting on my recent blog on fitness trend and fads, I realised that it was, in reality, a superficial treatment of an important topic. The paper that I reviewed was effectively just a popularity survey and was short on critical thinking – something the 10th man seeks […]
1108 words: estimated reading time 5 mins 30s Who’s Bad?One of my closest colleagues would periodically confess to having been bad. She wasn’t reporting on her poor behaviour; she was simply owning up to having eaten a Snickers bar (or something similar). Each time I’d argue that she was actually neither good nor bad and […]
The flawed touch of geniuses 1900 words; reading time ~ 9 mins, 30 secs. …or should that be the touch of flawed geniuses?An emerging obsession in strength and conditioning has been the challenge of regulating an athletes’ exercise stress and recovery balance. The apparent solution has been to harness science and technology and measure/monitor either […]
(December 3, 2017) Ahhh the power of media!! I suspect that it’s made most professionals’ work a lot more challenging. As a 60’s child I grew up in a time when the various professionals had pretty much sole and protected access to the information relevant to their profession. If I wanted to know what was […]