I'll be there bouldering, if anyone is interested in that!

Very cool pic of Inez.

I have a campsite for each Saturday night in April for Yosemite Valley. Glad to share them and I'll probably only use a couple of them anyway.

Re: the Yelp conversation people had a while back, the East Bay Express printed a follow up article:

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/yelp_extortion_allegations_stack_up/Content?oid=946025

I am looking for someone to come and flip the tire with me. It's really not that hard to flip it and it is a great work out!!!! please call me if you are intrested in working out with the tire with me, Nick D.
858-610-6464

I heard Yelp's CEO on NPR this weekend trying to shovel dirt back in the hole. I think his pitch is that Yelp is more analogous to word of mouth than Zagats, that readers should expect a dose of falsehood and hyperbole with their useful information. I hope someone sits the guy down and explains how the usefulness of a communications channel decreases with noise in the channel.

Thanks to Rebecca H. for sending me the following link. For anyone interested I think that it stands as an interesting case study for a discussion of nutrition/exercise science.

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:SwN5GuY7oWcJ:www.mc.uky.edu/Athletic_training/publications%2520folder/Lenn.UHL.MATTACOLAfulltext_DOMS.pdf+fish+oil+muscle+soreness&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

A bunch of folks will be at Iron Works around 6 for climbing - i bet you could proably convince a couple to keep you company :-)

Gita - for those of us who do not have the expertise or the patience to read through medical studies ... can you give us a synopsis?

Chuck,

Yes I think it's neat how Inez is making the "I" in Inez!

Alex:

The not-for-profit CrossFit Message Board vettes each and every member: If they cannot find public information on someone they call affiliates: I get a inquiry or two every month asking me to vouch for someone lately.

I think Yelp would work better if they did similar diligence to weed out the cranks.

Max, you are making funnin with me aren't ya?

A second after posting I had this gnawing sensation I had typoed Princess Raindrop name.

Anyway, I propose we keep the NEZ on the wall as a tribute to Princess Raindrop's great attitude.

RR -

Presumably untrained individuals were supplemented with 1.8g fish oil (or placebo or soy) for 30 days prior to being subjected to 50(!) maximal negative single-arm curls and for 8 days thereafter. They were then tested for soreness, strength, etc at two days three days and one week. No difference in metrics were observed leading them to believe fish oil is ineffective for DOMS.

However as Rippetoe, etc have pointed out such studies only apply to the group on which it was performed, and it is a gross leap of logic to assume that the conclusions reached using untrained individuals performing high reps of negative arm curls apply to fit athletes performing compound multi-joint, mostly concentric movements.

I agree with Coach and Rip that just about 100% of exercise science is more or less toilet paper.

I skimmed the methods and conclusion sections of the fish oil paper. While the absence of evidence isn't necessarily evidence of absence, the authors failed to find a difference in the bio-physiological effects of fish oil and snake oil... moral of the story is beware of oily reptiles!

Oh, and this section:

"The severity of DOMS is variable, ranging from mild discomfort to extreme soreness that limits the use of muscles by reducing one’s ability to produce force (12) and by reducing one’s relaxed arm angle
(RANG) (45)."

leads me to believe that the researchers have very little idea of what they are talking about. One could have very severe DOMS from heavy squats that would not affect one's "relaxed arm angle" at all.

Drivel.

Also this is funny:

The model we selected for this study was based on a
modification of a more intense preliminary protocol done in
our lab, which resulted in extreme soreness and swelling.

They were so clueless they rhabdoed their subjects!

More seriously, while the study may only directly apply to those on which it was performed the negative result suggests that if fish oil has a positive impact, the effects are neither strong nor broad.

OK, 50 maximal eccentric movements on untrained individuals is just stupid. Nobody ever said fish oil could cure rhabdomyolysis. This is somewhat akin to giving someone an aspirin, whacking them on the head with a hammer, and then asking them if that hurt.

Alex: I think this shows that fish oil is not a magic bullet, but did you really read the protocol?

As Daniel and I noted, 50(!) maximal(!) concentric(!) single arm curls on untrained individuals is just about torture.

And apparently the original protocol gave the subjects rhabdomyolysis. Probably 100 curls.

I would like to see the same protocol tested on fit athletes, with a period of four days of rest followed by seven sets of seven heavy back squats @ 93% 1RM.

I am not at all convinced the results would be the same.

I put the why in nez.

Screw science. If you try it and it works, whether it's all in your head or not, keep doing it.

Right Princess Raindrop!

I'm going to start rectally inserting quartz crystals to lose weight! Evidence is for suckers!

now that's what i'm talkin' about max! way to get on board!

Quartz crystals up your ass probably WOULD make you lose weight. I can't recommend it, though. Hospital food is terrible.

Wow, the quality of a good discussion sure can go down rapidly with this group. A couple points on the article not mentioned in the comments concern the sample size. This study size N[5 6 5] is very common in nutritional/exercise science studies. In addition, all but the worst papers include all or some portion of the raw data. In this case the raw blood data is in my opinion the most interesting information in this study. Thanks for participating, good points all. Princess Raindrop, you are a special exception, did you have a position in the previous administration?

Gita I did not even notice the sample size. We could replicate this "experiment" using the above suggested protocol (7x7 BS) easily.