One of our goals at the Huffines Institute is to encourage activity. But we also encourage common sense when you exercise. I don’t know if it is the time of the year (spring), a lack of proper guidance by society, or just youthful beliefs of invincibility, but the general lack of concern for their own basic safety that I’ve seen exhibited recently by runners, pedestrians, or bicyclists gives me pause.

Science always brings us new facts that challenge us and challenge our perceptions of the world. For example, over the past five years, we have begun to see research into a type of compound, produced by the body, that is probably responsible for what we know as the ‘runner’s high’. Most of us know that the ‘runner’s high’ is the euphoric feeling that occurs when you run, but it also occurs when you do any task that is physiologically difficult. Linked with the runner’s high are a wide a...

As someone who studies human performance, from time to time I have people ask why scientists will test animals to understand human performance.  In most cases, it is because to continue to understand why humans can do what they do (and how we can train them to do ‘it’ better), we have to use models that allow us to do things that we can’t do in humans.  For example, my lab has a long-running set of experiments where we are looking at humans’ drive to be active.  Much of this drive probably o...

In many of our podcasts, articles, and some of my past blogs, the Huffines Institute continues to advocate getting people active. Many times we will use the phrase ‘moderately active’ which is generally interpreted to mean getting at least 30 cumulative mins of activity on a daily basis at a moderate intensity level. Indeed, many studies that have shown positive health effects from daily activity will often use the “30 mins of moderate activity” as a guideline/recommendation. What we forget ...

The racing world suffered a tremendous loss yesterday when Dan Wheldon was killed during an Indy Car race at Las Vegas Motorspeedway. Even though auto racing in general is much safer than it was just 10 years ago, it is still tragic when one of a sport’s athletes loses their life while competing. Because I have a background in auto racing and my lab has done quite a bit of testing of auto racing drivers and pit crews, this type of tragedy hits a little closer to home and always m...

Most exercise 'fads' come and go repeatedly, so I was interested in a recent session on Barefoot Running at the recent national American College of Sports Medicine meeting. Is barefoot running a fad or is there something more to it?

Why cheat? Good question. It is often thought that athletes cheat, especially those taking some form of Performance Enhancing Drug (PED), because they can not be the best any other way. However, as we all read about doping and PED scandals in many different sports, many times it is the elite athlete that is doping - the one that is already at the top of their game. So, why do they cheat?

In the last several years, the men and women of our military services are never far from any of our minds. While most of us are more likely to think of sports medicine as relating to athletic performance or normal exericse, many don't realize that our field has been linked to military service for many, many years. Ask many veterans what the initials "PT" mean to them and in most cases they will tell you 'physical training' (and maybe with a sneer in place).

Since we put up our podcast conversation with Dr. Carol Garber this past Friday, I've had couple of interesting email conversations, and one in particular with my friend Kevin, has struck a chord that needs to be amplified a bit.  I think if you listen to Dr. Garber, you may get the sense that Exercise Scientists are only interested in state licensure and are a bit elitist to boot.  I think it is critical that we drop back a couple of steps to look at some context for this conversation that ...

Human performance still surprises the most cynical of us and truly shows that the machine we call the human body is capable of incredible feats. Yesterday (April 18, 2011), Geoffrey Mutai and Moses Mosop both ran the Boston Marathon in times approaching 2 hours and 3 mins, with Mutai winning in an official time of 2:03:02. What is amazing about this time (and Mosop's of 2:03:06) is that the world record in the marathon is currently 2:03:59 and that Mutai's time clipped almost a full mi...