Tuesday Tidbits 10/20/2020

Here are this week’s tidbits to keep you up to date or just interested in what’s going on around you. Interesting news and research pertaining to barefoot training, the positive effects COVID-19 is having on exercise, and why coffee is king when in comes to exercise and performance!

Freedom for your Feet

Consider for a second, how much daily time you spend barefoot? For the majority of us its likely not much. You may have missed the barefoot boat, but how about our young athletes and children? Recent research out of Japan highlights the effectiveness of barefoot training and running on young athletes. It showed that children exposed to daily barefoot training had advantages over their peers in measures ranging from Relative Strength Index (RSI) to jump height and flight time. Consider going barefoot for your next dynamic warmup or removing your slippers around the house. Your feet will thank you!

Mizushima, Jun, et al. "Long-term effects of school barefoot running program on sprinting biomechanics in children: A case-control study." Gait & Posture (2020).

Is COVID-19 Helping Exercise?

It’s been quite a year! At the forefront of this catastrophic year is the global pandemic we still find ourselves buried under. However, not everything about this pandemic has been terrible. Recent information from the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that physical activity may actually be on the rise in the USA, Australia, and the UK. This is looking like a small win for humanity in 2020. It appears as if more and more humans are finding value in physical exercise ever since they’ve been banished to their own homes for long periods of time.

Ding, Ding, et al. "Is the COVID-19 lockdown nudging people to be more active: a big data analysis." (2020): 1183-1184.

Coffee Is Key

For many, coffee is the way you start your day. For myself it’s the way I start, continue, and sometimes end my day. The best part about it, more research is being done to evaluate its effects on exercise performance. An umbrella review of 21 meta-analysis investigated the effects of caffeine on exercise performance. Moderate to high quality evidence was shown for the improvement of muscle strength/endurance, aerobic endurance, and anaerobic power output when supplemented with pre-workout caffeination. This article is loaded with great information for coffee lovers abound!

Grgic, Jozo, et al. "Wake up and smell the coffee: caffeine supplementation and exercise performance—an umbrella review of 21 published meta-analyses." British Journal of Sports Medicine 54.11 (2020): 681-688.