Ryan

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

What? Yep, it’s true.

Bacteria

Alex Hutchinson has another good blog. This time on how your body’s "friendly" bacteria appears to make you faster.

A little of what was seen in mice:

So in this case, having "normal" gut bacteria is the best option; having all your gut bacteria wiped out is the worst option; and having at least one gut bacteria is better than nothing. Why? The researchers focus on the possible role of gut bacteria in enhancing the body’s antioxidant response, and they do indeed show that antioxidant activity was reduced in the germ-free mice.

And in humans:

Which brings us back to beet juice, whose key ingredient is nitrate, which is converted by friendly bacteria in the mouth to nitrite, which is then converted to nitric oxide, which is what boosts endurance. In this case, then, it’s your oral microbiome rather than your gut microbiome that matters. There’s already some interesting research from back in 2008 showing that, if you use an antibacterial mouthwash, you completely wipe out the benefits of ingesting nitrate.

Interesting stuff. I’m not going to go out and tell anyone to avoid antibacterial mouthwash but, if you take beet juice for performance benefit, you might want to think about your timing. Further, I’d say we should probably at least be aware of these things. Just don’t go overboard. As mentioned in the end, probiotics aren’t a panacea.

Cursing

No, I’m not encouraging you to run all over the place swearing in front of kids and as you’re passing churches. However, as this old study that someone I follow on Twitter linked to shows, it can help relieve pain if used in moderation.

This article presents further evidence that, for many people, swearing (cursing) provides readily available and effective relief from pain. However, overuse of swearing in everyday situations lessens its effectiveness as a short-term intervention to reduce pain.

Used in the right situation, maybe we could tap into this to overcome the pains of racing and run faster. Just be careful. You don’t want to upset parents of young children because you’re flying into the finish line screaming every four letter word in existence. You also don’t want to overdose, as much as you might want to at times.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Kinesio tape

I’ve written before about how Kinesio tape likely helps athletes.

I think it’s also important to understand how it likely does not help athletes. On that front, we have a study looking at how Kinesio tape affects strength in fatigued muscles. Rugby players but, presumably, fatigued muscles are fatigued muscles. Whether you’re running a race or playing a rugby match, fatigue acts in similar ways.

The results in this case aren’t all that promising:

No statistical differences were found between the taped and un-taped conditions in non-fatigued and fatigued situation as well as in the interaction with fatigue. Therefore, taping the gluteal muscle does not influence the leg explosive strength after fatiguing in healthy rugby players.

I believe the importance here is that we now know a little about how Kinesio tape likely does help and a little about how it likely doesn’t help. It’s important to know where we can expect to see benefit and where we can’t with any tool so we can make sure we are using the tool in the best ways. In this case, use Kinesio tape to reduce pain and aid in recovery. Do not use it to try to beat fatigue.

Social distress and physical pain

Have you ever run a race or a hard workout after getting in an argument with a significant other or good friend? It probably didn’t go well, did it?

Well, we shouldn’t be too surprised:

The current study results indicate that participants’ pre-Cyberball unpleasantness threshold is related to their responsiveness to social distress and that physical pain may be modulated by social events. Further studies are needed to clarify the clinical relevance of these results.

We know that social stress does some of the same things within our brains as physical stress. It shouldn’t be shocking that social stress would lower our threshold of physical pain. That’s what this study seems to confirm.

So next time you have a bad race or workout while dealing with a heavy social situation, cut yourself some slack. It’s possible you are just feeling the effects of that situation. Take care of your personal life and your running will bounce back.