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I did my first Half Ironman race on Sunday at Shawnigan Lake http://www.triseries.ca/index.php . A great event and we had an amazing day for it. I definitely was under-trained and noticed that when I went past my longest distances from training  on the bike especially, I had a big drop off in performance. Lots of long rides needed if I am to finish Ironman Canada. More to come tomorrow.

I regularly get asked abouty the latest fitness trends. here is one I got today.
Hey CB, (my soccer feriends call me CB)
My team at work, all women, have seen this ‘powerful’ new exercise machine.
It claims 10 minutes work on it is as good as 1 hr of regular exercise.

A couple of them are pondering buying it.
After I stopped laughing I thought I would ask your thoughts on such a miraculous product.
My answer:
I went to a conference where they covered it and it does work, but its more of a neural effect. i.e. it takes 10 000 reps to perfect a squat, you may be able to cut that down to 1000 on the expensive power plate, but in the end you still need to exercise and do lots of it to lose weight (the vibrations stimulate the neural system so you recover better etc, but it does not burn more calories which most people will need to see results). Summary if you injure your leg it will help you heal faster as you can get a good training effect with no impact. I would not buy one for individual use without testing it first, they have a vibration gym down here on the water in Yaletown they could try it for a few weeks and see if it miracles the fat off (my bet is it won’t). If you read the studies on their site they all involve helping seniors not fall by doing squats on them (same effect has been proven with a wobble board), the one study of weight loss showed and I quote
”
In conclusion 24 week whole body vibration training did not reduce weight total body fat or subcutaneous fat in previously untrained females.” http://www.powerplate.com/pdfs/technology/scientific/Roelants_EffectsWBVCompositionStrength.pdf

So if you work with seniors afraid of falling they can buy the power plate for 1000s or a wobble board for 50 bucks, but for weight loss you are throwing money away………

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, crossfit and boot camp instructors. His company websites are http://www.precisionathletics.ca/  and http://precision-bootcampvancouver.com/

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Want faster recovery? Try this…..Right after your workout take an alternate hot and cold shower (as hot and cold as you can stand). Ideally if you have a shower with a Handel you can focus the cold on the areas you have just trained. Alternate at least twice and always finish on cold. I did this yesterday after a 3 hour ride and 30 minute run where my quads were cramping. No soreness today and the cramping stopped during the shower. Right after your next workout and leave a post here in comments with what you think.

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, crossfit and boot camp instructors. His company websites are http://www.precisionathletics.ca/ and http://precision-bootcampvancouver.com/ .