Endurance Training Secrets

Dr Mel Siff critiques an endurance training article who are allegedly quoting Russian research to support their views - go Mel!

zdorovye.com/zdorovye/slavyanskiy.html

This is an extract from that site:

physical extremes is the arcane endurance running technology called
‘Slavyanskiy Byeg’and the total health system: ‘Zdorovye’.

In ‘Slavyanskiy Byeg’ you will learn to coordinate your Carriage and Gait -
which is the process of integrating movement, alignment, and breathing. You
will learn how to virtually run indefinitely - without discomfort and expending
minimal energy. This running methodic teaches you how to wind your body like a
rubber band driven air-plane, using the ligaments and tendons in your body as
your engine, instead of using your large muscles. This is the most amazing
fitness technology ever to be released! >

*While I fully appreciate a great deal of former soviet strength and sports
training as a result of visiting Russia on a few occasions and collaborating
with some of the scientists from that country, I have always been intrigued
why Russian endurance athletes very rarely have matched the achievement of
endurance athletes from Africa, especially those from Kenya. Their dominance
of endurance running has also been a matter of great interest for some
Russian scientists who have been studying these African endurance masters to
ascertain why the Africans generally are far superior to most Russian
endurance runners, but the reasons for their excellence still remain a matter
of a great deal of speculation.

The remarkable endurance of the Khoi and San (’Bushmen’) peoples in extremely
hot desert conditions with no access to exercise science, special foods or
energy replacement fluids is another case of African folk being remarkably
competent. Herein also lies another fascinating lesson that still has to be
dissected adequately.

While many of the Russian methods of training can be very productive and
effective, would this not seem to indicate that we should be turning to
Africa to learn the greatest secrets of endurance athleticism? Would anyone
like to suggest reasons for why African endurance athletes are currently so
dominant? What secrets could they teach the Russians and indeed, the rest of
us?

Is it due to a state of body, a state of mind, genetics, environment,
national outlook or what? This issue has been the topic of an increasing
amount of research and some popular articles and books have been written on
this subject, but none really has taken us much beyond the theories of
genetic superiority or environmental influences.

Here are a few websites which relate to this issue:

umist.ac.uk/UMIST_Sport/2_art2.htm
runnersworld.com/dailynew/archives/1998/February/980224.html
intellectualcapital.com/issues/issue353/item8676.asp
Dr Mel Siff
Author of Supertraining
Author of Facts and Fallacies of Fitness
www.drmelsiff.com

Mind Training and Entering The Zone

Dr Siff responding to a question from his Supertraining group on mental training and entering the zone! The question was as follows - Just wondering if anyone knew anything about this, using EEG to measure brain activity and help a person, enter ‘the zone’ (that’s the mental one not the diet one!!) and whether you need this expensive machinery to do this?

* During my MSc days when I was researching the role of mathematical
modelling of the EEG, I came into contact with some interesting folk working
in this field and I ended up using various signal generators from our
electrical engineering laboratory at my former university in S Africa to
“entrain” my brain rhythms to the frequency of the various dominant brain
rhythms (delta, theta, alpha and beta).

Some interesting changes in mental state occurred that were similar to the
deep relaxation state induced by methods such as Jacobsen’s progressive
relaxation, raj yoga, hatha yoga and similar strategies for manipulating
consciousness. Other patterns of externally applied small currents
(microamps) induced sleep and recovery from stress. Dr Robert Becker did a
considerable amount of research into electroanalgesia and electronarcosis via
the use of (mainly DC) electrical fields across the brain. Some of his work
appears in popularised form in his book “The Body Electric”.

Later I came across commercial devices being sold to facilitate entrainment
of ‘desirable’ brain rhythms, such as HemiSync, Alpha Stim and
ElectroAcuscope. Later a few companies combined these devices with sound
generators (through headphones) to further enhance the entrainment process.
The following book gives a most readable account of such devices: Michael
Hutchison “MegaBrain”. You will also find intriguing snippets of information
in Ostrander & Schröder’s books “Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain”
and “Superlearning”.

Another source of information on entering the psychological “Zone” appears in
the recent edition of the Online Athletic Insight journal on the following
website:

athleticinsight.com/ZoneIssueFrame1Source1_1.htm

Spontaneous entries into the Mind Zone are recounted in Murphy & White, “The
Psychic Side of Sports”.
Dr Mel Siff
Author of Supertraining + Facts and Fallacies of Fitness
http://www.drmelsiff.com