A fair piece back, Steve Martin did a spot on Saturday Night Live where he played a medieval doctor.  Speaking to an afflicted patient, he falls into a reverie about the wonders of 'modern' medicine: "How times have changed!"  he proclaims, "Years ago we would have thought your condition was caused by an imbalance of bodily humors!  Now we know it's due to a dwarf or small frog in the pit of your stomach."

I thought of this sketch while thumbing through the latest issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (a.k.a. "Muscle Talk For Geeks"), which has an article called "Concurrent Training Enhances Athletes' Strength, Muscle Endurance, and Other Measures" (you can find the abstract here; only us fitness nerds can access the whole thing). 

What does all that science-talk mean?  For quite some time now, studies have suggested (here goes the "imbalance of bodily humors" part of the argument) that aerobic training and strength training performed concurrently (as part of the same fitness program) has a deleterious effect on strength gains.  In other words, if you want to get stronger, hit the weights but for the love of God stay away from the treadmill. 

Although the first of these studies came out almost 30 years ago, the "interference effect," as it's come to be called, hadn't really trickled into everyday fit-lit until recently.  Many hardcore types remained skeptical and still did their cardio faithfully every day at sunrise even as one fitness writer after another (er, this one included) bombarded the internet with the marathon runner vs. sprinter analogy, a dead horse that's been beaten so fervently that it's practically compost.

So here comes the 'dwarf or small frog' theory to add to the fray.  The results of the new study suggest

...synergy rather than interference between concurrent strength and aerobic endurance training, support prescription of CE [concurrent strength and aerobic training] under defined conditions, establish the importance of exercise timing and sequence for CE program outcomes, and document a highly effective athletic training protocol.

In other words, combining your strength and cardio work, under certain conditions, is indeed effective.  The study even suggests that it may be more effective than strength training by itself for building strength, adding fat-free mass, increasing endurance, and burning fat, and a host of other indicators. 

Most useful of all, apparently, is the use of something called "Integrated Training" (something I'd never heard of) in which an exerciser performs short, intense bursts of cardiovascular activity between sets of traditional weight training exercises.

So can we conclude that the "interference effect" is nonsense?

Not so fast.  As the study's author writes, concurrent exercise appears effective under the study's "defined conditions":   the subjects were well-conditioned femaie athletes; they exercised just three times a week for 11 weeks; the intensity of exercise was kept high. 

Moreover, exercisers who use "Integrated Training" weren't doing 'cardio' in the traditional, steady-state sense.  Rather, they were performing something more akin to sprints:  fast, intense, full-body drills designed to raise the heart rate between sets of weight-training exercises.  Typically, the interference effect has been demonstrated in people who were doing longer, less intense bouts of cardio exercise and strength training on alternate days.  So, reports of steady-state cardio interfering with strength gains may very well be accurate.

The study's lead author, Dr. W. Jackson Davis, has written a book on Integrated Training, and so has something of a personal stake in this matter.  Still, the Journal is peer-reviewed and  unbiased, and the results of his study are promising. 

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G4, the folks who brought you Ninja Warrior at at it again!  They've got two new shows out:  The Unbeatable Banzuke (which premieres tonight) is more obstacle-course mayhem; Human Wrecking Balls features two brothers who rip down structures with their bare hands.  I can't wait.