Competitive Advantage

Competition brings out the best in us -- even when we're not conscious of it.

The brain, it appears, can kick one's body into high gear when competition calls for it. Gina Kolata explored this phenomena further in today's New York Times:

Jo Corbett, a senior lecturer in applied exercise physiology at the University of Portsmouth in England, wondered how much competition can affect an athlete’s speed. To find out, he asked cyclists to ride as hard and as fast as they could on a stationary bicycle for the equivalent of 2,000 meters. As he rode, each rider was shown an on-screen figure representing the cyclist riding the course.

Then Dr. Corbett and his colleagues told each athlete that he would be racing against another rider hidden behind a screen. The researchers projected two figures on the screen, one the outline of the rider and the other the outline of the competitor.

In fact, the competitor on the screen was a computer-generated image of the athlete himself in his own best attempt to ride those 2,000 meters.

...[T]he cyclists beat their best times, finishing with a burst of speed that carried them to virtual victory by a significant length.

Dr. Corbett said the extra effort, above and beyond what the athletes had previously demonstrated, seems to come from the anaerobic energy system, one that is limited by the amount of fuel stored in muscle. The brain appears to conserve the body’s limited fuel to a certain degree, not allowing athletes to work too hard.

But in a race, he said, the brain seems to allow athletes to tap more deeply into energy stores than would ordinarily be permitted. “Competition is able to motivate you to dip further,” Dr. Corbett said.

Interesting. This may help explain how CrossFit workouts are intensified by competition. I'm not saying we should confuse training with competition, but I've certainly found that I tend to push myself harder in class at CrossFit Palo Alto than when I'm exercising by myself.

What about you? Notice any differences in your performance when working out solo versus in a crowd?

[Source]

Take Me Out to the Mesoamerican Ballgame

Medicine balls are fun to heave against a wall (note: not really), but what else can you do with a heavy ball?

Well, we could always try to revive the ancient Mesoamerican game of "pitz" (as it was known to Mayans). It is, after all, the first team sport in human history.

The precise rules of the game -- which was first played over three thousand years ago -- are lost to history, but evidence suggests that pitz was similar to volleyball – using rubber balls of different size -- and weighing 9 pounds or more. Two teams consisting of 2 to 4 players each would face off on a walled ballcourt, using their hips, forearms, racquets and bats to try to keep the ball in play. Points were scored by striking the opposing team’s wall with the ball -- but teams could be penalized if they allowed the ball to touch the ground more than once.

Later variations of the game included a stone ring mounted high up on the side of the court; a team could win the game outright by getting the ball through the ring. By 300 B.C., pitz was being played throughout much of what is now Mexico.

Sounds fun, right?

Unfortunately, there were some downsides.

The game was brutal, and injuries inflicted by the heavy ball were severe. Five hundred years ago, Spanish historian Diego Durán reported that some bruises were so severe that they had to be lanced open. He also reported that players were even killed when the ball "hit them in the mouth or the stomach or the intestines".

Plus: Losers got beheaded.

In the Mayan version of the game, it appears that the captain of the losing team -- and possibly other players, too -- would be decapitated following a loss. And with the Aztec version of pitz, the skulls of losing team members were placed in a “skull rack” next to the court -- and some have suggested that the severed heads were occasionally put in play as balls.

When I count my blessings, I often forget to be thankful for the fact that I'm not an ancient Mesoamerican athlete. My cortisol levels would be through the roof. Also: For practicing wallball shots, Dynamax medicine balls are much easier to grip than bloody heads.

Chess Boxing

Think CrossFit is insane? Last week, my buddy Mint heard about "chess boxing" on NPR, and -- being the activity junkie that he is -- immediately began scouring the web for more information.

Turns out chess boxing is exactly what it sounds like: After a four-minute round of speed chess, opponents step into the ring for a two-minute round of boxing. The competitors alternate between rounds of chess and boxing -- until one wins by knockout, checkmate, or judge's decision.



Sound like something that someone pulled out of their ass? It was. (Figuratively.) According to most accounts, a Dutch artist named Iepe Rubingh invented chess boxing after being inspired by a similar hybrid sport depicted in Froid_Équateur, a 1992 French comic book. Others claim that chess boxing was actually based on the Wu Tang Clan's 1993 track "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" -- which, in turn, was based on a 1979 chop-socky film called "Ninja Checkmate" (a.k.a., "The Mystery of Chess Boxing").

Regardless, the sport is growing in popularity -- particularly in Europe, where chess is more popular and boxing is more bloody. Chess boxing even has a governing body, headquartered in Berlin: the World Chess Boxing Organisation (WCBO). Its motto? "Fighting is done in the ring and wars are waged on the board."

This ain't exactly my cup of tea. I suck at chess, and the last time I got into a fight was in eighth grade. (Okay, it was more of a shoving match. But it was angry shoving.) Still, I can already think of a few people who'd take a second look at chess boxing. Despite appearing bizarre on first glance, this sport may very well appeal to those who like to kick ass both mentally and physically. As Rubingh put it, "chess boxing is extreme physical stress combined with a huge mental test" -- making it one of the few sports that requires extremes in both brains and brawn.

The adrenaline after boxing inhibits your ability to think, making the chess harder. Few people can still think straight after a right hook to the head. You need to be able to pull off that champion chess move while blood is pouring from your nose.

Sounds...fun?

Don’t Leave Me Hangin’: A Brief History of the High Five

What’s the first thing you do after finishing a heart-pounding workout at your CrossFit box (other than making sweat angels on the floor and gasping for air)? You give high fives and fist bumps to those who’ve suffered through the WOD with you, right?

If you don’t, you’re kind of a butthole. And there’s no better time to start slapping the damp, upraised hand of your fellow metcon warrior. After all, today’s the third Thursday of April, which means it’s National High Five Day. (Really.)

But what exactly is the point, you ask, of violently striking the palm of another human being? How did stinging hand pain come to signal camaraderie or congratulations? And what about the germs?

Here’s the backstory:

Before the high five existed, there was the handshake -- a sign of peace (bare hands = no weapons) dating back to ancient Greece.

In more recent centuries, the expansion of the British Empire popularized the use of handshakes as a form of greeting, celebration, and farewell.

But handshakes weren’t cool enough for the musicians of the Jazz Age. They came up with what we now call a “low five,” which soon made its way into blues and other musical genres. At the time, this was known as “slapping skin” or “giving skin” -- but celebratory low fives were viewed as a gesture used only in African American communities.



Case in point: In the 1941 Abbott & Costello movie “In the Navy,” the Andrews Sisters sing this little ditty:

If you want to shake my hand
Like they do it in Harlem,
Stick your hand right out and shout:
Give me some skin, my friend!

Over the years, the term “giving skin” evolved into “giving five,” and with greater exposure to black culture in popular media in the 1960s and 1970s, Americans of all racial backgrounds began slapping each other’s hands. Even Bob from Sesame Street got in on the action.

More after the jump, including gay baseball players, child endangerment, terrorism and cartoon superheroes...

Everybody Poops

Sometimes, during exercise, shit happens:

At Wimbledon in 2001, Serena Williams was suffering from a stomach virus and ran off the court during her quarter-final match with Jennifer Capriati in the decisive third set, after pleading with the chair ump for a timeout. "I can't hold this," Serena cried. And this summer, some of the New Orleans Saints began referring to their championship tilt with the Colts as the Super Bowel because of the unpleasant events that transpired before kickoff. "An NFL pregame locker room can be the most god-awful scene you will ever see or smell," says former Saints linebacker Scott Fujita, now with the Browns. "We are moments away from the Super Bowl, the highlight of our athletic lives, and pretty much everyone is in the bathroom just absolutely blowing up the stalls."

The article also describes -- graphically -- the "chocolate mess" that Julie Moss made in her running shorts during the last half-mile of the 1982 Ironman Triathlon.

I suppose this is yet another reason to exercise on an empty stomach.

(Source: ESPN Magazine)