The Triathlete’s Training Bible will make triathletes smarter, stronger and faster

Review by Ross Tucker

Joe Friel’s Triathlete’s Training Bible, now in its 3rd edition, has become an indispensable tool for triathletes of all levels wishing to improve their performance using evidence-based methods and principles. Of most credit to the book is that it is very obviously a sound theoretical treatise, heavily based on scientific truths, as well as Friel’s own experience of having worked with triathletes for many years. Yet it does not overplay its hand, forcing technical scientific information on the reader and aspirant improver. Rather, it guides decision-making for all situations, covering topics ranging from motivation (the art) to metabolism (the science), always in a very clear, concise and practical manner. As for scientists who work with athletes, the value is in appreciating how Friel balances the complexity of the science of performance, with the requirement to give athletes tangible, easily implementable advice, and this is something all sports scientists can borrow from.

[Also, click here for a link to Joe Friel's blog - ed.]

This is a useful guide on drugs banned in sport and is particularly helpful when
travelling as it lists generic and trade names of drugs from 40 countries worldwide. Its
main disadvantages are that it does not list permitted drugs (unlike websites such as
100percentme) and it is only valid until the next WADA revision is released.

It can also be unclear at times, for instance oxymetazoline “used… to relieve nasal
and conjunctival congestion” is listed as “banned in competition”. It mentions later
that “topical use” is permitted. This led to momentary panic in a team sports situation
before it was clarified that oxymetazoline nasal spray is safe to use!

By Mark E Batt
Consultant Sport & Exercise Medicine
Fellow NHS Institute
President-elect Faculty of Sport & Exercise Medicine
Centre for Sports Medicine
Queens Medical Centre
Nottingham University Hospitals
Nottingham, UK

Essential Sports Medicine
Edited by Richard Higgins, Peter Brukner and Bryan English.
Published by Blackwell, pp 160, £24.99.
ISBN: 9-78140-5114387

This is primarily a UK written sports medicine book whose primary audience is intended to be at an undergraduate level. With the expansion of the speciality as a whole it is always a difficult task to be comprehensive, but the major fundamentals have been covered in a very clear and concise manner. The book is well laid out and presented with a generous number of illustrations. Colour would have been nice but I guess budget constraints did not permit this or is it meant to reflect the murky British weather?

There is a good balance between musculoskeletal injuries and medical based problems. Basic nutrition and exercise physiology have also been included.

The book has been well researched, as you would expect from the quality of the contributors, and each chapter finishes with a short list of further reference material for those interested. I found the information to be very current and up-to-date. Even an ageing sports physician such as myself was able to learn an extra thing or two!

I was particularly interested in the sports specific injury section; secretly I was hoping that there may have been a medical explanation or two in there from one of the co-editors as to why Chelsea had a trophyless season—never mind!

Overall this book has very few weaknesses, certainly nothing worth mentioning. I feel it has more than achieved its aim of reaching the intended target audience and I can see this material becoming a good source reference book in the years to come, with further revisions, especially when sports medicine finally becomes a part of the undergraduate UK medical curriculum. No doubt it will encourage a few undergraduate physiotherapy and medical students to enter a sports medicine career path.

Objective details

• Targeted to an undergraduate audience.
• Peter Bruckner is a well known author and has written arguably one of the finest books in sports medicine, Clinical sports medicine, with Karim Khan (McGraw Hill Publications).

Subjective details

• The easy reading style along with the illustrations was appealing although JK Rowling need not worry about the competition!
• Not useful to me at this point in my career; certainly would have been valuable when I was starting out.

Reviewer
Arjun Rao
Maylands, Washington State, USA

Analysis
Presentation 16
Comprehensiveness 15
Readability 16
Relevance 15
Evidence basis 15

Oxygen uptake kinetics in sport, exercise and medicine
Edited by A M Jones, D C Poole
ISBN: 978-0-415-30561-7
Published by: Routledge
Publication Date: 2nd December 2004
Pages: 432

This book provides a comprehensive review of the field of oxygen uptake kinetics. Written in a text book format, this multi-authored effort is a useful reference for scientists and students interested in clinical and research aspects of oxygen uptake kinetics. The book has contributions from experts in each of the areas presented and provides an evidence-based approach to our understanding of oxygen uptake kinetics and its importance to health, disease and improving elite athletes’ performance.

The book is aimed at researchers, practitioners, teachers and students and broadly meets the demand of this market. The book serves as an invaluable resource for recent graduates embarking on a career in exercise physiology with a key focus on the kinetics of oxygen uptake during exercise. The book’s strength lies in its comprehensiveness, collating a large body of information which might ordinarily require several different sources. The book is divided into four distinct sections: Introduction; Theory and practice of measuring VO2 kinetics; Mechanistic bases of VO2 kinetics; and Practical applications to the study of VO2 kinetics. The main theme of Oxygen Uptake Kinetics in Sport, Exercise and Medicine is that pulmonary oxygen uptake measurement, using a metabolic cart, can provide valuable insight into metabolic control processes within the exercising muscle. The format of the book provides readers the opportunity to read the text as a whole, or more likely, given the density of material, to access specific material as required.

The introduction to this book provides a nice summary of oxygen kinetics. The historical timeline is very interesting and provides readers with some useful background material on the progression of this buoyant field of research. The following chapters have a wealth of information describing oxygen uptake kinetics, how oxygen uptake is measured, limitations in measuring oxygen uptake at the mouth, and deconstructing oxygen uptake into its constituent phases from rest to exercise. The book also links oxygen uptake kinetics measured at the mouth and actual oxygen uptake kinetics at the muscle, and the underlying assumptions in this process. The mechanisms and regulation are described in detail and the book is extremely well referenced for further reading in particular areas of interest. Chapter 12 provides a very nice summary of the complex and detailed information, and is a good overview for readers to consolidate the key aspects of the book. Experienced researchers and graduate students alike certainly love easy-to-read and accessible summary material. The practical applications put some of the more esoteric details on ageing, disease states and training for high-level athletic performance into perspective.

There is some variability in breadth and depth between chapters but this is understandable given the large number of contributors involved. The book can be quite hard going with the large volume of detailed information presented on underlying physiological processes and metabolic calculations. However, for readers with an interest in this field the book provides a comprehensive treatise on oxygen uptake kinetics.

Presentation: 17/20
Comprehensiveness: 19/20
Readability: 17/20
Relevance: 17/20
Evidence basis: 19/20

Review by Philo Saunders
Department of Physiology,
Australian Institute of Sport, Australia

Handbook of Sports Medicine and Science: Running
Editor(s): John A. Hawley
Print ISBN: 9780632053919 Online ISBN: 9780470757116
Copyright © 2000 Blackwell Science Ltd

This book is a wonderful handbook for all those actively involved in the management of runners, including doctors, physiotherapists, podiatrists, physiologists and coaches.

It gives a profound coverage of the science behind sprinting, middle and long distance running. Early chapters go into detail about the biochemistry of muscular contraction in sprinters versus distance runners and look at body morphology. Power output relative to muscle fibre type is discussed. The role of glycogen and fat as energy substrates is analysed along with aerobic and anaerobic thresholds. There is an interesting review covering recovery after exercise and insights into back-to-back training sessions.

All these factors lead into a discussion as to whether human performance can continue to improve. The age-old desire to break records is challenged by science and potential training techniques. It leaves one wondering whether we will reach a point where we will have to measure performances down to 1/10♥000th of a second, just to be able to “break” existing records!

An understanding of the biomechanics of running is vital to those practitioners who spend many hours trying to optimise foot and limb mechanics to aid in injury recovery or in injury prevention. The chapter on this topic is well presented and easy to understand. Some of the force curves go beyond what is needed to justify shoe selection but will be helpful to podiatrists and physiologists and coaches looking to modify running styles in their athletes.

As a runner myself, I am always interested in training techniques, so the chapter on this appealed. It gives a wide view of the training techniques required to optimise sprinting or distance running. The specific tables relating to runners across the ages give a fabulous historical perspective to training diaries over the last 50♣years. There is useful information in athlete selection about predictive run times for events based on sprint times. This section provides great background but would not give enough practical information for an individual athlete to write his or her own training programme. Other publications probably aim at this more specifically.

The final two chapters cover injuries and nutrition for runners. The beauty of these chapters is that they are entirely specific to runners. The injuries discussed are those which occur commonly in runners. There is a well-rounded set of facts about why these injuries occur and how to manage them. These chapter include information about runner’s diarrhoea, iron deficiencies and common overuse injuries such as stress fractures and muscle strains. Sections covering heat stress, dehydration, hyperthermia and possible fluid overload in races are succinct but very accurate. These sections would be essential to any practitioner who may be involved in event coverage.

Overall, this book gives a very specific overview of the science and medical considerations of runners. Being fewer than 100 pages long, it is practical to read, and as each section is a standalone chapter one can read them all, or only those sections of particular interest personally. It would be a good handbook to have in your medical library.

Objective details
This book is targeted at all those practitioners who look after runners, particularly elite runners. Doctors, sports physicians, podiatrists, physiotherapists, dieticians and physiologists would all enjoy aspects of it. Some coaches may find it of interest.

Each chapter is written by an expert in that field, and all of these people are well-known professionally in runners’ circles. For example, Dr Tim Noakes wrote the injury chapter and Louise Burke the chapter on nutrition.

Subjective details
The book is simply organised and is easy to read a section at a time. It is possible to read only those sections which interest you, as they are all written independently – you do not rely on information from one chapter to understand the next! It includes only information relevant to running, so it is well confined to its subject. Some sections contain more details on scientific premises than the average person may require, but it is possible to skip over these and not lose continuity.

I found the book useful and informative. I would like to have it on my shelf as a reference to go back to from time to time and would encourage those who deal with runners to buy a copy.

Rating
1. Presentation: 15 – More pictures would be great
2. Comprehensiveness: 19
3. Readability: 15
4. Relevance: 20
5. Evidence Basis: 17

Review by Jane Fitzpatrick
Fellow Australasian College of Sports Physicians (FACSP),
Bachelor Medicine and Surgery Melbourne University (MB.BS Melb)

Clinical anatomy of the lumbar spine and sacrum (2005)
By Nikolai Bogduk
Published by Churchill Livingstone
pp 324, US$90. ISBN: 0-443-10119-1

This publication can be considered a classic for those clinicians involved in the care of patients with lower back problems. The purpose of the book is given in the foreword and the first paragraph of the author’s preface to the 4th edition: “There have been no changes in the anatomy of the lumbar spine in the past 20 years, but our understanding of some of the controversial issues has. Among them the presence of new data on zygoapophyseal joint pain, suggesting that it is not as frequent as once thought, whereas discogenic pain seems to be on the up once more, with better knowledge of the process of internal disc disruption.”

The book covers comprehensively the expected topics: bones, joints, ligaments, muscles and fascia, blood and nerve supply in various chapters, as well as embryology and development. There is a separate chapter for the sacroiliac joint.

The book has been written as a text book for the International Spine Intervention Society (ISIS): it is required reading for students and a key reference to instructors to review before teaching the Society’s anatomy courses.

As a clinician with an interest in low back and pelvis patients (but not involved in intervention procedures) I found the “extra” chapters particularly interesting. In the chapter “Age changes in the lumbar spine” Professor Bogduk stresses in his own emphatic style that many changes observed in imaging studies are nothing more than the result of the normal ageing process, not pathological findings.

From a clinician’s point of view the last three chapters on low back pain, instability and radiographic anatomy are of particular interest. The author addresses controversial topics as is his custom: with thoroughly researched references, available clinical evidence and very definite opinions. A number of the references are obviously form the first edition (1987), but still valid. The instability chapter has an excellent biomechanical basis, and is presented in a very logical fashion, that makes understanding of the issues easier. There is no reference, however, to the available literature on the link between low back pain and changes in muscle recruitment patterns, which is clinically significant. I also would have liked to see the last chapter on the radiographic anatomy expanded to cover other imaging modalities, rather than limited to simple x ray films. In fairness to the author, he indicates that further material is covered in the instructional CD of the ISIS.

These criticisms are not sufficient to change my opinion of this book: it is an excellent resource for all those who have an interest in the lumbar spine, from surgeons to interventionists, anatomists, physiotherapists, chiropractors and osteopaths.

Reviewer
M F Cusi
University of Notre Dame
Sydney School of Medicine
Darlinghurst, NSW
Australia

Analysis
Presentation 15
Comprehensiveness 18
Relevance 20
Evidence bass 18

Exercise physiology: A thematic approach

By Tudor Hale.
Published by Wiley, 2003, pp 356, £100/€135.00 (hardcover).
ISBN: 978-0-470-84682-7

This publication is the first in the Wiley SportTexts series written specifically with undergraduate students in mind. This text is structured as a series of chapters that cover the basic principles associated predominantly with oxygen uptake, transport and utilisation during exercise. The written material is easy to read and well supported by figures and diagrams. Overall the text provides extensive coverage of the historical development of several key principles that may appeal to some, but perhaps not all readers. Chapters on factors limiting maximal oxygen uptake as well as exercise, fitness and health offer insight into practical application of this material. However, the presentation of these concepts as epilogue and postscript chapters gives the feeling that these issues were included as somewhat of an after thought.

With the focus of the book clearly on concepts relating to maximal oxygen uptake, the title “Exercise physiology” could mislead some readers; other key exercise physiology concepts including training principles, thermoregulation, fluid–electrolyte balance, nutritional concepts and anthropometry are obvious in their omission. It is not clear if these issues will be addressed in future books in the series.

The book offers a thorough introduction to basic principles of cardiorespiratory physiology that are easy to follow for those with little previous exposure to these concepts. The oxygen uptake, transport and utilisation story is somewhat disrupted by chapters on circulation and contraction of skeletal muscle. However, these chapters provide useful information to the student and the background to the chapters that follow. At times further discussion of the practical application of these basic concepts in an exercise physiology setting, either recreational or elite sport, would have added an extra dimension. The chapter on aerobic and anaerobic metabolism provides a useful combination of theory and examples of practical application.

Each chapter commences with a list of learning objectives, and a short objective test to allow readers to assess their existing knowledge. The list of symbols, abbreviations and units of measures is useful for readers with little experience in this field, as is the glossary and list of references. The key points summarised at the end of each chapter should appeal to students revising for examinations. One downside of the presentation is the review questions interspersed among the text distract from the logical presentation of the information. That said, these questions and their associated answers will be popular with students looking for the take home message. Overall, this text is best suited for the level of the undergraduate student.

The conversational style of the written material, as well as the readily accessible summaries and supplementary information included in each chapter, make this an ideal text for undergraduate students, particularly those with little background in human biology. The book effectively introduces key concepts relating to oxygen uptake, transport and utilisation. The practical application of these principles in a range of sports science settings should not be overlooked by the student.

Reviewer
A Cox
Department of Physiology
Australian Institute of Sport

Analysis
Presentation 16
Comprehensiveness 14
Readability 17
Relevance 15
Evidence basis 16

Sport and physical activity: the role of health promotion
Edited by J Merchant, BL Griffin, A Charnock.
Presentation: 17/20
Comprehensiveness: 14/20
Readability: 18/20
Relevance: 14/20
Evidence basis: 16/20

Sport and Physical Activity: The Role of Health Promotion is aimed at students of the discipline but also at a wider readership interested in this popular topic. Clearly health promotion and physical activity is a hot topic given the level of media attention, and government and private sector activity worldwide. The contributors are drawn mainly from British institutions (in particular the University of Sunderland) in collaboration with several international experts. Together they provide a well-balanced text combining academic theory, case studies and examples, and some basic advice for practitioners.

The editors have divided the book’s chapters into four sections – Introduction to Health Promotion and Sport and Physical Activity, Health of the Individual, Health of Communities, and Health of Society. These headings are perhaps a little misleading, as the reader frequently finds topics discussed in unexpected places. Predictable key topics are discussed (health promotion in relation to age, social class, disability and ethnicity, drugs, motivation and psychology of health promotion) as well as some unexpected but interesting areas (introductions to research and evaluation approaches in health promotion, and planning and project management). Some areas which might have been covered in more detail include: gender issues in health promotion (which is discussed in relation to physical activity in schools, but not adult participation); religious barriers to participation in physical activity; and future challenges and approaches in health promotion.

The book’s last chapter is a useful one, a case-study analysis of Australian approaches to the funding of both elite and mass participation sport. This discussion of philosophies and ethos of governmental policies is important reading for all students of the area. Significantly, this chapter takes a more analytical approach than several others, where the authors outline and discuss theories without critical analysis. A further criticism is that, although Zofia Pawlaczek provides a thorough discussion of the different roles of sport and physical activity, the boundaries of the two terms are frequently blurred outside this chapter. The focus throughout the book is on the physical health benefits of sport and activity, with little mention of the emotional and mental health benefits.

The editors’ statement of “comprehensive insight” is perhaps a little ambitious, but this textbook is indeed “student friendly”. It is an accessible text for the novice, and the chapters are well referenced with plenty of ideas for other source material. Many of the contributors make good use of case studies and examples of health promotion policies and practices. Other likeable aspects include a comprehensive introduction outlining the structure and aims of the book, a thorough discussion of the importance of beginning health promotion in childhood, and a detailed summary of the physiological effects and benefits of physical activity. The latter information should be particularly useful for those
with a sociological rather than biomedical science background.

Sport and Physical Activity: The Role of Health Promotion is a very accessible text for the general reader – this in itself may suggest that it is too basic for an advanced student or practitioner. However, the text should prove useful as an initial point of reference, and may also interest those in areas allied to health promotion such as teaching, nursing and community development.

Reviewed by Ciara O’Hagan
Department of Physiology,
Australian Institute of Sport, Australia

Science and football V: the proceedings of the 5th World Congress on Science and Football.

Edited by Thomas Reilly, Jan Cabri and Duarte Araújo.
Published by Routledge, 2005, pp 634.
ISBN: 978-0-415-48480-0 (paperback); 978-0-415-33337-5 (hardback); 978-0-203-41299-2 (electronic)

Target: Football elite and sub-elite sport science support

Appeal: Broad coverage necessary components sport science. As a sports physician it is not primarily targeted for me and so although it had components of interest, I would not personally purchase

In recent years, sport has by necessity evolved in many facets. Financial rewards have boomed. Information systems have fuelled intense exposure and scrutiny. Doping issues have come under intense publicity and accountability. All this intensifies need for sports to seek ethical advantage with evidence based front line measures.

To fulfill these demands is the immense expectation in sport science seeking that gain an edge in coaching, conditioning and medicine. To achieve this requires sport support services to be reliably informed. This is critical at the elite level to ensure peer parity and at the sub-elite level to provide exposure to elite concepts and portability to sub-elite programs as is practicable.

“Science and Football V: the proceedings of the 5th World Congress on Science and Football” is geared for sports science (conditioning and skill acquisition) rather than primarily sports medicine. It is ideal for coaching staff and strength and conditioning staff. Content is of sound background content for football medical support staff.

Authors are from a wide range of geographic national backgrounds, with strong emphasis on university sport science departments with particular interest in soccer reflecting its international predominance—but representing all codes. Content includes sections on biomechanics, fitness profiling, performance analysis, a small section on medical aspects, football conditioning, physiology and nutrition, paediatric issues and behavioural science.

Topics include coverage of those perennial “footballs”—stretching modes and benefits and relation to injury, warm-up, micronutrient levels and effect of diet and supplementation.

I believe this publication does deliver sound depth and a range of contemporary football sport science for coaching and conditioning support staff, as a summary for those fortunate enough to attend the conference, and as a reference for those particularly involved at the elite level of conditioning for high level teams. For those involved in sub-elite levels it provides an excellent insight into elite performance as a means of extracting ideas into the non-professional level.

Reviewer
P Baquie
Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre,
Melbourne
Victoria
Australia

Analysis
Presentation 5
Comprehensiveness 5
Readability 5
Relevance 4
Evidence base 4

Martindale’s Drugs Restricted in Sport, Pocket Companion, 2008
Sean C. Sweetman (editor)
Publisher: Pharmaceutical Press, 2008
ISBN 978-0-85369-825-8
416 pages

“Martindale’s Drugs Restricted in Sport” is unique in its kind. It is the first pharmacopia that lists all the drugs that are on the WADA list of prohibited substances, drawing on the wealth of information and clinical expertise in the full reference work: “Martindale, the complete drug refeerence”. This is a great resource for sports medicine physicians, general practitioners and all other health care professionals working with athletes. It contains over 450 monograhs pertaining to individual drug substances that may be restricted in some or all sports, either in or out of competition.

The book is arranged alphabetically by drug substance. The international nonproprietary name or generic name is used, where one exists.

Other synonyms listed include British approved names, the French, Latin, Spanish, and Russian variants of generic names, names used in other European, Baltic, and Scandinavian countries, comon synonyms, and maufacturer codes.

The clinical profile is based on the full text of “Martindale: the complete drug reference” and describes the basis action and uses of the substance.

The WADA status indicates whether the substance is prohobited in or out of competition.

The WADA class gives an indication of the reason for the prohibition and gives more information about the range of substances covered in that class, plus any special circumstances. It is a great asset of the book that this is repeated with every substance, so you don’t need to go somewhere else to read all the information of the particular substances you are interested in. All the information is given right there where you need it.

A comprehensive index of over 15200 entries is to be found at the back of the book, and includes all names, synonyms, and proprietary (trade) names found in he tex. Even Cyrillic names are listed!

This is a great book for those of us who have been in the awkward situation where our athlete phones us, while away on a trip in Norway, Egypt or Russia, have gotten sick and are not sure of the medication the doctor has given him, and can only provide you, let’s say, the Russian trade name. What do you do?

The player is “strictly liable”, but is depending on you. And it is your name who will appear in the court case on internet for many years to go when you make a mistake. And there is no way you will find that Russian trade name on the WADA doping list!

So now there is a solution to all of these problems: Martindale’s Drugs Restricted in Sport Pocket Companion! The only thing missing is a short summary of the categories of the WADA list of prohibited substances and methods – it would be really helpful is that would be included at the front of the book as well.

Babette Pluim,
Sports physician