The Research Lab:
Cutting Edge Training Research
Originally, this section of the Power Factory was a hyperlink database presenting pertinent studies in the training sciences. Unfortunately, Medline restructures its database each year and consequently the links no longer pointed to the correct studies. I decided to instead summarize the most interesting studies I come across and present them here. My notes are categorized by subject - simply click on the subject of interest. It will take some time for me to copy over all the notes I have (I've read a ton of studies) but I will add them periodically. If you have any thoughts or ideas to contribute after having read the studies and my notes, drop me a line.

For those interested in doing their own reseach but do not know how - here is a crash course. First, go into a free Medline utility and search for your subject of interest. The best interface I have come across is Infotrieve. It is easy to use and pretty fast. Enter the keywords you are looking for. It goes without saying more information is better when it comes to having an accurate search. Pick the years that are relevant to you. Obviously, if the subject you are researching is relatively cutting edge - there is no point to reading studies that were done 50 years ago. Pick the age bracket you are interested in - the language you would like - and the type of article you want back. Generally, you want to look for medline entries with abstracts so you can understand what the study was really about (don't try to guess just by reading the name of the study). If you know the journal you are interested in, the author's name, etc. - even better. Then head down to a university library and go to the periodicals section. Find the section where the journal is archived. Most libraries have a small booklet that has the reference name of the journal, its proper name and where it is located. For example, the reference name J Appl Physiol stands for the Journal of Applied Physiology. Now, here is how to track down a study. Take for example the following reference:

Knapik J et al. Influence of fasting on carbohydrate and fat metabolism during rest and exercise in men. J Appl Physiol 64(5): 1923-9 May 1988.

The journal you are looking for is the Journal of Applied Physiology (you'll be able to decipher the journal reference only if you have that little handbook at your university). The "64" refers to the volume to which the study was published. The number in the brackets refers to what issue the study was published in (5). So you'd go to the section where the Journal of Applied Physiology is located, find the row containing books 64, and find the one that has issue 5 in it (it will say on the spine). Then go to page 1923. That's where you'll find the study. Photocopy the study if you find it informative. I like to keep them in a notebook for future reference. Keep a page at the front of your notebook as a table of contents. In it, list the name of the study, what it pertains to and what page of your notebook it can be found on. Then just number the first page of your studies in the note book so that you don't have to waste half your life writing numbers on pages.

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