Another take on Fish Oil

You will all be at the mercy of G and her programming today for the 10 am class.  Poor bastards.

Kettlebell Swing (1.5/1 Pood) – a lot of cool stuff, backed by hard, clinical data), but rather I wanted to expand on what I think is the REAL reason we take it.  And it has less to do with the fish oil itself than with what our definitions of fitness and health are, as well as our methods of reaching said fitness and health.  Those of you who keep up with our blog have heard this ad nauseum, but you can never get enough of it:

Our definition of Fitness is Work Capacity Across Broad Time and Modal domains.

Fitness persistently elevated is our definition of Health.

Our prescription for optimizing health is constantly varied, funcional movements, at high intensity.

And our methods for reaching such optimization is empirical and evidence-based (measurable, observable, and repeatable data.)

These definitions, right or wrong, agree with them or not, only have to be consistent, and still have to be measured.  And our measurements, our data, are mechanically based, not molecular (that is, Newtonian mechanics, force, distance, time, and power, not disaccharides, triglycerides, glucose, vitamins, minerals, lactose, and creatine.)  And because we are in the business of advancing human performance our interest is only with those things that increase fitness and health.  Things that do not increase them, no matter how interesting or unnerving, are of little concern to us.

A molecule only warrants our attention if it can be shown to increase our fitness and health, and only in ways that are above and beyond our ordinary nutritional prescriptions (Paleo-Zone.)  By this standard then, the coolest molecules I know of are Eicosapaentanoic Acid and Docosahexaenoic Acid, also known as EPA and DHA, or fish oil.  Yes it’s the most powerful anti-inflammatory out there.  Yes it increases blood flow and cell membrane motility.  Yes it dramatically improves lipid levels, improves brain function, protects the heart, alleviates clinical mental disorders, improves mood and focus, restores acutely failed organ function (!), lubricates creaky joints, decreases chronic pain, and helps prevent cancer.  I’m not saying these things aren’t important; they are, and devastatingly so.

  I’m saying we don’t take it for the above reasons.

We take it for one thing: Significant, sustained, dirty, nasty, performance gains.  I want to beat my friends.  I want better Fran, Helen, and Diane times.

  I want to throw battleships across continents and run alongside speeding bullet trains.  To wit, I have a conjecture that if the performance gains stopped but the medical benefits remained, it wouldn’t take long for people to quit taking it.

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