Prof Tim Noakes has been instrumental in shattering more than one health-related myth, yet no-one believes him at first
I was just listening to a podcast today that mentioned how he bust the myth around VO2max for athletes. The concept has been around since the 1930's but it took someone like Tim Noakes to retest and vary the testing to observe it was not holding true. It seemed like the concept made sense and everyone had been fitting their observations in with the concept. The article at http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2009/12/fallacy-of-vo2max-and-vo2max.html explains more about the VO@max concept and how the wheels came off.
Then realising that Tim Noakes also went against all opinion around hydration of long-distance runners where everyone thought some had died from dehydration (because that sounded like it made sense) whilst it was actually overhydration causing the deaths. See https://www.outsideonline.com/1900801/tim-noakes-serious-problem-overhydration-endurance-sports.
And of course most recently on the topic of a low carb-high fat nutrition this also went against the popular thought around the body needing a diet rich in carbs and as little fat as possible (he was not the first to realise this, but he helped bust the popular "opinions" about it in the last few years).
It is probably a very good thing that we have scientists who are willing to retest old theories and keep their minds open when making judgements, but more especially who are prepared to speak out when the world is telling them they are wrong.
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The Fallacy of Vo2max and %VO2max In a comprehensive review on training, Midgley and McNaughton’s first sentence state’s “The maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) has been suggested to be the single most important physiological ca… |