As we all navigate the murky new waters of COVID-19, I’m trying my best to determine which changes are here to stay and which things will eventually return to normal. I’ve observed and read how some organizations are changing their business models completely. Many fast food chains are putting more emphasis on drive through instead of dine-in eating. Many of the airlines are opting to not sell the middle seat for now, but have been clear that they will eventually have to go back to selling every seat. It’s not economical, nor do I see Boeing or Airbus creating a new plane on the fly, no pun intended. At the studio, I have been trying to get back to reading the current research on effective fat loss, strength and conditioning. Easier said than done.
In the last 10 years, many of the gate keepers that dominated many industries have gone away. Forty years ago, TV commercials and newspaper ads were the best way to increase retail sales. It was linear in growth. The more you spent on commercials or print ads, the more you made. We had a limited amount of TV channels and newspapers. There were bidding wars. You had to compete to get in. Once cable came out on TV, things became diluted, but there was still a robust market. Then we got satellite TV and more channels evolved, whether we wanted them or not. The value of commercials went down with each channel and network growth spike. More choices, less value. As a seller of a product, it became harder and harder to be seen. Then this weird thing called YouTube came out. Boom! Instantly and overnight everyone was
given a voice. If you wanted to tell the world about your new product, you could, and for free! The same process has happened to the newspaper industry, where you no longer have to wait for the paper to be delivered to your doorstep to find out what happened in the news yesterday. You can now read about what’s happening right now, in live time from someone’s Twitter feed on the minicomputer in your pocket. If you’ve read some of my past posts, I’ve referred to the process of how we get our news as trying to get a drink of water from a firehose. That same evolution has happened in the research world.
The business of research journals exploded over the last 20 years. If you have a research article and you want to get published, you won’t have a problem, whether it’s well written, accurate, or even true. Many large companies have in-house research departments that have the sole purpose of writing articles that depict their product in a positive light. Deceifering a quality written research article from a bogus one is not an easy task. Just type in “How to read a study” or “How to read a research article” in your search engine and you’ll be amazed how many books and articles exist on this topic alone. In the past, I’ve stuck to my tried and true resources- The Journal of American Medicine Association (JAMA),
the New England Journal of Medicine or the Journal of National Strength and Conditioning. Of recent this has become more challenging. Even the top tier journals have succumb to volume over quality regarding their content. To help me out, I recruited a good friend.
This past weekend, I had Dr. Brian Schilling Ph.D., spend some time with the J & D Fitness team at the studio reviewing a relevant study and then discussing what makes a good study. Dr. Schilling is the past chair of kinesiology and nutrition at UNLV, and currently runs their Masters and Ph.D programs in kinesiology. He is also on the board of a few strength and conditioning journals, and has to determine what gets published and what doesn’t. Mind you, we spent just 3 hours discussing this. This is a semester course at some schools covering much more material.
One of the things which I learned is that scientists do not perform research studies to change mankind. They actually don’t care if we adopt the findings from their studies into our everyday life. They perform studies to increase their value. The goal for many scientists is to formulate a study that is cited many times. The more they are cited from a study their value improves yet again. Finally, many researchers in many industries are far removed from the day-to-day practitioners. I don’t have to look any further than from my own world of fitness to see this. At past national conferences of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, it has become commonplace to see the researchers and coaches sitting on opposite sides of the aisle, both literally and figuratively, that they adopted “Bridging the Gap” as their slogan. On one side, you could see a data driven researcher, adorned in his shirt, tie, and pocket protector. As he listens to a strength and conditioning coach present, he’s thinking, “the data doesn’t support anything that he’s saying, he doesn’t have a clue.” In the ballroom next door, the roles are reversed as a football coach with 25 years of winning experience, wearing his pizza stained golf shirt, is listening to a professor from a national recognized institution present data from a published textbook that he co-authored. The football coach thinks, “he doesn’t have a clue how to get someone stronger and faster.”
Aaron Levenstein has a great quote about statistics- “Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”
In closing, I’ll simply provide a warning that the next time you read a research article be careful, it may not be as valuable as you think.
See you at the studio.