Power Balance bracelets exposed as a sham

I found the article about one of the BOOM sport products among endurance sports enthusiast, PowerBalance wrist band. As myself, I don't believe this rubber band super power, besides, it is so expensive and the fake PowerBalance wrist band already in market.

Here are the article,

Georgina Robinson
December 23, 2010

A bracelet worn by high profile sports stars that claims to improve athletic performance has been exposed as a sham by the consumer watchdog.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has ordered Power Balance Australia to refund all customers who feel they were misled by the supposed benefits of Power Balance bracelets.

The wristbands were touted as providing better balance, strength and flexibility by working with the wearer's "natural energy field".

English cricketers Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss, AFL bad boy Brendan Fevola, St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt and NRL star Benji Marshall have all been known to wear the bracelets.

But ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said in a statement: “Power Balance has admitted that there is no credible scientific basis for the claims and therefore no reasonable grounds for making representations about the benefits of the product.

“Its conduct may have contravened the misleading and deceptive conduction section of the Trade Practices Act 1974," Mr Samuel said.

"When a product is heavily promoted, sold at major sporting stores and worn by celebrities, consumers tend to give a certain legitimacy to the product and the representations being made."

The bracelets sell for $60 on the company's website.

Mr Samuel also warned that retailers that continue to sell the products with misleading advertising or packaging would be open to action from the ACCC.

Last month an independent review panel that deals with complaints about breaches of the therapeutic goods advertising code found that powerbalance.com.au violated the code.

Power Balance acknowledged it had breached the code and said the relevant claims had been removed from its website.

The company was also named in this year's Shonky awards.

Consumer advocate group Choice found the bracelets were just rubber bands with plastic holograms.

"The band was tested at CHOICE under controlled lab conditions which showed it did little else than empty purchasers' wallets," Choice said in October.

Trans-Selatan 2010: Nutrition for Bike Touring

The lowest aspect that is always not taking into consideration by Malaysian when attempting an endurance event is nutrition aspect. Nutrition aspect is one of the key that every Malaysian know the basic or the rule of thumb of it. It is all about your own body and the 'fuel' to take and transform to energy. Here I shared some of basic tips for bike touring and for all the Trans Selatan 2010 riders reading & gaining a knowledge.

The following basic nutrition plan for the competitive athlete is based on the nutritional concepts discussed elsewhere. To review, these physiologic principles include:

• high carbohydrate training diet is a must to maximize muscle glycogen stores
• slight increase in daily protein requirements, but replacement needs can be met with 1 gram protein/kg body wt/day
• Caloric expenditures need to be consciously replaced to counteract the appetite suppression that follows from long hours of training
• 3 day carbohydrate loading program gives an edge to muscle glycogen storage
• 4 hour pre event meal should be utilized to top off glycogen stores
• some riders experience intestinal distress or symptoms of hypoglycemia if they eat in the 2 to 4 hours immediately before an event
• Calories must be taken during an event of greater than 2 hours duration - solid foods may offer some advantages in longer events which are done at slower paces minimizing the issue of delayed gastric emptying
• be particularly sensitive to fluid balance (loss vs replacement) as the risks of OVERHYDRATION increase with longer events. Don't forget to weigh yourself regularly during training as well as the event
• salt replacement beyond a normal diet (ie commercially available sports drinks) is important only under extreme conditions or in events lasting 8 to 10 hours or more

Baseline Training Diet

The weeks and days before the event determine your daily caloric needs as outlined in the section on energy requirements of cycling.
calculate your body weight (BW) in kg (Wt in lbs x .455 = BW in kg)
eat a baseline daily diet of:

• protein - 1.5 gm x BW in kg (multiply x 4 to get daily protein Calories)
• fat - 70 gm fat (the avg. American diet); at 9 Cal/gm = 630 Calories
• carbohydrates - the balance of your total daily Calories (total requirements as calculated above minus protein Calories minus fat Calories)as starches, etc.

Later modify that diet for the specific periods noted below:

• Pre-event interval (4 days to the event)
• During the event
• Post event

Pre Event
(4 days to the event) 4 days prior to the event

• 9 gm carbohydrate/kg BW/day (approx. 600 grams/day)
• limit exercise to minimum needed to maintain flexibility

4 hours prior to the event

• eat a 300 gm complex carbohydrate meal (rice, starch, pancakes, etc.)
• a high Caloric density glucose polymer sports drink may be ideal here

**Define your own physiologic limits if you are accustomed to eating in the 4 hours interval before a ride - many riders get a psychological boost from eating a low fat meal or a liquid carbohydrate drink/gel during this interval (and as a bonus can supplement their internal glycogen stores for a ride of more than 1 to 2 hours).

20 minutes prior to the event

• 45 gm carbohydrate (candy bar for example)

During Event

regular carbohydrate replacement - start immediately

• 60 gram of carbohydrate as a minimum per hour
• liquid preferred (i.e. sports drink)
• 10% concentration optimal (equivalent to a cola drink)
• start with half a water bottle (300 ml) in your stomach
• complex carbohydrate drinks permit additional calories
• liquids
• 800 ml/hour (standard water bottle = 590 ml)
• drink at 10 - 15 min. intervals

Post Event

• 3 to 6 gm carbohydrate/ kg BW over the immediate 4 hours post event (100 grams per hour) - start immediately
• a high caloric density glucose polymer sports drink may be ideal here
• protein appears to expedite glycogen replacement
• 600 gm carb/day for 2 days to optimize repletion of muscle/liver glycogen.

As a bottom line, I encourage all the riders try to follow the right technique in consuming your nutrition and stay fresh until you jump off the bike and cheers each others every end of the stages.

Trans-Selatan 2010: Bonk!

Do you ever feel this situation?
"Oh, why they're paddling so fast?"
"What's wrong with my bike? Feel like carrying someone at the back?"
"Why I can follow these guys? The speed is still the same like before.."

If you had faced these situation, you are already in BIG TROUBLE and the trouble called "BONK".

What is Bonk?
In endurance sports, particularly cycling and running, hitting the wall or the bonk describes a condition caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, which manifests itself by precipitous fatigue and loss of energy. Milder instances can be remedied by brief rest and the ingestion of food or drinks containing carbohydrates. The condition can usually be avoided by ensuring that glycogen levels are high when the exercise begins, maintaining glycogen levels during exercise by eating or drinking carbohydrate-rich substances, or by reducing exercise intensity.

How it's Work?
Athletes engaged in exercise over a long period of time produce energy via two mechanisms, both facilitated by oxygen:

• via fat metabolism and
• via breakdown of glycogen into glucose, followed by glycolysis.

How much energy comes from either source depends on the intensity of the exercise. During intense exercise that approaches one's VO2 max, most of the energy comes from glycogen.

A typical untrained individual on an average diet is able to store about 380 grams of glycogen, or 1500 kcal, in the body, though much of that amount is spread throughout the muscular system and may not be available for any specific type of exercise. Intense cycling or running can easily consume 600-800 or more kcal per hour. Unless glycogen stores are replenished during exercise, glycogen stores in such an individual will be depleted after less than 2 hours of continuous cycling or 22-24 km of running. Training and carbohydrate loading can raise these reserves as high as 880 g (3600 kcal), correspondingly raising the potential for uninterrupted exercise.

What is the Effect?
Such fatigue can become seriously debilitating; in cycling, exhaustion can reach the point where the cyclist is unable to stand without the support provided by the bicycle. Symptoms of depletion include general weakness, fatigue, and manifestations of hypoglycemia, such as dizziness and even hallucinations. This dangerous condition will not be relieved by brief periods of rest.

How to Avoid Bonk?
There are several approaches to prevent glycogen depletion:

• Carbohydrate loading is used to ensure that the initial glycogen levels are maximized, thus prolonging the exercise. This technique amounts to increasing complex carbohydrate intake during the last few days before the event.
• Consuming food or drinks containing carbohydrates during the exercise. This is an absolute must for very long distances; it is estimated that Tour de France competitors receive up to 50% of their daily caloric intake from on-the-bike supplements.
• Lowering the intensity of the exercise to the so-called 'fat loss' level (heart rate of 130 bpm for a 30-year-old athlete) will lower both the energy requirements per unit of distance and the fraction of the energy that comes from glycogen.

The Training
"Bonk training" is an exercise program designed for weight loss. It suggests the following strategy on an empty stomach the first thing in the morning, when glycogen store levels are low: consume coffee or caffeine equivalent to 2 or 3 cups of coffee, run or cycle at a casual pace (60% of max heart rate) for 20–90 minutes, have a normal breakfast right after exercising. Proponents claim this will force the body to "bonk" shortly into the exercise, and subsequently burn more fat to generate the energy. It is not clear how medically sound this idea is; exerting too much energy and "bonking hard," or experiencing severe hypoglycemia, can be dangerous.

So, get prepare your nutrition precisely to avoid this situation happen to you, especially in the tour like Trans Selatan. You need to be fresh each morning and why not you can put an extra effort in nutritional aspect to staying fresh until the convoy reach the end point every day.

Trans-Selatan 2010: The Ice was Breaked!

Wow..I was surprised when I was told that there were still had a room for me (and Jiha actually) to ride for Tans-Selatan 2010 cycling expedition. Last Saturday for the first time we joined other Trans-Selatan 2010 members training. Another milestone achieve by them after our ride from UTM-Pendas-UTM, it was over 70km, and first time rode by most of them in the morning.

Trans-Selatan 2010 is the continunity of the previous program named Trans-Johor in 2008. This cycling expedition organized by Kolej Perdana UTM, Office of Students Affairs UTM and collaboration with four state goverments (Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor).

"Program Trans-Selatan’10 adalah program kayuhan amal anak merdeka 1 malaysia jelajah selatan yang dilakukan untuk mengumpul dana yang akan disumbangkan kepada Palestin melalui kerjasama Viva Palestin Malaysia (VPM) disamping mendokong kempen Sustainable Campus oleh Naib Canselor UTM, Prof. Dato’ Ir. Dr. Zaini Bin Ujang. Progam ini dapat mendedahkan mahasiswa kepada cabaran dan aktiviti lasak selaras bagi memantapkan mahasiswa menghadapi cabaran berkerjaya. Program ini dijalankan selama 10 hari dan dirancang, dianjur serta dilaksana sepenuhnya oleh para pelajar UTM dengan kerjasama Pejabat Hal Ehwal Pelajar, UTM. Proses pengurusan ini akan mampu mengukuhkan kemahiran generik dengan pengalaman yang diperoleh untuk memantapkan kualiti dan nilai kepemimpinan serta kerjasama sebagai suatu persediaan sebelum melangkah ke bidang pekerjaan."

The are four stages will be held in this expedition:
Day 1 (19 Dec): UTM KL to Port Dickson
Day 2 (20 Dec): Port Dickson to Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
Day 3 (21 Dec): Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka to Universiti Tun Hussein Onn, Batu Pahat
Day 4 (22 Dec): Universiti Tun Hussein Onn, Batu Pahat to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Skudai

As the bottom line, I was fire-up to make another adventure for this year on the two wheels human powered machine called bicycle!

more info:
http://utmtrans-selatan10.weebly.com/
http://utmtrans-selatan10.blogspot.com/

No mood to write

I'm not in mood to hit the keyboard and reporting my previous Powerman Malaysia 2010 & review of the product I received before the race trip. My day getting tougher towards end of the year. So no mood to write a report. Stay tuned..