The Heat is On In Aus, But Whoop Is Gone / Noakes and a Low Carb Theory Full of Holes

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This week’s Spotlight opens in Melbourne, where brutal heat nearly derailed Jannik Sinner’s title defence. The Italian was hobbled by cramps and looked down and out before the heat index policy triggered a delay, a roof closure, and some much-needed air con. That leads us into a deep dive on cramping: why it happens, what Sinner could be doing to address this weakness, and some of the less than credible methods tennis players are using to prevent them. We also unpack another Australian Open storyline — the request for players to remove Whoop devices — exploring both credible and dubious motives for such a ban.

Carbohydrates are in the news again, though this time, it's not about how much athletes are consuming, but rather how little they actually need - 10g per hour. That, according to a review headed by Prof Tim Noakes, is all that is required to prevent fatigue during exercise. We break down the paper, question its scientific robustness, explore some of the gaping holes, and explain why it diverges so sharply from real-world practice, and even from Noakes' own previous work on fatigue and performance.

A rapid-fire round sweeps through listener feedback on whether ChatGPT could ever replace a coach, the retesting of decade-old samples that’s led to bans for seven athletes, more eye-catching performances from teenage phenoms, a pair of world records, and a winter Olympic controversy.

And finally, we turn to Alex Honnold’s jaw-dropping, rope-free ascent of Taipei 101 — a climb that lit up the internet. Where does it sit in the history of the sport, and what made it so utterly unmissable?

Links

• Article on heat issues in Melbourne
• Reaction to the Whoop ban Down Under
• Noakes et al's review article on carbohydrate requirements during exercise
• One of many articles that suggest that muscle glycogen is also important for performance, this time not as part of failure, but rather regulation. Noakes was himself an author on this one
• Another article where Noakes correctly identifies the role of glycogen in the muscle as part of how performance is regulated and improved
• We mentioned the efforts of Dr James diNicolantonio to rebut some of the poor science of the low carb review. Here is one of many threads that offer counterpoints
• A good study from friends of the pod Louise Burke and Jaime Whitfield on what actually happens to performance on a low carb diet
• One of a few systematic reviews on the low carb vs high carb nutrition models for exercise performance
• Athletes test positive ten years after the 'crime'
• "I'm going to burn the whole of track and field down". Well, do it already, stop hinting

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