Fitness Articles 

That little ritual thing

     We have all seen Russell Crowe in the Gladiator, his character reaches down to pick up some dirt, he brings it to his face and smells the earth to signal his preparedness to start the battle. We have all seen this type of ritual on the track as well, a long jumper, high jumper, pole vaulter, sprinter or thrower starting their attempt with a little step, bounce, slap in the face or wiggle that seems to most of us to be a silly little superstition.  I submit to you that this is not a superstition, but a necessary devise to prepare the body for competition.  The starting gun does not start the race, it signals the beginning of the end of the competition.

     Mind and body are connected in a way that afford you the opportunity to signal your body that ITS TIME TO COMPETE. This type of preparation is unknowingly done by you everyday at practice.  It's called warm-up. The definition of warm-up is:  A routine used before strenuous activity to attain optimal body temperature, and to prepare physically and mentally for the activity. Your warm-up not only prepares your body for competition, it's also a way for your mind to send the signal that you are ready to start the battle.  Too much time between the ritual and the actual competition and your mind has lost the battle signal, optimal body temperature is lost, and the entire body is unprepared for the abrupt onset of competition.  Start the race at warm-up before the gun fire, and your finish will be stronger and faster.       

Restaurants, teams and having the edge

     In sports as in business, it is often very easy to become complacent about success.  I was talking the other day about how sad it was that some of the areas finest restaurants in our area were closing.  The economy can be blamed for most everything nowadays but I believe the underlying truth is that these popular eateries simply lost the edge and stopped trying to please their clientele.  When they opened, the entire staff was focused on making the establishment number one.  After a few good reviews and becoming the "in spot" the staff seemed to stop trying so hard, they lost their edge, and became complacent about their success.  In short they didn't try so hard anymore, the end result being that they lost their diners to the new place down the street where the staff was focused on trying to please their clients. 

     What can we learn from this?  In order to be successful you need to try hard, to remain successful you need to try harder.  The guy down the street will always be there.  It is your task to remain at the top of the game, not to hope that everyone recognizes your position and shy's away.  A few things will remain constant, competitors will compete, your competition will try hard, and if you are number one you have a huge target on your back. Feel too good about your position, and soon you will be closing your doors.

I’m going down hill fast.

      Ski season is fast approaching, before you know it the hills will be white, the nose will be red, the quads will be fried, and you will be going down hill fast.  I am often asked for work-outs this time of year that are specific to skiing, and for good reason.  We all know what it feels like to be on the slopes with our $100. lift ticket unable to continue because we are too tired.  If you want to get the most out of your investment, NOW (October) is the time to condition that core and legs for that upcoming day.  Exercises that are most often ignored in ski training are specific to the core area.  It is essential to have a strong base of support while skiing and the core muscles are that base.  Not having the strength to hold yourself erect during the changes in terrain will lead to out of control movements that effect all parts of your skiing form.  Use this rule when preparing:  “Appropriate exercises are all dynamic.”  Using dynamic movement during preparation will not only build the right core strength it will also improve balance and leg strength.  A few “time honored” exercises are walking lunges, isometric squats, star hops, step-ups, and ice skaters.  If you are advanced you could also throw in lateral box blasts.   A session of these can be done in single to multiple sets to challenge even the best of athletes.  A single set can take as little as 20 minutes to complete. Therefore, there is no reason not to try them a few times a week (every other day) for a few weeks prior to your first outing.  I am sure it will be very nice to know you are doing something to prepare yourself for a great season.  Good luck and see you on the slopes. 

Does this SUV make my thighs look big?

As fitness professional, a recent article in USA Today made me wonder just how long will it take the general public to “get it”.  The premise of the piece was that if you are a skinny driver you will spend less money on gasoline.  The study concludes that Americans are burning nearly 1 billion gallons of gas more each year, than they did in 1960, because of their big fat “as is”.  There is no doubt that as Americans we are increasing our girth.  Daily we hear of the child obesity problem and that we have doubled our overall obesity figures from 15% to 30% in just 19 years.  There are many contributing factors to this overall increase and the point of this article is not to rehash those factors.  I would like to point out however that if it takes more gas to power your car because it is overweight, it also makes every sense that it takes more fuel to power your overweight body.  If you would like to decrease your work load while exercising, save more energy, perform at a higher level, and increase your time to lactate threshold, lose the extra pounds.  I have heard cyclists make constant notation of the overall weight of their bikes with some amusement.  They make small and expensive adjustments to their bikes trying to cut an ounce or two off the total overall weight and then go about their day seemingly clueless to the fact that they are 10-20 pounds overweight themselves.  I have a presentation on increasing running performance that I have given to many clubs and associations.  The first principle of that presentation is, if you want to run your 5k faster, weigh less.  Check your body weight against the table below and see where you stack up.  

The Stillman height/weight ratio table for distance runners:

The average man is allocated 110 lbs (50kg) for the first 5 feet (1.524m) in height. Thereafter, he is allocated 5½ lbs (2.495 kg) for every additional inch (O.025m) in height.  Some ultra marathoners subtract 10% from this total.

Now, no one wants you to look like the Kenyans, but if you want to run with the best try looking a little more like them and a little less like Budha.

Am I really getting better at this?

        I am often asked for a simple method for measuring progress in a cardio fitness regime. The answer, to this seemingly rather complex question lies in the simple equation that ( X=X and Y=Y)  Through the years I have tried many proven scientific protocols including the Bruce treadmill method, and the lactate threshold run, both of which have accurate results but demand a high level of effort. The simplest method I have used, and the one I use most often, seems to be the very accurate and is easy to accomplish.

     If you have a heart rate monitor and a track, your all set, if you don't have the track you can substitute a flat consistent running course.  After a short warm-up, say 5 minutes, walk and let your heart rate fall back to 5 beats slower than  60% of your maximum (lets say 140bpm).  Start running, during the next 10 minutes run at a slow easy pace,  do not let our heart rate raise above the 60% mark or 145 for the entire run.  You must not let your heart rate increase or decrease more than 2 b.p.m. over or under the prescribed limit  (this will take some practice, but in time you will find it easy), after  10 minutes note your distance.  Write down your distance results in your log, you will want some type of tracking system later.  Next week same test.  Did your distance at the same heart rate improve?  During the early stages of your training do not become discouraged if your distance does not increase exponentially with your perceived weekly training efforts, you will make gains, your heart can not be trained like your biceps, you will see improvement during the 4th or 5th weeks of your training.  If you see a marked decrease in your distance during any single training cycle, and there has not been a dramatic change in your testing protocol (such as high temperatures or humidity), you may be over training and need an adjustment to your program.

Why does my side hurt when I run?

     We have all had it, that nagging pain in the side known as a side stitch.  Why doe's it happen to some and not others?  Why can it strike at any moment?  More importantly how can I stop it and make sure it doesn't happen again?  A little knowledge of anatomy will be helpful.
     The diaphragm is a dome shaped muscle that separates the thoracic (lung) cavity from the abdominal cavity, it moves up and down when you inhale and exhale. When you inhale your diaphragm expands, your lungs fill with air, and that lung expansion forces your diaphragm downward. Conversely, when you exhale your lungs contract and your diaphragm rises back into place. This pattern of rising and falling occurs quite rapidly when you're running. 

     Since most side stitches occur on the right hand side.  I believe it is because of the extra weight on the right side due to placement of the liver.  Now, consider what happens to your diaphragm when your right foot strikes the ground.
As your right foot strikes the ground, gravity forces your internal organs downward. Some of these organs are attached to the same musculature as the diaphragm. If you're exhaling at the same time as your right foot is hitting the ground, your diaphragm is being pulled upward by lung contraction, and pushed downward by impact. This creates a stretching of the diaphragm muscle and the ligaments that are attached to your internal organs, this in turn causes opposing forces, stress, and the pain
     If you get side stitches, alter your breathing pattern. First concentrate on taking full, deep breathes and avoid shallow breathing. Then, if you are one of those people who exhale when your right foot hits the ground, try instead to exhale when your left foot hits the ground.

A word about bricks.

     For triathletes in the know, the brick has become a staple workout.  A brick consists of dual disciplines done back to back, with no rest period, most often a bike to run.  There are many articles on the web describing the benefits of a brick, one such benefit is the physiological adaptation of the leg muscles from a predominately quad based exercise to a hamstring based exercise, ie biking to running. My wife finds that T2 is the most humorous spectator position in triathlon, she says the runners leaving the transition with their "wibblie legs" is better than Gallager on a good night.  The struggle to move forward and search for that perfect running form can be difficult at best after 25, or more, hard miles on the bike, this is where the B-R brick training can be most beneficial.  There is no doubt that an efficient stride is one of the determining factors of a speedy stride. Training without a rest period teaches the legs to adapt to the immediate change  and make the transition to a more efficient stride quicker.  In my opinion this is the only reason to B-R brick a work-out.  

     I do not see any benefit to running junk miles just for the sake of running, if you practice a lousy stride you will race a lousy stride.  When you exit that bike in a brick you are running junk miles for the purposes of adaptation, don't over do it.  I find it far more beneficial, in training, to run on fresh legs with proper mechanics than to run endless miles with tired bike weary legs, and lousy mechanics.

     A few more thoughts I have about bricks.  

• Bricks are used by many type A train-aholics far too often.  It is very difficult for your legs to respond reasonably and recover after this type of work-out.  

• If you do a bike-run brick more than once a week you are setting yourself up for injury.  

• Because of the physical demands of this work-out, if you do a brick within 2 weeks of a race you are setting yourself up for a bad race day.