Important training principle

Most of us know that if we want to improve, we must stress ourselves in some of our training sessions. Exercise stresses the muscles, stimulating them to grow stronger and work more efficiently. Without enough rest after the stress, however, the muscles are driven to exhaustion or injury. Stress must be balanced by rest in sufficient quantity and quality for adequate growth.

Hard or long runs must always be followed by several easy days in which the pace or distance is reduced. In addition, you must build rest weeks into your program: every second or third week, you should automatically reduce total mileage. This gives your muscles the extra time to “catch up.”

Improvement is based upon the quality of your speedwork and the length of your long run. By taking a day off and then running easily between these two “quality days” you will recover, rebuild stronger and reduce the chance of injury. Common mistakes that lead to injury are:

1) Trying to attain a high mileage level week after week
2) Running daily runs too fast
3) Not enough rest

Medicine Ball Partner Exercises

1. Lunge to Chest Pass: A dynamic move for a dynamic duo. Grab a medicine ball and face your partner, standing about 3-5 feet apart. Keeping the chest up, lunge forward, completing the movement with a crisp (and accurate!) chest pass to your partner. They’ll then catch it and head straight into their lunge-and-pass. Repeat for 10-12 reps each, or until Butterfingers tests your patience.

2. Single-Leg Chest Pass: Stand on one leg, about 4-6 feet from your partner. Keeping the core tight and the body stable, pass the rock back and forth using a basketball chest pass. Continue for 30-60 seconds. Switch legs. Be one move closer to J. Lin status.

3. Overhead Pass with Squat: Time to get up close and personal. Stand back-to-back with one partner holding a medicine ball overhead. The other will then reach up and grab it (klutzes take care!), followed by both buddies coming down into a low squat position. The partner with the ball will then roll it back between their legs for the other one to pick it up and start again. Continue for 10-12 reps, then switch!

4. Partner Floor Slams: This is one throw down you don’t want to miss. Badass #1 starts with a medicine ball overhead and slam it down to the ground so it bounces once before reaching Badass #2. With the core fully engaged (the power of the pass should come from the core as well), keep sending the ball back and forth for 10-15 reps each.

5. Partner Side Swing Pass: In a swing state of mind? Stand side-by-side, about five feet apart, in an athletic stance with the abdominals contracted. Keeping the arms straight, have partner #1 swing the ball from the outside of the body to the inside (pivoting the outside leg as you pivot), then toss the ball to partner #2. Repeat until you get the swing of things, and switch positions.

6. Partner Shuffle Drill: Bring it back to basketball camp. Facing your partner a few feet away, stand in a ready position with the knees slightly bent and core engaged. At “Go” shuffle for about 20 feet in one direction, while simultaneously tossing the medicine ball back and forth. Head back in the opposite direction to give both sides some love.

7. Sit-Ups Pass: Work the middle, times two. Start seated on the floor next to your partner, facing opposite directions, with knees bent. Holding the medicine ball to your chest, both recline to the floor, come back up, and pass the ball to your partner. Repeat for 10-15 reps, or until the core feels good and fired up.

8. V-Sit with Rotation and Pass: This one’s double trouble, for sure. Sitting on the floor about 1-2 feet away from your partner, with knees bent, hold the medicine ball to your chest with abs nice n’ tight. Next, both recline back a few inches and rotate one way and then the other (maintaining that rock hard core!). Return to starting position, and throw the ball to your partner. They’ll catch it and repeat the movement. Repeat for reps or time (90 seconds is no joke).

9. Kneeling Partner Twist: Partners in crime can hit the abs and obliques with this simple twofer move. Kneel back-to-back, and slowly twist to one side until you can hand off the ball to your partner. Then twist to the other side in order to retrieve the ball again (oh, hey there!). Continue for 60-90 seconds in one direction, then switch.

10. Hi-Low Twist: Start standing back-to-back, holding the medicine ball firmly in two hands. Twist toward your partner and raise the ball up high so you hand it off to them over your shoulder. They’ll grab it and do the same move, but meeting you down low on the other side. (Did we just become best friends? YUP!) Continue for 60-plus seconds in one direction — until you feel the heat in those arms, shoulders, and core — then switch directions.

Endurance Exercise Linked to Damage in Right Ventricle of Heart

What i always say is that, too much of a healthy hobby becomes not so healthy. I have recently read this study which proves this.

ScienceDaily (Dec. 7, 2011) — Researchers have found the first evidence that some athletes who take part in extreme endurance exercise such as marathons, endurance triathlons, alpine cycling or ultra triathlons may incur damage to the right ventricles of their hearts — one of the four chambers in the heart involved in pumping blood around the body.

The research, recently published online in the European Heart Journal, found that although the damage was reversed within a week of a competitive event in most of the 40 athletes studied, five of them (13%) showed evidence of more permanent damage, with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showing scarring of the heart muscle (known as fibrosis). These five had been competing in endurance sports for longer than those who did not show the same damage.

Dr André La Gerche (MD, PhD), a postdoctoral research fellow at St Vincent’s Hospital, University of Melbourne, Australia, but who is currently based at the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, said: “It is most important that our findings are not over-extrapolated to infer that endurance exercise is unhealthy. Our data do not support this premise.”

However, he said that the findings did suggest that there might be some athletes who might have been born with a susceptibility to develop damage as a result of long-term endurance exercise.

“Virtually all of the changes in the athletes’ hearts had resolved one week after having taken part in a competitive event. In most athletes, a combination of sensible training and adequate recovery should cause an improvement in heart muscle function; that is, the heart rebuilds in a manner such that it is more capable of sustaining a similar exercise stimulus in the future. This positive training response can be over months rather than weeks,” he explained. “The question from our research is whether there are some athletes in whom extreme exercise may cause injury from which the heart does not recover completely. If this occurs, affected athletes may be at risk of reduced performance — a cardiac ‘over-training’ syndrome — or it may cause arrhythmias. If this occurs, it is likely to affect only a minority of athletes, particularly those in whom more intense training fails to result in further improvements in their performance.”

Dr La Gerche and his colleagues in Australia and Belgium recruited 40 elite athletes in Australia who were planning to compete in one of the four endurance events*. The athletes were already well trained (training intensely for more than 10 hours a week), performing well (having finished within the first 25% of the field in a recent event), and had no known heart problems.

The researchers studied the athletes, using echocardiography, MRI, and blood tests, at three time points: two to three weeks prior to the race, immediately after the race (within one hour), and 6-11 days after the race.

Results showed that immediately after the race the athletes’ hearts had changed shape, with the volume increasing, while the function of the ventricle decreased. Levels of a chemical called B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), which is secreted by the ventricles in response to excessive stretching of heart muscle cells, increased. Right ventricle function recovered in most athletes after one week, but in the five who had been training and competing for longer than the others, MRI detected signs of scarring (fibrosis). The researchers also found that the post-race changes to the function of the right ventricle increased with the duration of the race.

In contrast, the left ventricle, which, up to now has been the most studied in athletes, showed no changes.

Dr La Gerche said: “Our study identifies the right ventricle as being most susceptible to exercise-induced injury and suggest that the right ventricle should be a focus of attention as we try to determine the clinical significance of these results. Large, prospective, multi-centre trials are required to elucidate whether extreme exercise may promote arrhythmias in some athletes. To draw an analogy, some tennis players develop tennis elbow. This does not mean that tennis is bad for you; rather it identifies an area of susceptibility on which to focus treatment and preventative measures.”

He concluded: “It is important to note that this is one component of an evolving understanding of how the right ventricle is the ‘Achilles heel’ of heart function during exercise. We previously studied heart function during intense exercise and demonstrated that the load on the right ventricle (stress, work and oxygen demand) increases to a greater extent than in any of the other heart chambers. Professor Hein Heidbuchel, who I work with, has shown that the source of ventricular arrhythmias in affected athletes is almost always the right ventricle. Finally, it has been shown that intense exercise in rats causes inflammation, fibrosis and arrhythmias in the right but not the left ventricle. Hence, there are consistent messages, all implicating the right ventricle and yet it has been neglected in the vast majority of studies regarding cardiac changes in athletes. Now there is sufficient evidence to invest in the long-term prospective studies that are required.”

In an accompanying editorial, Professor Sanjay Sharma, of St George’s University London (UK), who is medical director of the London Marathon, writes that although the study is small, “the results provide food for thought and the data should be embraced to galvanise more detailed and longitudinal assessment of large groups of endurance athletes. The potential for such projects is enormous considering the colossal increase in participation rates in endurance events such as the marathon. The long-term conclusions of the authors may appear preposterous to some, but could prove to be the retrospective ‘elephant in the room’.”

Prof Sharma said: “My personal feeling is that extreme endurance exercise probably does cause damage to the heart in some athletes. I don’t believe that the human body is designed to exercise at full stretch for as long as 11 hours a day, so damage to the heart is not implausible. It is too early to say that taking part in endurance sports causes long-term damage to the right ventricle, but this study is an indication that it might cause a problem in some endurance athletes with a predisposition and, therefore, it should be studied further.”

*The distances for each event are as follows: marathon = 42.2 kms; endurance triathlon = 1.9km swim, 90 kms cycle, 21.1 kms run; alpine cycling = 207 kms; ultra triathlon = 3.8 kms swim, 180 kms cycle, 42.2 kms run.

 

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Society of Cardiology.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal References:

1. A. La Gerche, A. T. Burns, D. J. Mooney, W. J. Inder, A. J. Taylor, J. Bogaert, A. I. MacIsaac, H. Heidbuchel, D. L. Prior. Exercise-induced right ventricular dysfunction and structural remodelling in endurance athletes. European Heart Journal, 2011; DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehr397
2. S. Sharma, A. Zaidi. Exercise-induced arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy: fact or fallacy? European Heart Journal, 2011; DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehr436

Lifting less weight more times is just as effective at building muscle as training with heavy weights

Lifting less weight more times is just as effective at building muscle as training with heavy weights, a finding by McMaster researchers that turns conventional wisdom on its head.

The key to muscle gain, say the researchers, is working to the point of fatigue.

“We found that loads that were quite heavy and comparatively light were equally effective at inducing muscle growth and promoting strength,” says Cam Mitchell, one of the lead authors of the study and a PhD candidate in the Department of Kinesiology.

The research, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, challenges the widely accepted dogma that training with heavy weights — which can be lifted only six to 12 times before fatigue — is the best avenue to muscle growth.

“Many older adults can have joint problems which would prevent them training with heavy loads,” says Mitchell. “This study shows that they have the option of training with lighter and less intimidating loads and can still receive the benefits.”

For the study, a series of experiments were conducted on healthy, young male volunteers to measure how their leg muscles reacted to different forms of resistance training over a period of 10 weeks.

The researchers first determined the maximum weight each subject could lift one time in a knee extension. Each subject was assigned to a different training program for each leg.

In all, three different programs were used in combinations that required the volunteers to complete sets of as many repetitions as possible with their assigned loads — typically eight to 12 times per set at the heaviest weights and 25-30 times at the lowest weights.

The three programs used in the combinations were:

1. one set at 80% of the maximum load
2. three sets at 80% of the maximum
3. three sets at 30% of the maximum

After 10 weeks of training, three times per week, the heavy and light groups that lifted three sets saw significant gains in muscle volume — as measured by MRI — with no difference among the groups. Still, the group that used heavier weights for three sets developed a bit more strength.

The group that trained for a single set showed approximately half the increase in muscle size seen in both the heavy and light groups.

“The complexity of current resistance training guidelines may deter some people from resistance training and therefore from receiving the associated health benefits,” says Stuart Phillips, a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and supervisor of the study. “Our study provides evidence for a simpler paradigm, where a much broader range of loads including quite light loads can induce muscle growth, provided it is lifted to the point where it is difficult to maintain good form.”

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by McMaster University, via Newswise.

What is “The Bolt Effect”?

Usain Bolt winning the 100 m final 2008 Olympics (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He is the fastest man on two legs, the greatest sprinter of all time – and Usain Bolt can also claim another superlative. He alone has caused the other top athletes in the world to run faster.

Scientists are calling it the “Usain Bolt Effect” because he has significantly improved the average performance of the world’s top sprinters, who are now suddenly running about 1 per cent faster than they did prior to Bolt’s explosive appearance in 2008 – a significant margin at this distance.

The reason? The sprinters are basically just trying harder to keep up with the competition.

Bolt holds the world 100-metres record of 9.58 seconds but believes he is capable of 9.4 seconds.

An analysis of the average speeds for the 100m sprint by the top 25 athletes over the past century shows a sudden and consistent improvement in performance over the past four years.

“We see in 2008 what we call the Usain Bolt Effect,” said Professor Steve Haake of Sheffield Hallam University, who has analysed the records of every international 100m track event since 1888. “It is a little jump in performance when he appeared in that year. If we look at the top 25 sprinters and take Usain Bolt out of that list, so that you just analyse the other 24, you still get this step change.

“What’s happened is that he’s come on the block and the peer competition is such that everyone has improved.”A graph of finishing times since 1888 shows an overall and consistent improvement with each decade. For instance, the average 100m event is now being run about 10 per cent faster than in 1948, Professor Haake said.

“The Usain Bolt Effect improved overall performance of the top 25 sprinters by 0.9 per cent, so almost 1 per cent. When you think that this entire performance index improved in total by 10 per cent since 1948, it is quite extraordinary that the Usain Bolt Effect accounts for a significant proportion of that improvement,” he said.

The World Wars and the Korean conflict of the early 1950s resulted in significantly slower speeds, probably because athletes could not train and the pool of talent was made smaller. Another significant milestone came in 2000 with the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which appeared to halt the overall improvements in performance.

But Professor Haake believes further improvements in average performance will still be possible. “All performances in sport are levelling off and inevitably people ask, ‘are we at the limit?’ The answer is, ‘no, not yet’, but we’re probably coming up to the limits of human physiology.”

By The Independent

Interesting Fitness Facts

1. Carbohydrates, protein, fat, and alcohol have 4, 4, 9, and 7 calories per gram respectively.
2. It takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose 1 pound.
3. Insulin and growth hormone have an inverse relationship.
4. The average person can store 500 grams of glycogen.
5. Only fat and protein are essential macronutrients – carbohydrates aren’t.
6. Muscle glycogen is about 3 parts water to 1 part glucose.
7. You burn more calories during the 23 hours you don’t exercise than the 1 hour you do.
8. You don’t need to do cardio to lose weight.
9. The fat burning zone does not burn more total fat calories – only a higher percentage of calories from fat.
10. You’re never too old to do squats.
11. Weight loss is not a physical challenge – it’s a mental one.
12. The scale cannot measure body fat percentage.
13. You can eat anything you want and still lose weight – but weight doesn’t always equal fat.
14. You can’t target fat loss – fat loss is systemic.
15. Muscle does not weigh more than fat – it’s just denser than it.
16. 0 grams of fat on a label doesn’t always mean there’s no fat in the food product.
17. Whole grain bread is still a processed food.
18. Eating healthy is not more expensive than a junk food diet.
19. You can’t calculate body fat percentage from height and weight alone – you need to physically measure it.
20. You can get glucose from both protein and glycerol – not just carbohydrates.
21. Just because a box says “whole grain” on it, it doesn’t make it healthy.
22. You should never attempt weight loss at the expense of your health.
23. Being vegetarian doesn’t just mean you don’t eat meat – it means you follow a plant-based diet.
24. Workout times and negative side effects are positively correlated.
25. Gym membership prices are negotiable.
26. Cooking your food can both lower some nutrient content, and make some more bioavailable.
27. There’s a high correlation between the fitness level of the people close to you, and your own physical fitness.
28. It’s harder to put on 10 pounds of muscle than it is to lose 10 pounds of fat.
29. Once an adult, fat cells can be created, but they cannot be lost – only shrunken.
30. Eating at night does not make you fat – overeating does.
31. You don’t need to do curls to get good biceps.
32. Being skinny does not automatically mean you have a low body fat.
33. The perimeter of the grocery store is where 90% of the healthy food is.
34. If bad food is in the house, you’ll be more likely to eat it.
35. Thyroid hormone output and exercise intensity are positively correlated.
36. Healthy levels of testosterone are good for both men and women.
37. You don’t need a gym membership to strength train.
38. Unless you weigh less than 100 pounds, it’s unlikely you need less than 1000 calories to lose weight.
39. Workout intensity is positively correlated with the degree of EPOC – the afterburn effect.
40. There are 3 types of skeletal muscle fibers – type I, type II-A, and type II-B.
41. 80% of people who begin an exercise program will quit.
42. The body has 3 energy systems – ATP-PC, anaerobic glycolysis, and aerobic.
43. Strength gains come from muscle hypertrophy and improved muscle fiber recruitment.
44. Dehydrating a muscle by 3% can cause a 10% loss of strength.
45. The thermic effect of food (TEF) is highest for protein.
46. Lactic acid is not the cause of delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
47. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn at rest.
48. Direct abdominal exercises are not necessary to get good abs.
49. You can lose weight and still gain muscle; likewise, you can also gain weight while still losing fat.
50. Consistency and patience are key to long term successful weight loss.

40 y.o Triathlete vs 70 y.o Triathlete vs aging

I have recently read a very interesting study about masters athletes.  Check these pictures. The top pic is a cross section of the thigh of a 40 year old triathlete. The bottom is a triathlete at 70. The middle is a sedentary 74 year old man. As you can see, the muscle fat of the 40 and 70 y.o. triathlete are almost the same, but the 74 y.o. man with no exercise background is full of fat in his muscles. To read the study click here

Tiny, toothless but still ripped, a former Mr. Universe turns 100

By MSN news

Manohar Aich, the 1952 Mr. Universe, is tiny, toothless and proudly ripped. And as of Sunday, he is 100 years old, the Indian Express reported.  

Aich said the key to longevity, for him, has been a simple diet of milk, fruits and vegetables, along with rice, lentils and fish, the Associated Press reported. He refuses alcohol and tobacco.

He told the Indian Express that times have changed since his weightlifting heyday.

“These youngsters want the easy way out these days,” Aich said. “They don’t have the time and energy to go through the drills in an old-style gymnasium. They don’t worship their body.”

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Aich vied for the Mr. Universe title in 1951 but lost. At the time, he had to travel the city, raising money to compete. The next year, at 4-feet-11-inches, he snagged the title.

As a physical education instructor in Indian Air Force, Aich was jailed for slapping a British officer for making an offensive remark, the Indian Express reported.

“In jail I used to practice on my own, without any equipment, sometimes for 12 hours in a day,” he told the AP.

A friendly jailor started calling him India’s “Pocket Hercules.” He continued lifting weights until 2011, when he suffered a stroke, the Indian Express reported.

He told the AP that among his regrets in life was that he never met another Mr. Universe winner – Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star turned California governor.

“I like the incredible stunts he does in the movies,” Aich said.

My country Cyprus has the lowest newborn mortality rate worldwide

As proud as i feel for the fact that Cyprus  tied with Sweden for the third best rate, with a low newborn mortality rate of 1.6 per 1,000 births, so sad i feel for the fact that at the age of 12 Cypriot boys and girls has the highest diabetes and obesity rate between European countries. We literally kill our children with the way of life that we provide them.

You can check the best and worst countries for babes here

Image via Wikipedia

The Perfect Runner, Official Trailer

I live in Cyprus, a small European country next to Israel, Greece and Egypt. Right now i am so envy of Canadians, who can watch this TV show. If someone finds out how is it possible for me to watch it online, please please please let me know on the comments area. Here is a description of the show and a small trailer:

How did our ancestors survive the shift from trees to land, and evolve to dominate the planet? The answer lies in a remarkable ability we evolved far earlier than our powerful brains: humans are nature’s perfect endurance runners. Gemini-winning anthropologist Niobe Thompson (Inuit Odyssey, 2009; Code Breakers, 2011) takes a journey of personal discovery back in evolutionary time, in conversation with leading evolutionary biologists and immersed in cultures whose survival still depends on endurance running. From the highlands of Ethiopia, to the most remote place in Arctic Siberia, to the world’s toughest ultramarathon in the Canadian Rockies, The Perfect Runner weaves cutting-edge science with gripping adventure, and leaves the viewer with a new and inspiring understanding of our common evolutionary inheritance as the running ape.

Canada 2012, 45 mins. HD, Dir: Niobe Thompson, Clearwater Documentary Inc.

The Perfect Runner will have its first broadcast in Canada on March 15th 2012, at 8pm on CBC TV’s The Nature of Things, Canada’s blue-chip nature and science strand and the longest running program on Canadian television. Broadcast to follow on ARTE in German and French in September 2012.