Two exercises for Increasing your lung capacity.
As I mentioned in my last article, I am very focusing now on building my upper body because I realised that without a strong core you don’t go far with running. You literally don’t go far. So now four times a week I weight lift, and I am in my learning phase now and also experimental status checking out to see what works for me and finding out ways to achieve the best optimal result in the least time. It's It’s not like I don’t get enough exercise as weight lifting is concern building a house is the optimum weightlifting event. (Carrying and building bricks, making concrete and using a wheelbarrow to move it, pulling buckets of concrete up, installing scaffolds, etc.) I try to incorporate exercises that will help me straight my shoulders because I do have rounded shoulders and that’s because of the nature of my work. I am a computer engineer, and I do use the computer a lot so me learning for hours in front of it is a major contributing cause. Another reason is the muscles of my upper back are weak having. As a result, to be pulled forward by my stronger chest muscles; that’s why I try to balance the chest and back exercises. Now someone would ask what does having rounded shoulders have to do with running? Well, I had the same opinion, I have rounded shoulders I can still run just fine right? Well, it turns out after searching a bit more that is not okay, it’s very limiting. The reason is that rounded shoulders can result in reduced lung capacity, we cannot take in more air than our lungs are able. The difference in lung function is not small its 15% if you have rounded shoulders you are using 85% of your lung capacity providing you don’t have any other imbalances or issues. So you can see why its imperative to bring my shoulders in a straight line. To do that I use four exercises which Brendan Brazier suggests in his book Thrive Fitness which are 1. Bend Over Stretch and you hold it for 30 seconds 2. Shoulder, Chest, and hip flexor stretch (30 seconds each side) 3. Shoulder blade pinch (25 repetitions 20 seconds rest between sets) 4. Seated lateral raise (15 repetitions 20 seconds rest between sets) Along with other exercises this four I practice them in the morning before I go to work. Since I started doing them I can feel myself being taller. Now a second exercise that will help you with your increase of your lung capacity is Dumbbell fly. By doing dumbbell flys you are strengthening your chest muscles (pectoral) this exercise contributes to expanding the muscles between your ribs allowing for better respiration. The more expanded chest muscles you have the easier it is to inhale oxygen! If you notice all the elite marathoners they might seem to be weak in the upper body but if you note closely for their size they have pretty strong pectoral muscles which allow them to host and accommodate their enlarged lungs that they acquired by years of professional training. So now except dumbbell flys, I do use other chest exercises because I am not as active in that area as I should. So here two activities that will make you breath better, breath more and breath easier. 1. Seated lateral raise (15 repetitions 20 seconds rest between sets) 2. Dumbbell Fly I hope I helped. Have a healthy and happy day. My warmest Regards Andreas Michaelides Author of Thirsty For Health.
Today I want to talk about motivation. I want to analyse a little bit what makes people stick to a training program or any other kind of program for that matter it doesn’t have to be about sports or running in particular.
When I started running six years ago, my motivation was to lose weight and acquire the physique I had back in high school. That’s was my plan, run, lose the weight and then stop running. I saw running as a way of accomplishing something; my motivation was vanity which would be achieved through the loss of weight that was my motivation, running was just a tool. So that’s motivation number one, vanity, looking good nothing to do with health or running. You can witness this in my running diary which also helps to keep you motivated in times of doubt or when routine or boredom kicks in. The first six months I was me running round and round on my old high school track like a trained hamster, the only thing I care about was losing weight. Of course after six months when I lost the kilos, and I could quickly stop running the competition bug bit me. Not so much about competing with others but more with myself, I wanted to see if I could go further and also faster, so my motivation changed from looking good to achieving better athletic records, so my motivation shifted from vanity to running now! So for the next three years I would train and run having as only motivation me doing better running times and covering longer distances. At some point I achieved all the miles and running goals I set in my head. You can also observe this in my diary where in the years from 2011 until 2013 I run more than 30 races I think averaging one race per month approximately; I had the race bug, and I loved it don’t get me wrong I love participating in races. In the course of those three years my motivations changed a bit also my priorities changed too, I started building my house and running was not my number one priority anymore and it was something that I didn’t like at all, but I had to do it. Me not be able to train for a race was something that did not sit well with me, I felt like something chopped my legs off. I continue to run just to keep in shape, in the mean time I started reading about nutrition I adopted a plant-based diet and I managed to keep my weight in my normal BMI range so the motivation for me losing weight was vanished because it was replaced by healthy eating nutrition choices, my motivation for achieving better times or going longer also were satisfied so I need to confess they were times I struggled to find meaning why should I run anymore? Which I know the answer to that but sometimes emotionally it makes you have doubts. That’s why a diary is a good tactic it will remind you the reasons you started running give you hope and makes you feel better both psychologically and emotionally. Also, it will tell you things and info you might forget. Taking some time away from running or not training as much as you used too because you have other priorities in your life doesn’t; mean you gave up on running, and you should not feel guilty about it. Stressing yourself that you can’t train as fast or as long as you used too because you have other activities in your life. Like raising a family or in my case building a house, or changing career paths or anything else must not make you feel bad for not devoting the time that in your head running deserves. Actually it will call you back and you will feel it. The calling of starting running again will make its mark into your psyche. You will find a way to incorporate it back into your life, you will make smarter career choices you will be more programmed with your family you will find that time to get back to running and devote the time and mileage you think it deserves. You can wake up earlier in the morning and run, you can run nights, you can run between breaks of chores, you will find a way, there is always a way if there is a will that’s what my mother used to say to me since I can remember , she will always tell me since I was old enough to understand, there is no I can’t there is always I won’t . So now you can say I am in search of a new aspects of motivations to incorporate running more into my life again like it used to be. Registering for a race doesn’t cut it anymore for me, I need that extra kind of mind trigger in my head that will make me get up bed every day and thinking and counting the minutes until time comes for my training like I felt 6 years when I couldn’t wait to get off work go home get into my running gear and head for the track and start running like a trained hamster again! I do know that I want to run a few races with particular distance and specific terrain again, but I want to run them better prepared so now I have that as motivation also I am very motivated to build a stronger upper body which will increase my running performance immensely, so I am very motivated about that too. The reason I discovered my new motives is because I took a pause from running, gave me a chance to see it from a new angle and a new perspective. Made me reevaluate my running goals. That’s why I think it’s beneficial to take a few steps back sometimes. It helps you jump ahead considerable “distance” in the future with your training plans, nutrition, goals you want to achieve, what makes you sad or happy, what you consider a waste of time or constructive time, all those things that swim in the back of our heads that make us wonder why we want certain things and why we like some and dislike other. I hope I helped, just wanted to get out some thoughts that they were bugging me lately I hope I didn’t make you feel more puzzled than before or if you are feeling more puzzled than before then you are in luck solving puzzles like running makes you smarter. Have a healthy and happy day My warmest Regards Andreas Michaelides Thirsty4health.com
When I started reading about how to properly train in running about five years ago, I realised that except the beauty of running itself there is a LOT of information out there about how to train.
The beauty about this information is that most of it are results from debates between runners, physiologists and running training coaches. One of those many debates is how to train to acquire a threshold that will enable you to become better at your running. Threshold training otherwise known as Lactate Threshold, Anaerobic Threshold, Lactate turn point or lactate curve is mostly associated with tempo training. Because our muscles to produce energy contract and especially in high intensity running, lactate is rising which interfere with how fast or how far you can go with a particular speed. In more plain words is the effort, hard one, you can keep for about 5 to 6 miles (8 to 10km) before reaching exhaustion, and it's very close to your 10k pace. Now Lactate is not lactic acid, do not confuse the two, the muscles use lactate during stretching exercises. The muscles create lactate and then is turned into glucose by the liver. The glucose then is utilised by the muscles to produce ATP which fuels the muscles. In retrospect, lactate does not inhibit the muscles from working it helps them to slow down the glucose concentration resulting in better performance. As I said, tempo runs are associated with lactate threshold, and there is a good reason for that. You will encounter other names of tempo runs like Lactate Threshold runs, or cruise intervals or steady state runs, all of these are types of threshold workouts with various durations and rhythms. A threshold run is one that if you take blood from the runner, it should have 4mmol of lactate in its veins. Tempo runs require more recovery times, and you should have a tempo run scheduled at least once a week, and they should consider hard runs. I always hate tempo runs because they do ask of you discipline and performance, but they do bring you into a running shape that you do not want to be out on race day. In tempo runs, you train your body to work on anaerobic state, and it’s a state where the breakdown of glucose is not as efficient as aerobic metabolism. One single molecule of glucose when breaks down using aerobic metabolism will give. As a result, 20 times as much energy as that same molecule was broke down using anaerobic metabolism. Every race that lasts more than 2 minutes is predominantly aerobic for runner of all ability levels. Tempo runs have an immediate goal they fulfil. With tempo run, you train your body to resist fatigue caused by sustained anaerobic energy production, which produces chemicals changes in your muscles and a level of pure pain that tends to limit performance. Now threshold training should be challenging but not exhausting. You should finish a tempo run and feel that you can go for a bit more. As I mentioned in other articles, it's not a good idea to make too many changes at the same time. Here it applies the same, You either increase distance or speed. Here is an example, for distance, you can do 2 X 10 minutes Cyprus Half-marathon pace and then you can increase to 2 X 15 minutes at the same speed. For speed here is an example you can do 2 X 15 Half-marathon pace and increase speed by doing 2 X 15 10K pace. Always make changes gradually and one at a time, this way you give time for your aerobic system to adapt. Now for the last few years, I am using a technique called progression running and is a technique I read in Brad Hudson and Mat Fitzgerald’s book “Run Faster from 5k to the Marathon.” Here is an example of how it works. 2 miles easy (good warm up always) 10 min at my marathon pace goal 1 min easy (cooling down period) 10 min at my half-marathon pace goal 1 min easy (cooling down period) 10 min at my 10k pace goal 2 miles easy (cooling down period) After you finish this training you should not be tired; you should feel that you can do a bit more. I hope I helped. Have a healthy and happy day. My warmest Regards Andreas Michaelides Thirsty4health.com
Introductory training
When I started training for my first race six years ago I didn’t know much about how to train properly; the truth is I still don’t know how to prepare properly. I am still learning and experiencing with various principles and different approaches and techniques, and I am always trying to keep what works for me. One of the first things I learned about running training was the so-called Base or Introductory training which is the first training a runner does in relaxed aerobic state. That’s when I found out about Arthur Lydiard, and I bought his book Running the Lydiard way. He advocated that the first phase of your training should be as he calls it marathon training and what he meant was aerobic exercise at least 160km per week on a near –best aerobic effort, and you should run every day! I know it's a hard as a program, but it does build stamina. I still use this technique when I am training for a marathon and also a 50k. I will do that for at least four to six weeks and after that, I will work on my other phases like Threshold training, VO2max training, etc. For some running, every day is too hard doesn’t make any sense or don’t have the time and sometimes myself don’t have a chance to run every day but I do apply another solution. I use a three-week training cycle where I run 4 to 6 times a week, and I increase the volume of my training by 10% from week 1 to week 2 and on week 3 I return to the training volume of week 1. In order not to get injured, I apply the rule of 33% for my long run meaning my weekly long run should not be more than 33% of the week’s total mileage. Two to three strength training sessions where I make sure my form and my movement are correct. The introductory or base training is your foundations of what you will do in the future as a runner, so my advice is to experiment slowly and find the sweet spot for you. As you get more experienced, you will notice that the base training period is getting smaller. If you are a beginner to ultra running, you should run until you develop good fitness level, and you acquire strong skeleton and muscle system. You should keep your heart rate at 75% of your maximum beats to stay in aerobic state and train your body to burn more fat than glucose as I mentioned in earlier articles. I hope I helped. Have a healthy and happy day My warmest Regards Andreas Michaelides Thirsty4health.com |
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