Running singlet, shorts, socks, shoes, some rehydration gels, checked.
Alarm clock, checked.
Turning to bed early.
Feeling happy and looking forward to your run next morning when you wake up.
The next thing you know is, a thunderstorm arrives the next morning when you wake up. That ought to dampen some spirits.
Does that sound familiar? Bad weather can be a mood damper and morale killer when it comes to running. However, all is not lost. Here are a few strategies you can adopt when it comes to such unforeseen
circumstances.
Stretching
Do full body stretches from head to toes, that you otherwise have too little time or focus to act on during your regular running sessions. Not only does stretching improve your flexibility, it also helps in recovery, return of blood and general responsiveness of muscle fibres. Simple and powerful routine to enhance your performance indeed.
Calisthenics
Good old static exercises that can be done indoors and at home. From push ups, sit ups, crunches, squats, leg raises, lunges, planks ... there are no short of exercises to keep those muscles busy. Little space is required and you get to tone those other muscles that are less used during running as well. Looking fit and feeling good, not too bad for a rainy day.
Hit the gym
With all that adrenaline and anticipation psyched up, don't waste it! Visit your neighbourhood or club gymnasium for a hearty run on the treadmill. The perks are the great music and maybe TV programmes to watch while working out. Less stickiness in the cooling air-conditioned room too!
Meditation or Yoga
A calm and composed mind is more focused and sharp when put to action. Using meditation time to regulate and control your breathing, circulation and general mental vitality. Feel and unwind each muscle and visualize the placidness of your long runs. While some people treat running as meditation of the mind, the actual static meditation does even more wonders in triggering body senses and smoothness of bodily functions. Oooohmm....
Nourishment
You can take the chance to whip up a good breakfast, filled with wholesome goodness of bread, eggs, cheese, fruits, milk, cereal, beverage or whatever rejuvenates your body to a healthy start, just like a run will! Put all that energy and anticipation into planning and cooking your breakfast, as well as finishing up those great foods. Not a bad reward for waking up early.
Off-season is always an unwinder and performance enhancer for runners. While keeping your body conditioned and oiled, it is important not to overtax your joints and muscles. Hence, yoga is fast becoming a recovery routine for mental and physical rejuvenation. Some have even woven yoga into their weekly routine, to improve muscle flexibility and metabolism.
Like our article? Share it with your friends!
http://runners-united.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-wonderous-physical-and-mental.html
Copy and paste on your blog, website, Twitter or Facebook!
The following videos provide fantastic and succinct advice on improving one's running technique from head to toes. By making small but conscious adjustments to your running posture, strides and pace, you will dramatically enhance your speed and efficiency in your next race! So enjoy the powerful coaching videos!
Enjoyed the tips? You might find the following posts useful as well:
Getting back stronger
Stretching
Pre-Workouts- Fruits Can Be Good Option
Author: Mark Twain
Making use of pre-workouts is a highly needed thing in today's time as it helps perform the user better at the workout centers. There are various pre workout foods and supplements that are being used nowadays and are proving to be very much effective as well. USPlabs Jack3d is one of the very much popular and powerful pre-workout supplement. It helps the users perform better at the workout centers.Other than supplements there are many other foods as well that are equally effective and powerful and do not provide any kind of side-effects to the user as well. One choice can be of making use of various foods including banana. It is well known that banana contains sugar and it is misunderstood among people that the sugar will increase fat. The fact says that the sugar in banana is a very much digestible type of carbohydrate so shouldn't be considered harmful.
Banana helps maintain the muscle and nerve system of human body properly because it is packed with potassium. Having supplement will allow the body storing the nutrients for a longer time so the users will be able to go through intense workout. Other than banana having grapes, peaches, pineapples, and apples can also be effective so these can be opted as well. From the whole it can be said that making use of pre-workout is good, and these can be selected from various options available.
Nutrition is significant for pre workout for muscle building. Supplements ensure proficient muscle development, no doubt. There are a number of supplements available in the market; however only selected few come up to their claims. If you are previously involved in passionate workout agenda, you should first and primary know the benefits of workout supplements. Well, these offer you with endurance and strength and assist you during very tiring workout schedule without compromising your fitness and safety.
If you exercise to build lean muscles, trainer ensures you get the maximum advantage out of the workout program. Even though many of you might consider that workout with natural supplement will be best in the long run, but none of you will disagree with the fact that supplements help get better results in less time. There are numerous supplement brands like usp jack3d supplement available to decide from that have diverse formulation and ingredient combinations. Recognize what ingredient is necessary for pre-workout time and what is essential after the workout session. This will assist you to choose a supplement in a better way.
You should be very cautious when choosing the product. Most of the brands claim but not succeed to hold up their claims with real examples. When selecting a pre workout supplement, it is significant you visit the legal website of the company and examine the feedbacks from previous users. Direct and individual experiences are the best examples that can assist you to decide whether that supplement is appropriate for you and your body or not. It is very vital to you to understand your body and its necessities before you buy any pre workout supplement.
Vitamin D May Enhance Muscle Recovery after a Workout
Author: Kevin a
Almost all of us know what it’s like to have sore, aching muscles after resuming a workout regimen or engaging in strenuous physical activity. Some consumers respond by taking a pain reliever or what are known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). But the potentially serious side effects of NSAIDs have led some of these individuals to explore herbal ingredients like boswellin, white willow bark, curcumin, maritime pine bark and omega-3 fatty acids that are scientifically proven to reduce pain and work against inflammation in the body. 1-2But when it comes to sore and achy muscles after a high-intensity activity, a new study points to Vitamin D as a potentially key nutrient for helping muscles recover quickly.
Why does muscle soreness take place?
Scientists don’t know for sure why muscles feel sore 8 to 24 hours after a workout or strenuous activity. Some believe that straining the muscles causes microscopic tears in the connective tissues and muscle. These tiny tears eventually produce inflammation resulting in pain in the form of stiffness and soreness. This is the body healing itself and the most remarkable outcome is that these muscles become more resilient than before. The next time you exercise, these muscles are not as likely to tear as easily.
Vitamin D May Help Muscle Recovery after an Intense Workout
Researchers at Kyung Hee University and Taenueng National Training Center of Korean Olympic Committee in South Korea subjected lab animals to high-intensity exercise. They noticed an increase in well-known bio-markers of muscle tissue damage, namely the enzymes creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Lab animals that received Vitamin D supplementation showed a weakening of these bio-markers.3
The lab animals were divided into 3 groups. The first group enjoyed a sedentary lifestyle; the second group was put on a rigorous exercise plan. In addition to exercise, the third group was given Vitamin D supplementation (1000 IUs/kg bodyweight). After 8 weeks, the lab animals that engaged in high-intensity exercises without Vitamin D supplementation showed increased activity of CK and LDH. This activity decreased, along with other bio-markers of inflammation, when the lab animals were given Vitamin D supplementation.
Researchers also demonstrated that the protein expression of Vitamin D Receptors (VDRs) increased in lab animals that engaged in high-intensity exercise and given Vitamin D supplementation. The team of scientists concluded, “Vitamin D may play a pivotal role in exercise-induced muscle damage and inflammation through (modulations involving the) VDR.”
More Benefits of Vitamin D
Up until the last decade, all that we knew about Vitamin D was related to bone health. However, recent research shows that Vitamin D is a hormone required for the regulation of many physiological functions. Vitamin D has shown strong, protective effects against many bone diseases, muscle weakness, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and several internal cancers. Studies show that optimal levels of Vitamin D should be maintained from fetal development to old age.4 While optimal levels are required for all age groups, more recent surveys show that Vitamin D insufficiency is much more than expected. According to a Harvard Publication, approximately 1 billion people across the globe have inadequate levels of Vitamin D. Even in industrialized countries, doctors are seeing a resurgence of rickets and other bone-weakening diseases.5
Offer your Customers Vitamin D Supplements for Overall Health and Muscle Recovery
As a supplement business owner looking to meet the health needs of those consumers in the market for a high-quality Vitamin D product, you’ll want to partner with reputable nutritional supplement manufacturers who complete all of their manufacturing in a GMP Certified facility and have the ability to provide you with an array of in-house services like label design, packaging, order fulfillment and drop shipping. Popular delivery methods for Vitamin D supplements that address muscle soreness include capsules, tablets and powders, so be sure to decide which one your customers will prefer prior to speaking with a supplement manufacturer.
References:
1. Gastrointestinal side-effects of traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and new formulations. Aliment PharmacolTher. 2004 Jul;20Suppl2:48-58.PMID: 15335413. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15335413
2. Natural Anti-Inflammatory Agents for Pain Relief, Surgical Neurology International, 2010; 1: 80. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3011108/
3. Vitamin D3 supplementation modulates inflammatory responses from the muscle damage induced by high-intensity exercise in SD rats, Volume 63, Issue 1, July 2013, Pages 27–35, Cytokine, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043466613001373
4. Benefits and requirements of vitamin D for optimal health: a review, Altern Med Rev. 2005 Jun;10(2):94-111.PMID: 15989379. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15989379
5. Vitamin D and Health, Harvard School of Public Health,http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamin-d/
Jogging headphones: Buy the right model
Author: Michel Michel
Jogging headphones are a necessity for people who love music with exercise. Whether you use the treadmill or love to jog at the park, the use of music can enhance your experience. Buying headphones for running, jogging and sports activities can be confusing and maddening as there are many of us who are unaware of headphones features and styles. For workouts and running, headphones need to be of supreme quality. There are numerous companies that sell this kind of earphones, but you need to check the below mentioned things before you buy.• Style: When it comes to headphones for jogging activities, you need to find the right style. Don’t sacrifice comfort and fit for the sake of style. Ear buds or general earphones without a support are not viable for jogging. They tend to come out of the ears and cause much discomfort after a certain time. Mostly, headphones for running need to be of supportive kind, so that, even during heavy workouts, they don’t fall off.
• Weight: The weight of the headphones is particularly noteworthy as heavy headphones are comfortable and unusable for regular joggers. Avoid heavy ear lids or DJ styled earphones. Instead, look for light weighted earphones model that are easy to wear and carry.
• Wireless or less wires: Forget those tangled earphones while running. There are some decent headphones that come with limited wires that can be perfect for workouts. Alternatively, you can choose wireless headphones that are connected with certain technologies like Bluetooth, provided your gadget supports it.
• Branded earphones with guarantee: When you buy sports earphones or running earphones, always look for brands and guarantee. An extended warranty ensures that the product is genuine with an option for quick repair of replacement. Check a few models and compare the guarantee terms that you get before buying.
• Online buying: Headphones or earphones for running and jogging can be best bought online. There are some highly popular gadget stores that operate online where you can find models and makes for all kinds of budgets.
Since jogging headphones are expensive, you need to compare models and check a few online reviews prior selecting a model. Most online stores sell models according to features and brands, and that makes the process of headphone selection quite easy. You can deal online for gadgets and accessories without worry about the price as you get the best available discounts.
How to start Running with easy 5 steps
Author: Hazyl LeeIt might be hard to start running at the beginning if you have not done any running before. In fact, Running is one of the inexpensive, great for health and best way to lost weight. Every beginners worries how to get motivated, how to avoid injuries, where and how much to run. Therefore, there are a few tips and guidelines for beginners to get started!
Beginner Tip Number 1: Training Schedules
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. When you are first getting started with running, it\'s important to have a schedule. For example, run Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Rest on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Make sure you stick to what you have planned. In addition, Keep track of your running records and increase your running time or mileage gradually. For beginner runners, Nike Sport Watch GPS is a good choice. It reminds you to run, stores your run history and remembers your personal records.
Beginner Tip Number 2: Find the essential gear
The most important thing to take care of in your running program is to have the right running shoes, comfortable clothing including socks. Getting appropriate running shoes will help to minimize any chances to get injury. The best way is to go to a specialty shoes store where they will help to analyze your pattern of movement to figure out the best shoes of you.
Beginner Tip Number 3: Make sure you warm up
Well, a good warm up before running can prevent all sorts of sport injuries such as muscle tightness which could wreck your run. Warming up also provide you with more significant power whenever you run. And not to forget to cool down for at least five minutes at the end of your run too.
Beginner Tip Number 4: Do a Run-Walk Combination
When you first start running, it is always the best to start slowly. It is advisable to start running at short distances and do not pressure yourself to run the entire length of your desired distance. By doing a run-walk combination, you will able to cover more distance and running will be a lot more enjoyable.
Beginner Tip Number 5: Run with other people
Many of the beginners would prefer to run with their running partners. They can find motivational support and can be rich source of information and advice for beginning runners. However, you can run with your electronic devices if you are comfortable with it. Listening music or audiobooks able distract you on a hard run and stay motivated.
People say all beginnings are difficult. With these 5 easy steps, you can start running easily with great feeling! To find out more, check this out for better running techniques. This website provides how to run with ideal postures, better running tips and information about the essential running gears.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/track-and-field-articles/how-to-start-running-with-easy-5-steps-5769896.html
About the Author
For those of you having a tussle between wanting to run and being held back by procrastination, here is a beautiful poster that gives you more than ample reasons to put on those running shoes!
Enjoy!
Image source: Tri-factor.sg
You might find these articles useful too.
Clock the mileage first.
Think GREAT, feel GREAT, run GREAT!
For most amateur athletes and leisure runners, the goal of training really is to infuse enjoyment and effectiveness into each session. While it is really easy to start any session of training, it does not necessarily ends with a really effective or enjoyable routine everytime.
Some runners sacrifice the enjoyment factor for pursuing tenacious effectiveness. Others neglect effective training in search of leisurely enjoyment in running. Both are detrimental to your wish to keep running as a long term enjoyable fitness regime.
Often a times, the key to enjoyable and yet effective training lies in the management of Intensity and Duration. In this post, we will attempt to introduce to you 2 types of training that possesses different characteristics in Intensity and Duration.
HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training
This form of training is characterised by short duration and high intensity. The focus is on pushing your body to the limits each and every time you hit the roads. Due to the 100% running effort required for HIIT, you would find yourself tanking in a very short period of time. This may range from as short as 2 minutes to 15 minutes, depending on your current state of fitness.
The advice for beginning your first HIIT training is to listen to your body and stop when you experience any pain, breathlessness or fatigue that is beyond your normal threshold in training.
HIIT is highly effective within short periods of time. Care has to be exercised so that you are not over zealous in your goals. Focus should be on regulating the frequency such that you give your body ample day(s) to recover to 100% again before the next session.
Some general guidelines for injury-free HIIT
a) Begin with a shorter distance like 100 metres and build up in progressive 50 metres steps
b) Choose a flat, straight and familiar route
c) Always have your stopwatch with you and track your duration
d) Stop at the first instance of any pain, breathlessness or fatigue that is beyond normal threshold
e) Get used to a distance for a few trainings before you try to push beyond your existing limit
LISS or Low Intensity Steady State
This form of training is characterised by long duration and low
intensity. The focus is on letting your body go for longer periods every time you hit the roads at a comfortable and steady pace. Due to the relatively low running effort required
for LISS, the challenge is to push the limits of duration that you can maintain in that steady pace. This may range from as short as 30 minutes to a few hours, depending
on your current state of fitness.
The advice for
beginning your first LISS training is to find out what is your 50% pace or the running effort that you can sustain comfortably while still enjoying the scenary or humming a song. Sounds like a breeze does it?
LISS is backburner kind of training that only reaps results with perseverance and regularity. Care has to be exercised so that you are not
over zealous in your goals. Focus should be on increasing the duration in a progressive manner with sufficient sessions to acclimatise your body to the existing duration before stepping up the duration.
Some general guidelines for injury-free LISS
a) Begin with a shorter duration like 30 minutes and build up in progressive 30 minutes steps only after you have done each duration for at least 4 sessions.
b) Choose a flat and straight route. You may wish to have a variety of routes such as a loop route and other longer routes with nice scenary to break the monotony as you eventually progress to long duration.
c) Always have your stopwatch with you and track your duration
d) Stop at the first instance of any pain or fatigue, especially arising from prolonged impact on joints.
e) Focus on duration and a steady pace, not speed or distance covered.
Watch the video below for some interesting pointers on HIIT and LISS trainings. Run on!
Among runners, you are bound to find some who enjoy the breeze of an early morning run, some who love the upbeat warmth of an afternoon run and some who simply cannot resist the allure of night running. The time of the day does have minor effects on our running. Let's take this analogy: Suppose you are back in your high school days, do you remember yourself working best at revision in the day or night? There is a high probability that you are more efficient at a certain period of the day. Similarly, you can expect a similar trend for running.
Dpending on our living habits, different periods of the day appeal to different extents to our running desire. For the early risers, the body readily welcomes morning runs. For the night owls, the body might prefer revving up to run only after sundown.
This is understandable. Running is a form of physical activity and it requires considerable will and energy to garner the willingness to kick-start and finish a session each time. For this very reason, runners often need to acclimatise their bodies to the actual race timeframe while preparing for a race.
When training, it is good to try out many different time slots of the day, within permitable limits of your free time. You may find that you run easier and faster during a certain period of the day. Try to find that optimal moment, during which you are mostly energized and well rested enough to train best.
Over time, your mind also varies in its ability to stay focused and relaxed. Through trial and error, it is possible to find that period when your body can perfect its training like clockwork.
When you've discovered your optimal training period, that is when you can capitalise on it and train for faster runs more efficiently.
The answer lies in what is produced by the body when a person exercises.
Under normal circumstance of aerobic exercise, the body takes in oxygen for cellular respiration. In this process, the oxygen is utilised in a series of reactions to release energy. The oxygen loses electrons and forms a tiny little devil known as free radical. Free radicals can attack cells in our body. They are known to be contributing factors to ageing, cancer, cell death, heart disease, Alzheimers' disease and a string of other conditions.
Under training conditions of an avid runner (amateur or professional alike), the body undergoes higher amounts of cellular respiration. Thus, larger quantities of free radicals are being produced, that can cause potentially more harm to the body. This is exacerbated long periods of intensive endurance training, like months of regular long distance running.
Having said all that, all is not lost. A group of substances called anti-oxidants, is known to combat free radicals. The body is naturally equipped to produce anti-oxidant enzymes (a kind of specific protein molecule), which in turn eliminates the free radicals from the body. Apart from the enzymes from the body, there are also external sources of anti-oxidants available (in food). Anti-oxidants are substances like vitamin A (beta carotene), vitamin C, vitamin E, ubiquinol, lipoic acid and uric acid. These can be obtained from the diet, mostly from fruits and vegetables.There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to taking anti-oxidants from food. 1 school of thought is that our body is highly efficient, and would quickly adjust to adapt to increased amounts of free radicals due to exercsie. The body would generate more enzymes to eliminate the higher amounts of free radicals. Another school of thought is that there is a threshold that the body is able to handle when it comes to free radicals. Under prolonged exercise, the amount of free radicals generated may be too much for the body to handle well. Hence, additional sources of anti-oxidant from food is useful.
Anti-oxidants are known for extensive health benefits, including anti-ageing. It has been suggested (albeit without official evidence) that the high levels of free radicals produced during the trainings of endurance athletes (like runners) actually stimulates the body to produce more of these anti-oxidants, resulting in endurance athletes staying "younger". Ensuring a healthy dosage of anti-oxidants in your diet thus not only aids in recovery from trainings, it also helps to keep yourself in the pink of health.
Like the tip shared with u?
Pls support us by >>Clicking Here!<<
A common fallacy of over-zealous runners is to focus on keeping to a certain speed and trying to run a personal best timing everytime. This may contribute to some of their feel-good factor. Looking at it closely, if every training run is focused at speed, would the runner have sufficient time to adapt or recover for the later stages of training?
When training, u should work towards clocking your desired mileage eventually. That would ensure that u finish the race, at least. Ultimately, your training is to prepare u to finish the race in good stead.
Your trainings should provide gradual increase in distance until u have reached your target race distance or more. The increase is progressive, not abrupt. For 5 to 10km, progressive fortnightly increase of 2 km is good. For 10 to 20 km, fortnightly increase of 3 to 5km is average. Beyond 20 km, it would depend more on individual fitness and limits, usually capped at 7 km maximum.
The build up of mileage is important as your body needs the time and experience to acclimatise to the intensity and raise your endurance. That should be the baseline and foundation u aim for when training. As u get used to running the distance, your body can then channel more energy towards strengthening for speed. U can start working on pushing your muscles to go faster and recover in a shorter time. As u continue this repeated overloading routine, your leg muscles gain the power and efficiency to propel u at higher speeds.
Remember: Only when the foundation of mileage is met, u can think of achieving more speed.
