Recovery

One of the most important but underrated aspects of physical fitness is recovery.  Recovery is when the physical adaptation to exercise and the neural "reprogramming" occur.  For the purposes of this post, I'm talking about recovering after a competitive event, peaking after a training cycle, or an exceptionally difficult workout. Before I get started, remember, the better condition you’re in, the shorter your recovery will be.

So you've completed your training-cycle/event/workout what’s next?

• ASAP: If you feel like you may have injured yourself or there is a spot that typically bothers you (example: Bum knee or chronic tendonitis), get ice on it.
• ASAP: Hydrate, especially if you are in warm conditions or completed a long endurance activity.
• <1 hour: Eat something to help replenish glycogen stores and prevent muscle catabolism.  Preferably something with carbs and complete (animal) proteins.  I've heard the magic ratio is 4:1 carbs to proteins.  Chocolate milk fits those criteria well, so do some sports drinks like Accelerade that mix sugars and protein.  Most importantly, just eat.  Eating anything is still better than nothing.
• 0-24 hours:  Stretch and massage.  This is dependent on personal preference, but I find doing light stretching and self massage with a foam roller to be useful.
• That day:  Sleep.
• In the days after: Active recovery and cross-training.  This can be as simple a walk and stretching.  The purpose is to get blood flowing to your muscles and connective tissue.

There are some more things to consider when it comes to injury.  First off, I'm not going to prescribe anything for a specific injury, leave that to a professional.  I will suggest some common ways to combat injuries.  It goes without saying if you think you're seriously injured, see a doctor.

The Really Long-Run Continued...

So, a while back I wrote about my experimentation with a long runs of 25 and 30 miles as opposed to the recommended long runs of most plans maxing out at 20 miles.  I promised to report results so here they are:  This year I ran the marathon in 3:58:59 unofficially (officially, they fucked up my time).  That is an improvement of four minutes and 29 seconds from last year.  Now on the surface this improvement is probably less than can be expected normally running your second marathon, however there were a number of other factors at play:

• The race was wet and windy this year.
• The race was bigger and I started further back contributing to a slower start.
• The base of running mileage was much less this year.  During the first week of April in 2010, I was able to run a 12-mile long run and about 22 miles for the week.  This year, I was only able to run about five miles at a time and a total of around 15 for the week.
• I wasn't any better running this race tactically than last year.  Last year, I picked up the pace in the middle of the race, this year I did the exact same thing.
• Because of injury and missed weeks of training, I aimed to run only slightly faster than last year.  If you don't intend on running significantly faster in a marathon it won't happen.

The Little Things

As much as I think everyone should exercise for hours on end everyday that's really not practical for many of us.  Additionally, there really isn't any reason why most sane people should do that much exercise.  There are however, little things that go a long way in maintaining health and fitness in normal people.

Let’s talk about the difference between health and fitness.  "Health" implies your bodies systems functioning normally, while "fitness" implies the ability to perform certain tasks.  You can be "healthy" in general while not being "fit" for a given task and visa versa.  A professional boxer is certainly fit, but there is nothing healthy about getting hit in the head for a living. 

Fitness is more specific and dependent on activity.  The fitness needs of a 25 year old NFL linebacker are different from that of a 50 year old marathon runner, a 35 year old playing pick up basketball, a 27 year old mother of a new born, or a 70 year old who just wants to bring groceries up their stairs.

What We Eat

Thank you Visual Economics for the great graphic (click here for the full size version).

Simple Nutrition and Exercise

This post will be how about how to guide your eating habits as simply as possible.  You can bet there will be more detailed posts that thoroughly examine the science behind it, but right now I'm going to keep it simple.

Here are some good guidelines regardless of your goal:

• Eat as few processed foods as possible.  The world is polluted enough, try not to unnecessarily pollute your body with chemicals you can't pronounce.
• You need all the basic macro-nutrients (i.e. fats, proteins, and carbohydrates), so eat all of them. The key is quality and quantity.  Well, in theory you don't need carbs, but we're talking reality, not theory so eat them.
• Avoid added sugars.  Note, I said added sugars, not sugars in fruits.  Also note, I said fruits, not fruit juice.  Fruit juice is at best, equivalent to soda with vitamins in it.
• You don't need supplements, but sometimes they can help.
• Eat breakfast.  Try to get something with a good mix of protein and fat.  An egg sandwich (preferably not between syrup injected breads and sausage in the middle) or trail mix are some good quick examples.
• Chew your food.
• Eat as many different colors as you can.  This is a good guideline to get essential nutrients.
• If you're going to eat junk, it's best to eat it right after you work out.  After you workout, muscles are primed to absorb nutrients. So that Big Mac will hopefully be partially absorbed by your muscles and not your gut.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Eat your fiber.  It's important to shit normally.
• Eat foods you like.  If your diet calls for eating a bunch of shit you don't like, you won't stick to it very long.  If you can't stick to it, then it's not a good diet.
• There are no foods you should never eat, just foods you shouldn't eat a lot.
• Most people lack ideal amounts of zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids.  These supplements and maybe glucosomine (if you have joint trouble) are worth considering (talk to your doctor first).
• For three days to a week, record what you eat and drink in detail.  Also record what kind of activity you do.  This can give you a decent idea of what your body needs.  You can calculate your calorie requirements here or at Bodybuilding.com .  Both of these calculators have their weaknesses, but if you use the advanced versions you can get a decent idea of what you need.

Gravity is Your Friend

Simple training is often the best training and there is little simpler then running up a hill or a set of steps.  This kind of "upward"  training can build stamina, strength, improve running form, increase leg-drive, coordination, promote fat loss, and increase mental conditioning.  Running up hills or stairs also reduces impact and will increase lower body strength without having to load your back with heavy weight.

Hills and steps are similar but each method has it's own set of distinct benefits:

Hills:

• Allow for maximum effort.  You don't have to worry about tripping and knocking your teeth out on a step.
• Usually allow for  easier access to a variety of lengths and inclines.
• You can run up backwards to emphasize your quads and improve backwards running ability for sports.

Steps:

• Forces coordination to hit each step.
• Forces quick feet and knees up style running.
• Allows for plyometric (jumping) exercises and emphasizing the eccentric (negative) muscle contraction.

Now I'm going to outline some methods of training for specific goals.  Don't get caught up too much in the details.  The reality is that regardless of your goal, running hills or steps with a hard effort will increase stamina, aerobic and anaerobic capacity, strength, power, and coordination.

The Physiological Effects of Caffeine

The Physiological Effects of Caffeine

Introduction: 

Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive compound in the world. It is present in many foods, beverages, medicines and supplements. Caffeine containing foods and beverages have been consumed for a perhaps as long as 700,000 years (Snyder 20). Caffeine is a highly effective stimulant that has been shown to enhance mood, cognitive capability, alertness, and enhance athletic performance. When ingested, caffeine produces a number of effects on the central nervous, muscular, digestive, respiratory, and cardiovascular systems of the body.

Metabolism of caffeine: 

Caffeine is a water soluble compound and therefore spreads through the body rapidly to anywhere there is water. Additionally, caffeine easily passes through cell membranes. These properties allow caffeine to rapidly enter the blood stream where it is then cycled through the liver (60 Snyder). In the liver the P45 enzyme system produces a number of metabolites (Ruxton 16). This process happens over and over until all the caffeine has been metabolized (60 Snyder). Less than six percent of caffeine is expelled in urine and most of the drug is removed from the body in about 12 hours following consumption (Ruxton, 15). The rate caffeine metabolism can be altered by a number of other factors including liver disease or use of other drugs (Snyder 61).

The Really Long Run

Marathon training programs typically rely on several things: A lot of miles, long runs, threshold runs, and a small amount of speed work. The accumulation of miles is designed to develop the aerobic energy system and among other things, get you used to running. The long run is typically what most programs are built around. They are designed to force your body to adapt to long distance efforts, further develop the aerobic energy system, force the body to use more body fat rather than glycogen for energy, and prepare your body to go 26.2 miles. Threshold runs are run at a "comfortably hard" pace and are designed to raise your lactate threshold so you can hold speed for longer durations. Finally, speed work is designed to increase efficiency in movement, enhance lactic acid buffering, and improve "fast twitch" muscle fibers.

Normally, the most important workout is the long run because it most closely simulates the marathon. The least important for most people (except the most experienced runners), is speed work because there is both an increased risk of injury and the conditioning element is of minimal utility for most marathoners. Ideally, you have all of these elements in your training plan. Unfortunately, life is seldom ideal.

Welcome to Ninja-Robics

Welcome to Ninja-Robics your source for physical training advice and discussion from an extraoridnarily physically average human.  Posts will be coming soon and maybe a little research, some pictures, a video or two, and a whole lot of ranting.

A little about me before we get started.  I'm 27 about 5'7 and weighing in at around 160lbs soaking wet.  I'm not a particularly gifted athlete.  I'm relatively average and flawed in many ways.  Exercising is what I love to do and over a period of about eight years I have managed some modest numbers in the weight room.  A dead lift of 445lbs and a bench press of about 275.  I've ran a number of road races including a full marathon and I'm always looking to improve.

More importantly I've done some research, taken some classes in exercise, nutrition, and physiology, and I'm continuously looking to learn more and try more.

I'm not a doctor or certified anything, so my advice on training or nutrition shouldn't be taken as the word of god just what has worked for me and what I have seen work for others.  If you have any health concerns talk to a doctor or a physical therapist or someone other than me.

So, I'm really tired of talking about me. Posts will be coming.