Posts Tagged ‘weights’

Why Did the Chicken Cross-Train?

And so begins my 39th comeback.

Thursday I completed a slow jog of my favorite 1.75 mile loop. I ran gingerly but comfortably. I spent the rest of the day anxiously waiting for the pain to begin, but I felt fine. And all day Friday, too.

It being 103 degrees yesterday, I moseyed over to the fitness center and did an easy circuit with minimum weight – biceps, triceps, row, lats and shoulders. I didn’t want to risk anything that might strain my back. Then 20 minutes of low speed on the recumbent stationary bike. One more set of weights and done. Wow. Turns out cross-training doesn’t have to be excruciating after all.

This morning I got up early for another 1.75 mile loop. I managed a 9:30 pace but I am badly out of running shape. In order to avoid overtraining and reinjury, I’m going to sign up for one of those Couch-to-5k training programs – the No Boundaries program sponsored by Fleet Feet and New Balance. Following the training plan we’ll keep me from building up mileage too fast, and running with newbies will keep me from trying to speed up too much. Cross-training is built into the schedule so it should be perfect.

“Staying injury-free” isn’t a sexy goal, but it’s one I’ve overlooked too many times. Better to be a 5k guy who runs than a marathoner who can’t.

Overmatched by Dumbbells

First published October 26, 2007

I avoided it for as long as I could, but I still ended up in the weight room. If I’m skeptical about the benefits of weight training for distance runners, at least I’m not alone. There are a lot of articles online about runners and weights, and they range from the skeptical to the hostile. Not to mention weights can be downright dangerous.

But no one was suggesting that weight training would directly improve my running. My body scan indicated I could use less fat and more lean. A little time in the weight room should improve my overall body composition. Five pounds of muscle would be more beneficial than five pounds of fat.

Exercise physiologist Mike Siemens went easy on me because no one will ever mistake me for Charles Atlas. Old ladies were pumping more iron than I was.

Mike walked me through a strength program that I could continue at home: bench press, lateral pull-down, overhead press, leg press, biceps curl, triceps rope and ball, and leg curl. Interspersed between sets were a series of flexibility exercises utilizing the Burdenko method.

Although Burdenko is best known for aquatic physical therapy, his land exercises are designed to improve coordination, endurance and balance. The catch and pull was tough. Think of it as your standard runner quad stretch, but you grab your foot with your opposite hand while walking and stretching toward the ceiling. It looked like something that would get you hooted off Dancing with the Stars.

I was much better at the pull and kick (pictured) and the crunches. I knew all those sit-ups I did in the military would eventually come in handy.

Mike put the whole sequence on a grid for me, advising me to start it up during my “off-season” (December through February) on my two non-running days per week.

Physical limitations aside, cross-training is contrary to my normal way of thinking, which is, you get better at running by running, better at writing by writing, and off-days are days off. But I’m a middle-of-the-pack runner, not Hal Higdon, so I’ll give it a try.

My Legs Are Eccentric

First published September 7, 2007

My peak performance package at Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona, began almost immediately after arrival with a trip to the nurse to check my blood pressure (116/64) and resting pulse rate (64). Then a program specialist went through my action-packed schedule with me.

My first stop was a small room where exercise physiologist Mike Siemens greeted me. After providing him with my vital statistics, I boarded a leg press machine that was hooked up to a computer and monitor.

Normally you wouldn’t need a computer to see how well you can lift, but it would be difficult if your physiologist were directing you to lift 63 percent of the way, then down to 30 percent, then back up to 85 percent, and so on. So the computer converts the exercise into a series of video games for your legs.

For someone like me who never lifts weights, this was good news. The games kept me entertained so I didn’t notice that I was absolutely torturing my quads, glutes and other muscles I didn’t know I had.

One of the first games resembled Breakout!, a Pong-like game that involves keeping three balls in play by moving a paddle back and forth across the bottom of the screen. The twist is that you don’t move the paddle by turning a knob with your wrists, but by pushing the weight up and down with one leg.

I was pretty good at this but Mike wouldn’t let me go for the high score.

The next one was like Frogger, requiring sharp movements to keep from smashing into the obstacles. I was mostly roadkill.

After about 30 minutes, I was ready to try Asteroids or Super Mario, but Mike decided to show me what it all meant instead.

Using a series of color-coded printouts, Mike first explained that my left leg was 11 percent stronger than my right leg. They should be within 3 to 10 percent of each other, so it confirmed my theory that I’m slightly unbalanced.

The coordination, endurance capacity and proprioceptive results all indicated that my eccentric contractions were much more efficient than my concentric contractions. OK, so I’m unbalanced and extra eccentric. Tell me something I don’t know.

Mike patiently explained that pushing the weight up was concentric and letting it down was eccentric. Translating this to running, it meant that my transition from footfall to push-off was not as efficient as it could be. In short, I’m not getting the maximum propulsion from each stride.

This information enabled Mike to develop a plan for our upcoming running session. I was pretty jazzed to begin, but I needed to rest my eccentric legs because the next day promised to be extremely taxing.