Topic: Physical Fitness (Jogging, Diet, Cardiovascular, and Strength )

[NotRambo]

For weight loss, avoid refined sugar and white flour. Eat lots and lots of vegetables, fish, nuts, milk, and some red meat. You Want to avoid processed food. Whole grains are good to some extent, but if weight loss is your goal go easy on them. You can get your energy from fruit and nuts, which are very effective if eaten 30-90 minutes before exercise.  Try to keep your meals small as well, but eat every 2-3 hours, this keeps your metabolism going. Also eat as soon as you get up, and start chugging that good ol H20.

As far as running goes, if you suck at it, whatever, you have to start somewhere, do the run/ walk method, run a minute, walk a minute for 20 minutes three times a week.  Eventually building up your running time, and decreasing your walking time.

OR

Take it slow, I was recovering from severe shin splints, and was doing a really slow 1-mile run and got passed by an older woman(well she was probably 60+). Dont let seniors passing you get you down, just keep at it, and slowly build intensity and distance. Best of luck.

[bdave]

- If you're drinking milk for calories, you might as well go homogenized.
- I used to indulge in pizza quite often as post workout meal. Good stuff.

Drinking milk for everything it contains. Many people, including myself, find it difficult to pack the calories. Should have clarified that 

[Kratos]

Drinking milk for everything it contains. Many people, including myself, find it difficult to pack the calories. Should have clarified that 

Exactly. That's why I said why drink 2% when you can go to the next level up and get 3.25%

[JB 11 11]

If you suck at running and its your cardio that is bad, get on a bike and giver'. Nothing better for improving lung capacity than epic hill climbs! (well... maybe there is, but these will definitely do the trick as well). Look at Lance Armstrong.... drugs or no drugs the guy flies up mountains!

If its the legs that are crap, then NotRambo's advice is the way to go. Little by little you will improve. Improvement in Physical fitness is often frustrating to gauge in yourself. It takes time and you also see your self everyday, so actually "seeing" results isn't always easy. I think it has been said before, but I'll re-iterate: When you start your training, take a picture of yourself every few weeks or every month. Same stance, same location. Within 3 months time, if you trained hard, you WILL see results.

[Thucydides]

Interesting. Targeting these muscles to improve performance by 10-15% is a huge gain.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/04/training-breathing-muscles-can-boost.html

Training breathing muscles can boost sports performance by 15%

Training the muscles responsible for breathing in – inspiratory muscles – can improve performance by 15 per cent, meaning a runner can run for longer and a swimmer can swim faster, for example.

    Dr Mitch Lomax, of the university’s Department of Sport and Exercise Science, has found that inspiratory muscle training and inspiratory warm-up exercises both boost performance, but when combined they can improve a sportsman or woman’s performance even more. Her work is published in the Journal of Sports Science.

Several other universities have published studies that show similar results

    An Indiana University study found that strengthening inspiratory muscles by performing daily breathing exercises for six weeks significantly reduced the amount of oxygen these same breathing muscles required during exercise, possibly making more oxygen available for other muscles. IMT involves the use of a hand-held device that provides resistance as one inhales through it, requiring greater use of inspiratory muscles. For half of the study participants, the IMT device was set to a level that provided resistance as the subjects took a fast forceful breath in. For six weeks they took 30 breaths at this setting twice a day. The cyclists in the control group did the same exercises with the IMT adjusted to a minimal level.

    Dr Lomax said: “People overlook that the muscles responsible for breathing are the same as other muscles and training or warming them up before playing sport means you will perform better. Doing both training and warming up is the best of all.

    “Anecdotally I know some athletes use inspiratory muscle training devices but they don’t acknowledge it – they know it gives them an edge over their competitors and they don’t want to let on.

    “Any little bit of advantage you can get legally as a sportsman or woman is worth doing and training and warming up the muscles responsible for breathing in is incredibly easy to do.”

    In the study, Dr Lomax used an inspiratory muscle training device which works in a similar way to other resistance training devices to build muscle strength. An athlete doing training would use such a device to do one set of 30 breaths twice a day. For inspiratory muscle warm-up, because the power-boosting effect of warm-up exercises typically dissipates within half an hour, an athlete would use the device to do two sets of 30 breaths immediately before the sporting event for best results.

    She said: “We know training and warm-ups work, but we don’t yet know the best way of incorporating such training into an athlete’s entire training schedule over a year.”

    She also said it is important athletes and coaches use the device correctly because, as with any other sports equipment, if used incorrectly it could do more harm than good. “If it isn’t done right, there is the risk of hyperventilating and passing out. Technique with these devices really matters because they can also cause injury or strain if they aren’t used correctly.”

    There are various devices available for inspiratory muscle training and warm-up, costing from £50-£300 but costs could be reduced if sports teams shared the device and each person bought just a mouthpiece for their own use. There could be other ways of training the muscles, without the use of a gadget or device, but because so many muscles are involved with breathing in, it would be extremely difficult to train them all to optimum level.

    Dr Lomax said: “The weakest muscle determines the point of exhaustion, so if you have trained some inspiratory muscles, the one you haven’t trained will be what limits this group of muscles from performing better or for longer and dictates the point at which your body gives up.

    “The body is designed so the muscles responsible for breathing and the heart will take priority for oxygenated blood over limb muscles, meaning the rest of the body – legs and arms – will be the first to “go” causing premature fatigue.”

    Dr Lomax tested 12 runners over six weeks and found that those who did inspiratory muscle warm-ups improved their times by 5-7 per cent; those who did inspiratory muscle training improved their times by 12 per cent; and those who did both improved by 15 per cent. Dr Lomax said those were very conservative figures and did not rule out athletes making even greater gains. A sample size of 12 is a typical sample in sport and exercise physiological studies.

[StevenPreece]

This is an interesting thread.  I guess its all about finding out what works for you.


Steve

[JB 11 11]

Just a little update with what I've been incorporating in my routine: Lately, I've been working a session every other day into my week where I will run on the treadmill on +2 incline at about 9.5km/h for 30 min and then for another 10min I'll do 2min on and then 30 seconds straight of non-stop heavy bag stand up. Anything goes as long as you DO NOT STOP for the entire 30 seconds and then hop back on the treadmill (which is still running) and repeat.

After 10min. of this on top of the 30min run, you'll be shattered ! Its awesome! I've been getting good results so I thought I'd share.