Walk away that waistline!
By James Hutchison
Ever since the late 1970’s when Jim Fixx’s best selling book “The complete book of running”, hit the shelves, jogging and running has been seen by many as the best form of exercise (despite the author dropping dead a few years later whilst on his morning run), especially for weight loss. There is no doubt that running is a very effective form of aerobic exercise, which in turn can promote many health benefits to the runner. It is also true that most sports such as football, rugby, tennis etc. all require some level of running ability, be it short sharp sprints or a more endurance based jog.
However, in my experience as a health and fitness professional most of the clients I meet rarely play competitive sport (if they did I would base their programmes towards sports specific exercises anyway) and a high percentage feel sick at the thought of spending hours pounding away on the treadmill. There are also a significant amount of people who would be advised not to run due to knee, hip, ankle injury or general obesity issues. So it is safe to say that running isn’t for everyone.
The good news is that there are other ways of improving your physical fitness and losing weight. Walking is often the most under- rated activity when it comes to weight loss due to the perception that it is easy and ineffective. However, a brisk walk (getting slightly out of breath, not a poodle around the shops) for 30 minutes per day for an 80kg individual can burn approximately 1400 calories per week, this same walking rate for a 60kg individual would burn around 1100 calories per week.
So if you multiply this over the year it can burn up to 75,000 calories (for an 80kg individual) or 56,000 calories (for a 60kg individual), or to look it another way 21 lbs or 16 lbs of fat respectively. These statistics clearly show that an achievable target of a 30 minute brisk walk per day can be an effective weight loss tool, if accompanied by an adequate nutrition plan.
Another advantage that walking has over running is that it doesn’t have a counter productive effect to resistance training. One of the most efficient ways of losing weight and burning fat is too build lean muscle tissue. Building muscle mass not only makes the body more aesthetically pleasing, but makes the body more metabolically active which in turn burns fat more efficiently.
If an individual is attempting to build lean mass in the gym but then going for a long run the next day there is a high chance that the new muscle tissue is being broken down in this process. This would not happen during a brisk 30 minute walk as the body is not pushed to the same limits, in fact it has been shown that brisk walking itself can raise the bodies metabolic rate.
Starting your walking programme
Get yourself a pedometer. A pedometer is a device that clips onto your waistband and counts how many steps you have taken. This handy piece of kit can act as a motivational tool as it allows you to keep an accurate record of how far you are walking each day, which can then be used to set progress targets. A 30 minute brisk walk will take approximately 3600 steps. You can buy a pedometer for around £10 from www.proactive-health.co.uk
Get yourself some comfortable shoes. Walking for 30 minutes everyday is not a huge burden on an individual’s timetable, but if this walk was causing sore and blistering feet it would not take too long before 30 minutes in front of the television is a far more tempting use of time. So I recommend either some comfortable trainers, or some walking shoes. Check out these links for some ideas; www.sweatshop.co.uk or www.blacks.co.uk
Find somewhere interesting to walk. There is a greater chance of you sticking to your new walking regime if you find interesting walks to go on. These do not have to be in rolling countryside or in areas of outstanding natural beauty, but it is easy to search online or go down to the local town hall to find information on walks in your local area. I am lucky enough to be based in the Highgate and Hampstead area in North London where there are hours of walks on the Heath. Check out www.innerlondonramblers.org.uk/walk-hampstead-health.html for more information.
So all that is left for you to do is to get yourself outside, start walking and get burn that excess fat. Remember though, every effective exercise programme should be accompanied by an adequate nutrition programme, this does not mean starving yourself or surviving on powdered foods or milkshakes, it means a diet that provides an optimum amount of nutritional value whilst at the same time promotes a slow and steady weight loss (or weight gain or maintenance depending on the individual dieter). For more information how to plan effective weight management programme contact me at the studio on james@aayou.co.uk .
Good luck!!
Thursday 23 September 2010
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Reduce the stress and reduce the fat!
Cortisol is your body's primary stress hormone and is responsible for, among other things, the 'fight or flight' response that you've heard so much about.
It works this way; when a stressor affects you in day to day life, such as being cut up in traffic, arguing with a spouse, being under a tough deadline or being chased by a wild tiger, your adrenal glands on your kidneys secrete cortisol directly into the bloodstream where it causes us to release amino acids from our muscles, glucose from the liver and fatty acids from our fat cells into the bloodstream for use as 'emergency fuel' to help us fight or flee.
This would normally be fine, especially if those stressors are few and far between but that's not the case for most of us. Most people live in a continual state of stress where cortisol is being released time and time and time again leading to permanently elevated cortisol both in the bloodstream and in the cells themselves.
The trouble is, whilst short exposures of cortisol are useful and can be beneficial, long term they're incredibly destructive leading to:
- Increased appetite and food cravings
- Decreases in lean muscle mass
- Increased Anxiety and Depression
- Decreased libido
- Increase of PMS symptoms
- Increase in menopausal side-effects
- INCREASE IN BODY FAT
And the cortisol released will be stored primarily on your belly!
This means that if you're carrying any excess fat in your abdominal region that's stubborn to shift, you're more than likely to have chronically elevated cortisol causing the problem. It may not have anything to do with the total number of calories you're eating.
How do you reduce it?
Well, there are numerous ways in which we can re-establish normal cortisol levels in the body and start burning fat but the best are simply 'natural cures' that can be applied almost immediately and with very little expense.
In fact, the first one is absolutely free!
It's called SLEEP.
That's right; sleep is one of the most important factors in cortisol control as a lack of both quality and quantity of sleep leads to elevated cortisol and a depression of other important metabolic hormones. Fail to get enough sleep and at the right time and you'll be doomed to struggling with your body fat forever. Conversely, make even a few moderate sleep habit changes over the next few days and you'll start to see the fat shift.
Because cortisol is related to sleep and wake cycles and is triggered by light, you should aim to spend the last few hours before bed in a dimmed or dark room and aim to be in bed by 10pm and sleeping by 10.30pm.
It sounds too early, I know. Especially with late night TV and those emails you have to do before bed but hey, your hormones don't know about TV and email, they know stress. You want to lose fat? Then get to bed! In fact, bright TV's and bright computer screens are the last thing you want just before you hit the hay. They keep your cortisol pumping through both the light they emit and the potential for stress they evoke
Try identifying high-stress situations in advance and working out coping strategies to deal with them as they arise. Add exercise (though minimise aerobic exercise which releases more cortisol) and relaxation techniques and eat a clean and healthy diet and your cortisol levels will soon come under control.
Once they do you'll see the fat disappear faster than easier and with far less effort than ever before.
Start by getting some
good sleep for just 7 nights and see what happens.
It works this way; when a stressor affects you in day to day life, such as being cut up in traffic, arguing with a spouse, being under a tough deadline or being chased by a wild tiger, your adrenal glands on your kidneys secrete cortisol directly into the bloodstream where it causes us to release amino acids from our muscles, glucose from the liver and fatty acids from our fat cells into the bloodstream for use as 'emergency fuel' to help us fight or flee.
This would normally be fine, especially if those stressors are few and far between but that's not the case for most of us. Most people live in a continual state of stress where cortisol is being released time and time and time again leading to permanently elevated cortisol both in the bloodstream and in the cells themselves.
The trouble is, whilst short exposures of cortisol are useful and can be beneficial, long term they're incredibly destructive leading to:
- Increased appetite and food cravings
- Decreases in lean muscle mass
- Increased Anxiety and Depression
- Decreased libido
- Increase of PMS symptoms
- Increase in menopausal side-effects
- INCREASE IN BODY FAT
And the cortisol released will be stored primarily on your belly!
This means that if you're carrying any excess fat in your abdominal region that's stubborn to shift, you're more than likely to have chronically elevated cortisol causing the problem. It may not have anything to do with the total number of calories you're eating.
How do you reduce it?
Well, there are numerous ways in which we can re-establish normal cortisol levels in the body and start burning fat but the best are simply 'natural cures' that can be applied almost immediately and with very little expense.
In fact, the first one is absolutely free!
It's called SLEEP.
That's right; sleep is one of the most important factors in cortisol control as a lack of both quality and quantity of sleep leads to elevated cortisol and a depression of other important metabolic hormones. Fail to get enough sleep and at the right time and you'll be doomed to struggling with your body fat forever. Conversely, make even a few moderate sleep habit changes over the next few days and you'll start to see the fat shift.
Because cortisol is related to sleep and wake cycles and is triggered by light, you should aim to spend the last few hours before bed in a dimmed or dark room and aim to be in bed by 10pm and sleeping by 10.30pm.
It sounds too early, I know. Especially with late night TV and those emails you have to do before bed but hey, your hormones don't know about TV and email, they know stress. You want to lose fat? Then get to bed! In fact, bright TV's and bright computer screens are the last thing you want just before you hit the hay. They keep your cortisol pumping through both the light they emit and the potential for stress they evoke
Try identifying high-stress situations in advance and working out coping strategies to deal with them as they arise. Add exercise (though minimise aerobic exercise which releases more cortisol) and relaxation techniques and eat a clean and healthy diet and your cortisol levels will soon come under control.
Once they do you'll see the fat disappear faster than easier and with far less effort than ever before.
Start by getting some
good sleep for just 7 nights and see what happens.
Thursday 9 September 2010
Running Technique and It’s Importance in Avoiding Injury
Our new trainer Daniel Humphries has put together an article to assist you in your training for the Highgate 5K run, hopefully it helps.
Running to some people is not the most enjoyable form of exercise, me included, but it is important to consider a number of different factors when running. One of which has become more prevalent to elite sport-persons and the recreational runner is technique and the biomechanics of running.
The efficiency of your movement, will aid your ability to run and more importantly your ability to avoid injury. Elite athletes like sprinter Usain Bolt through to long distance runner Haile Gabrselassie have spent of lot time correcting their running techniques to make sure their body moves in the most efficient way to make them the best. Running technique or style can be described as the overall action of the body including body angle, arm swing, foot placement, rear leg lift and length of stride.
How Are We Causing Ourselves Injuries By Running Badly?
As we get older it becomes more and more important to consider our technique as we become more susceptible to repetitive strain injuries in our lower limbs. Our body’s ability to work as a shock absorber decreases with age, therefore the body is under greater stress particularly at our joints in our latter years.
Injuries to elite athletes are inevitable also to the recreational runner. Mike Antoniades a speed, conditioning and rehabilitation coach highlights some of the most common reasons for getting running injuries:
• Bouncing up and down too much
• Over striding
• Not using the hamstrings enough
• Landing on feet too heavily
• Breaking action on landing
• Not using arms
• Twist torso side to side while running
• The head and upper body are bent forward
• Jogging slower than they can walk
Other factors that may cause injury outside of technique can be:
• Structural weakness that individual athletes are born with, e.g. Leg length discrepancies and pronation.
• Postural weakness developed through training.
• Poor running surfaces.
• Muscle imbalance developed through training.
• Worn out running shoes and/or spikes, or, a change of shoe brand.
• Overtraining and/or lack of sufficient recovery.
• Chronic repetitions on hard, artificial running surfaces.
Most of these factors as trainers and participants we have control over and can make reasonable adjustments to our training to avoid the potential for injury. If we become biomechanically inefficient we are doing damage to ourselves and also not running effectively.
How You Probably Run Now!
There are a number of different techniques widely used by sport and fitness professionals. The most common being the heel-toe action. The heel-toe action is when the foot lands on the heel, rolls through the foot and pushes off the toes. This action is applied on the grounds of it being safe and efficient yet the neither is true. On closer examination, lower limb injuries have remained constant in runners for the past 30 years, this despite innovations in shoe technology.
If you are running with your heel hitting the floor first with the sole of your foot pointing upwards you are creating a massive amount of force through your body. The greater the speed you are running at, the greater the angle the foot is at, the greater the force generated. Running trainers are usually designed to take this into account and have highly cushioned heels. This design has been found to very inefficient and also work against the normal muscle and tendon functions particularly in the ankle.
On the opposite end is runners with a toe strike action. This is where first contact with the floor is made by the ball of your foot. This has a much longer stride with the leg generating a lot more speed and power through the calves in particular. This has a lot lower impact on the legs particularly at the ankle and knee joints. It is more common to see this technique to be used by sprinters or short distance runners. It is good for beginners to use this technique due to this lower impact and this allows for the muscle to fire in the appropriate order.
So How Should We Be Running?
One proposal for the correct running style is that of the Pose running style. This the medium between the two previous styles talked about. This is where the runner lands with a mid-foot strike pattern and a flexed knee stance with the torso leaning forwards slightly. There should be a vertical alignment from the hips through the knee to the heel in the supporting leg. Pose running has a much shorter stride length with more emphasis going into using gravity to generate power in the stride. This then generates less force through the heel, ankle, knee and hip joints. This technique is less likely to cause common running injuries like Achilles tendinitis, shin splints and calf injuries. This is due to the better shock absorption in the technique but also because the muscles are being used in a similar fashion to that of when you are walking.
If you need some help with your running style, just want to start exercising, or would like more information on what we do at All About You, then feel free to contact us at the studio - 020 8348 9706 or via email david@aayou.co.uk
(1) ARDENSE, R (2004) Reduced Eccentric Loading of the Knee with the Pose Running Method Reduced Eccentric Loading of the Knee with the Pose Running Method, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: Volume 36(2) February 2004 pp 272-277 [Accessed] http://www.posetech.com/library/dr-02-04-004.html
(2) SICCO A. BUS (2008) Ground Reaction Forces and Kinematics in
Distance Running in Older-Aged Men. Applied Science: Biodynamics. [Accessed] http://faculty.fullerton.edu/gnoffal/Courses/561%20Course/GRF%20running%20-%20Bus.pdf
(3) ANTONIADES, M (2009) Are You Running Properly? [Accessed] http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/health_and_fitness/4286146.stm
(4) BALK, M et al. (2009) Master the Art of Running: Raise Your Performance. Anova Books
(5) ENGLEBRACHT, R (1994) Injuries, Biomechanics and the Implications for the Coach. [Accessed] http://www.athleticscoaching.ca/UserFiles/File/Sport%20Science/Therapy,%20Recovery,%20&%20Restoration/Engelbrecht%20Injuries,%20Biomechanics%20&%20the%20Implications%20for%20The%20Coach.pdf
Running to some people is not the most enjoyable form of exercise, me included, but it is important to consider a number of different factors when running. One of which has become more prevalent to elite sport-persons and the recreational runner is technique and the biomechanics of running.
The efficiency of your movement, will aid your ability to run and more importantly your ability to avoid injury. Elite athletes like sprinter Usain Bolt through to long distance runner Haile Gabrselassie have spent of lot time correcting their running techniques to make sure their body moves in the most efficient way to make them the best. Running technique or style can be described as the overall action of the body including body angle, arm swing, foot placement, rear leg lift and length of stride.
How Are We Causing Ourselves Injuries By Running Badly?
As we get older it becomes more and more important to consider our technique as we become more susceptible to repetitive strain injuries in our lower limbs. Our body’s ability to work as a shock absorber decreases with age, therefore the body is under greater stress particularly at our joints in our latter years.
Injuries to elite athletes are inevitable also to the recreational runner. Mike Antoniades a speed, conditioning and rehabilitation coach highlights some of the most common reasons for getting running injuries:
• Bouncing up and down too much
• Over striding
• Not using the hamstrings enough
• Landing on feet too heavily
• Breaking action on landing
• Not using arms
• Twist torso side to side while running
• The head and upper body are bent forward
• Jogging slower than they can walk
Other factors that may cause injury outside of technique can be:
• Structural weakness that individual athletes are born with, e.g. Leg length discrepancies and pronation.
• Postural weakness developed through training.
• Poor running surfaces.
• Muscle imbalance developed through training.
• Worn out running shoes and/or spikes, or, a change of shoe brand.
• Overtraining and/or lack of sufficient recovery.
• Chronic repetitions on hard, artificial running surfaces.
Most of these factors as trainers and participants we have control over and can make reasonable adjustments to our training to avoid the potential for injury. If we become biomechanically inefficient we are doing damage to ourselves and also not running effectively.
How You Probably Run Now!
There are a number of different techniques widely used by sport and fitness professionals. The most common being the heel-toe action. The heel-toe action is when the foot lands on the heel, rolls through the foot and pushes off the toes. This action is applied on the grounds of it being safe and efficient yet the neither is true. On closer examination, lower limb injuries have remained constant in runners for the past 30 years, this despite innovations in shoe technology.
If you are running with your heel hitting the floor first with the sole of your foot pointing upwards you are creating a massive amount of force through your body. The greater the speed you are running at, the greater the angle the foot is at, the greater the force generated. Running trainers are usually designed to take this into account and have highly cushioned heels. This design has been found to very inefficient and also work against the normal muscle and tendon functions particularly in the ankle.
On the opposite end is runners with a toe strike action. This is where first contact with the floor is made by the ball of your foot. This has a much longer stride with the leg generating a lot more speed and power through the calves in particular. This has a lot lower impact on the legs particularly at the ankle and knee joints. It is more common to see this technique to be used by sprinters or short distance runners. It is good for beginners to use this technique due to this lower impact and this allows for the muscle to fire in the appropriate order.
So How Should We Be Running?
One proposal for the correct running style is that of the Pose running style. This the medium between the two previous styles talked about. This is where the runner lands with a mid-foot strike pattern and a flexed knee stance with the torso leaning forwards slightly. There should be a vertical alignment from the hips through the knee to the heel in the supporting leg. Pose running has a much shorter stride length with more emphasis going into using gravity to generate power in the stride. This then generates less force through the heel, ankle, knee and hip joints. This technique is less likely to cause common running injuries like Achilles tendinitis, shin splints and calf injuries. This is due to the better shock absorption in the technique but also because the muscles are being used in a similar fashion to that of when you are walking.
If you need some help with your running style, just want to start exercising, or would like more information on what we do at All About You, then feel free to contact us at the studio - 020 8348 9706 or via email david@aayou.co.uk
(1) ARDENSE, R (2004) Reduced Eccentric Loading of the Knee with the Pose Running Method Reduced Eccentric Loading of the Knee with the Pose Running Method, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: Volume 36(2) February 2004 pp 272-277 [Accessed] http://www.posetech.com/library/dr-02-04-004.html
(2) SICCO A. BUS (2008) Ground Reaction Forces and Kinematics in
Distance Running in Older-Aged Men. Applied Science: Biodynamics. [Accessed] http://faculty.fullerton.edu/gnoffal/Courses/561%20Course/GRF%20running%20-%20Bus.pdf
(3) ANTONIADES, M (2009) Are You Running Properly? [Accessed] http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/health_and_fitness/4286146.stm
(4) BALK, M et al. (2009) Master the Art of Running: Raise Your Performance. Anova Books
(5) ENGLEBRACHT, R (1994) Injuries, Biomechanics and the Implications for the Coach. [Accessed] http://www.athleticscoaching.ca/UserFiles/File/Sport%20Science/Therapy,%20Recovery,%20&%20Restoration/Engelbrecht%20Injuries,%20Biomechanics%20&%20the%20Implications%20for%20The%20Coach.pdf
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