Flash fact #1 - Fuelling the body for long distance running...

"...umm, Caolan - flash??"

...no, not that sort of flash...I was thinking more this sort of Flash:

...hmm, in future these may be called superhero facts...anyway...

...seeing as we're coming up to a lot of running events on the calendar (the City to Surf, the Mother's Day Run, the Colour Run) it's important to know how to fuel your body for these events. The simple breakdown is this: does your running event go for 90 minutes or longer??

...if it doesn't, then your carbohydrate intake really isn't that relevant as we know that our body generally has stores of glycogen (our body's fuel source) for us to exercise or run for around 90 minutes...

...now, if your event is longer than 90 minutes, the next question is: how big are you?? If you're a reasonably sized guy, you will require an intake of around 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour of running. If you happen to be female, or of a very slight frame, an intake of around 30 grams per hour is more suitable for you...

...if you need a good guide of how much carbohydrate is contained in certain foods, a good guide can be found here. As always, if you need to know more: the.chiro@mail.com

Weight training - breaking through the gym fiction...

There's a lot of gym room experts when it comes to weight training, but it all really comes down to one thing: what do you want to achieve from your training?? Let's be honest, we don't all want to look like this:

...and even if you do - do you know how to go about training the correct way to achieve this??

Let's start with the three most common goals of weight training:

1. training to increase muscular strength

(notice Damon Kelly looks nothing like the chiseled abdomen displayed above??)

Training to increase muscular strength is usually undertaken about a building phase, which I will discuss next - and it's usually a pretty simple theory: lift a big weight a few times. In more complex terms, lift 85-90% of your one rep max (the maximum amount of weight you can lift one, often referred to as ORM) around 4-6 times in a set. The top athletes in this field may do anywhere from two to four sets depending on where they are in their training schedule. This time of training won't give you a chiseled frame, or make your muscles bigger, but you will get strong...and usually pretty quickly...

2. training to build muscle

This is a phase of weight training that works on increasing the size of the muscle fibre - you start with a weight that is 50-65% of your ORM and your repetitions (or reps for short) usually vary between 8-12 and performed over three sets. The muscle derived from this type of training usually isn't very functional, and requires further training if you want to specialise towards a certain goal.

3. training to tone

This phase of training usually works on stripping away excess muscle fibre and adipose tissue (otherwise known as fat), leaving a body with a large amount of lean muscle mass. The training principle is relatively simple - grab a weight around 40-50% of your ORM and lift it between 15-30 times for three sets. Body weight exercises (push-ups, chin-ups, etc) tend to be utilised a lot here.

(female voice) "...but won't I get all bulky if I lift weights??"

...I actually get told this, or asked this, a lot...the honest truth is that most women who weight train will initially start training to build muscle, and then will quickly switch to a toning regime with the occasional building session over time. If you stick to the principles above, and have a good trainer, there's no reason you should wind up looking like this:

 

...as always, if you want to know more: the.chiro@mail.com