Improve your 5k time

For years, many people have taken to the streets and trails to run 5K’s, obstacle races, and marathons. Most people may do it for fun, but there are others who want to dominate their age group and can’t keep their competitive streak under control and “just have fun with it”.

For those people, I’ve listed a few ways to improve your running time that will help you beat your friends and earn bragging rights throughout this summer season.

• Improve aerobic capacity

  • The first thing you should do when trying to improve your running time is to make sure you have a good aerobic base. Run longer distances at a conversational pace (you should be able to speak in sentences) that will feel easy throughout the duration of the run. This will build a “bigger engine” and allow you to work at higher intensities without feeling as fatigued. Without an adequate aerobic base, you’ll stall out as you try to push yourself towards the ends of races and time trials.

• Improve maximum speed & power

  • If you want to run a faster time, you have to get faster. By increasing your maximum speed, you also increase what is 70% of that speed, and this allows you to run a faster 5k time. By doing speed work, you also improve running economy. This will reduce the number of “energy leaks” you have, which will improve your ability to put all of your effort into moving forward. If you’ve never done speed work before, build up gradually and with longer distances (100-200m) to start, as this is a very intense form of training and you don’t want to injure yourself doing too much too soon.

• Improve pacing

  • Running shorter intervals at your desired pace will you understand and feel how that time will be during your run. By focusing these intervals on shorter distances that gradually get longer, you will be able to build out your specific pacing and special endurance required for your race pace. Begin with 400m runs at your goal pace with plenty of rest between reps. Gradually increase the intensity by either decreasing the rest, or increasing the distance you run.

• Resistance training

  • The benefits of resistance training for middle to long distance running are many, but to keep it short and sweet, you’ll improve your leg strength and power, running economy, improve resiliency, and improve neuromuscular coordination. All of this can help improve your time trial performance by 2-4% over a few weeks of training, and if you really want to drop your times, you should absolutely be incorporating some resistance training into your training weeks. Two total body training sessions a week is a good place for most people to start with, focus on the quality of your movement first before increasing the weight or volume done.

Why You're Not Losing Weight

So you’re not losing weight and you’re not sure what exactly is going on. Well there are a multitude of reasons as to why this may be happening, but I’ll go over the most common ones I see below.

Why You’re not losing weight

• Too many calories in - This one is pretty simple, you’re still consuming too many calories and not putting yourself in a caloric deficit.  Whether you’ve decided to go Keto, low fat, vegan, or whatever, if you’re still consuming more calories than you’re expending then you will not lose weight.

• Not enough calories out - Now you may be exercising consistently, but if you’re following the calorie trackers on most cardio machines then you’re probably not getting an accurate reading. While it can ballpark how many calories you burned, it’s just that and can be off by a whole lot depending on the standard person the machine is preset to. In addition, many people take exercising as an excuse to “eat however they want” and this just leads to too many calories in and not enough out.

• Too much stress - This is one thing that many people don’t think about. While calories in and out is extremely important to weight loss, too much stress puts our body on red alert so to speak and stimulates hormones to actually hold onto fat in our bodies. 

• Endless cardio - If you’re only exercise is on the treadmill, elliptical, or exercise bike for an hour at a time a couple times a week, then this just isn’t enough. While you can eventually start losing some weight like this, it’s definitely not the most efficient or effective method for weight loss, and will take a ton of time to actually burn a significant amount of calories.

• Not Consistent - While everything above is important, this is by far the MOST important thing for weight loss. Whether you’re exercising or just starting new nutritional habits, you have to be consistent and give it time. You’re not going to lose weight overnight, or maybe even for a week or two… Your body is adjusting to this new amount of calories being consumed and burned and at first it will do what it can to remain at it’s current normal range. But after a few weeks of consistently following your plan, you should start to see some weight loss. And I’m going tell you now, it’s not going to be like on the biggest loser or what facebook ads say, you won’t lose 30 lbs in a month or even 3 months. It will probably be along the lines of 1-2 lbs per week if everything is dialed in. Anything higher than this and that could raise some red flags as that’s not healthy to do and could be a sign of muscle loss (which you don’t want).

So there you have it, these are some of the most common reasons as to why you’re not losing weight. Now are these the only reasons? Of course not, but start working on these areas and give it some time and let me know how things work out for you.

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Four Benefits of Strength Training For Runners

Running has always been fairly popular among recreational athletes, but for those who have decided to get a little more serious let’s briefly look at four benefits that adding strength training will have on your running performance.  

• Decreased injury risk by improving both muscle and tendon health and strength.

• Increased endurance by improving neuromuscular pathways, thus improving running economy and lessening the amount of work done to maintain the same pace.

• Improved mobility by working in more than just one plane of motion and developing the less used muscles in running.

• Improved speed, by increasing the maximum force output of the muscles, you’ll be able to run faster throughout the race or at the end during your last sprint.

These are are just the beginning of the benefits that strength training will have for runners, and at this point the research overwhelmingly supports adding strength training to endurance training as a way to get better.  

Does Resistance Training Provide any Cardiorespiratory Benefits?

Introduction

The importance of cardiorespiratory fitness cannot be understated, but currently this is an abundance of literature that investigates traditional aerobic exercise (running, cycling, swimming, etc..) with little focus on potential cardiorespiratory benefits that may come from resistance training. While initially thought to provide no cardiorespiratory benefits due to the long rest periods, there are now more methods being used such as circuit training which may have potential benefits on cardiorespiratory fitness.

Review of major Findings

For traditional resistance training, there does not seem to be substantial contributions to the cardiorespiratory system due to the relatively short work periods and long rest periods, however upon comparison between aerobic and resistance training it has been shown that resistance training increases blood flow when compared to aerobic exercise (2). This would suggest that there may be benefits to cardiorespiratory fitness if training is manipulated accordingly. Ratamess et al. found that mean oxygen consumption (VO2) and ventilation (VE) are inversely related to the rest interval (RI) length, with the greatest VO2 measures seen with RI of less than one minute. When RI was three minutes or greater the benefits of increased oxygen consumption were no longer seen (7). However, with the shortened rest periods, the load had to be lowered each set so that each group (high and moderate intensity) could still hit their goal of 5 and 10 reps per set. This loss of force output would immediately dictate whether to use this method depending on the goal of the session and whether strength or muscular endurance/aerobic capacity are what is being trained.

In a separate study, Alcaraz et al. looked at the relationship of bar speed in the bench press when done in a traditional training protocol and also during a circuit training protocol and the effects that these two training protocols would have on the cardiovascular demands of the individual. What they found was that there was no difference in bar velocity or power despite the circuit training protocol having two lower body exercises substituted for the passive rest period of the traditional training protocol (1). Despite there being no differences in performance, the cardiovascular load was much greater in the circuit training protocol with a higher average heart rate during exercise and rest. This suggests that resistance training circuit protocols can be a viable training method to increase cardiorespiratory fitness.

In another study, Mukaimoto et al. studied the oxygen consumption of three different circuit resistant training (CRT) protocols; a high intensity (80% 1RM) with normal movement, low intensity (50% 1RM) with normal movement, and a low intensity (50% 1RM) with slow movement group. What they found is that the low intensity group with slow movement had a greater total VO2 consumption and energy expenditure, despite a lower average VO2, due primarily to the fact that the total exercising time was much greater than the other two groups. They also found that the blood lactate levels were lower in this group which would suggest that the slow movement training had a greater aerobic component when compared to the same load at normal movement speeds (5). It should be noted that in each of the three groups, the average VO2 for the training session did not reach 50% of VO2Max and thus may not be a suitable stimulus to increase cardiorespiratory function. This may have been due to the fact that all exercises were done on nautilus gym equipment and used only a small amount of muscle groups per exercise. In a study by Gotshalk et al. they investigated the cardiorespiratory responses to a CRT protocol. They found that VO2 was elevated above 50% of maximum indicating that this low intensity (40% 1RM) six exercise circuit could be used to increase cardiorespiratory fitness, possibly as a cross training option or when traditional aerobic exercise isn’t done. A second finding from this paper showed that during resistance exercise, heart rate and VO2 do not increase at the same rate as during aerobic exercise (4), with heart rate reaching above 80% of maximum while VO2 hovers over 50%, thus basing resistance training prescriptions off of heart rate is not a viable option until further research is done. Similarly, Ortego et al. found that there may be gender differences in regard to oxygen consumption during resistance training as they found that women had lower absolute VO2 levels during exercise while having similar heart rate measures (6). This further complicates the issue of prescribing resistance training for increasing cardiorespiratory fitness as sex, and fitness level may be factors that effect if adaptations are possible.

Another factor that may affect oxygen consumption and potential for increases in cardiorespiratory fitness is the exercise type. In a study done by Farrar et al., they measured the oxygen cost of a 12-minute kettlebell swing test. What they found was that average relative VO2 was 65% for the test and heart rate was 87% of maximum (3). At a closer glance, VO2 and HR both rose dramatically within the first minute of exercise and then plateaued for the rest of the 12 minute test after the second minute. These results show that kettlebell swings are a sort of middle ground between traditional aerobic exercise and circuit resistance training. At first glance this shouldn’t make sense, however differences between kettlebell swings and the majority of exercises used in CRT do exist. First, kettlebell swings are full body exercises which is the most obvious difference between exercises selected. Secondly, many exercises selected for CRT protocols have defined concentric-eccentric phases which are typically done in a controlled steady rate. Kettlebell swings however, can be argued as a ballistic exercise which alters the dynamics of the concentric and eccentric muscle actions, which may provide more cardiorespiratory benefits when compared to traditional resistance training and what has commonly been studied in the circuit training protocols.

Conclusion

While there is limited research regarding the cardiorespiratory benefits of resistance training, there is evidence to suggest that circuit resistance training protocls can invoke a cardiorespiratory response which could be greater depending on the speed of contraction and also the amount of rest allowed between exercises and sets. In addition, it seems that dynamic resistance training may provide the most benefits to cardiorespiratory fitness as this shortens the concentric muscle action which would allow for more blood flow to pass through the muscle tissue, however this type of training hasn’t been investigated fully and needs to be looked into more, along with what intensity level (%RM) may elicit the greatest oxygen consumption.

Sources

1. Alcaraz, PE., Sanchez-Lorente, J., and Blazevich, AJ. Physical Performance to an Acute Bout of Heavy Resistance Circuit Training Versus Traditional Strength Training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 22: 667-671, 2008.

2. Collier, SR., Kanaley, JA., Carhart, R., Frechette, V., Tobin, MM., Hall, AK., Luckenbaug, AN., and Fernhall, B. Effect of 4 Weeks of Aerobic or Resistance Exercise Training on Arterial Stiffness, Blood Flow and Blood Pressure in pre- and stage-1 hypertensives. Journal of Human Hypertension 22: 678-686, 2008.

3. Farrar, RE., Mayhew, JL., and Koch, AJ. Oxygen Cost of Kettlebell Swings. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 24: 1034-1036, 2010.

4. Gotshalk, LA., Berger, RA., and  Kraemer, WJ. Cardiovascular Responses to a High-Volume Continuous Circuit Resistance Training Protocol. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 18: 760-764, 2004.

5. Mukaimoto, T., and Ohno, M. Effects of Circuit Low-Intensity Resistance Exercise with Slow Movement on Oxygen Consumption During and After Exercise. Journal of Sports Sciences 30: 79-90, 2012.

6. Ortego, AR., Dantzler, DK., Zaloudek, A., Tanner, J., Khan, T., Panwar, R., Hollander, DB., and Kraemer, RR. Effects of Gender on Physiological Responses to Strenuous Circuit Resistance Exercise and Recovery. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 23: 932-938, 2009.

7. Ratamess, NA., Falvo, MJ., Mangine, GT., Hoffman, JR., Faigenbaum. AD., and Kang, J. The Effect of Rest Interval Length on Metabolic Responses to the Bench Press Exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol 100: 1-17, 2007.