Time For A Half Marathon Goal.

You have probably heard that it's important to set goals. Something to work towards, a sense of achievement, etc. etc.

Well sadly, it's all true.

Exercising without goals becomes a bit monotonous after a while, which makes it easier to slip away. Also, you never feel you are getting any better. And finally, you can end up not pushing yourself enough, because there is no particular reason to do so.

I feel I've fallen into a bit of a slump recently with my exercise. I've been going to the gym four times a week because I've got a gym pact where I have to, but I've frequently only been going for the minimum amount of time and surprisingly not really seeing any improvement.

So, today while I was at the gym watching the Iron Men competitions (while jogging at close to half their speed, and they had done a swim and a bike ride first!) I decided it was time to set a goal and train towards something.

For quite a number of years now, I've been saying I wanted to run a half marathon. 10 years ago my goal was to be able to run 3.5kms without wanting to die, then having met that it was to do 10km. However, since doing 10km in 2008, I've been saying I would train for a half marathon. As of yet, haven't done it. Not even the distance just out training.

I would see an event coming up (I get email updates from Start to Finish of upcoming events, which I highly recommend for Australians) and think 'okay, I'll do that.' But then never get around to actually training for it.
 Last week I received an email for Run Melbourne, which noted that I had just over 15 weeks to train for the event, AND they offered free training. Now that might be enough to get me going.

So, Run Melbourne is on the 21st July and I'm going to try for the half marathon.
 
I've never actually run that distance before, so my goal this time is just to jog the whole thing without stopping. Not caring about time or speed, it's just about getting to the end.

Now, Run Melbourne isn't actually my favourite race, as it is usually overcrowded and not always that well organised. For example, I was talking to a friend who did it last year, and part way through the race she was forced to stop and wait as they let traffic through. Stuffed her time completely. And as she said, if you have to stop the participants for traffic, you've chosen the wrong route.

However, since I'm not going for time and they are offering free training, I really think it might be a winner. (And I might need the stops to catch my breath!)

The details of the training as outlined in the email, for those of you interested:

The Age Run Melbourne - Enter now and join our FREE training sessions!

With just over 15 weeks to go until the big day, what better time to enter The Age Run Melbourne, raise funds for your favourite charity, and start working towards your goal - we'll even help you get there!

Join The Age Run Melbourne training sessions from Tuesday, April 30 and we'll help you achieve your personal milestone on July 21! The training sessions are free to all those who have entered The Age Run Melbourne. A $5 fee will apply to all participants who have not yet registered. The proceeds will be given to our Charity of the Week.

Tuesdays - 6pm, Federation Square, Melbourne. These sessions cater for all ages and abilities, with several pace groups aimed to help you build up to the 5km, 10km and half-marathon distances, as well as speed work groups each week.

Wednesdays - 6pm, Running Fit, 170 Queen St, Melbourne. Designed to help beginners complete their first 5km or 10km event.

Saturdays - 9am, Running Fit. A longer run for those looking to better their 10km time or training for the half-marathon.

Now, they are probably going to be packed, but some group training maybe just what you need to get you over the edge! So if you are interested in doing it, I'd love to meet up with you while there. We can both make sure the other turns up!

Or, if you aren't in Australia but have an event coming up,and you want to put your name on the line by declaring your attention, say hello in the comments and we'll keep track on your progress and cheer you on!

In the next post, I'm going to interview a friend who is a state marathon runner, to get her great advice on choosing a good training program and tips for the race.

But until then, I just wanted to encourage you to pick a goal and work towards it. And if you can get free stuff along the way, all the better!

Friday Fitness Fun - Walk, Don't Run! Figgy Goodness and The Perfect Body.

I'm starting a new series to keep you motivated and informed. Every Friday I'm going to do a quick round up of interesting fitness news and ideas from around the web, with tips for you to try out on the weekend. 

Hope you enjoy!

Today's Research:
Time Magazine reports on recent research which shows that disease prevention-wise - running and walking have the same benefits. 

"A new study published in the American Heart Association (AHA) journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology found that walkers lowered their risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes as much as runners."

So don't feel discouraged if Couch to 5K leaves you weak at the knees, even just walking for the 30mins 3 times a week will have benefits. 

Suggestion: if you've never done it, buy yourself a cheap pedometer (little clip-on thingy that measures how many steps you take, can probably download app that does it, if you are prepared to carry your phone everywhere) and take the 10,000 steps challenge. During your day try to take 10,000 steps. If you are coming up short, add in a walk to increase your movement.

Weekend Cooking:
Feeling a bit sugared out after Easter?
Women's Health presents 3 great recipes from Michael Moore's new book, Blood Sugar.

Here's just one to get your taste buds buzzing:

My Simple Figs On Toast With Ricotta

Ingredients
4 slices of seeded bread
100g (3½oz) low-fat ricotta
2 ripe black figs (or fresh raspberries or strawberries)
1 teaspoon agave syrup

Toast the bread then mash the ricotta onto it using the back of a fork. Slice the figs and also mash them onto the ricotta.

Drizzle with a little agave syrup and enjoy with coffee or tea.

Serves 4.

Per serve: Kilojoules (kJ) 664 Protein (g) 9 Fat –total (g) 4 Fat – saturated (g) 1.2 Carbohydrate 18 Sodium 187

Photo: Blood Sugar.

Sounds like a great Saturday Brunch. Just add some Jasmine Green Tea and friends!
I also tried a similar recipe with nectarines which was great, if you can't get figs. 
 

Want Something New?
Men's Health.co.uk offers up a four week program to 'the perfect body'. Who doesn't want a perfect body?

"Training like All Blacks centre Sonny Bill Williams will provide you with the physical

attributes required to excel in any sport. Here’s rugby coach Jan Keller’s workout."

The article has good instructions and pictures to demonstrate the moves. The workout covers all the major muscle groups and mixes up tried and tested moves with some that are a little different. This is a good general workout for those wanting a challenge.

So, that's this weeks Friday Fitness Fun!
Any suggestions on things you would like to hear about?

Measure It: What are BMI and BFP?

Autumn and Spring, the transitional seasons, are a great time to take stock of your health and fitness. If you have been working out all summer or winter, it can be a good time to see how much you have improved. Or, if you are about to buckle down to a new program you can check out where you should focus. To help you with this, this is the first in a series - ‘Measure It’ - looking at some of the different health and fitness factors you should keep an eye on.
Today I’m going to look at BMI and BFP, two measures of your body fat to see if you are overweight and at increased risk of heart disease.

BMI:

BMI stands for your Body Mass Index.

It is based on your weight to height ratio. It is one of the most common measures used because it is very easy, though does have some problems.
To calculate it, all you need is to know your height and have access to a set of scales. The basic equation is your weight divided by the square of your height, done in kgs and meters.
BMI = Mass (kg) / (Height (m)2)
So, I’ll be brave and show you mine.
I’m currently around 76kgs and I’m 171cms tall.
Therefore, my BMI = 76/1.712 = 25.99.

If you can’t do the maths yourself, you can also just plug in the numbers to an online calculator such as the one at NSW Government Health.
But what does that mean exactly? Well, that’s where the BMI chart comes in.

Category	BMI range – kg/m2
Very severely underweight	less than 15
Severely underweight	from 15.0 to 16.0
Underweight	from 16.0 to 18.5
Normal (healthy weight)	from 18.5 to 25
Overweight	from 25 to 30
Obese Class I (Moderately obese)	from 30 to 35
Obese Class II (Severely obese)	from 35 to 40
Obese Class III (Very severely obese)	over 40

(Table care of Wikipedia).

So, according to the chart, I’m just bordering on overweight, so probably should get it down just a bit more, and can lose quite a bit and still be healthy. In fact, according to BMI I can actually get down to 54kgs and still be ‘healthy weight’.
And this is where the problem comes in. I’m reasonably tall, and have pretty good muscle development compared to most females. A few years ago I got myself down to 61kgs, and my family were worried about me. There is actually very little chance I could healthily get myself down to 54kgs. So is the BMI chart wrong?
The BMI formula does not hold up very well if you are very tall and/or have quite a bit of muscle. As muscle is heavier than fat, and volume is cubed not squared, increases in height and muscle skew the results. So you still need to be sensible.
Having said, if you are over 30, you might want to stop making excuses and get at least between 25-30.

BFP:

A more reliable formula, but harder to measure accurately, is your BFP:

Body Fat Percentage.

It looks at the percentage of your body weight that is fat (though keep in mind, this includes essential body fat, not just the excess stuff you want to get rid of). For unfair reasons (ability to grow healthy children) women need a higher percentage of fat, so essential fat is about 3-5% for men and 10-16% for women. However, that doesn’t mean that’s normal.

Generally body fat percentages are as follows:

Description	Women	Men
Essential fat	10–13%	2–5%
Athletes	14–20%	6–13%
Fitness	21–24%	14–17%
Average	25–31%	18–24%
Obese	32%+	25%+

So, if you can work out what your body fat percentage is now, you can work out how much you can and or should lose.

There are some high-tech ways to measure this, but it is unlikely you will be able to get your hands on these (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry anyone?). The next best thing is to get a personal trainer to do it at a gym using one of the skinfold methods, though these are not perfect.
There are scales out there that measure your body fat for you, but these are not great, reliability wise. However, if you stick to the same set of scales, it should at least tell you if you are going up or down.
But if you want to do it yourself, here are some sort of accurate ways.

1.I love this one from www.nerdfitness.com – ‘take a look’. Compare yourself to the images of what people with the different body fat percentages look like, and see which one you think you are. (check out http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/07/02/body-fat-percentage/ for their pictures… I’m not sure if I want to disturb you all with half naked men and women :D) Only problem with this is that most of us are deluding ourselves in one way or another!

2.Body Fat Calipers: using these you can do your skin fold test. The calipers are not expensive to buy, and you can use an online calculator like: http://www.linear-software.com/online.html to work out the results. This is probably one of the most effective self-administered measures of body fat.

3.Others suggest using the hip to waist ratio. This is a good indication of fat composition and can tell you if you are at risk of having fat in places which have a higher association with health problems. However, it won’t tell you your fat percentage overall.

Just to compare to BMI, when I was rowing (my muscliest) I had a body fat percentage of around 22% (yeah, I was a lightweight) and weighed 69kgs. According to that, I had around 15kgs of fat, including my essential fat. So, if I dropped down to 54kgs, and managed to keep my muscle bulk, I would have been well into my essential fat stores (if it could be done.) So, body fat percentage better than BMI. However now that I’ve lost a lot of my muscle tone, I could probably get down lighter than I could then.

So there you have it.

My recommendation, work out your BMI just to see (and because it is easy) then see if you can book in to get a personal trainer to give you a proper skinfold test every 3- 6 months to see how you are going. If you are interested, buy your own calipers and give yourself the skin fold test.
Whichever way you do it, I do recommend getting an externally validated estimate of your fat levels, because you may be surprised. Don’t try to excuse it away, do something about it!

What To Do With A Foam Roller Once You've Finished Doing Myofascial Release

 

 

I am all about getting value for money.
 

So in the last post I told you the main purpose of those foam rollers. However, then I started thinking...

 

If you do go out and buy one, you pretty much want to get the most value for money, and there is only so much time you can spend doing myofascial release therapy.
 

Therefore, today I’m bring you a list of the top ten things you can do with your foam roller once you’ve finished doing your stretching. Enjoy.

 

1. Pool noodle.
 

2. Train your hamster to run on it.
 

3. Hold your own version of Gladiators, with the rollers as whacking sticks.
 

4. Sexy bolsters for your boudoir.
 

5. Rolling pin for making giant pizzas (recommend wrapping it in baking paper first, if you want to use it again afterwards).
 

6. Band together with a group of friends and use them to build pyramids.

 

 

7. Perfect for people who want serious volume in their hair.
 

8. Paint them white and use them as Grecian columns for your dog house.

 

9. Giant Nerf gun bullets.
 

10. Use them for painting cathedrals.

 

 

So, got any more ideas?

 

Foam Rollers and Myofascial Release... What On Earth?

In the last few years, you might have noticed these cylindrical foam thingies gathering in the corners of the stretching areas at gyms. Occasionally a personal trainer will even make someone roll on top of them. Have you ever wondered what they are for and whether they are just a passing fad?

Well, here’s the low down.

It is all to do with myofascial release. 

Myofacial release, you ask?

It’s a type of soft tissue therapy, which relaxes contracted muscles, increases circulation and lymphatic drainage and stimulating the stretch reflect muscle.

Basically:

It’s the same sort of benefit you will get from a sports massage, but a lot cheaper and you are in control (so might not make you scream as much.) The roller stretches out the muscles and tendons, while also breaking up trigger points.

It is also seen as more beneficial for flexibility than just stretching, which only lengthens out the muscles without dealing with any tension points.

Now, for the more jargon-y explanation:

The myofascia system is the combination of the muscles and the superficial fascia (ie. soft connective tissue that wraps and connects the muscles, bones, nerves and blood vessels of the body). (There are a couple of different types of fascia, but we are talking about superficial fascia here.). For various reasons, the fascia and underlying muscle tissue can become stuck together (soft tissue adhesion), with the result of restricted muscle movement and soreness.

By sustained pressure on the soft tissue with traction to the fascia, the fascia can be softened and lengthened, breaking down the adhesions. Like when a massage therapist puts pressure into an area and then rubs it along. 

So, how do you use the foam roller?

Slow and pressure are the two concepts you want to keep in mind.

Basically, you position yourself on the foam roller and roll along the muscle at a slow pace with some of your body weight adding pressure. Then you stop and increase the weight at the most tender spots. Once the pain starts to reduce, roll on. The eventual goal is to have no sore or painful spots.

It is recommended that you start at the point closest to your centre, and roll outwards. For example, with your hamstrings, start rolling out just the top area nearest your butt and slowly work down towards the knees.

Each muscle should get about 1-2 minutes of rolling. So, a good session can take between 30-40 minutes, and is perfect for doing in front of the TV if you want to invest some money in buying your own roller. Or it is also a great time to catch up and chat with friends before or after a work out. As there is less risk of injury compared to stretching, it is great to do any time.

Below is a great video for showing you all the different muscles you can work with. Though I recommend doing it just slightly slower, and pausing where you personally feel a tension spot.

It's only 5 minutes, so take the time to watch and the go and practice!

Benefits?

Great for IT band issues and shin splits, as well as improving flexibility. It can get rid of tension spots and soreness, and prevents these from developing. Great for people that suffer backpain, or problems with tightness in their muscles.

However, like stretching, it doesn’t happen overnight. We are in it for the long term improvement.

Conclusion:

It seems to be a very cheap piece of equipment, that has little risk of injury, and can have great benefits if you use it regularly. So, not much to lose.

So, no need to be afraid of those rollers ganging up on you. But always ask a trainer for help if you think you might be doing it wrong. Also, it does take some practice balancing on top of the roller without falling off, so maybe practice when not cute guys are watching.

Gym Review: Virgin Active Health Clubs - Melbourne

In my last gym review I looked at the very first proper gym I joined: Fernwood.

Today I wanted to review for you one of the more recent gym experiences I had - Virgin Active Health Club, Melbourne. I was a member for about a year, starting in 2011-2012. I only quit when I moved away and wanted to start rowing more regularly (and dropped down my hours at work, so couldn't pay all my memberships).

Virgin Active appears to be a huge brand over in the US, but has only reasonably recently come to Australia. In fact, they only have four gyms in the whole of Australia! (3 in Sydney and 1 in Melbourne, which is just rude, because everyone knows that Melbourne is the better city! Maybe they are just trying to get Sydney-siders as fit as Melbournians.)


Benefits:

The Virgin gyms are best for those who want it all. If you love feature packed gyms (which I must admit, I do) then this is the baby for you.

You really do need to do an introductory tour to get to see everything they have, but just to give you a sneak peek:

- over 40 a day. Yup, a day. Except on the weekends which is limited to about 10 classes. In absolutely everything you can think of, including Pilates reformer classes.

- swimming pool, with spa area (in the middle of the city!)

- large weights area.

- cardio equipment (I will admit that I never had to wait for a piece of equipment, though with all the classes and extras, I didn't spend as much time on the equipment as I do at other gyms).

- large spin classes.

- All the latest toys in gym equipment like Powerplates.

- Rock-climbing wall (yes, I'm serious about that, it was awesome if you just wanted to practice and build up strength).

- Sleep pods (basically, you can come in and just have a snooze. How great is that in a gym? You could program it to play relaxing music and wake you up after a 20min power nap.)


Other great benefits include:

- no contract. you can cancel any time you want. (or you can sign up for a 12 month contract).

- student and senior citizen discounts.

- cool memory key thing that remembers your workout program and so you just plug it into the machine and it tells you what to do (hard to explain, check it out).

- Because it is in the city, it caters to the working lifestyle, and offers short, sharp classes at lunch time that lets you work out and still leaves you time to get back to work. 

And the thing I liked is that you got all that for not that much more than any other gym. I compared to a few around, and it was only a few dollars a fortnight more expensive, which I was very happy to pay for all the extras.

However, there were some downsides:

- they have a joining fee which they NEVER waive. With Fernwood and other gyms, you can usually find a time to join when you don't have to pay. Not so with Virgin, and they never offer special deals on prices.

- They don't actually tell you the prices anywhere until you go in. However, from memory when I was going it was $25/week. 

- In the mornings before work, the change rooms are bursting. It can be hard to get mirror space or even find an empty locker.

- I missed my induction course, and then was too scared to ask for another, so didn't know how to use a lot of the weird equipment.

- Also, because there are so many people, and it is so large, it can be a bit intimidating.

- The weekend open hours aren't great, as they appear to believe no one actually lives in the city.

The hours are:

Mon-Thurs	6:00am	-	10:00pm
Fri	6:00am	-	9:00pm
Sat	9:00am	-	5:00pm
Sun	10:00am	-	4:00pm
Public Holiday	10:00am	-	4:00pm

So how would I rate it overall? 

If you want all the extras, and don't mind being adventurous and trying out new things, this gym is awesome. It is especially great if you work in the city and want to go before or after work (and don't mind a bit of a crush). 

I wouldn't really recommend it if you just like doing the same thing at the gym or want a bit of help from staff. You could pay a lot less and get a lot more attention.

Finally, if you are a little bit self-conscious about going back to the gym, this might be a bit intimidating. I found a lot of guys just sit on the machines staring at you trying to wriggle their eyebrows. It was pretty uncomfortable at times.

But overall, I'm a big fan and would go back if I were back in the city, or they opened one in South Yarra.

 

Rock climbing wall!

The Beginner's Guide To The Seven Types of Stretching

Courtesy of Tallia22 at stock.xchng

So, in my last post on stretching I discussed whether you should do it at all, and mentioned two general types of stretching: dynamic and static.

If that was all new to you, then you are really going to get a kick out of today's post. 

Today I'm going to show you all seven of the different types of stretches. Yup, seven.

And you were excited that you even remembered to do any stretching at all after a job, weren't you? Well just think how much you can show off at the gym after reading this?

Dynamic and Static are still the two most common forms.  However, all together we have:

    1.    ballistic stretching
    2.    dynamic stretching
    3.    active stretching
    4.    passive (or relaxed) stretching
    5.    static stretching
    6.    isometric stretching
    7.    PNF stretching

Who knew there were so many types, huh? (Well, obviously lots of people, and now you are one of them.)

I'm going to go through each one, give a brief description and example and then look at the benefits and risks associated. Remember, these are the types that exist, not all are beneficial for all people.

1.    ballistic stretching

This uses the momentum of the body to force the muscles to stretch beyond the normal range of motion. You will know this as bouncing in the stretch. It used to be quite popular, in the 70s. The general thought behind it was like trying to loosen a rubber band or balloon, you stretch it out really quickly and the fibers sort of loosen. Well, turns out that our bodies are not quite the same as dead rubber bands.

A lot of problems have been identified, such as it actually causes the muscles to tighten up, and is very likely to lead to damage. So this one is not recommend at all. There are many, many better ways to stretch. So, don’t bounce people, don’t bounce.

2.    dynamic stretching
While ballistic stretching aims to go beyond the normal range of motion, dynamic stretching stays within you current range, gradually increasing reach and/or speed of movement. It should not be bouncy or jerky, it should be slow and controlled. I discussed and gave an example of dynamic stretching, such as slowly swinging your leg, trying to go a bit higher each time, to warm up your hamstrings before exercise.



This is recognised as one of the best (possibly only beneficial) ways of warming up before doing a work out. Try to increase the range of motion on all major muscles groups that you will be using during the session. You should be looking at sets of 8-12 reps. 
It is also a great way to start the day, if you tend to get up from bed a bit tight and sore. Taking time to work from your head down will loosen everything up and get the blood flowing.

3.    active stretching
For total confusion, this is also referred to as static-active stretching (or active isolated stretching).

The aim is to hold the stretch using no support but the muscles opposite to the one you are stretching. For example, you might lift your leg to stretch your hamstring, and work your quads to hold it in position, keeping the leg kicked above your head (if you can reach that high).

The benefits of this are that it increases the flexibility in the hamstring which can relax into the stretch, while also strengthening the quad muscle.

However, this type of stretching is really hard to do, and usually can only be held for around 10 seconds.


When would you use this time of stretching? It's most common use is in some of the more active forms of yoga, where you are building strength and flexibility at the same time.
 
4.    passive (or relaxed) stretching
So this is called passive stretching, or relaxed stretching, or even static-passive stretching. This is often confused with static stretching (next point), however is slightly different. In this type of stretching a partner or a piece of equipment is used to stretch the muscle while you try to relax it.

It's biggest advantage is when you are having muscle cramps.
More often you would use static stretching, but if you have a spare partner lying around, why not give it a go (if you trust them not to push it too far. You are not trying to hurt yourself).
 
5.    static stretching
Static stretching, compared to passive stretching, involves stretching to the farthest point and then holding the stretch. This is one of the most common types of stretches. When you reach down to touch your toes and hold it, that’s static stretching. This should be challenging, but comfortable.

This is generally considered a safe and effective way to improve flexibility. It might not be as beneficial as some of the more advanced types, but you are much less likely to injury yourself.

For beginners, I recommend you try doing static stretching for a few weeks after your work outs before going onto more advanced types. But please remember, you should only do static stretching when your muscles are already warmed up. It is not a good form to try before your work out. Stick with dynamic for that.

6.    isometric stretching
This is a type of static stretching, which involves ‘isometric contractions’ of the stretched muscle (eg. tensing the stretched muscle.) It is faster than either passive or active stretching by themselves for increasing static flexibility.

It also increases strength, and can be less painful than other types of stretching (not that stretching should be painful!)

An example of this type of stretching would be using a partner to stretch out your hamstring as you try to push the leg back down to the floor.

Though, please note that this is not recommended for anyone whose bones are still growing, and for everyone it is best to do some strength training for the muscle before being stretched.

Finally, this type of stretching is not meant to be performed everyday. Try to rest for at least 24-26 hours between sessions. 

Method: get into static stretch position. Tense muscle for 7-15 seconds, relax for 20 seconds.

7.    PNF stretching
I actually heard about this for the first time on the health retreat I went on, and was pretty excited to tell you about it. Though, to be honest, I thought it was just another name for isometric stretching.

PNF stands for proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation.

It is a combination of passive stretching and isometic stretching to achieve maximum static flexibility (so I wasn’t completely wrong!)

Basically, you do a passive stretch, then an isometric stretch, and then do another passive stretch trying to get further than before.

Generally recommendation: use PNF techniques 3-5 times for a given muscle group, resting 20 second in between each. (Though there are debates if this is necessary).



The combination of the passive and isometric stretching makes this the most effective type of stretching. However, if you are unused to it, practice adding in an isometric stretch just once a week to your normal stretching routine, and build up to doing PNF stretching sessions once you get the hang of it.

And with all stretching, remember what I said last time: frequency is more important than duration.
One mega long stretch session a week is not going to get your flexible as fast as doing a series of short sessions through the week.

Really need to get your flexibility up quickly? Try a combination of dynamic stretching in the morning, static stretching after lunch, and alternative static and PNF in the evening. 3 times a day will get you there much faster than you think.

So good luck, hope to see you touching your toes soon!