Archive for April, 2009

How To Avoid Injuries While Running

Saturday, April 11th, 2009 at 7:08 am  
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Being injured while out for a run is actually very common. Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself. Running injuries, while common, have a large range when it comes to severity. A running injury could be something minor like a pulled muscle, or something serious like a fractured ankle or a torn ligament. No matter how serious or minor the running injury may be, there are ways to prevent a painful injury.

Some Helpful Prevention Hints

The oldest trick in the books is to stretch before your workout. Everyone has heard about the importance of stretching, but amazingly there are still people out there who don’t think stretching before running is important. These people are at great risk for injuries like pulled and strained muscles as well as stretched or torn ligaments.
Not only is it important to stretch before a run, it is also important to stretch after your work out to prevent lactic acid from pooling in your muscles. It is when you fail to stretch after your run and allow lactic acid to build up that you are at greatest risk for muscle injuries like pulls and strains. Stretching will relieve muscle tension and increase muscle fiber flexibility, so your muscles will move a little more freely the next time you run.

What Parts of the Body are Most Likely to be Injured During a Run?

The knees, ankles, calves, shins, Achilles tendons and the feet are most commonly injured among runners. In fact, about a quarter of all endurance runners will injure their knees at some point. The knee is at such danger because it is the largest joint and it absorbs a great deal of force.

If you are new to running, it is especially important that you don’t over exert yourself. Take it slowly; don’t increase the difficulty level of your workout drastically. For example, if you begin by running one mile every day for a week with very little difficulty, don’t try to run ten miles the next week. Instead run one and a half, or two miles.

Don’t Be Cheap; Treat Your Feet!

A good pair of shoes is paramount to preventing some of the more serious running injuries, especially internal injuries to the feet and knees. Don’t be afraid to ask a sales representative to help you choose the best athletic shoe for your needs, this is what these people are paid to do.

Running is a safe and self rewarding activity, and as long as you keep the tips mentioned in mind, you can keep the risk of enduring a painful injury minimal.

Ten Ways to Prevent Heart Disease

Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 8:18 am  
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Your Heart…..Your Most Important Organ!

Heart disease is the #1 cause of death in America. Don’t you think you might want to know how you can reduce your chances of dying of heart disease???!!!

1. First one’s a no brainer……..stop smoking!

2. Reduce your blood cholesterol – cut down saturated fat, dairy products, and increase c0nsumption of vegetables.

3. Exercise – weight train, which builds lean body mass which lowers your blood pressure.

4. Reduce your salt intake.

5. Increase your calcium intake – calcium citrate supplement and fruits and vegetables.
6. Take one 81 mg. aspirin daily. (check with your doctor first)

7. Eat fish. Eating fish (salmon is great) and reduce your chance of heart disease from 40% to 50%!

8. Supplement with vitamins C, E and Enzyme CoQ10.

9. Make sure you eat 30 grams of fiber daily. It lowers blood pressure, cholesterol. and blood sugar.

10. Men, having two drinks a day (women; one drink) is more heart healthy than having none! It helps raise your good cholesterol, HDL.

Aerobic means “with oxygen.” Aerobic exercise is low to medium intensity repetition training done over an extended time; it promotes overall cardiovascular fitness. If you are looking to burn calories, aerobic activity is the best way to do it. One can look fit but be in poor cardiovascular shape.

Being lean and muscular is one part of fitness, but cardiovascular fitness is just as important. Cardiovascular disease is one of the top killers of American men. Studies have shown that cardiovascular fitness is perhaps a greater factor than body fat for those at risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. It was found that men who were lean and unfit had double the risk of dying than men who were lean and fit.

Besides being a great way to rapidly burn calories and help shed excess body fat, cardio work’s healthiest benefits are in reducing blood pressure, lowering the risk of heart disease, and improving lung function and lessening stress. Cardiovascular fitness should be part of everyone’s regimen.

Many people waste their efforts when performing aerobics. They get on the same machine or jog the same course all the time. Their body adapts to the constant routine, like the muscles adapt to the same weight training routine. At this point progress comes to a standstill. The body becomes energy efficient at the routine and expends less and less effort to perform it. You must “shock” your body aerobically, just like you must “shock” your muscles to stimulate further growth. You should get your cardio through as many sources as possible. A variety of activities is the key. The great part about aerobics is, there are many activities you can do to achieve cardiovascular fitness. You can bicycle, walk, run, swim, climb stairs, hike, dance, play basketball, tennis, racquetball, etc. The most effective cardio is when you physically have to move your body around with you—as in the above activities. Don’t exclusively use gym cardio machines for your aerobics. It’s a lot less boring, tedious and monotonous playing tennis, basketball or swimming than walking on a treadmill for 40 minutes.

If you want to do cardio work in the gym, there are stationary bikes, treadmills, stair climbers and elliptical cross trainers—and most gyms and health clubs have plenty of them. Most of these machines are low impact, and should be used with medium to moderate intensity. They all have various degrees of difficulty, so whether you are a beginner or advanced, each machine will serve your purpose. Some machines with their multi-function keypads, can be a bit intimidating. Any employee will be glad to show you how to use one. Don’t be embarrassed to ask an employee of your gym to show you how to use a machine. It’s their job.

Most cardio machines focus on your legs because this burns the most energy. Some new machines have arm movements also, which is better than just using the legs. I don’t recommend using the stationary bikes. You are sitting on your butt, not burning many calories at all. Why do so many people use them? Because they aren’t hard to do. These are people you see in the gym for months and months, whose bodies never change. You’ve got to put in physical effort to change your body. As a rule of thumb, the machines you don’t like (the ones that are the hardest to perform) are probably the ones you need to be using.

High-intensity aerobics are activities such as kickboxing, sprinting and high-energy aerobics classes. For most of you who just want to be in good aerobic shape, I recommend low impact aerobic activity.

High-impact aerobic activity could cause potential muscle and joint injuries if not done correctly. I do not recommend running on hard surfaces; it can lead to shin and knee injuries. If you get into very good cardiovascular shape, you might want to try some high impact aerobics. Attaining cardiovascular fitness should be done like everything else in fitness … in gradual steps. Start slow and build up. The body begins to burn a greater amount of fat than carbohydrates after 20 minutes of aerobic activity. Once you are in reasonable cardiovascular shape, your aerobic sessions should last from 20 to 40 minutes, for the best possible fat loss (and more importantly, heart health).

Once again, each one of you will have your own personal goals. If you are starting from scratch, or haven’t done cardio for a while, you should start with 15-minute sessions. After your body has adjusted and you have built up some endurance, you can lengthen your sessions. You might want to try five-minute increases per week.

A general recommendation from organizations such as the American Heart Association, the American College of Sports Medicine and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is from 90 to 120 minutes per week, in 3 to 4 half-hour sessions of moderate to high intensity, non-impact, aerobic exercise. This is an excellent guide.

I do not recommend going cardio crazy. Lean is healthy; skinny is not. If you are a larger individual who has attained some cardiovascular endurance, and are still trying to burn fat, you might want to do two to four hours of aerobics per week.

Let me give an example of why good health is a combination of diet, aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise (resistance training). Have you ever seen long distance runners? Good long distance runners don’t do any kind of resistance training. They take one-fourth of the equation for optimum health out of the picture. This is why they are all frail and skinny looking. Whatever muscle mass they would have had has been eaten up by their overload of aerobic activity. They are in unbelievable cardiovascular shape (lungs and hearts), but their muscle has been cannibalized for energy. To endure their large amount of aerobic activity, their bodies shed both lean and adipose tissue. This is why you should do cardio in moderation. The right amount of cardio helps you lose that fat, but too much can strip away any lean muscle you may be trying to build. These three components have to be balanced to achieve maximum fitness.


Lose Belly Fat Fast With HIIT Cardio

Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 11:01 pm  
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Want to lose belly fat fast? Are you looking for interesting ways to lose belly fat? Well, look no further because we have an answer for you right here! Before we reveal to you this interesting method to lose belly fat quickly, lets look at the basics of fat loss first.

In order to lose body fat that is high associated with losing belly fat, you have to increase calorie output and decrease calorie input. That is the basic science of all fat loss! One of the ways to reduce calorie input is to go on a fat loss diet, which will not be out focus topic in this article. Our focus here is to increase calorie output which through exercise in order to burn fat and increase metabolism!

To burn fat through exercise, we have to do cardio. There is no way around it. We have to include a minimum of three to five sessions of cardio per week and for optimum results, we have to do five sessions per week and each session should last around thirty to fifty minutes.

Well, sometimes it is very boring because the conventional way of doing cardio is very boring. Here, I am going to introduce to you an interesting way to do your cardio.

Lose belly fat fast with Hiit cardio

Yes, you can lose belly fat fast with this method of cardio with just 20 minutes! Hiit means high intensity interval training. The name of this method it self explains the way of performing this exercise. What Hiit cardio can do to you is that it can really increase your metabolism, increase your speed dramatically and also help you burn body fat fast.

The best time to do this cardio workout is in the morning before your meal. This is because you can straight away burn fat instead of needing to burn the sugar first and also if your cardio workout is done in the morning, you can have the benefit of higher metabolism throughout the day!

How to lose belly fat fast with Hiit cardio?

Here are the details of the workout. Basically, the entire workout last for twenty minutes and this workout are split into ten intervals and one interval consists of one minute sprint and one minute walk. Notice that I have used the word sprint. In this lose belly fat fast cardio workout, you really have to sprint to the point of out of breath. You really have to test yourself to the limit in each sprint minute! Then, after the one minute sprint, walk for one minute to recover. Straight after the recovery minute is over, sprint again hard!

So, each interval have a one minute sprint and one minute walk. During the first interval, you do not have to sprint all out, just moderate intensity. Gradually increase your speed on the sprint. Starting on the fourth interval, your sprint will be maximum intensity.

The entire cardio workout have ten intervals, therefor this Hiit workout last for twenty minutes excluding your warm up.

Mix around your cardio equipment to lose belly fat fast. You do not have to use treadmill alone! You can use the stationary bike, the elliptical trainer or the stairmaster. For example if you use the stairmaster, for the sprint interval, use level thirteen and for the recovery use level five assuming that the difficulty scale is from intensity one to intensity fifteen.

You can also use Hiit cardio workout outdoors. This kind of training is also called wind sprints. For example, find a mark that is around two hundred meters away from you. A mark can be a lamppost, a tree or even a bench. Sprint as hard as you can to the mark. Once you reached it, just jog back to your starting point. Do ten to fifteen intervals.

For a tip, before you start your intervals, I suggest you warm up for five minutes first and stretch your muscles to prevent injury. This is a workout for intermediate to advance exerciser. If you are a beginner, I suggest you increase your cardio fitness first. Consult your doctor before starting this program if you have any medical illnesses.

Get started on your Hiit cardio workout straight away! Do not procrastinate and jumpstart your fat loss program today. Remember, for maximum results, include at least 2 sessions of weight training and get on a fat loss diet.

How Does Running Cause Plantar Fasciitis?

Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 2:48 pm  
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Runners often complain about heel pain. Actually, most people have endured heel pain at some point in their lives. 40% of all visits to U.S. podiatrists are due to heel pain. Of all the different causes of heel pain, the majority is due to a condition known as plantar fasciitis, which is an inflammation in the band of tissue, known as the plantar fascia, that runs from the heel to the toes. Plantar faciitis is most often caused by a tight Achilles tendon or poor foot structure, such as overly flat feet or high arches. Wearing non-supportive footwear on hard surfaces, spending long hours on your feet, and obesity are also causes of plantar faciitis.

The pain from plantar fasciitis is usually a sharp, stabbing pain on the inside of the bottom of the heel that can feel like a knife sticking into your heel. Pain from plantar fasciitis is usually most severe when you first stand on your feet in the morning. Many people complain that the first step out of bed is the worst. Many also have pain as they get up and start to walk after sitting for a period of time while working at a desk or computer. This heel pain will usually subside as you walk, but can return with prolonged standing, walking or running.

For runners, the plantar fascia may become inflamed after a period of running hilly courses or running in excessively worn shoes or the wrong type of shoe for your foot type. Once this happens, a cycle of inflammation ensues. There is a nerve (called the medial calcaneal nerve) that runs along on the inside of the heel bone and actually curves down around the bottom of the heel between the bone and the plantar fascia. As you walk and place stress on the plantar fascia, the tugging of this ligament where it attaches to the heel bone stimulates inflammation. The inflammation results in fluid being collected around the nerve between the bone and the plantar fascia. When you get up and step on the heel, the nerve gets compressed by the collection of fluid. This causes the sharp pain. By stepping on the heel, some of the fluid is pushed out of the area and away from the nerve. Each consecutive step may hurt less and less as even more fluid is pushed away from the space around the nerve. Once you get moving, the pain then usually subsides. Once you go to sleep the whole cycle begins again.

Plantar fasciitis is a combination of two separate problems. If your Achilles tendon is too tight, that leads to abnormal tension on the plantar fascia when you run or walk. Second, there is inflammation from all of the tissue damage as the plantar fascia is tearing away at its attachment to the heel bone. You must address both.

The main question I get from patients about treating plantar fasciitis is "will I need surgery?" The answer to this is almost certainly not. Most heel pain sufferers could effectively self-treat their heel pain and get permanent relief without ever visiting a doctor. The reason I know this to be true is that I have tracked the progress of those patients that have been seen in my office. I see several patients with heel pain every single day in my office. In 2007 I only performed surgery on four patients for plantar fasciitis.

My treatment philosophy and practice style is simple. I firmly believe that simple, reliable, cost-effective treatments should always be attempted before expensive and evasive treatments like surgery. Although I am an award winning foot and ankle surgeon (and admittedly love doing surgery) I truly believe that surgery is just a bad idea if any other treatment will work.

The main question I get from runners is "can I run with plantar fasciitis?" The answer is yes, provided it has been diagnosed as plantar fasciitis. As I said earlier, plantar fasciitis is by far the most common form of heel pain, however there are other causes. Stress fractures of the heel bone, bone cysts (weak areas) and bone tumors can all mimic the symptoms of plantar fasciitis. The difference is that they are usually more painful when you run and will not subside (but instead get worse) while you are walking or running. These can also lead to serious problems such as a fracture of the heel bone. A fractured heel bone will definitely interrupt your training schedule.

Provided that it is plantar fasciitis, the most often effective treatments for plantar fasciitis include stretching, icing, and anti-inflammatory medications. A program of home exercises to stretch your Achilles tendon and plantar fascia are the mainstay of treating the condition and lessening the chance of recurrence. Achilles tendon stretches are essential to eliminate heel pain. Perform the Achilles tendon stretches morning and evening. This will only take 1 minute in the morning and 1 minute at night.

Stand upright one large pace away from the wall with your feet parallel and about hip width apart. Place your hands against the wall, at shoulder height. Move your right leg half a pace forward. Try lunging forward on your right leg so that the knee is aligned over the ankle. Stretch your left leg back as far as is comfortable with the foot and heel remaining flat on the floor. Slowly lean forward to stretch the left leg calf muscles and tendon. Hold the stretch for 10 seconds, relax, and repeat on the other leg. Perform each stretch three times per side.

Icing your heel will decrease inflammation that accumulates while you walk during the day, and to prevent more inflammation while you sleep. Apply ice to the sore area for 20 minutes two or three times a day to relieve your symptoms. Do not go barefoot or wear flip-flops. Only wear shoes with a moderate heel that do not bend through the arch. Always wear shoes when walking, even in the home. If you have custom orthotics, or over-the-counter inserts, wear them in your shoes at all times. The majority of people with plantar fasciitis improve tremendously after just two months of initial treatment.

Keep on running, but seek help if your heel pain gets worse while you run or if the heel pain just won’t go away after trying the treatments described above. Once you get rid of the heel pain, keep stretching your Achilles tendon periodically and you can prevent your heel pain from coming back. No more limping out of bed before your morning run!