Want to get ripped: Do Sprintwork

/0 Comments/in

Chris Vlaun - Sprint Work

So – after recently welcoming a newborn son, time has become extremely limited. With consideration that I must find a way to still fit in some intense workouts, sprint work has been my 2x a week got-to workout. Now take a second and think about the guys and girls who were the most ripped (i.e. lowest amount of bodyfat relative to the amount of lean body mass carried) In football, running backs, wide receivers and defensive backs. On the track, sprinters who ran events 400m and shorter. I have to admit, that I have noticed many significant benefits over the last six weeks. Here is a quick list of the most dramatic changes:

Peak Power

Since sprinting over the last six weeks I have noticed some significant gains in my peak power. I can jump further and higher with more frequency, hence increased power endurance. Studies have shown that seven weeks of sprint training (2-3 sessions per/week) enhanced maximal sprint-peak power, lengthened time to exhaustion at maximal sprint-exertion, lowered blood-pressure, and increased incremental VO2 peak during exertion in healthy male subjects.

Stronger AB’s

Think about running 100 meters, you are taking roughly 55 – 65 steps. A world class sprinter would take roughly 44 – 47 steps. Those steps taken at a very aggressive rate in combination with constant tension and maximal power output. Now all that aggression and relaxation is triggered from the core in response to the ground force reaction. Now think about the abdominal activity related to this movement. How do you reveal this abs? The more sprinting you do while decreasing your body fat percentage, the more toned your abdominals will appear.

Torch Fat

When thinking about burning fat you need to think about metabolism. First, high-intensity sprint work increases the rate of metabolism  during the activity and well after. Yes, that means you are still burning it up hours after your done. So consider this a great one/two punch. Sprinting burns the fat layer off while simultaneously building up and developing the muscle underneath. Have you heard about EPOC? EPOC is (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption): The after burner – Many people believe that doing low-intensity exercise for a long period of time burns of the most amount of fat. Although your body uses about 50 percent of your calories from fat during low-intensity exercise, the number of calories you burn is much lower than that of high-intensity exercise, which uses about 90 percent of its energy from glucose. Some studies have shown, the effects of EPOC from doing sprinting and other high-intensity exercise will help you burn fat after exercising.

Save time

For me recently, time is everything. Since having a newborn, my time has been mostly occupied by dirty diapers, washing bottles rocking the baby to sleep – if I’m lucky I will find success… So going for a 5 mile run is not an option, but banging out 10 x 110m bursts, sprints, or pick-ups (strides) with 90 seconds rest is doable. Now that can be accomplished in about 20 minutes or less. I don’t know too many people who can tack on a five miler in less than 20 minutes (hence a 4 minute mile pace). The other thing to consider is the maximal output repeated 10 times. Thats like doing 10 all out sets of abs and more with just 90 seconds rest. Yes, thinking of it that way seams like a beast of a workout – thats because it is! All in 20 minutes or less, you are reaching an aerobic and anaerobic threshold. Basically gettin’ it all in under 20 min.

Example beginners workout

Begin with a dynamic warm-up:

Example 2x 30 meters each –

  • walking quad stretch
  • walking side lunges
  • walking high kicks
  • high knees fast pace
  • high knee skips
  • but kickers fast pace

Target workout:

Sprints: 3x 60 meter Build-ups/accelerations. (start at 60%, build up 10% per 10 meters)

Sprints: 3x 60 meter Acceleration/glide (accelerate for the first 30 meters glide/overstride for the second 30 meters)

Sources:

 https://www.acefitness.org,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4327385/

http://up.nfl.com/workouts

V Art of Wellness Founder – Christopher Vlaun Debuts with Cyberobics “Soul Meets Body”

/0 Comments/in , ,
Read more

Trauma Injury vs Overuse Injury

/0 Comments/in

Here is some great insight in Trauma Injury vs Overuse Injury

Posted in Uncategorized on December 8, 2015 by mike boyle

Trauma versus Overuse? ( Originally published 2008)

There are two types of injuries, trauma and overuse. Our sports medical model is based in the trauma model. The trauma model works great if you sustained a sports injury from a collision etc.. It doesn’t work as well for gradual onset injuries like tendonitis.

The problem is if the mechanisms have nothing in common, chances are the treatments are not going to be similar either. Trauma treatment revolves around the RICE concept. ( rest, ice, compression, elevation) or possibly surgery. The overuse model involves much more. If your problem took time to develop, it will probably not be solved with a conventional approach. Rest and ice will only cure your tendonitis until you start working out again.

Just remember, cleaning up the puddle is not the same as fixing the leak. If you have water on the floor, you’d better look on the roof. The solution is not on the floor.

We posted three articles about Sports Hernias that illustrate just this concept at www.strengthcoach.com.

10 Fun Ways To Reduce Your Cortisol Levels

/0 Comments/in
by Dr. Lissa Rankin May 21, 2013 3:00 PM
The body knows how to heal itself.  As I describe in Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, our bodies are beautifully equipped with natural self-repair mechanisms that fight cancer, prevent infection, repair wounds, protect us from infectious agents and foreign bodies, and even affect how our genes express themselves! But here’s what most people don’t know. These natural self-repair mechanisms get deactivated when your body is full of stress hormones like cortisol and epinephrine.
The good news is that it’s easy to shift the body from the stress response to the relaxation response, and when this happens, your cortisol levels drop and your body’s self-repair mechanisms get back to work healing you. All of the following techniques have been scientifically proven to activate relaxation responses and return your self-repair mechanisms back to optimal operation.

Meditate.

Harvard physician Herbert Benson extensively studied a form of Transcendental Meditation proven to activate the relaxation response and improve dozens of health conditions ranging from heart disease to diabetes to obesity to cancer. All forms of meditation activate the relaxation response, but if you find it hard to sit in silence, try downloading the free Self-Healing Kit I created at MindOverMedicineBook.com, which comes equipped with a self-healing guided meditation known to activate the relaxation response.

In his bestselling book, The Anatomy Of An Illness, Norman Cousins tells the story of how he cured himself from the debilitating condition ankylosing spondylitis by laughing along with Marx Brothers movies. He wrote, “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep. When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval.”

Play with animals.

Snuggling with our pets fills us with oxytocin, endorphins, and other healing hormones that support the body’s self-healing mechanisms. This is why pet therapy can be so effective, both mentally and physically. So go cuddle Fido, rub Fifi’s belly, and let them cut your cortisol levels while ramping up your body’s capacity to self-repair.

Give generously.

When Cami Walker was diagnosed with debilitating multiple sclerosis, conventional medicine had to offer. Then a South African medicine woman suggested that, instead of focusing on herself, she needed to shift towards thinking more about others. The medicine woman wrote Cami a prescription- Give 29 gifts in 29 days. So she did. And as if by magic, her MS symptoms started to diminish. How? Because giving activates relaxation responses, which bolster the body’s natural self-repair mechanisms.

Express yourself creatively.

Creative expression releases endorphins and other feel-good neurotransmitters, reduces depression and anxiety, improves your immune function, relieves physical pain, and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. This lowers your heart rate, decreases your blood pressure, slows down your breathing, and lowers cortisol.

Practice yoga, tai chi, qigong, or dance forms.

All of these modalities, which combine the benefits of exercise and meditation, steep you in healing hormones and have been proven to effectively drop cortisol levels and improve your body’s ability to heal itself.

You can also get a massage, the ultimate relaxation response activator. A nurturing massage not only relaxes your muscles, it relaxes your nervous system and kicks those self-healing mechanisms into high gear.

Get it on.

Those with healthy sex lives live longer, have a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, get less breast cancer, enjoy the benefits of stronger immune systems, sleep better, appear more youthful, enjoy improved fitness, have enhanced fertility, get relief from chronic pain, experience fewer migraines, suffer from less depression, and enjoy an improved quality of life. Oh, and their cortisol levels are lower!

Pray or join a spiritual community.

Those who attend religious services live up to 14 years longer than those who don’t, but don’t go to church if it’s not in alignment with your authentic beliefs. Find or create your own spiritual tribe to enjoy the hormonal benefits of gathering together with the intention of loving, healing, and lifting the vibration of each other and the planet. Your nervous system – and your body – will thank you.

Alleviate loneliness.

Lonely people have twice the rate of heart disease as people who aren’t lonely. In fact, loneliness researchers suggest that alleviating your loneliness is more important to a healthy lifestyle than quitting smoking or starting to exercise (read more here). As Robert Putnam put it in Bowling Alone, “As a rough rule of thumb, if you belong to no groups but decide to join one, you cut your risk of dying over the next year in half. If you smoke and belong to no groups, it’s a toss-up statistically whether you should stop smoking or start joining. These findings are in some way heartening. It’s easier to join a group than to lose weight, exercise regularly, or quit smoking.”

Take radical action in order to reduce your stress responses.

Ask yourself, “What does my body need in order to heal?” If your intuition says, “You have to quit that soul-sucking job” or “You’ve got to get out of that abusive relationship,” listen up. You’ve just written The Prescription for yourself. (To learn more about how to write The Prescription for yourself, read Mind Over Medicine.

Too scared to take a leap of faith? As my friend and co-conspirator at the Whole Health Medicine Institute says, “If you want big miracles, you have to take big risks. If you’re wanting to take smaller risks, you’ll have to accept smaller miracles.”