VO2max

The monthly newsletter of RunCoachJason.com

Jason Karp, professional coach, consultant, freelance writer

March, 2007

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In this issue:

Coach Jason to Speak at IDEA Fitness Fusion

The 3 Players of Distance Running

Train Smart

Warm Up For Your Asthma

Fab Abs

In Press

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Coach Jason to Speak at IDEA Fitness Fusion

For those of you in the Chicago area, I will be speaking at IDEA Fitness Fusion, the premier Midwest event for personal trainers and group fitness professionals, at the Sofitel hotel and Donald E. Stephens Convention Center on April 21 & 22, 2007 in Rosemont , IL .  My two presentations—Lactate Threshold: Best O2 Bang for Your Buck and Planning Clients’ Training with Periodization—will be packed with the latest scientific information on training for results.  IDEA Health & Fitness Association is the world’s largest association for health and fitness professionals.  For more information and to download the event brochure and convention schedule, go to:

http://w2.ideafit.com/conference/idea-fitness-fusion-2007. 

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The 3 Players of Distance Running

Interested in becoming a better runner or coach?  In my new CD collection, The 3 Players of Distance Running, you’ll get all the info you could ever want on VO2max, lactate threshold, and running economy, including specific workouts to help you reach your running goals!  Each CD contains a PowerPoint slide presentation that will show you how to test and train each of these physiological variables.  Purchase any CD for $9.95, any 2 CDs for $17.95, or the whole set for just $23.95 (plus $2.95 shipping).  Just go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/merchandise or

e-mail jason@runcoachjason.com.

 

And don’t forget you can still purchase the special clinic info packet from my VO2max Distance Running Clinic, which includes the presentation handouts, for only $8.95 (plus $1.95 shipping).  You’ll find tons of information on the secrets of distance running, lactate threshold, periodization, hydration, and more!  Just go to

http://www.runcoachjason.com/merchandise or e-mail jason@runcoachjason.com.

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Train Smart

When you go outside for a run or go to the gym to lift weights, do you feel that you have to go hard for every workout?  While training hard once in a while does have its benefits, it’s more important to train smart.  For example, if you’re doing an interval workout on the track, you should know exactly how fast you should run to reap the benefits of the workout.  If you run too fast, you’ll add unnecessary fatigue to your legs without extra benefit.  For example, say you want to improve your maximal rate of oxygen consumption (VO2max), and you plan to run mile repeats at the speed at VO2max (100 percent maximal heart rate).  If running each mile in 6:00 elicits VO2max (and max heart rate), running each repeat in 5:45 will certainly also elicit VO2max.  But why run each mile in 5:45 when you can run it in 6:00 and still get the same benefit?  Running faster is not always better.  Remember, the goal of training is to provide the least stressful stimulus that will elicit the desired adaptation. 

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Warm Up For Your Asthma

If you have exercise-induced asthma, you may benefit from a more vigorous warm-up before your next workout.  A study published in International Journal of Sports Medicine in 2006 found that a  high-intensity warm-up (8 x 30-second sprints at peak treadmill speed, with 45 seconds recovery between each sprint) decreased the severity of exercise-induced asthma symptoms in recreational athletes.  In addition, combining the interval warm-up with inhaling 200 micrograms of salbutamol (a common inhaler drug) prior to exercise resulted in substantial bronchodilation and conferred a greater protective effect against developing exercise-induced asthma than either the warm-up or inhaler alone.

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Fab Abs

(excerpted from Karp, J.R. Better Body Series: Fab Abs. Ultra-Fit. Jan. 2007, 17(1), pp. 64-69.)

 

Have you ever wanted to run outside without a shirt or wear a bikini at the beach but didn’t feel you had the abs for it?  The difficulty in getting a flat stomach or “six-pack” is that, unfortunately, most of humans’ fat is stored around our waistlines.  That’s why it’s harder to see your abdominals than it is to see your biceps—because your abs are covered with more fat.  Women have even a harder time than men in obtaining a six-pack since women have a greater amount of essential fat than men—part of the trade-off for bringing new life into the world.  Of all the things you hear about abdominals, there is one truth—all people with flat stomachs or six-packs have a very low percentage of body fat.  It’s possible that the low amount of fat needed to have a six-pack is lower than what is healthy for most women (essential fat for men is about 3 percent, while for women it’s about 12 percent).  You can train your abs forever and you still won’t see the muscles unless you eliminate the fat covering them.  So there really are two parts to getting the abs you want—making the muscles slightly bigger and more defined through strength training and (here’s the more important part) decreasing your body fat percentage so you can see the muscles.   

 

There are four muscles that make up your abdominal region: rectus abdominis, external obliques, internal obliques, and transversus abdominis.  Primary among these is the rectus abdominis, the long muscle observable on people with flat stomachs and the muscle that creates the six-pack look you dream of.  However, that six-pack is not six separate muscles or three pairs of muscles.  It’s all one muscle, with horizontal fibrous bands (called tendinous inscriptions) and a vertical band of connective tissue (called the linea alba) separating the  “sections.” 

 

In the public’s never-ending quest for six-pack abs, exercise equipment manufacturers have done everything they can to convince you to buy their product to help you achieve your very own six-pack.  But before you go purchasing one of the many abdominal devices on the market, remember that sometimes the old-fashioned way is the best way.  There has been enough research comparing abdominal muscle activity between commercial abdominal devices and traditional crunches (sit-ups) to conclude that crunches are just as effective or better.  One of these studies, published in Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, found that the Ab-ONE is the only commercial device that elicits a higher rectus abdominis activity than a traditional crunch.  The study found that crunches are better than the Ab Scissor, Ab Swing, 6-Second Abs, and Torso Track, and are equal to the Perfect Abs Roller.  External obliques activity during crunches is higher than for the Perfect Abs Roller and is similar to the other devices.  So save your money and stick with old-fashioned crunches.

 

Want more info?  Go to: http://www.ultra-fitmagazine.com.

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In Press...

Training Characteristics of Qualifiers for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, my scientific research article documenting how the best marathoners in the U.S. train, with comparisons made between men and women and elite and national-class runners, appears in the March, 2007 issue of International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.

 

The Top 3 Marathon Workouts, my article that describes the three most important workouts to prepare for a marathon, appears in the March, 2007 issues of Colorado Runner and Atlanta Sports & Fitness.

 

A Brief Look at the Physiology of Energy Systems, including metabolic pathways for energy production, physiological variables related to distance running, interval training to target specific physiological variables, and the physiology of recovery intervals, my chapter contributions to Chapter 13: “Some Training Methods for Middle and Long Distance Running,” appears in the new fifth edition of Track & Field Omnibook, published by Tafnews Press.

 

My Fitness News contributions on the value of recovery, hypertrophy, weight lifting speed, muscle squeezing, zapping calories, and better body image with weight training appear in the April, 2007 issue of Oxygen magazine, on newsstands in March.

 

Also look for my quotes on losing fat and building muscle in the “You Ask! We Answer...” column in the April, 2007 issue of Oxygen magazine, on newsstands in March. 

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©2007 Jason Karp.  All rights reserved.