A Word on Nutrition

Hmmm..... where to start?  So, there are more diets, cleanses and food choices out there than I care to list and mention; hence, I shall refrain.  But, with all the theories discussing macronutrient (carbs, fats, proteins) ratios, foods to avoid, nutrient timing, intermitent fasting, etc., etc. the science of nutrition can quickly become muddied.  In the discussion to follow I hope to give a clear presentation of some simple ways to have a quality diet that will fuel your lifestyle and enhance your health.  I do feel obligated, however, to mention that I hold no credentials within nutrition specifically.  As a trainer, coach and athlete I take my own nutrition seriously and I find the topic quite interesting and, therefore, try to keep myself informed with the latest and greatest of the current theories, along with the occasional thorough investigation of the "old school" training/dieting methods.  With that said, what comes to follow is based off my own reading/research/experience, I try to base my opinions off of the science I find to support them,  but, in all honesty, the following is mostly just that - my opinion, so take it for what it's worth.

Probably the most controversial issue in the nutrition world today is that of low-carb diets.  We all remember the popular Atkins diet that demanded followers to adhere to fewer than 20 grams of carbohydrate a day, and we all probably remember how nutrition experts ripped the diet to shreds stating that prolonged, drastic carb restriction would lead to nutrient deficiencies due to the lack of fruits and vegetables in the diet and the "risks" associated with prolonged ketosis and possiblity of developing ketoacidosis.  However, there remain advocates of the low-carb lifestyle.  These folks tend to take the stance that our primitive ancestors lived as hunter-gatherers and foraged off of roots, tubers, wild plants and nuts, and hunted game - a huge difference from our modern day convenience diet.  Thus, they claim that our digestive systems have not adapted to the demands that grains and dairy put on the gastrointestinal tract making the elimination of such foods from the diet necessary.  Yet, the main stream thought teaches that high-carb is the way to go.  Who is right?  Well, both, sort of.

The science behind low-carb diets as a tool for weight loss is absolutely correct.  If you eliminate all carbohydrates you will get lighter and you will lose fat, but you will also feel extremely lethargic and become quite malnourished.  What makes it correct?  Blood glucose levels are the primary triggers for the release of the hormone insulin.  When insulin is circulating through the blood stream cells are instructed to take up nutrients and store them, this includes adipose tissue (fat cells).  If blood glucose levels are low the hormone glucagon is secreted into the blood stream which tells the body's cells to make use of stored enegy by releasing fatty acids (from trigylcerides stored in adipose tissue) and amino acids (stored as muscle tissue) into the blood stream some of which will be used directly by cells for energy and some of which that will be converted to glucose via gluconeogenesis in the liver.  So, remove carbs, eliminate insulin, force your body to use its own fat/protein stores for energy.  Sounds perfect, the ultimate weight loss/get ripped solution, right?  Not quite.  In order to completely eliminate carbohydrates one must not only nix cookies and breads, but fruits, vegetables and most diary, as well.  It is easy to see how following such a strict diet regimen would lead to numerous vitamin and mineral deficiencies.  Not to mention, the alleged strain placed on the kidneys (due to nitrogen byproducts of protein metabolism) and liver (from increased gluconeogenesis and ketone manufacturing), and the risk of excessive ketone accumulation which could lead to a state of ketoacidosis where blood pH drops below optimum which then wreaks havoc on a host of physiological processes.  These claims, however, have not been verified conclusively by experiment, but the implications are there; nonetheless, you will find plenty of experts that support one side or the other.  The fact of the matter is that a diet so limiting is not only going to be next to impossible to follow, but won't leave much room for enjoying food.  And, we all know that food is pretty awesome, especially when it is delicious.  So, if low-carb diets are a no go, logic would lead us to believe that the common wisdom of a primarily carbohydrate diet must be the ticket.  Again, not quite that simple.

Why not load up on the carbs?  Our aforementioned friend insulin steps into the lime-light once again.  As stated above when insulin is present in the blood stream our cells receive the message to store and take in nutrients, so when we load up on carbs (especially sugars and refined flours) those carbs reach the blood very quickly and cause a corresponding insulin spike leading to a rapid uptake of all that glucose packing your blood, the result being a "sugar crash" and an excess amount of energy for your cells.  And, what happens to that excess energy?  You already know the answer - yup, it goes straight to your butt or gut (i.e. is stored as fat).  This is obviously a bit of an oversimplification, but for the sake of space and time we will leave it at this for our discussion of why carbs get a bad wrap.  But, to clarify, carbs themselves are not inherently "bad," sugar and refined carbs (white in color, stripped of the germ and hence any nutrients) and mass amounts of carbohydrate consumed in a single sitting are bad.

Now, to the question of the hour, so, what the heck should we eat?!?  Well, as usual, we should take to heart the lessons of both views and combine them into one super diet that not only energizes the body, but repairs it and nourishes it, as well.  A diet that performs said duties consists of a variety of fruits and vegetables, plenty of protein from lean meats and dairy, and some whole grains.  By incorporating enough carbohydrate sources (primarily fruits and vegetables, with some whole grain) we provide our bodies with enough easy-to-use fuel to allow for consistent training and energy levels, and by avoiding excessive intake we avoid insulin spikes and the perils therewith.  The only way for you to determine your ultimate diet is to try a variety of whole (organic if you can afford it and have a market available to you) foods, cooked and prepared in a number of ways and see how you like them and how you feel.  You need to have the freedom within your diet to be able to pick out foods that you actually like, because, let's face it, who doesn't like to eat, especially when it tastes most satisfying.  You won't stick to any diet/eating lifestyle if every meal is a drudgery.  Also, everyone's system responds to different foods differently.  Thus, you need to find foods that sit well with your GI tract and make you feel satiated but not bloated.

And, now, for my rant.  I have to admit that I am a bit of a foody.  In a strictly non-feminine manner, I love cooking and trying new recipes, especially when these culinary experiments produce a most delightful dinner.  Food is a necessity of life and no one should have to constantly be measuring, counting and stressing about what's in it, is it good for you, will it make you fat, give you cancer, etc., etc.  It should and can be a very enjoyable part of your day.  With that said, I hate how the food industry has sold its soul to the almighty dollar and throws out nutritious quality to save a few bucks, I am disappointed that nutrition and dieting companies push their own agendas sometimes even while neglecting scientific fact, again just to make more money, and I am frustrated that our experts can't come to a concensus on pretty much anything and instead of informing the public on how to eat a healthy diet, people are left confused with no where to turn.  No wonder so many people are getting fat!!!  It's just a lot easier to say, "Screw it!  I'm getting a Big Mac!" than it is to research and pick a side on the nutrition debate, hunt down the allowed foods, pick out recipes, go shopping again for all the small ingredients you forgot, prepare and cook each dish, and finally get your family together to sit down and enjoy a meal.  It saddens me to no end that this train of thought is becoming more and more prominent.  Thus, if I may, I would like to present some basic suggestions:

1.  Keep it simple.  Don't try to trick anybody into thinking you're a gourmet chef.  Stick with some basic meals/recipes with ingredients you know.  Don't get to worked up over brands or try to find the most exotic fruits and vegetables.  Simply, incorporate as much fresh (local and organic if possible) produce as you can, keep the meats lean and the grains whole.

2.  Let color be your guide.  Nutrition experts and magazines will tell you to use all sorts of trackers and computer programs to input your daily food intake and then analyze your nutrient intake one vitamin and mineral at a time.  But, who has the time to do all that, and who really cares that much.  If you are consuming plenty of bright colors in your diet every day and avoiding most of the whites and beiges more than likely you are getting the majority of the vitamins and minerals that you need.  So, try to eat as many purples, reds, oranges, yellows and dark greens as you can and, apart from a specific dietary deficiency brought upon by medical condition, you can rest assured you are meeting the majority of your nutrient needs.

3. Go local/organic within reason.  Not only is it good to support your local economic sphere by buying from co-ops and farmers' markets, but these tend to be the source of the freshest and, hence, best produce.  If you can find organic stuff, great, but don't lose sleep over it.  Yes, organic food has been shown to have slightly higher nutrient densities, but non-organic aren't devoid of nutrients by any means.  If you can't afford the organic option, don't sweat it, take care to wash the pesticides off the conventional option and eat hearty.

4.  Lastly, enjoy it!  Food is good!  It's good for you, it's delicious, it brings people together.  Good stuff!  So, eat good food, avoid crap and don't let all those "theories" get you worked up.

As always, your questions are encouraged (shoot us an email) and your comments welcomed.

-CNV

Work, work, work! ...and fitting in some "me" time!

Speed sessions, strength training, endurance work, and - as discussed last time - rest, there is a lot of stuff to try to accomplish regularly in your training and exercise program, and in the daily stresses and interferences that life consists of and trying to fit all this stuff in can quickly become a cumbersome task.  Although I am not a fan of being overly regimented, having a plan of attack outlined is definitely a good way to take on your goals, manage your time and be a bit more productive.

Part 3:  Planning your Program for You!

The first thing that you need to do when sitting down and attempting to organize your workouts is to determine what your ultimate goal is.  Is it maximize endurance?  Get a little faster?  Fine tune your physique? Or fit into those ever elusive skinny jeans?  Thus, depending on what your primary goal is you will need to emphasize specific workouts to attain those results.  If your goal is endurance the long, slow sessions should be your focus using some higher intensity sessions and strength training as supplemental workouts and to keep all your energy systems active.  The same principles should be used any other goals:  primary workouts should focus on your goal while other workouts should still be included in your plan to balance overall fitness and to allow for some active recovery.

Once you have determined your goals and primary training focus you can begin scheduling some training sessions.  The first things to be scheduled should be your key workouts.  Pick one, maybe two (if you have sufficient base fitness established) days where you feel consistantly energized and enthusiastic about your training.  Use this as your key training day.  It is important that you complete these key sessions, not necessarily on the day originally scheduled (things always come up), but if you had a 10 mile run planned for a week as a primary workout, make sure you fit that in at some point.  Your key workouts are the main forces driving adaptation and improved fitness.

After your key workouts are scheduled it is now of utmost importance to plan in some scheduled rest.  I am an advocate of allocating one complete rest day each week, and that will usually occur after a key workout - since those tend to be particularly taxing.  If two tougher workouts are planned in a week, try incorporating an active recovery day or maybe do an upper body strength routine to give your legs a rest.

So, what's next?  Nothing really.  Once you have a few key workouts scheduled and have allowed some time for rest you are well on your way towards your goals, at least.  You have the option of incorporating some supplementary workouts (like speed sessions or strength training), but these don't necessarily need to be "planned".  There is a caveat here though.  If you favor a flexibile schedule and prefer to fit in some high intensity efforts occasionally in addition to your key workouts, it will be very important to be cognizant of how hard you're pushing yourself to avoid any type of overtraining. I don't mean to be overly simplistic, obviously, it gets more complicated if you are attempting some more lofty goals, such as specific race results, PRs, etc., but for the recreational competitor, or general health enthusiast, this minimalist approach will help achieve better fitness. 

What to do with those extra days if no specific supplemental session is planned?  Enjoy them.  Get out and be active with your family or just participate in your favorite activity or sport.  When you don't have an extremely regimented schedule, you will often times avoid those feelings of guilt for missing a workout and won't have that pressure to hit a specific number and a specific day, you allow for flexibility and fun while still having a plan.

Wait! This is way to simple!  What about all those pace sessions, heart rate training zones and lactate threshold workouts?  You ask.  Don't get me wrong, these are great training tools and workouts, that are specific in their nature and absolutely necessary when pursuing highly specific competitive goals, but are your goals that competitive and specific?  If yes, then a more detailed approach to your training is certainly a need and is a discussion that exceeds the space, time, audience and effort that this article addresses.  If you are reading this and feel cheated out of the advice you were looking for, I encourage you to e-mail us with your questions, and I would be more than happy to help you out.  If your goals, are general in nature, don't worry about all the numbers and stats unless that stuff interests you.  At the end of the day, the only training plan that you will stick with is the one you enjoy, so, for the most part, stick to that.  A little bit of planning is always helpful, but you don't have to have every workout written down and scheduled for the next decade.  Relax, enjoy your runs/rides/walks/yoga/weight lifting/swimming/(your activity of choice here), and focus on how good you feel when you're done and how your workout was just worth it.

-CNV

Work, work, work! ...and fitting in some "me" time!

Last time we took a quick look at the time-honored debate between intensity and duration, and there is one thing that I would like to clarify before we move on to our next topic of discussion:  I, by no means, was implying that high-intensity sessions are a waste of time or that long, moderate intensity work outs are superior to them.  I, simply, wanted to emphasize that the two are not the same, they train different systems and, therefore, are not interchangeable workouts.  Both serve their purpose in a well-thought out training plan and both should be included regularly in any structured exercise program.  It is important to remember, however, that both long sessions and high-intensity work both put a large amount of stress on your body and, therefore, fitting in adequate rest and recovery is paramount.

Part 2:  Rest - You NEED It!

Believe you me, I am all about testing and finding your limits.  I can often be quoted as saying (mostly in a joking manner), "Sleep is for the WEAK!"  I constantly find myself seeking out a bigger and better challenge, and I don't like to admit that I need rest days to recover at least once a week.  I wish that the old adage, "more is better," was completely, instead of somewhat, true, but there certainly is a point of diminishing return.  I find myself writing this, in part, to remind myself of the need for rest, so I apologize if I appear to just be talking to myself occasionally, please bear with me.  But, anywho, let us investigate why rest and recovery really is a pretty good thing.

Okay, a common misconception about working out is that the work out itself is what makes us fitter.  But, actually, it is RECOVERING from our training that leads to improved results.  While we are exercising, essentially we are breaking our body down:  we are metabolizing carbs, fats and proteins; we're causing microtrauma to our working muscles; and, we are subjecting our bones and joints to large amounts of stress, not things that make us stronger.  But, when we put our bodies through such training and allow it to rest, our bodies do something that is really pretty awesome:  it rebuilds itself just a little bit better so that the next time it encounters such stressors it will be more capable of handling it.  It's this ability to adapt that makes periodization, progressive overload and "muscle confusion" so effective as training tools. 

So, what happens if you neglect rest and recovery?  Well, you will probably be okay for a little while, at least.  Pushing the limits for a short period, like a preseason training camp, is called overreaching, and done with in limits is quite valuable and falls within the "more is better" adage.  However, overreach for too long and you can easily slip into the dangerous cascade of overtraining where symptoms such as insomnia, gastrointenstinal distress, irregular heart beat, lethargy, weakened immune function, etc. quickly begin to appear and wreak havoc on, not only your training, but your life, as well. 

How can you avoid said symptoms?  Without sounding too cliche or new ageish, the best thing you can do to avoid overtraining is to listen to your body.  If you are feeling abnormally achy or sore or if you are lacking motivation or just aren't feeling up to your planned workout, either take a day off or just go out for an easy spin, run or walk to shake the cob webs out and see how you feel.  If things ever stop being fun you need to seriously reconsider your current plan.  If you're forcing yourself to roll out of bed every morning and hit the pavement and dreading it, give yourself a  break.  Everyone will have their own reasons for working out (general health, weight loss, racing, etc.) but to some level we all do it because we enjoy it, and that's the way it should be.  Basically, if you don't feel like it when you normally do, maybe you should just take it easy.  If this touchy-feely stuff doesn't appeal to you, you keep a log and track all sorts of numbers and measures and you want a more concrete way to tell if you're pushing your luck, check your resting heart rate.  This is not a fool proof method, but does a decent job.  If you are feeling particularly sluggish on a given day and that is accompanied by a change of +/- 5 beats per minute, you are most likely not completely recovered, and need at least an easy day if not a complete rest day.

Ultimately, rest is good, it allows your body to become stronger and refreshes your motivation.  When you feel a bit lack-luster, it doesn't mean you're weak or out of shape, it just means you've been working hard.  If going by feel is tough and you just feel guilty when you decide last minute to take a rest day, it may be beneficial for you to have one or two days scheduled into your training plan as designated rest days.  This has worked well for me.  Unless the weather is way too nice, I always plan on Sundays being a lounge around day with the family.  If you feel that scheduling rest days is something that would be beneficial for you and your training plan, keep your eye out for Part 3 where I will be laying out some guidelines for creating your own perfect program for your time crunched schedule.

-CNV

Work, work, work! ...and fitting in some "me" time!

The dream of doing nothing but our favorite thing(s) all day, day-in and day-out, is one that, unfortunately, is not realized all that often.  Real life has a knack for getting in the way.  Whether your commitments involve a job, a family, school, household projects, volunteering, involvement in some organization(s) or a combination of any or all of the above, no one quite gets as much leisure time as they would like to devote to their activity of choice.  When time is limited it is of utmost importance to make the most of that which we have.  Aside from being a complete machine that can run off of virtually zero sleep, most people are trying to do the best they can with 6-10 hours of quality training time each week.  Now, we need to fit in aerobic base training, threshold hold training, speed training, strength training and rest in there - whew!  How the heck are we going to do all this!!!  The following series will take a look at some training philosophies and methods, give some only slightly biased advice and hopefully give you some information and knowledge that will better enable you to make the most of the time you have.

Part 1:  Intensity vs. Duration

One of the most common training philosophies out there is that if you are a time-crunched athlete - like any of us who have a real life outside of our hobbies - that you can make up for the loss of volume (which invariable occurs since we cannot devote multiple days a week to 4-6 hour endurance workouts) by ramping up the intensity of the workouts that you can fit in.  This seems very intriguing.  If I can accomplish in 30-60 minutes what would otherwise take a number of hours why even bother with the longer option?  For the time-limited athlete that just seems stupid.

Okay, so for starters, do harder workouts really make up for longer ones?  Well, sort of.  Let's take a look at what is going on at the cellular level to gain a better understanding of what these two training techniques are accomplishing. 

When you train at moderate intensities for extended periods of time your muscle cells adapt by: increasing mitochondrial density (the little guys that make energy production possbile), enhancing  the ability to store gylcogen (the storage form of carbohydrate) and use fat as an energy source (hopefully no explanation is needed here), and storing more enzymes needed to carry out the chemical reactions needed to release energy.  Your cardiovascular system reacts by producing more capillaries (the tiniest of blood vessels where nutrient exchance occurs) and by increasing the heart's stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped per beat).  Collectively, all of these rather small adaptations build off one another and increase your aerobic capacity.

High intensity training causes small increases in the above cellular adaptions and increasing the heart's stroke volume, but primarily leads to increases in an improved ability to buffer lactic acid (the by product of glycolysis - the energy system used at high intensities when insufficient oxygen is available) and with slightly longer efforts you will begin to see improvements in your lactate threshold (the point at which your body switches from primarily aerobic energy systems to primarily anaerobic systems).  Being able to buffer lactic acid better means that the burning sensation you get in your legs while running 400s will be lessened and having a higher lactate threshold means that you can work harder before that burning sensation starts.  These adaptations lead to a reduction in perceived exertion which is what we usually use to measure our level of fitness when lacking sophisticated equipment, but we don't quite see the same results as moderate intensity work. 

With that said, can intervals simply replace the longer sessions?   Not really.  Similar benefits are achieved, but the foundation that endurance training establishes cannot be substituted.  Further, more intervals and intensity work requires more rest and recovery (more on this next time) which effectively will limit the amount of training you can do.  But, intervals are a great workout that allows you to fit a lot of quality work in a small amount of time.  In an ideal world we would combine the two ends of the training spectrum in such a way that you would be transformed into an aerobic monster that devours any and all challenges that confront him.  But, unless you have lots of time this isn't the most feasible endeavor to pursue.  So, where does that leave us who are without million dollar sponsorships, but have a job and a family?  Unfortunately, we are stuck in limbo trying to maximize our aerobic endurance without being able to fully commit to the training necessary to do so.

As much as I hate to do this I have to leave you hanging a bit.  I can't lay out a general suggestion for balancing intensity and duration as it is way too variable between athletes.  I can say, however, that if you try to incorporate at least one workout of each form each week you will be off to a good start.  In light of that, the following are the best "general" recommendations I can give. 

1.  Schedule a day each week that you have minimal work and/or family commitments to fit in a long session.  Do this workout at a comfortable intensity, just enjoy the time out there doing the activity you love to do.

2.  Pick out at least one day, maybe two, where you consistently feel good and energized to schedule your high intensity work out.  Do repeats of a relatively short (30 sec to 5 min) but intense intervals.  It is important to allow yourself adequate rest, not only between intervals, but the rest of that day and the probably the next.  

3.  Fit in some strength training.  You can either do this by devoting one whole workout to it, or just by doing a quick circuit of push-ups, pull-ups and core work after two or three of your shorter workouts.

4.  Since at this point you have only two or three workouts that you "need" to fit into your week, you can now use the remaining time, if you so choose, to do whatever you want.  Some of this should be rest, but otherwise it can just be an unstructured fun run or your favorite trail or road to run, ride or hike, but, whatever it is, you should just enjoy it.

If you have any questions or would like a more detailed answer for your specific situation, shoot us an email and we would love to help you out.  Keep an eye out for Part 2 where we will investigate the NEED for adequate rest and recovery.

-CNV

Maybe the gym rats are on to something.

Well, now that we have established that there aren't many legitimate excuses for not following some form of a strength program, let me now state my case for why strength training is not only invaluable to your training/fitness, it is pretty awesome, as well.

Part 2:  Strength Training - You Should Just Do It

Benefit #1:  Stronger Muscles
This one should be pretty self-evident, but it never hurts to reiterate - when you train your body for strength it gets stronger!  There are a number of reasons why it is beneficial to have a little more oomph in your muscles, no matter what your fitness level or your goals.  Increases in strength will most notably lead to decreases in your perceived exertion.  To translate that means that things will feel easier and this benefit will carry over to all aspects of your life.  Lugging groceries in from your car will feel easier, trudging up flights of stairs won't leave you gasping for breath and walking/running/riding up Bliss Road won't seem quite so tough, either.  From a performance enhancement perspective, increases in strength will correspond with the capability of generating a higher maximum force which will likely lead to a greater peak power.  So, as a result, you will be able to go harder, longer and it won't feel like death - not quite as much, at least. 

Benefit #2:  Injury Prevention
One of the most frustrating things that active people have to endure is being sidelined due to injury, especially if that injury occurs mid-season when you are feeling your best and the weather is most excellent.  Let's face it, nobody likes to be stuck on the couch with a bag of frozen peas wrapped to an achy ankle watching another rerun of _______ (insert annoying sitcom here) when everyone else is out enjoying the sunshine and hitting the trails.  A balanced strength program will lead to greater joint stabalization, increased bone density and stronger connective tissues all of which will enhance your body's ability to handle whatever type of activity you decide to subject it to.  Thus, by incorporating a bit of strength work early on, you can not only build a stronger foundation off of which to build, but you will be taking preventative measures against a possible set back later in the year. 

Benefit #3:  Improved Efficiency
Improved efficiency?  How can doing push-ups or squats make me not waste as much energy and/or effort, you ask?  I understand that this is not a common claim you hear associated with strength training, so strap on your thinking caps and hold on to your trousers, as I am about to take you on a crash course in physiology and teach you a bit about what is going on inside your muscles while you are pumping iron. 

First of all, if you are relatively new to strength training and/or weight lifting, you will likely notice drastic improvements in the amount of weight that you can lift within the first few weeks.  Just as you are getting excited about how quickly you are adding weights to the bar at the bench press and starting to wonder if maybe you should compete in the next Strongman competition, your results start to taper off - your gains in the weight room aren't as much and it takes longer to see them, what's going on?  Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but those original gains in the amount of weight you were lifting were not gains in strength, they were gains in efficiency - more specifically muscle recruitment.  So, let me explain. Your muscles are comprised of a huge number of individual muscle fibers.  These fibers are grouped together in a series of subunits until they eventually make up the entirety of any given muscle.  Now, your muscle fibers are activated by motor neurons and each motor neuron will activate anywhere from just a few to thousands of individual fibers, and every time this neuron fires all the fibers it activates will contract.  This team of motor neuron and muscle fibers is collectively called a motor unit.  So, the first adaptation your body makes to strength training occurs through fine tuning your recruitment of motor units.  You get "stronger" so quickly at the outset because your muscles are learning to use more motor units and to recruit them simultaneously - more motor units working + more motor units working together = more force produced.  The sum of the preceding equation shows that by starting a new strength program we have increased force production without a corresponding increase in actual muscle fiber strength; this is our first step to improved efficiency.

Onward on our journey we go.  The actual gains in real strength that your muscles see are due to increases in the number of filaments (actin and myosin) and the corresponding number crossbridges formed between them.  Actin and myosin are the filaments that pull on one another allowing muscles to contract.  Thus, by generating more filaments within a muscle fiber there are more filaments pulling on each other allowing for more force to be generated.  The resulting formula:  more filaments contracting + more filaments pulling in more places = more force produced per fiber = more force produced per motor unit.  This increase in true strength allows you to raise your maximums and adjust your training intensity; therefore, you can work at a harder level without a corresponding increase in perceived exertion.  For example, a 2002 article in the European Journal of Applied Physiology1 found that individuals who took part in a hi-rep strength training program saw improvements in both maximum aerobic power and time to exhaustion.

I feel like I am getting long winded here, and could quite possibly be losing a good portion of my audience, so, this will be the last stop on our journey; but, it will be exciting, I promise.   Apart from enhancing motor unit recruitment and increasing maximum thresholds strength training can also improve your body's ability to deliver crucial nutrients to your working muscles.  In 1991 Acta Physiologica2 B.M. Hather et. al. found that those who strength trained using concentric contractions increased the number of capillaries per muscle fiber.  Capillaries are the smallest blood vessels where nutrient exchange takes place.  Therefore, by having more capillaries more things, like oxygen and glucose, can be delivered to your muscles.  Now, by allowing more oxygen to be delivered with each beat of your heart you will notice that things that used to leave you grasping your chest won't seem as difficult.

All-in-all, our total equation for improved efficiency with strength training is as follows:

strength training = more capillaries to muscle fibers = more capacity for work per fiber =
more contractions from filaments + more filaments contracting + more filaments pulling in more places =
more force per filament = more force per motor unit + more motor units working + more units working together = more force from your muscles = more maximum power

Whew!  Well, if you've made it this far and are still reading this I assume that I didn't lose you and you now have a deeper understanding of why strength training is a good thing.  So, I encourage you to get out there and give it a try.  If you're convinced to start incorporating some push-ups and such, but aren't sure exactly how, shoot us an e-mail and we would be more than happy to give you some tips/guidelines/suggestions.

-CNV

1. Campos, G.E., et.al.  Muscular adaptations in response to three different resistance training regimens:  Specificity of repitition maximum training zones.  European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2002.

2.  Hather, B.M., et.al.  Influence of eccentric actions on skeletal muscle adaptations to resistance training.  Acta Physiologica, 1991.