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Try Swimming This Summer

Swimming is one of the best activities that you can perform for overall physical fitness. First, swimming involves almost all of your major muscle groups. For example, the standard crawl stroke uses the neck, shoulder, chest, back, triceps, and biceps muscles of the upper body, the abdominal, low back, and oblique muscles of the midsection, and the gluteal, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calf muscles of the legs.

Second, swimming is an excellent exercise for conditioning your cardiovascular system. Although you won't go as far in a 20-minute swim as you will during 20 minutes of walking, running, or cycling, the cardiovascular benefits are essentially the same.

Third, swimming seems to enhance joint flexibility, especially in the neck, shoulders, hips, and midsection area. Much of this is due to the repetitive twisting movements as your body turns from side to side during the crawl stroke.

Of course, exercising in water is a totally different experience than land-based activity. For one thing, swimming requires a horizontal body position that places less stress on your heart with respect to blood circulation. The gentle pressure of the water against your skin also enhances blood circulation.

Because water is an isokinetic medium, the resistance varies in proportion to your muscle force. That is, when you give low muscle force against the water you encounter relatively low resistance from the water, and when you give high muscle force against the water you receive relatively high resistance from the water.

Another advantage of aquatic exercise is the cooling effect of the water. Unlike hot weather activity on land, you are unlikely to overheat when swimming. What could be better than a cool pool, lake or ocean in which to exercise on a hot summer day.

With so many reasons to enjoy swimming, why do so few adults spend time in the water? The major problem for some adults is lack of confidence in their swimming ability. This can be easily overcome by a few lessons or a refresher swimming course. However, I find that most adults do not understand how to swim long enough for fitness benefits. To make a land activity analogy, they start out running rather than walking. In other words, instead of starting with a slow swimming speed and gradually picking up the pace new swimmers tend to sprint a lap or two, exhausting themselves and ending their exercise session prematurely. By so doing, they miss both the enjoyment and the fitness benefit of this fine physical activity.

Although swimming is excellent exercise, it should be performed in a relaxed manner. Your arms and legs should feel loose and your movements should be balanced and coordinated. If you feel tight or tense, simply slow down and let the water work with you rather than against you. Because the water buoys up your body, you can swim very slowly and still maintain your top-of-the-water body position.

By the way, unless you want to swim competitively, do not compare yourself with other swimmers. Body build plays a major role in swimming speed, but it has little effect on your fitness outcome. For example, people who are wide from side to side and thin from front to back seem to skim over the water surface like a surfboard. On the other hand, people who are narrow from side to side and thick from front to back encounter much more water resistance and must work much harder at a given swimming pace. The solution is to swim for yourself at a comfortable speed, and let the faster swimmers use the high speed lanes.

As an aerobic conditioning activity, you should aim for at least 20 minutes of continuous swimming. However, until you develop sufficient cardiovascular endurance, you may vary the pace throughout your 20-minute swimming session. Consider the following training progression for beginning a fitness-oriented swimming program. For best results, stay within the guidelines that gradually increase the swimming distance and the number of faster-paced laps.

Look for a sample swimming workout next week

Cycling 101

Thinking of trying out bicycle racing? Racing can provide an outlet for that competitive energy while providing a great focus for training, developing technical skills and a fun way to spend your free time.

Many misconceptions surround the art of bicycle racing; primary among these is that you need to be a "fast" rider. Although helpful, many great racers are only "B" riders while many "A" and "AA" riders are too undisciplined to become successful racers. Bicycle racing is more like chess being played at 30 mph!

Talent & Genetics

Talent, such as tactical skill; and the abilities to rapidly accelerate, to tolerate pain, and to function anaerobically for relatively long periods of time are much more significant factors than raw speed or power.

In addition, genetic factors come into play. Hill climbing ability is highly correlated to body weight and thus favors smaller riders.

Sprinters tend to be larger of stature and capable of working above lactate threshold for long periods of time.

Although genetic factors cannot be discounted, they won't prevent you from becoming a good all around rider and kicking some butt at your local races.

Touring Clubs

What do you do if, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"? In other words, what to do if your skills just don't match up with your desire to race or your ability to hold your own on a group ride? Join a touring club!

Touring clubs usually offer group rides for riders of varying ability. Typically, rides are rated on difficulty and riding ability necessary to complete the ride, ranging from "D", or beginner, to "AA" or very advanced.

Touring clubs provide a structured way to improve your riding skills to the desired level by participating in regular, group rides. You can start out participating in rides suitable to your ability, let's say "C" or "CC" and, over time as your skill set increases, you can move up to the next ride level. You can also make some great friends along the way!

Racing Clubs

So let's say that you've been biking for some time, have acquired some technical skills, are a "B" rider or better, have the competitive urge, and want to try your hand at something more advanced.

What do you do next? Joining a racing club is a good first move.

Group or pack riding skills are essential to a successful racer.

Techniques such as pace line work, cornering in a pack, riding comfortably in close proximity to other riders, sustaining bumps, contact and intimidating behavior from other riders can only be accomplished by participating in group training rides.

Finding the Right Club 

So how do you find a racing club that's right for you? Many clubs are sponsored by Local Bicycle Shops. Try hanging out at some shops and talking to the owner and staff. Another way is to talk to other riders in those local group rides you've been participating in. After identifying a club, try joining in on several of their training rides.

How do the club members make you feel? Do they provide a competitive, yet supportive, environment? You don't feel too comfortable, do you? Generally, you want to surround yourself with riders who, while supportive, will help guide and push you to greater skill levels.

Race club's are great for "learning the ropes" from skilled and experienced riders. These riders should also be skilled at pointing out and identifying your weak areas and suggest routes to improvement in an encouraging fashion. Don't hesitate to shop around! Join in as many different club rides as you can! You'll soon find a club that "feels right".

Races

So we keep talking about "bicycle racing" but what exactly is a bicycle race? You can train all you want, participate in as many group rides as your legs can withstand, and join the best racing club in the world but for what? What is the focus of all this labor of love?

Essentially, there are three basic types of races:

1. Time Trials
2. Criteriums
3. Road Races

All are fun and all require a different skill set from a rider.

1. Time Trial 

A Time Trial (TT) is the purest form of racing and is also called "The Race of Truth" as it only involves you racing against the clock. A TT is usually 15 km (about 10 miles) or, more commonly, 40 km (about 25 miles) although there is no stipulation on route length.

They are also usually held on relatively flat terrain although a hill or two can be thrown in to spice things up a bit. Riders are released, one at a time at 30 second intervals, from a stationary position. Riders proceed at their highest continuous speed, usually just below their lactate threshold.

Cadence tends to be lower in TT's then in other types of races, usually hovering between 70-80 rpm. The two key words worthy of note are "highest" and "continuous". It is said that if you don't throw up after a TT you didn't try hard enough! Yet particular emphasis must be placed on pacing yourself or else you'll throw up well before the finish line!

At the end of a TT individual times are posted with the rider with the lowest time winning the trial. Team Time Trials (TTT) also exist with teams consisting of two to nine riders being common. TT's are usually favored by beginning racers as they require no pack skills and tend to be safer than criteriums and road races.

2. Criteriums 

Criteriums, or crits, are races peculiar to the United States and Canada and are responsible for American racer's legendary cornering abilities. They tend to be held on short, less than 3 mile, and circuits usually about a mile long. They are usually oval, square or "D" shaped with the most common being held in business/industrial parks or the four streets forming a city block. Crits are composed of laps, usually 12 for "C" races, 20 for "B" races and 30 for "A" races.

The crit is probably the most common form of bike racing in the U.S. and the first race a novice is usually exposed to. Crits are very fast, usually between 25-30+ mph, and very demanding. The ability to pedal through, and sprint out of, corners is paramount. Crits are subject to the "accordion effect", or the tendency to slow down when entering then sprinting when exiting corners - more pronounced the further back in the group you are.

Crits require the ability to sustain high speeds for the duration of the race as well as the ability to sustain frequent and numerous anaerobic exertions. Taking advantage of wind direction, track layout and condition, and, most importantly, drafting off of stronger riders is imperative to successful crit racing.

3. Road Races 

Road Races are what one usually thinks of when thinking of professional bicycle racing. Most often between 40 and 100 miles in length, they can be comprised of numerous laps or just one lap. The terrain is heterogeneous-made up of climbs, descents, and flats and are most often held as a race between two towns. The various stages of the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and Vuelta a Espana are, for the most part, road races.

Road races combine the technical skill and high speeds of a crit with the endurance requirements of a TT. Not as common in the United States as in Europe they are most often held in rural, mountainous areas.

Conclusion

I hope that this brief article provides a general overview of, and introduction to, the great sport of bicycle racing. Although this article barely scratches the surface of this complex and demanding sport, I hope it will encourage and tempt the average bicycle rider to broaden their horizons to include racing.

In the future I hope to write more in depth articles on the various aspects of this rewarding sport such as training techniques, nutrition, and supplementation. Now, get out there and race!

Tennis Training

Tennis requires excellent hand-eye coordination, good agility, and keen spatial awareness. A good match provides both anaerobic and aerobic conditioning. Although skill is essential for top-level tennis, technique and development is easier if you are fit. This is also a critical factor for staying power during the second and third sets.

Fitness comes in many forms, and conditioning is specific to the training program. For example, joint flexibility is enhanced through stretching exercises, cardiovascular endurance is improved through aerobic activity, and muscular strength is increased through resistance training. Certainly, all of these fitness components may contribute to better tennis performance. If I had to focus on one area of physical conditioning, however, it would undoubtedly be strength exercise.

General Strength Exercises

Tennis involves a lot of musculoskeletal activity, including movements in the legs, midsection, upper body, and arms. You should therefore train all of the major muscle groups. This ensures overall strength and balanced muscle development to enhance performance power and reduce the risk of injuries. The exercises below provide a solid base of conditioning from which to progress into more specific training when you are ready.

The exercises are presented from the larger muscles of the legs to the smaller muscles to the abdominals, which is the recommended order of performance. Two to threesets of each exercise is preferred, make sure you train with good form and reach the point of muscle fatigue. Because intensity is the key to strength development, use enough resistance to fatigue the target muscle groups within about 50-70 seconds. In general, this corresponds to the heaviest weight load that you can lift for 8 to 12 controlled repetitions.

Each repetition should be completed in approximately six seconds, with two seconds for the lifting movement and four seconds for the lowering movement. The slower lowering phase emphasizes the

stronger negative muscle contraction, and should make each exercise set more productive. It is also important to perform each repetition through a full range of movement. This enhances both joint integrity and flexibility.

As your muscles become stronger, it is essential to progressively increase the work effort. This is best accomplished by gradually increasing the exercise resistance. Once you complete 12 repetitions, the weight load is no longer heavy enough to produce maximum strength benefits. By increasing the resistance about 5 percent (typically 2.5 to 5 pounds), you can continue to stimulate strength development.

Depending on your activity schedule, you may train two or three days per week. Research shows that three sessions per week are more effective than two sessions, but either exercise protocol will produce excellent strength results if you follow the recommended training guidelines.

Specific Strength Exercises

After two months of basic training, you should be ready for some additional strength exercises. These should not replace the general workout program, but should provide supplementary training relevant to tennis performance.

Begin with the powerful leg muscles that generate the force for your ground strokes, as well as your movements across the court. In addition to the quadriceps and hamstrings, the hip adductors and abductors play a major role in your weight shifts and lateral movements. These opposing muscle groups on the inner and outer thighs are best trained with the any Adductor and Abductor Machine.

Due to the stop-and-go movements that require almost continuous force production and absorption in the lower leg muscles, it is prudent to perform some calf strengthening exercises. The Seated Calf Machine is highly effective for targeting the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles of the calves.

The power generated by the large leg muscles is transferred to the upper body through the trunk muscles. Because swinging movements (ground strokes and serves) involve the obliques, these muscles should be strengthened for maximum force development. Sit ups and crunches as well as abdominal machines strengthen the internal and external oblique muscles on both sides of the midsection. The most vulnerable area of the upper body muscles is the shoulder joint. The deltoid muscles provide most of the movement force, but the rotator cuff muscles provide most of the joint control. The teres minor, infraspinatus, supraspinatus, and subscapularis muscles are the keys to increased joint integrity and decreased injury risk. The best means for specifically addressing the rotary cuff muscles is the Shoulder Press.

Due to the extensive wrist action required in tennis play, the forearm muscles can be overstressed, leading to injury at the elbow or wrist joints. Forearm exercises provide should be done so that separate wrist movements occur to condition the forearm muscles comprehensively. Few exercises are better suited to tennis players, especially for increasing grip strength and reducing injury potential.

One method for adding the auxiliary exercises without overextending your training time and energy is to perform the extra lower body exercises (hip adductor, hip abductor, seated calf) in one workout, and the extra upper body exercises (rotary torso, rotary shoulder, super forearm) in the next workout. In this manner, you should complete each training session within about 40-50 minutes.

 

Strength/Stamina Training

Research (Messier and Dill 1985, Westcott and Warren 1985) has shown that short-rest training is an effective means for adding an aerobic component to your strength workout. That is, by moving quickly between machines you can maintain a relatively high heart rate response and attain some cardiovascular fitness benefits. Because short-rest training is very demanding, you should be well-conditioned before giving it a try. However, training in this manner can reduce workout time by 15-20 minutes. It can also increase power output, as you are completing the same amount of work in considerably less time.

Program Design

If you play tennis three or four days per week, then it is probably best to do your strength training on two or three non-tennis days. That permits plenty of recovery time after each activity. If you practice tennis everyday, your training should probably be performed about four hours after your tennis training for best overall results. For example, if you play tennis every morning from 9-11, you may schedule your strength exercise around 3pm. Two or three equally spaced strength training days are recommended.

If you prefer to combine strength exercise and aerobic activity (running, cycling, stepping, etc.), the training order is up to you. Research (Westcott 1995) indicates that strength gains are similar whether your strength exercise precedes or follows your endurance exercise. Remember that skill training is the most important factor in improving your tennis game. However, physical conditioning can certainly enhance your practice and game efforts. The cornerstone of physical conditioning is muscular strength, and a stronger athlete is almost always a better athlete.

Alpine Ski Training

These are the overload, specificity, individual differences and reversibility principles. Of these, the specificity principle is the one most frequently ignored by all levels of competitors across a wide spectrum of sports. Just to remind you, the specificity principle can be summarized as 'specific training elicits specific adaptations creating specific training effects'.

If it is possible to identify which of the body's energy systems is contributing to a particular type of sporting performance, then it is relatively easily to train specifically. With some sports, say the marathon or 100m running, this isn't a problem.

But with many others, it is not too easy to determine what percentage of the energy is being derived from which metabolic pathway. Alpine skiing is one such sport, and it may be for this reason that skiers so often ignore the specificity principle, especially in their off-snow training.

Is It An 'Explosive' Sport?

Alpine skiing consists of four disciplines. There are the 'technical' events of the slalom and giant slalom, and the 'speed' events of the downhill and super giant slalom. Many people think of alpine skiing as an anaerobic exercise because it appears to be an 'explosive' sport - with its very rapid movements and repeated maximal contractions.

However, alpine skiing is extremely deceptive, and biomechanical analysis has shown that it is not actually an explosive sport at all, although, confusingly, this does not mean it is not an anaerobic sport.

Alpine skiers have demonstrated great strength when performing isometric and slow muscle concentric contractions. When performing high-speed contractions, skiers have not done as well as power athletes such as sprinters and jumpers. This type of strength is probably a specific adaptation to skiing and not a result of off-snow weight training.

Given these findings, it is not surprising that muscle biopsies have shown that alpine skiers do not have a preponderance of fast-twitch fibers. Fast-twitch fibers produce more force than slow-twitch fibers when contracting at high velocities, although both type may produce the same isometric force. Another characteristic of fast-twitch fibers is that they fatigue rapidly.

Muscle-activity patterns in the slalom and giant slalom events have been found to be similar. Agonistic and antagonistic muscles frequently contract at the same time, a condition known as the 'quasistatic' component of skiing. It is likely that in the speed events where there are fewer turns executed over a longer period of time than in the technical events, the quasistatic component will be even greater.

Thus, given that skiing consists of a series of turns controlled by either very slow or isometric muscle contractions over a relatively long period of time (at least for an anaerobic exercise), it is not surprising that most skiers have more than 50 per cent slow-twitch fibers.

What this implies is that, even in the longer speed events, a greater contribution needs to come from anaerobic rather than aerobic mechanism. Quite simply, blood flow to the working muscle is compromised during static contractions and oxygen uptake is reduced. The fact that high results are achieved by the same skier in both speed and technical disciplines provides ample anecdotal evidence that similar physiological bases are required for all alpine skiing.

It's Not An Aerobic Sport

Recent research contradicts much of the older literature on alpine skiing, which claims that it demands a high aerobic as well as anaerobic power. One reason why older studies now appear flawed is that they often relied on recorded heart data to estimate the aerobic contribution. What they failed to consider was the influence of psychic factors.

For instance, you only have to stand at the top of a black run to experience an increase in heart rate, let alone ski down it!

Measurements show that elite skiers' aerobic power, though higher than in the general population, is not that impressive. Members of the Italian national ski team were found to have a mean maximal aerobic power of only 52.4 ml.kg-1.min-1.

Some alpine skiers do have moderately high VO2max figures but that is probably a result of their non-specific ski training rather than because it is a requirement of their sport. Perhaps more importantly, one study, which measured physiological changes following a totally specific three-month slalom training, found no significant change in aerobic power. However, anaerobic power improved significantly.

Why The Home-Based Brits Lose Out

Current thinking, then, indicates that all elite alpine skiers possess a very high anaerobic power and need only a moderate aerobic power. It has been calculated that 40 per cent of the energy in slalom and giant slalom skiing is derived aerobically, with 20 per cent coming from the ATP-PC system and 40 per cent from the lactic acid system. The speed events, given that they last longer, may have a greater contribution from the aerobic system, but this is only an assumption.

Confidently identifying the physiological requirements for the speed events is impossible, because of the scarcity of any published data. What is clear, however, is that the only way to train effectively for any of the alpine disciplines is to train as much as possible on snow - which rules out any chance of Britain producing a truly world-class skier unless he or she spends their lives abroad.

Earlier recommendations that running, cycling or other endurance sports are beneficial now seem out-of-date, even though many skiers, misguidedly, still follow such off-snow training habits.

It has been shown that specific slalom training has no significant effect on VO2max. Therefore, it seems clear that a general aerobic conditioning training program for alpine skiers is a waste of time and of no benefit to racing performance. The only possible benefit of training the aerobic system would be that a more efficient system may permit a more rapid diffusion of lactate into the blood, and so allow quicker recovery from repeated bouts of anaerobic exercise.

This is irrelevant provided sufficient recovery time is allowed between exercise bouts. Most skiers have ample opportunity to recover, simply because of the time it takes to get back up the mountain between runs.

If a skier insists that a weight-training program is beneficial, the weights should be slow concentric and eccentric movements, with the emphasis on the eccentric movements. However, the muscle activation patterns found in slalom skiing show that normal weight training will not replicate these movements, so the only training effect will be to become good at lifting weights, not skiing.

The message is clear: if you want to be a really top alpine skier, move to a mountainous country with lot of year-round snow.