Sunday, November 28, 2010

Can Can Can Can't

Training for the next eight weeks or preparing yourself for a marathon or life long relationship in which you incorporate an aerobic activity into your life will have profound benefits to your physical health. A lowered blood pressure, lowered resting heart rate, improved concentration and  deeper sleep are just some. Your efficiency in will also improve and you will gain a  real sense of accomplishment.  Running is the model I will discuss as it is the one I am most familiar with but most activities in which you tax your cardio could apply.

You CAN improve: Oxygen Delivery- your heart can pump stronger more efficiently moving more blood volume. This accounts for a lowered heart resting rate sound familiar?

Oxygen Absorption- increase in vascular health improves your body's ability to access available oxygenated blood while removing waste bi-products.. Increase numbers of muscle fiber receptors and improve veins capacity to move blood through where it's needed.

Gait Economy- through training we gain greater strength and increase stamina which enables runners to expend less effort or energy to move through the run. The first aspect of the run to suffer when we are tired is our gait.

 Also simple modifications to gait can make running economy far more efficient and less taxing. Strength- stronger muscles contract far more efficiently pushing back the threshold of discomfort the point before pain is experienced.

Attitude- one's attitude toward circumstance is central to success or failure. A perceived internal locus of control an ability to effect a change in your ability to persevere is essential to any measure of authentic success or personal insight.

You CAN'T improve: Body mechanics- we are either endowed with the body time and gait best suited for elite running or we're not. All the training can't change genetics.

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