CategoriesBlog Live Fit. Move.

3 Training Techniques Every Runner Should Be Doing

Summer in the Pacific Northwest = time to get outside, right?  Except for when you can’t, because aches and pains are getting in your way, or worse: you’re sidelined by injury.  How can you stay outdoors, do everything you love to do and potentially reduce the occurrence of injury? Easy.  Train inside to maximize running time outside.

And by training inside,  I’m not talking about running on a treadmill or hitting the elliptical.  Those are two very familiar pieces of equipment, and have their place in a training program (maybe) but in order to stay in prime movement shape you’ll want to get a little uncomfortable and hit these three areas (at least):

1)  Explore all the planes.  There are three planes of motion: sagittal (forward or backward:running), transverse (rotational: golfing/twisting), and frontal (side to side: jumping jacks).  Most of us move through the majority of our days in the sagittal plane.  As runners, that’s our area of strength – but in order to be truly strong, it is imperative to move in different planes of motion.  Side shuffle, skaters, twisting, lunging diagonally, and more. Classes that have a variety of movement are great ways to break your plane. Cross training on the bike or the elliptical or stair machine is not, as it’s moving in the same plane as running.  Your Challenge:  learn about the planes of motion and aim to move in a different one this week.

2)  Strengthen your backside.  We are a quad dominant society, spending most of our days squashing our backsides by sitting.  Many injuries originate in the hips, and get you in the knees. Strength training not only makes your stronger, it also increases joint stability, which can reduce repetitive stress injuries.  Your Challenge:  Squat.  Deadlift. Do some clam shells and leg swings.  Strengthen that hip girdle, core and those glutes.  You won’t be sorry.

3)   JUMP, HOP, AND SKIP.  Frog jumps, jump squats, skipping, high-knees = plyometric training. Plyometrics can improve your running economy. When your foot lands with each running stride, your tendons and muscles store elastic energy, which can be utilized for the subsequent push off the ground. The better you utilize this energy, the better your running economy becomes.  Jumping/skipping/hopping are good and good for you.  Your Challenge:  add some play to your workout this week.  Plyometrics aren’t easy, and are not always fun – but they can do wonders for your ability to move.

Choose one of these areas (or challenges) once a week.  Strength training in many different forms results in stronger joints, better efficiency and a longer time to exhaustion. Put simply, you’ll be able to run faster, longer and stronger.

Now get outside!

CategoriesEvent

Solstice Flow at Flow Fremont ~ June 21st at 5:45pm

Welcome summer!

June 21st is the Summer Solstice, the time of the year when the Sun is at its highest point over the Equator. This is a time for celebration!

A time to acknowledge the gifts of the earth and the abundance of life. A sense of gratitude for our creations—big and small—is in the air, as we all surrender into the beauty of life.

Celebrate with Tarah on Thursday, June 21st with a special yoga flow class.

Reserve your spot through the member portal.

CategoriesBlog Live Fit.

Rest Periods – The Missing Link in Your Training

Written By  Flow Coach, Mackennon  Klink  B.S.,  CSCS,  PN1 

When  it  comes  to  training,  recovery  and  rest  periods  are  often  overlooked and under-valued in most fitness programs even though it has  a huge influence in your overall success. Unknown to most, programmed rest is just as important to your workout as exercise selection, sets, reps, and nutrition. The main question to ask yourself when determining adequate rest is what are you training for?   Hopefully, you know this answer even before you enter the gym, and once identified,  rest should be reflected accordingly. 

Below is a cheat sheet to help ensure you are getting the most out of your rest time:

   

Training Goal                                                                          Rest Period (b/t Sets or Exercises)

Metabolic Conditioning                                                                     0- :30 Seconds

Muscle Development  (Hypertrophy)                                           :30 seconds – 2:00 minutes

Strength Training                                                                               2:00-3:00 minutes

Max Strength Training                                                                      3:00- 5:00 minutes

Power Development (highly technical)                                        5:00-10:00 minutes

Metabolic  circuit  training  incorporates  minimal  rest  periods  (<30  seconds)  to  challenge  your  muscles  and  aid  in  conditioning.  However,  keep  the  weights  between  30-50%  of  your  max  to  reduce the occurrence of  injury.  For  example,  if  your  goblet  squat  max  is  100lbs,  goblet  squat  with  either  30-50lbs.    

For  your  hypertrophy  training,  keep  your  rest  period  between  30-120  seconds.    The  more  intense  the  exercise  (i.e.  more  weight),  the  closer  you’ll  be  towards  120  seconds  of  rest. 

If  your  goal  is  build  maximum  strength,  keep  your  weights  high,  reps  low  (1-5)  and  the  rest  periods  longer.   General  rule  of  thumb  is  to  keep  the  rest  periods  longer  between  sets  at 3-5  minutes.

With  highly technical movements such as the power clean, which stresses the central nervous system, keep rest times higher (depending on the weight) to ensure that you can perform the lift with maximum speed, effort,  and perfect technique each and every time.     

If  your  training  goals  aren’t  in-line  with  your  rest  periods, you  won’t  see  your  intended  results!   Also,  keep  your  workouts  within  60  minutes.    Your  testosterone  levels  are  at  their  highest  level  within  20-50  minutes.    After  that,  testosterone  levels  begin  to  taper  off  and  cortisol  levels  (stress  hormone)  will  dramatically  increase.  These  simple  changes  will  put  you  in  the  driver’s  seat  on  achieving  your  training  goals.  Regardless  if  you  are  a  complete  beginner  or  a  seasoned  veteran,  monitoring  your  rest  periods  will  help  you  crush  your  training, hit your goals, and remain injury free.   

CategoriesEvent

Ride with PRIDE on Monday, June 18th

Ride with PRIDE!
Monday, June 18th at 5:30pm with David
SWEAT with PRIDE to LGBTQ artists including Lady Gaga, Troye Sivan, Betty Who and more.  Everyone who joins this ride will receive a special brightly colored microfiber sweat towel.
Raise them high with PRIDE during the ride.

In addition, SHOW your PRIDE by donating to David’s favorite Seattle charity, Lambert House.

Let’s kick off PRIDE week with spirit!

Space is limited, and spots are filling fast!

About Lambert House: Lambert House empowers LGBTQ youth through the development of leadership, social, and life skills. We are an affirming community where LGBTQ youth are the norm. Our programs help LGBTQ youth develop the self-esteem necessary to flourish in their schools, families, and communities.

CategoriesEvent

Strong Spines ~ June 12th at 6:30pm

Tuesday, June 12th | 6:30pm – 7:30pm
Flow Fitness – Fremont
Join this spine-focused workshop to learn how to resolve pain or mitigate these issues before they start. Walk away with strategies to keep spines healthy for a lifetime.

Workshop is designed to:

  • Reduce aches, pains, and other spine discomforts
  • Restore spinal mobility and achieve optimal thoracic stability
  • Address symptoms associated with common back injuries
  • Improve movement efficiency
  • Identify and address compensation patterns

Reserve your spot here.

CategoriesBlog Move.

Periodization Matters – Find Out Why

An essential element of training for any serious athletic competition, periodization is “an organized approach to training that involves progressive cycling of various aspects of a training program during a specific period of time.” It allows for customized, systematic training programming that cycles progress with competition preparation.

In practice, periodization is the program design strategy that balances training volume, intensity, and specificity.

This is all just a fancy way of saying that you have an intelligent plan to maximize your training progress without being run ragged come game day.

How Periodization Works

To excel at any physical activity, you need to have an established level of fitness already. Whether you are running marathons, bodybuilding, playing soccer, or wrestling, you must establish an athletic baseline before you can move forward.

Beyond that general physical competence, when trying to excel in a sport, you must train specific skills and movements. This is the principle of specificity. It goes beyond establishing general fitness in an individual and trains them for their specific sport — boxers box, swimmers swim, and cyclists cycle.

Periodization effectively cycles you through periods of training that touch on each of these aspects, improving them one of these aspects after another and tapering down for competition before ramping back up to improve performance.

Six Steps to Success with Periodization

Preparation

Whether this is the beginning of a periodized cycle or just coming off of the sixth step, the first phase, preparation, is when you gradually initiate a controlled training routine. For exercise novices, this will slowly build up your fitness with moderate-duration, low-intensity workouts. More advanced athletes come into preparation after a rest phase to begin prepping for the upcoming competition season.

The preparation phase usually involves comfortable exercises such as swimming, hiking, and cycling. This is also when you plan out your season, marking down your competition goals.

Building a Base

The real work begins in the second phase, when you will be improving your overall strength levels and building up your cardiovascular system. This phase can last for several months, and often that much time is required to build significant strength gains. If you have any glaring weaknesses, this is an excellent time to directly address them — whether they have to do with balance, flexibility, or a poor diet.

Sport-Specific Training

Specificity comes into play in the third phase, during which you begin simulating competition conditions and practicing skills specific to your sport. Because you will have already established a fitness foundation in the first and second phases, you can effectively focus on strategy and technique without being limited by your body.

Winding Down

You should start winding down one to two weeks before a major competition. At this point, you will decrease your training volume to be ready to go 100 percent in competition. All exercise physically breaks down muscle tissue with tiny tears in the fibers. Resting allows those tears to heal, allowing you to go 100 percent in competition. Tapering usually involves cutting your training down by 80 to 90 percent, but this varies wildly based on your sport, as does how many weeks you spend at a reduced training volume.

Peaking

Timing your tapering well leaves you fresh and ready to go come game day, providing a one- to two-week window during which you can perform to your fullest.

Rest

Going 100 percent takes its toll on your body. Depending on your fitness level, sport, and how you prepare for your sport, you may need anywhere from a week to several months of recovery time after competition. You don’t need to completely shut down physically, but you do need to rest, and this can provide a great opportunity to casually cross-train in other sports for fun.

 

Does This Apply to You?

That depends on your goals. Each training movement and strategy is a tool. While every toolbox should have a wrench in it, a wrench isn’t going to drive nails for you. If general fitness is your objective, and not prepping for getting on stage or running a race, periodization may not offer you what you need. For help tailoring a program to your specific targets, speak with one of our trainers today.

CategoriesBlog

Designing A Pain-Free Workout Program

SPOILER  ALERT:  Creating  a  pain-free  program  is  much  easier  than  you  thought!

You  read  that  correctly.  Creating  a  pain-free  fitness  program  is  much simpler  than you  may  believe.  It  really  takes  a  simple  paradigm  shift.   Many  fitness  professionals  may  claim  they  have  the one  and  only program  that’s  going  to  propel  you    into  the  peak  fitness  stratosphere. 

If  I  may be  honest,  that  is  absolute  b.s.  The  reality is, proper programming coupled  with  sound  nutrition  (which  we  will  get  into  in  another  article)  yields  the  results  you  want depending  on  what  your  goals  are.  The  one  non-negotiable  in  all  intelligent  fitness programming  is  the  off-set  of  movement  patterns. 

Now  what  exactly  do  I  mean  by off-setting  movement  patterns?
Off-set  movement  patterns  simply  means  this:  Anytime  you  press  (Bench  Press)  you pull  ( Seated  Cable  Row).  Anytime  you  press  overhead  (  Barbell  Press)  you  pull (chin-up).  If  you  Deadlift…..guess  what?  You  Squat.  Having  this  balance  of  Horizontal Press  with  Horizontal  Pull,  Vertical  Press  with  Vertical  Pull,  Lower Body  Pull  with Lower Body Press  will  more  times  than  not  ensure  that  you  will  be  keep  a  proper balance  of  all  movements.  This  is  a  large  component  to  pain-free  programming. 

The last part  that  ties  in Pain-Free  Programming is  implementing  proper  flexibility and  mobility  movements  which  we  will  absolutely  cover  in  future  Flow Fitness Articles.  Until  then,  think  about  off-setting  movements  and  how  you  can  implement them  in  your  programming  going  forward!