Running

• Instructables web site has a a collection of articles on running:
  • How to Run Faster – http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Run-Faster-2/
  • Proper Form for Uphill & Downhill Running (video) – http://www.instructables.com/id/Proper-Form-for-Uphill-amp-Downhill-Running/
• Fuel efficiency for marathoners (HarvardScience) – http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/10/fuel-efficiency-for-marathoners/ – New research helps runners set the right pace for 26.2 miles
  • Running Endurance Calculator – http://endurancecalculator.com/ [Java Applet]
  • “Metabolic Factors Limiting Performance in Marathon Runners” by Benjamin I. Rapoport (Harvard Medical School and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Division of Health Sciences and Technology) – http://www.ploscompbiol.org/mirror/article/pcbi.1000960.html
    Abstract: Each year in the past three decades has seen hundreds of thousands of runners register to run a major marathon. Of those who attempt to race over the marathon distance of 26 miles and 385 yards (42.195 kilometers), more than two-fifths experience severe and performance-limiting depletion of physiologic carbohydrate reserves (a phenomenon known as ‘hitting the wall’), and thousands drop out before reaching the finish lines (approximately 1–2% of those who start). Analyses of endurance physiology have often either used coarse approximations to suggest that human glycogen reserves are insufficient to fuel a marathon (making ‘hitting the wall’ seem inevitable), or implied that maximal glycogen loading is required in order to complete a marathon without ‘hitting the wall.’ The present computational study demonstrates that the energetic constraints on endurance runners are more subtle, and depend on several physiologic variables including the muscle mass distribution, liver and muscle glycogen densities, and running speed (exercise intensity as a fraction of aerobic capacity) of individual runners, in personalized but nevertheless quantifiable and predictable ways. The analytic approach presented here is used to estimate the distance at which runners will exhaust their glycogen stores as a function of running intensity. In so doing it also provides a basis for guidelines ensuring the safety and optimizing the performance of endurance runners, both by setting personally appropriate paces and by prescribing midrace fueling requirements for avoiding ‘the wall.’ The present analysis also sheds physiologically principled light on important standards in marathon running that until now have remained empirically defined: The qualifying times for the Boston Marathon.

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Related local links: Fitness links – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/fitness-links/

Yoga

• YogaJournal – http://www.yogajournal.com/
  • “Is Yoga Enough to Keep You Fit?” by Alisa Bauman (YogaJournal) – http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/739: We sent three yogis to the lab to test the theory that yoga is all you need for optimal fitness. …
  • “A Woman’s Lifeline” by Nora Isaacs – http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/2560?print=1 – How to create a nurturing practice for every stage of your life.
  • “The Secret to Better Arm Balances?” by Jason Crandell – http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/2646?print=1 – Think relaxation, not strength.
• YogaSpy blog – http://yogaspy.com/

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Related local links: Fitness links – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/fitness-links/

Fitness links

Sites:

• “Military Wisdom of Fitness”: military.wisdomoffitness.com
  • Articles: http://military.wisdomoffitness.com/category/articles/
• Jason Ross’ blog “Train Out Pain” – http://trainoutpain.blogspot.com/
• Workout Generator – http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_plan_generator.asp
• “On Fitness” blog (USA Today) – http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/on-fitness
• ExRx.net – http://www.exrx.net/:
  • Exercise & Muscle Directory – http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
  • Exercise and sports psychology – http://www.exrx.net/Psychology.html

Pushups

• “For Killer Abs, Try Some … Push-Ups?” by Nick Bromberg – http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/training-day/201103/killer-abs-try-some-push-ups
• 100 push-ups challenge (at this blog) – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/100-pushups-chalenge/
• “The Ultimate Push-up Guide: 35+ Push-up Exercises” by Brett & Kate McKay (The Art of Manliness; 2009.07.21) – http://artofmanliness.com/2009/07/21/push-ups-exercises/

Pull-ups

• 7 weeks to 50 pull-ups – http://www.fiftypullups.com/
• http://twentypullups.com/content/week-1-0
• http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/27_04_pullup_chalng.pdf
• The Twenty Pull-ups Challenge – http://twentypullups.com/
  • The whole program in one PDF file – http://twentypullups.com/20-pull-ups_ilka-helo.pdf

Various

• “Can Jumping Rope Get You Ripped?” by Nick Bromberg (Yahoo Sports; 2011.05.13) – http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/training-day/201105/double-dutch-treat-can-jumping-rope-get-you-ripped/
• “What’s the Single Best Exercise?” (New Yourk Times; 2011.04.15) – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17exercise-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
  But when pressed, he suggested one of the foundations of old-fashioned calisthenics: the burpee, in which you drop to the ground, kick your feet out behind you, pull your feet back in and leap up as high as you can. “It builds muscles. It builds endurance.” He paused. “But it’s hard to imagine most people enjoying” an all-burpees program, “or sticking with it for long.” …
  … And sticking with an exercise is key, even if you don’t spend a lot of time working out. The health benefits of activity follow a breathtakingly steep curve. “The majority of the mortality-related benefits” from exercising are due to the first 30 minutes of exercise, … A recent meta-analysis of studies about exercise and mortality showed that, in general, a sedentary person’s risk of dying prematurely from any cause plummeted by nearly 20 percent if he or she began brisk walking (or the equivalent) for 30 minutes five times a week. If he or she tripled that amount, for instance, to 90 minutes of exercise four or five times a week, his or her risk of premature death dropped by only another 4 percent. So the one indisputable aspect of the single best exercise is that it be sustainable. …
• “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin” by John Cloud (Time online; 2009.08.09) – http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857,00.html
• “Are the Religious Prone to Obesity?” by Randy Dotinga (Bloomberg Businessweek; 2011.03.23) – http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/651145.html – Study found regularly attending services was linked to raised risk in middle age

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Local: Running – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/running/ | Yoga – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/yoga/ | 100 pushups challenge – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/100-pushups-chalenge/

100 Pushups chalenge

We started this challenge 6 weeks ago. Some hints:

• Repeat the previous week (actually the two-week block) as frequently as necessary
• Give yourself enough pause between sets: if instructions say 1 minute, but you need more rest, take 2 minutes.
• Same is if you feel that you need an extra day in middle of a practice week – it feels that I can do more and easier after such a extra day of rest.
• If you do these in the morning the first several sets will hurt more that if you do the challenge in the evening. I guess it is up to not being warmed-up and stretched enough.
• If you are doing some other challenge, too, you may want to stagger the days, e.g. do the push-ups training on Mon/Wed/Fri and sit-ups training on Tue/Thu/Sat. The only downside of such combination is that towards the end of the week you are really temped to postpone one or another challenge practice, since your body may be aching for a rest day.
• The current combination that works very well for us to do both push-ups and sit-ups challenges the same day, by interleaving their sets. Do the first push-up set, than immediately the first sit-ups set, and do the first 1/2 minutes pause only then, etc.

Links:

• Official site: http://hundredpushups.com/
• 100 pushups training – http://www.100pushups.info/
  • pushup test – http://www.100pushups.info/pushups-test/
• 100 Push-Ups in 100 Seconds Challenge – http://www.parttimepersonaltrainer.com/2008/09/05/100-push-ups-in-100-seconds-challenge/
• “Working Towards 100+ Pushups” at Iron Dungeon – http://www.impulseadventure.com/weights/100push.html
• 100pushups – article at FriendFeed – http://friendfeed.com/100pushups
• Pushups logger – http://www.pushupslogger.com/
• Photos of some pushup forms at Flicker – http://www.flickr.com/photos/24175726@N08/
• Twitter feed – http://twitter.com/100Pushups
• 100 Pushups Workout with rings – http://www.ringtraining.com/articles/100-pushups-workout.html
• do 100 pushups – at 43Things – http://www.43things.com/things/view/56685/do-100-pushups
• Can I Do 100 Pushups? – http://www.lazymanandhealth.com/can-i-do-100-pushups/
• I 100 Pushups at ExperienceProject – http://www.experienceproject.com/groups/100-Pushups/12552

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Local links: Fitness links – http://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/fitness-links/.