Running drills for proper form

Injury due to faulty mechanics and subtle weaknesses is one of the main reasons why many people don't fully enjoy the benefits of running. Regularly incorporating running drills into your workouts, however, can help to improve your economy of movement and increase your muscle strength and endurance, thus decreasing your risk of injury. It's important to remember that maintaining proper form is key not only to allowing you to exercise for longer periods of time, but also to allowing you to get an effective workout.

At URBAN Boot Camp, we include many drills designed to help you move more effectively and efficiently, to help you achieve your desired health and fitness outcome.

Here's a great video that includes many of the movements we do, as well as their explanations so that you can practice on your own. It's best to perform these exercises as part of your warm up to limit risk of injury due to fatigue.

Have fun!

How much rest do you need between workout sessions?

After a fantastic track workout last night, one of our UBC participants asked about how often they should do resistance training (lift weights, use resistance bands, do body weight exercises, etc) during the week. The amount of rest needed between workouts depends on a number of factors including:

* The type of lifestyle you want to maintain - Are you simply working to improve your overall health, or are you training for a sport or to maintain an active lifestyle?
* The type and level of activity/sports you are training for - Do you want to go for weekend bike rides or hikes, or are you entering a marathon or a triathlon this year?
* Your fitness goals - Is your focus on feeling better and losing body fat, or are you entered in an event and want to improve your running speed and muscle endurance?
* The amount of time you are willing to devote consistently - Can you schedule a block of time, or do you need to break up your exercise throughout the day?
* The number of weeks/months you've been exercising - Have you been working out intensely for a few weeks, or are you just beginning?

If you are a beginning exerciser, these are some general guidelines to follow:

* Strength train for all major muscle groups on non-consecutive days, allowing roughly 48 hours per body part worked. If you are still sore from a previous workout, just work out less intensely or use lighter weight. Don't skip the workout! We recommend one additional workout on your off-UBC days, which is provided for you. You can, however, choose different exercises tailored to your specific needs. Discuss your situation with your instructor for guidance.

* Cardiovascular exercise can be done on consecutive days, 3-5 days per week for 20-40 minutes (with UBC that's 1-3 additional workouts). Varying the intensity/duration is acceptable, but again, don't skip workouts.

* Do something every day, even if it's just 10 minutes of stretching or a brisk walk. This will help to keep you on track and focused even on scheduled off-days.

* Every four to eight weeks (depending on your exercise intensity) have an active rest week. Do activities outside of your normal exercise sessions. This can include hiking, kyaking, swimming, et cetera, but the goal is to do something different. This will help to keep you from feeling stagnate and lessen your chance of injury due to overuse and exhaustion. Keep in mind that if you typically work out at a very high intensity, you may need to take a complete rest for the week.

Ultimately, keep in mind that the creation of healthy, consistent exercise habits is the most important thing. Discovering what works for you and your lifestyle is also key. While there are certain biological and physiological similarities, your fitness journey is a unique one that has to be tailored to your needs. Rest is important, but you have to "do" before you rest. Find what you like and do it. Even if you start with only 5-10 minutes of general movement, staying focused and consistent will help you build up and achieve more.

For more information visit the U.S. Department of Human Services' website: Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans

Jump, Jump

Plyometrics!

That's a fancy name for jumping. Adding it to your training program is a great way to burn calories and increase your overall strength, power, and endurance. The problem is, while many people can get off the ground (accelerate), they don't land so well (decelerate) resulting in injuries. In UBC this week, we've begun working on jumping and will work more next week on developing proper form when landing so participants can get more fat-burning bang for their fitness buck.

So, how do you stop yourself after jumping off the ground? You decelerate the speed and thereby decrease the force on your joints by:

•Landing on the ball of your foot and sinking into your heel.
•Flexing at the hips, knees and ankles.
•Maintaining a straight back/neutral spine position.
•Maintaining your chest over knees and knees over second toe

This means you need the ability to properly load the muscles eccentrically while maintaining proper form.

We'll continue more on this next week with action!

Until then, here's an excerpt from NSCA's Performance Training Journal with a fantastic article: "Landing Mechanics: What, Why, When".

Make it a great weekend!
Jump, jump!

Putting on the brakes

While reaching optimal or top speed can be important, it's important to be able to STOP your momentum.

After all, imagine rushing down the freeway at 60-plus mph, pressing on your breaks, and nothing happening!

Well, you need to be able to slow down and stop yourself when performing dynamic exercises such as running, jumping, and cutting (changing direction) as well. You also need to guard against potential injuries caused by a lack of bodily control and stabilization, and allows excessive, often damaging movement.

The key to deceleration is eccentric contraction. You may know it as "the negative". During an eccentric contraction, muscles lengthen while loaded to control movement. That means when you RLH (sprint) or JS (land from a jump) as we call it in UBC, your muscles need to optimally dissipate and control the force of your stopping, directional changes and landings. In relation to the legs specifically, your hamstrings (back of thighs), need to shorten slowly, relatively speaking, while the muscles controlling the ankles stabilize the feet.

Stay tuned for more on how to improve your ability to decelerate and improve your performance at UBC.

Training for life!

Avoid running injuries

For many URBAN Boot Campers, running is an important component of long term success. Unforeseen injuries and pain can hinder exercise adherence and are often the result of overtraining or improper conditioning. A recent review of research has shown a number of muscular imbalances to be the cause of injury, most notably weak gluteals.

Research review from Exercise ETC:

"Many Running Injuries Attributed to Weak Hips"

Statistics indicate that between 65% and 80% of all recreational and competitive runners experience some type of overuse injury annually. Such injuries include patellofemoral knee pain, illiotibial band syndrome, shin splints, Achilles tendinopathy, plantar fasciitis, and stress fractures. The vast majority of such injuries, ~80% affect the lower-leg, with nearly 40% occurring at the knee. Unfortunately, science and medicine have yet to truly understand the mechanisms behind such injuries.

Researchers recently reviewed the literature over a 28 year span from 1980 to 2008 and concluded that two mechanisms appear to underlie all lower-leg injuries. First, a small number of studies implicated "atypical foot pronation mechanics." Pronation, which occurs during the stance phase of gait as the foot flattens causing internal rotation of the tibia and femur, is essential to generating energy for the next stride. However, excessive or insufficient pronation leads to poor energy production and consequently to excessive motion about the foot and knee.

Second, and more prominent, researchers uncovered a growing number of studies that suggest "inadequate hip muscle stabilization" leads to a majority of overuse injuries. Because the hip muscles, specifically the gluteus medius, minimus and maximus stabilize the leg during gait, poor strength or conditioning of these muscles results in excessive stress at and below the knee.

Recent studies have shown that improving hip muscle strength reduces the incidence of knee pain in runners. With running season in full-swing throughout the country along with races every weekend there's not a better time to encourage runners to maintain their strength training programs.

Ferber, R., et al (2009) Suspected Mechanisms in the Cause of Overuse Running Injuries: A Clinical Review. Sports Health. May/June

Next time: Exercises to strengthen the gluteal muscles.

Combat sprained ankles

Some of you may have noticed me hobbling around a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I sprained my ankle while running on a trail. Even now it's still weaker and less stable than before.

I've been working on strengthening it and being more aware of how I move, so I've recently noticed that I sit with my ankle turned out for much of the time I sit working at the computer. BAD HABIT! No wonder it rolled. "Sickling" the ankle can lead to increased ankle sprains as the ligaments on the outside of the joint become "overstretched" with time.

Do you have any bad habits that could make you more susceptible? I'm correcting mine!

Here are some great articles to help you learn more about your feet and ankles, and ways to prevent foot and ankle injuries. As we move into the season of outdoor activities (not to mention Outdoor URBAN Boot Camp season), it is extremely important that you keep your feet and ankles in tip-top shape!

Sprained Ankle
Taking Care of Your Foot and Ankle