Last year I started running Ultra-Marathons. That seems kind of crazy since I have only done two marathons prior to it. On September first I participated in the Iron Mountain 50 Mile Ultra-Marathon and it was a fantastic experience. This past Saturday 2/1/2013 I participated in the Charlotte Ultra Run, a 50k here on the Mallard Creek Greenway. This is the second time this race was held, but the first time for me to participate.
It was pretty darn cold on Saturday. When I made my decision on what to wear I had to weigh between starting temps and temps later on in the race. Since I anticipated to be finished after 4:15 at the latest, I decided to wear my cold weather gear with gloves and sleeves in case I needed to take something off.
The race organization was great. We were able to stay in the local schools gymnasium until the beginning of the race. Everything was organized smoothly and check in as well as medical forms got done without a hitch. At 8 am the gun went off and we started at the same time as the 10 k people. At first it threw me a little bit off since I was not sure who was a 10k or 50k racer, it always helps me to orient myself, but soon I settled into my own pace. The plan was 8 min/miles for 15 miles and then 7:40 min/miles for the second half of the race (in a perfect world).
I started too fast and paid for it on loop 4 and 5 of the 6.2 mile course by slowing down considerably. The course is nice and even and the hills are quite small. Throughout the race personal was checking up on runners to make sure they were okay and everyone was cheerful and supportive. I can clearly say it was a well supported race.
I came with an average of 3 sec per min/mile into the finish line than planned which cost me about 3-4 min overall. I am happy about my result but could have done a better job at sticking to my pace.
I consider the race a great way of entering into the world of Ultra-Marathons because of the ease of the course, the great organization and support and the short distance. I caution runners though: It is easy to look at a 31.07 mile event just like you would at a marathon. If you pace yourself at the same speed as what you would consider your marathon pace you might end up fizzling out over the last 5 miles. Make sure to fuel up appropriately and don’t let yourself be swept away by the excitement of the start and run too fast too quickly. I made a rookie mistake and paid for it.
I think I will sign up again for this race. I had a great time and fully plan to beat my time from last year again this time.
Michael Anders
Head Trainer Shape Up Fitness & Wellness Consulting – transforming one life at a time.
Occasionally someone asks my personal trainers about supplements, specifically protein and creatine.
Today I write about creatine. Research over the last couple of years has come to the conclusion that creatine is a supplement that can help you with your training performance, given that the training has a high intensity and short duration (15-30s). Especially people
who have a low baseline of phosphocreatine, like vegetarians seem to profit from the supplement but even in non-vegetarians the strength and performance increases have been significant.
Here are a couple of effects of creatine supplementation:
significantly increased muscle mass after strength training regimen
significantly increased strength, although not with 1 RM activities.
a chronic supplementation of creatine seems to protect against traumatic brain injury (study was done on mice, so not sure how much that relates to humans)
it does not seem to have a positive effect on endurance sports with exception of the sprint/spurt phase of that particular sport
creatine-dextrose and protein-dextrose combinations create similar strength gains
potential decrease in mental fatigue
negative effects can be, diarrhea, cramping, increased water retention
in people with renal dysfunction creatine supplementation can progress the disease.
Creatine could potentially exacerbate allergic lung inflammation and airway remodeling in mice. Again the question is how far does that relate to humans but I am sure I would not recommend anyone with lung issues to take creatine.
there seem to be no long-term ill effects of creatine supplementation in healthy athletes
Administering creatine supplementation
The studies I have looked at seemed inconclusive but it seems that there is a loading phase of about 4x 4-5g/day for 2-4 days and then a consistent loading of 2.5-6 g/day from there on. Some articles recommend that the daily dose for recreational athletes should not exceed the natural phosphocreatine turnover of 2.5-3g/day. Healthy athletes that submit daily to high intensity strength- or sprint training should have a maximum dose of 5-6g/day for less than 2 weeks according to the article. Newer research suggests that taking 15.75g/day for 5 days and 5-10g/day thereafter has no negative effects on healthy athletes over the course of 21 months.
Conclusion
I am a personal trainer not a dietitian and as such not allowed to tell you what you should or should not do. But personally I feel that ta
king creatine is safe if you are healthy and I do not object to my clients taking it. Most athletes I would wager would benefit from cleaning up their diet first before going for supplements. Once that baseline is established I feel that protein and creatine supplementation can be useful tools for improving your performance and results. Endurance athletes, especially ultra-endurance athletes do not benefit from creatine supplementation since spurts and sprints are not that important and the additional water weight might be detrimental overall.
I personally would go with a loading phase of 15 g per day for 4 days and then a low dose of 4-5g/day. That is my personal opinion though.
Yours,
Michael Anders
Head Trainer Shape Up Fitness & Wellness Consulting
Anomasiri et al. (2004). Low dose creatine supplementation enhances sprint phase of 400 meters swimming performance. Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand. Vol 87 (2), pp. 228-232.
Burke et al. (2003). Effect of creatine and weight training on muscle creatine and performance in vegetarians. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, Vol. 35 (11), pp. 1946-1955.
Benzi, Gianni (2000). Is there a rationale for the use of creatine either as nutritional supplementation or drug administration in humans participating a sport? Pharmacological Research, Vol 41 (3), pp. 255-264
Edmunds et al (2001). Creatine supplementation Increases Renal Disease Progression in Han:SPRD-cy Rats. American Journal of Kidney Diseases. Vol. 37 (1). pp. 73-78.
Engelhardt et al. (1998). Creatine supplementation in endurance sports. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Vol. 30 (7), pp. 1123-1129.
Francaux, M. & Poortmans, J.R. (1999). Effects of training and creatine supplement on muscle strength and body mass. European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology. Vol 80 (2). pp. 165-168.
Izquierdo et al (2002). Effects of creatine supplementation on muscle power, endurance and sprint performance. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Vol. 34 (2) pp. 332-343.
Kreider et al. (2003) Long-term creatine supplementation does not significantly affect clinical markers of health in athletes. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, Vol. 244 (1-2), pp. 95-104.
Lemkuhl et al (2003). The effects of 8 weeks of creatine monohydrate and glutamine supplementation on body composition and performance measures. Jouranl of Strength and Conditioning Research / National Strength & Conditioning Association. Vol. 17 (3), pp. 425-438.
Poortmans, J.R. Francaux (1999). Long-term oral creatine supplementation does not impair renal function in healthy athletes. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. Vol. 31 (8), pp. 1108-1110.
Radolpho et al. (2007). Creatine supplementation Exacerbates Allergic Lung Inflammation and Airway Remodeling in Mice. American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology. Vol. 37 (6), pp 660-667.
Sullivan et al (2000). Dietary supplement creatine protects against traumatic brain injury. Annals of Neurology. Vol. 48 (5) 723-729.
Tarnopolsky et al. (2001). Creatine-dextrose and protein-dextrose induce similar strength gains during training. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Vol 33 (12). pp. 2044-2052
Vandendberghe et al (1997). Long-term creatine intake is beneficial to muscle performance during resistance training. Journal of Applied Physiology. Vol 83. (6), pp 2055-2063.
Watanabe et al. (2002) Efects of creatine on mental fatigue and cerebra hemoglobin oxygenation. Neuroscience Research. Vol 42 (4). pp. 279-285
We have a lot of personal training clients that come in the first time, telling us they have had a shoulder injury in the past. Most of them have a typical impingement problem, others might have a partially or completely torn rotator cuff muscle. As a personal trainer that is definitely something we need to pay attention to and work closely with our clients health care professionals. If you are older than thirty chances are you have had some sort of injury or problem that seems like it is taking the fun out of your training. you might still become your best though.
Today the topic will be focused on shoulder injuries. There are too many different diagnoses out there with different treatment options. For that reason here are a couple of common sense tips that can help you maximize the training impacting your shoulders without getting hurt:
NO PAIN: this is the biggest rule, if you have any sort of pain you have to either correct your form or choose an alternative exercise.
Only work till technical failure. Muscle failure can lead to evasive movements and injury. Once your form is gone, you are done!
In our cubicle dominant world I would suggest increasing the ratio from pulling : pushing exercises from 1:1 to 2-3:1
Do vertical as well as horizontal pulling exercises!
Work on thoracic spine mobility and anterior shoulder mobility (pecs)
Supplement your training with rotator cuff exercises
Only do overhead exercises if you have full range of motion without straining or pain (see rule no. 1)
I hope this helps you with your training. As usual please shoot me an email if you have any questions!
They are in almost every workout routine it seems: shoulder presses, incline bench presses and more. Our clients sometimes feel very strongly about them, one way or the the other. But are they bad for you or should everyone include them in their routine?
No one answer is really the correct one. As a general precaution I would say they are not necessary for the average person in their routine but they are great exercises. It boils down to the individual. If you are having shoulder problems to begin with then it might be wise to have it properly assessed and addressed and avoid overhead work until the issues are resolved. Not so obvious at first would be our cubicle warrior. Being in a hunched over position for most of the day she might not be able to stand straight. She might have an increased kyphosis in her upper back that prohibits her to lift her arms over her head without really putting wear and tear on tendons in her joint and causing damage that could have been avoided.
It is always best to have a professional look at you but go to a mirror and look at your profile. If you have rounded shoulders even when standing straight there is a good chance you might want want to avoid overhead lifts.
Instead foam roll, stretch and see if your thoracic spine mobility increases. Strengthen your upper back muscles, do rows and chin ups, reverse flys and rotator cuff exercises to counter the imbalance that you have compared to the chest, and anterior shoulder muscles.
Michael Anders
Head Trainer Shape Up Fitness & Wellness Consulting
So many people come to us wanting to lose weight. The ones who do what is necessary have an awesome success and being part of changing their life is just amazing. We want to help you transform your life regardless of you being a client of ours or not.
This approach is slower and might not appeal at first to everyone, because most people want to have instant success. Sometimes though, we are overwhelmed with what needs to be done. For some people a slower approach works better. Consider this the 12 Step program of losing weight and being fitter than ever. Each month you are adding a little bit to it and by the end of the year you will not recognize the person in the mirror.
12 Steps to a healthier you!
Month: Schedule 8 hours of sleep: This is crucial to balance your hormone levels and establishes a baseline that allows you to lose weight and become fitter.
Month: Nutrition: Have 1 Meal a day that is as unprocessed as possible with lots of veggies, fruits, organic meat/poultry/fish
Month: Start exercising if you have not been doing that already. Biggest bang for your buck: lift weights 3 days a week. The extra lean muscle mass helps burning fat even sitting at work.
Month: Start being more active: Take a 15-20 min walk every day before or after work.
Month: Replace a second meal a day with mostly unprocessed food and prepare it at home
Month: Start doing some High Intensity Interval Training 2-3 days a week for about 20-30 min/session.
Month: Cut out sodas and replace it with unsweetened tea or tea with a little bit of raw honey
Month: start replacing highly processed snacks (chocolate, crackers, cookies, chips, etc.) with fruits and nuts
Month: Allow yourself 1 cheat meal out of ten good ones.
Month: Log your training regularly and take note of your progress
Month: Intensify your training start a more serious weight lifting regimen. If you are a woman, don’t be afraid, you won’t look like a guy!
Month: Celebrate your success by treating yourself to a spa day or a day with your buddies out. Please don’t treat yourself with food.
These steps can be done in weekly or monthly segments whichever you choose. They will bring you to a whole new fitness level!
If you need help with your training, feel free to contact us!
Michael Anders
Head Trainer at Shape Up Fitness & Wellness Consulting
I don’t know about you but a lot of my clients, including my wife have problems with one thing. The more they deny themselves the food they want to eat the more they crave it, finally they give up and just binge it.
That probably sounds familiar to you as well. It can be the wine, the chocolate, the salty stuff, the pizza, pretty much anything.
The question is, what can you do about it. It might have been ruining your efforts to lose weight, run fast, be fitter, be healthier, whatever your goal is, nutrition is the key.
Here are some tips that can help you be in peace with your food:
Clean up your diet and eat healthy, tasty minimally processed foods 90% of the time. Learn how to prepare them, so that they taste great. The internet is a great source for recipies. Anyone can cook. Don’t just steam veggies, spice them, experiment, and you will discover all kinds of new flavors that will stimulate your taste buds.
Allow yourself the occasional exception. If 90% of your nutrition is good, you will make progress, don’t try to be perfect. Perfection is doomed to fail and so are you if you try to attain it.
If you feel like chocolate [insert food you crave] tell yourself, later, not right now. This later might never come but if it does, have a piece and savor it knowing you follow the 90% rule.
When was the last time you truly enjoyed your food. I mean, sat down, TV turned off, and eat food savoring it? Learn to do that and when you cheat, do exactly the same thing. If you want to have some chips, instead of mindlessly shoving them into your mouth turn off the TV, listen to some music and enjoy every bite of the serving you put in front of yourself. When you are done with that you can turn the TV back on or get back to whatever you were doing.
The Wall Street Journal recently (Nov. 28th 2012) wrote an article discussing the impact of running on athletes. Two recent studies about to be published this months in the British journal Heart seem to indicate that running can have a negative impact on you.
You are all aware that I am an avid runner, I don’t run as much as other but depending where I am in my training I run 50-70 miles a week. So obviously this study really interested me.
First I want to recap in short bullet points what the article had to say:
deaths during races are limited to 1/100 000 in marathons, so not very high it seems.
runners in general seem to enjoy longevity benefits over nonrunners
a recent study observing 52,600 people for three decades observed that runners overall had a 19% lower death rate than nonrunners but among runner those who ran more than 20-25 miles/week lost that mortality advantage
another study found that runners faster than 8 miles/hour had not mortality benefits.
Recommendations made by the contributors to the article
run slower than 8 miles/hour
run less than 20 miles/week
race less/push less hard after the age of 50
Not everyone agrees with the article and both sides seem to point to the other saying that they are biased. I did not have the original studies at hand when writing this blog but at the same time a couple of things should be pointed out:
the 19% lower lower death rate among the running cohort could be due to a natural selection process, meaning people with cardiac issues not starting to run to begin with or runners being more health conscious and living healthier lifestyles in general
the diminished benefits in runners who run more than 20-25 miles/week could be caused for several reasons:
extensive and intensive running can lead to a higher mortality rate. Cardiologists seem to agree with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation (potential cause of stroke).
other factors like lifestyle and nutrition have a huge impact on heart health. Increased running intensity leads is almost a self administered stress test and could cause pathological heart symptoms
critics of the newer research point out that it only shows an association to running, that running may not be the cause of death and that the numbers researched on that level were to small to be statistically significant.
My Conclusion
Anything we do in excess bears risks. I definitely have a higher chance of getting run over by car while running than a couch potato because I do it a lot. A body that does not get enough recovery, an athlete that trains through colds and sickness imposes health risks on his body that very well could lead to sudden death. At the same time, excessive sitting in front of the TV, two hours or more per day can also lead to lack of mental stimulation, wide hips and big belly and lack of social life outside of Facebook.
My Recommendation
Be aware that pushing any sport to an extreme bears risks for your health as well as social life
If you are sick, take time off and recuperate. No training that you during the time of being sick has significant importance considering the lifetime of being engaged in sports.
Have recuperation weeks planned into your training and take some time off after races
Treat your body as much as you use it. Work it hard, treat it with good food, massage, rest, sleep.
Sleep. Sleep is not wasted time unlike many believe. Quite the opposite it is necessary to learn, get stronger, faster and recover. If you don’t sleep you are wasting your training. At the moment an exact number of hours cannot be pinned down but I would schedule in 8.5 hours because we all know you won’t make it into bed before there is only an 8 hour window.
Monitor your health. If you are older than 35 years of age make sure you have a regular physical and know what your blood test results are.
Live a healthy lifestyle: Your life consists of more than just TV or Running, etc. Make sure you spend time with your family & friends. Have a hobby outside of sports. Live a multi-faceted life.
Eat well. This is a hot topic because food is like religion and you cannot touch it without making someone mad. To me eating healthy foods means:
Eating minimally processed food only
Eating a ton of veggies (5-10 cups a day)
Staying away from grains and legumes (different people, different opinion, but it works really well for me)
Eating as much fruit as I want to but a minimum of (4-6 whole fruits a day)
Eating nuts as snacks (gotta love my almonds)
Consuming grass-fed meat, poultry as often as I can afford
Have fish or fish-oil on a regular basis
Minimize junk food (I admit I cheat sometimes with high quality chocolate but most of the time I make even that myself)
Basically it is all about balance in your life. Make sure that what you do makes you truly happy. If you feel like you “have to run” because of some weird reason then maybe it is time to take a break. Please remember you don’t “have to do” anything. It is your choice.
Stay healthy and fit and feel free to ask me questions about getting you in shape
You might think that I am a little bit early but really, Christmas is in less than one month and that month for many people is one of the most stressful months in the year. This is due to many different reasons. A lot of people complain about the financial pressure to be able to cover their holiday expenses as cnbc reports. Other people complain about family obligations and let’s face it, a lot of families are divorced. Children go visit each of their respective parents and feel like instead of a time of joy and fun with their family they are running from one appointment to another.
What suffers often is our client’s health and well being. But there are some things that can be done to alleviate the pressure, stress and maintain fitness. You might even lose some weight over the holidays and not just from running from one appointment to another.
Here are some easy tips that can alleviate the financial holiday stress:
Speak to your family and agree on a Christmas budget per person
Have all of your family put their name in a hat, the one that each of you pull out is the person they are going to buy a gift for.
Exclude friends from expensive gifts. People really go too far. I value a friend regardless of a gift and spending some time together and having some fun is worth more than a gift.
Start getting your gifts earlier in the year
These tips might help you with your running around stress:
if you have a family and your parents divorced and you feel obligated that you have to visit them all, remember they chose to divorce not you. Tell them that it is not very enjoyable to run around stressed from one appointment to another. You can stay with one family on Christmas and another family on Thanksgiving and rotate it the next year. You could also choose to do the same with New Years.
Christmas parties: work Christmas party, church Christmas party, friends and before you know it, each weekend is booked. Choose one or two events and politely refuse to go to others because you need the time. If people do not understand then they are not really in the holiday spirit, are they?
How to stay fit in the weeks before the holidays
If you know you are going to stress later in the day, exercise first thing in the morning, even if it is just for 10-15 min doing some body weight squats, chin ups and push ups. At least you got it done and you don’t stress about it later in the day.
Plan your week on the weekend. Schedule actual time for exercise
I love Christmas cookies but that is a sure way to pack on the pounds. Only keep a handful in your house and give the others to friends or to work.
Lift weights for 2days a week and do cardio for 2 days a week as a minimum. Again, even a little bit helps.
How to stay fit over the actual holidays:
Plan to exercise first thing in the morning after you get up. If you have a regular routine just keep that. If not, just go for a long vigorous walk, jog, lift some weights, etc. Our personal training clients who exercise in the morning often eat better throughout the day. Your workout serves two purposes: limit the damage caused by overeating and reduce the actual overeating.
Make sure to eat breakfast and lunch, don’t just wait for Christmas dinner and gorge yourself, I have yet to meet the person that feels good after gorging themselves. If a salad is served at dinner as well, have that first. It will provide you with fiber and vitamins and fill you up a little bit.
Get up the following day and do a little bit of exercise as well, if you lifted the day before, do a little cardio routine or vice versa. Take your children for a hike or play with them on the play ground. For most adults nowadays that is already a workout.
Have a nap in the afternoon for recovery
Do a small core routine in the evening. It is true that targeted weight loss is not possible, nevertheless most of our clients feel better if they have done something for their “gut”.
Maybe you are an obsessive athlete like some of our clients or me but most people are not. I hope these tips give a little bit of breathing room over the holidays and keep you fit.
It is time to say thank you, at least for me it is. In Germany Thanksgiving does not really play a role and even here it seems to be controversial with some folks. People mention settlers and Indians and what not.
To me it does not matter. It does not matter what the history of it is but rather what I make of it. To me it is about an opportunity, an opportunity to say thank you to those that are in my life that enrich it with theirs and sometimes seem to make it more difficult. You might think that I am nuts but I am a firm believer in that every person surrounding me has something to teach me. You might think I am wrong and that is okay but it is true for me.
I moved to the US in 2004 with the intention of having my own personal training studio at some point. People back in Germany told me I was crazy and asked me when I would be back. My own dad had asked me when I started studying sports science why I was not studying something that would make me some money eventually and provide me with financial safety. For some time it looked like life proved them right, I had to bring things to the pawn shop to pay for medical bills and it did not look good.
Today I have a personal training studio and 4 awesome employees who bring joy into my life every day. I have friends who support me and believe in me and my vision, who have helped me accomplish what I have achieved so far.
It is easy to say thank you to those that support you and hard to tell thanks to those who don’t but do understand this: You are shaped by those around you, just like you shape others. The person who tells you that you suck or will fail might bolster your willpower and discipline, the person that tells you that what you are doing is not worth it might test you to see how passionate you really are. We cannot change people but we can choose how we react to circumstances and other people.
If you want to lose weight and your spouse keeps bringing bad food into the house, don’t blame her or him, stand firm, be proud of what you want to do because you know your life is your own responsibility. Nobody has to make you happy, support you or do anything for you. They choose to do it just like you choose to take responsibility for your own actions.
Nobody is forcing your mouth open and force you to eat what is unhealthy.
Nobody forces you to stay up till late then complain the next day at work that you are tired and stressed.
Nobody forces you to stay at a job you hate. You can change it, or at least your attitude.
Nobody owes you anything if you are an adult but you do have the right to change, to transform your life today.
Also know this:
You shape your environment and yourself!
Obstacles are made up by your mind. Have you ever seen people accomplish things they should not be able to? Most likely you have and it is because they truly wanted it and believed they could.
You are great until you diminish yourself.
If you believe you can or believe you cannot, you will always be right! – Henry Ford
Don’t get me wrong, it is difficult for me as well, sometimes. But today I want to say thank you:
to you who doubted me,
to you who harassed me,
to you who belittled me,
to you who tried to sabotage me,
to you who supported me,
to those that allow me to help them transform their life,
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