Six Week Workout Program

How To Train For a Marathon

Most successful marathon runners train for several months before running a marathon. However, if you are already an accomplished endurance runner and are able to complete a 12-mile run, you can use this training schedule developed by running expert Andrew Kastor to increase your capacity enough to finish the 26-mile race with six weeks of intense training.

(Click here if you’d rather read about sprint training)

Long Runs
Your body will need to recover after long runs in order to increase its capacity for performance, so limit yourself to one long run each week: a 10-mile run and a 13- to 20-mile run. The 13- to 20-mile run should increase gradually during the first four weeks of training. Make sure to include 5-10 minutes of walking at each end of the run for warm-up and cool down (you can count these toward your mileage). Aim for a steady moderate pace, especially at the beginning of your training. It is very tempting to run quickly early on and to slow down as you get tired, but your training will be more effective if you strive for a consistent speed throughout the run.

Rest & Recovery
Your body requires time to recover after a long run. A day of rest will allow your body time to repair the wear and tear caused by training, and to replenish vital nutrients. In order to recover as quickly as possible, you should do 20 to 30 minutes of low-intensity aerobic exercise, rather than remaining sedentary all day. Walking, swimming and cycling are good options; sprinting, power-lifting and competitive sports are bad ideas. The goal here is to get your blood flowing and your joints moving without placing any unnecessary stress on the body. Take your recovery seriously. Although it sounds backward, these are actually the days your body grows and strengthens the most.

Short Runs
During your shorter runs you should strive for a somewhat faster pace than on the longer runs. However, it is still important to start and end with 5 to 10 minutes of jogging. Like the longer runs, you should warm up, work your way up to a sustainable run and try to maintain your speed until you finish the run with a jog. If you overestimate your capacity for speed and find yourself flagging halfway through the run, take a jogging break but don’t beat yourself up. The purpose of practice is to gradually increase your capacity, which will fluctuate from day to day. The important thing is to commit to a training regimen and stick to it, not to achieve perfection every day.

Nutrition

Odds are your practice runs will leave you ravenously hungry, and they may increase you metabolism even on the days you rest. Proper nutrition will go a long way toward achieving your marathon goal and will keep you feeling energetic in the meantime. Every individual’s dietary needs are different, but some rough guidelines for marathon training are:

• 65 percent of your calories should come from carbohydrates (especially complex carbohydrates)
• 10 percent from protein (0.5 to 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight)
• 20 to 25 percent from unsaturated fats

You can take these figures as a starting point for developing your own diet, but always listen to your body; it knows your nutritional needs better than anyone else.

Brian Martinowich is a freelance writer with EarnMBADegree.com, a comprehensive resource guide for online MBA programs. As the Community Manager of the global social good campaign, Tweet Drive, Brian enjoys helping others through his experiences and expertise with social media.

Sources:
http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/marathon-training-schedule.html
http://running.about.com/od/marathonprograms/a/marathonbeg.htm
http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/marathon-training-tips-for-beginners
http://www.marathonrookie.com/marathon-training.html
http://www.lamarathon.com/roadrunners/6-week-marathon-training-plan/

Killer Circuit Training Examples

Examples of Killer Circuit Training Routines

Circuit training can be very effective.  It shouldn’t be the only type of workout that you can do, but a couple of times a week can be excellent for fat and calorie burning, strength building, and improving your cardiovascular system.  There are many types of circuits you can do.  Here are 3 types of circuit workouts.

Set Time Density- Perform the exercises you pick as many times as you can in a given amount of time.  Here’s an example of this circuit:  Do 30 push-ups, 15 jump lunges, and 5 pull-ups.  Then start over.  You go through this as many times as you can in 10 minutes.  You’ll know your fitness level has increased as your density increases.  (This means you are able to do more sets of this in 10 minutes.) You can rest as long as needed, just make sure you go the full time you set originally.

Variable Time Density- The difference between the Variable Time Density workout and the Set Time Density workout is that here you do 4 sets of the example I gave previously and see what time it is at the end.  You know you improve when your time goes down.  Remember on both of these that you can rest as long as needed.  This one you just don’t end until you complete the number of sets you set for yourself.

Set Rest Circuit- In this type of circuit you don’t rest more than the allotted time you set in the beginning.  Here’s an example.  Perform Burpees for 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds, jumping jacks for 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds, repeat from the beginning.  You would also set how many times through you will do this routine before you start.  In this example you can perform the exercises for a set number of seconds or reps like the first two examples. (The first two examples have to be done with reps because the variable is time and if you say you’ll do an exercise for 30 seconds in that one then you can’t improve.)  A major difference between this one and the previous two types of circuit workouts is that here you rest no more than the time allotted.

Another way to modify the previous three circuits is to use heavy weight instead of body weight.  Perform heavy squats or heavy shoulder press or heavy bench press for a set number of reps (5) or set number of seconds (10).  Also, remember the key on these is speed.  Slow reps will not get you the results you are looking for.  This means you need to choose exercises you are good at keeping good form.  That being said, form is important, but can be sacrificed a little for speed.  It can’t be sacrificed a lot, but a little is fine.

These circuit routines would go perfectly along with my book The 6 Week Workout Program.  If you are interested in that please click here.  

The Science of Sprinting

The Science of Sprinting

The slump.  The plateau.  The why-aren’t-I-losing-weight-like-I-used-to?  It goes by many names, but no matter what you call it, it stinks.  After starting an exercise regimen and sticking to it for many weeks, people are often very disappointed (to say the least) to find that they aren’t losing weight or gaining muscle at the rate that they were when the exercising started to pay off.

Many people are convinced when they hit this fitness plateau that they have simply reached the lowest weight (or maximum muscle mass) possible for them—this is just not true.  The truth is that after a period of time, even if you’re working out as hard as you can, your body will acclimate to the demands you put on it if you aren’t mixing up you’re routine.

As you become more and more fit, it becomes more and more difficult to challenge your muscles and continue to burn fat using the same exercises.  This means that you can’t just add more weight or make your runs longer to continue on your journey to fitness, but instead means that you have to surprise your body by doing something completely different.

So, what’s one excellent way to totally surprise your body?  It’s called sprint training.  Adding higher intensity periods of exertion during exercise, even if the total workout time is shorter, will give you explosive results in your training.  It confuses your muscles by not allowing them to find a rhythm, and by so doing, keeps your metabolism high.  It also builds muscle in a way that regular exercise won’t—and more muscle makes for a higher metabolism as well.
Researchers at McMaster University have determined that a series of 30-second sprints three days a week is as beneficial for your health as an hour of endurance training five days a week, if not more.

If you’ve hit that plateau, and are ready to keep burning fat, try this workout and you’ll be surprised by how explosive you can be.  Alternate these workouts doing each only once in a week, and change the order in which you perform them every week.

Week 1
 Jog 1 mile
 Sprint 200 yards at 50% of your maximum pace
 Jog 200 yards
 Sprint 100 yards at your fastest pace (100%)
 Jog 200 yards
 Sprint 200 yards at 75% of your maximum pace
 Jog 1 mile

Week 2
 Sprint 400 yards at 100%
 Rest
 Lunge walk for 100 yards
 Rest
 Do 3 sets of 10 pull ups
 Rest
 Sprint 200 yards at 100%
 Jog 1 mile

Week 3
 Run 2 miles at your fastest jogging pace (approximately 50% of your maximum sprinting pace)
 Rest
 Bear crawl for 100 yards
 Rest
 Do 5 sets of 10 push ups
 Rest
 Jog 1 mile

If these exercises prove too difficult at first, cut the numbers in half, but keep the workouts the same.  And, of course, if they’re too easy, you can always add more, or combine the workouts in one day.  The point is: be explosive, and always keep changing your routine.

Author Bio:
Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education where she writes about education, online colleges, online degrees etc. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

*This article was written by Maria Rainier. While the opinions

expressed are hers I would like to say that I advocate high-intensity

interval training.

Strength workout or endurance workout and detraining

There’s a fabulous study in the Journal of Strength Training and Conditioning.  It’s about the effects of detraining (taking a break) after 24 weeks of strength workouts and 24 weeks of endurance (jogging) workouts.  They didn’t workout for 24 weeks after that.  The results of the study showed that strength training has more long lasting benefits.  Find out what this means for you by reading my final post (for personal reasons) at ironwarriortraining.com.

Do you need to take breaks from weight training? The concept of detraining. 

Do you know someone that could use a  personal trainer on the go? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!

How to Stay Fit and Healthy After Giving Birth

How to Stay Fit and Healthy After Giving Birth

Staying fit and healthy before and after giving birth is one of the best things you can do for both you and the baby. New mothers require a great deal of stamina just to keep up with the demands of a newborn. Your body has gone through a tremendous amount of change during pregnancy and childbirth which may have left you feeling exhausted and flabby. But don’t despair; with a little patience, time and effort your body and energy levels will return to normal.

You will have given yourself a significant head start if you stayed fit throughout your pregnancy. A prenatal fitness regime that includes moderate cardiovascular and strength-building exercises coupled with good nutrition will make post-partum recovery and weight loss far easier and faster. It will help give you the additional energy you need to care for your new bundle of joy. Women who are sedentary throughout pregnancy have a far more difficult time coping with the early days of motherhood and regaining their pre-pregnancy strength, stamina and shape.

Post Partum Diet and Exercise

If you are distressed when you look at yourself in the mirror and worry that you’ll never get back in shape, resist the urge to go on the crash diet. Losing weight and getting fit are going to take time and if anything, you need extra nutrition during this time. Low calorie diets will delay your recovery and rob you of much needed energy. If you are breastfeeding, it can have a negative effect on your milk supply.

You should not even attempt to diet until six to eight weeks after delivery, and then your daily caloric intake should be between 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day or 2,000 to 2,700 if you are nursing. Although you need extra nutrition while breastfeeding, it can actually help you lose weight. Aside from all the health benefits for your baby, breastfeeding is good for you too, easily burning as much as five hundred calories a day. The number of calories you need, within the acceptable range, is also dependant on your weight, metabolism, and activity level. To keep your energy up, eat five or six small, nutritious meals a day with healthy snacks in between, never skip meals, particularly breakfast and keep yourself well hydrated.

Before starting an exercise program, check with your doctor. Most recommend waiting until two months after delivery, longer if you have had a caesarean. The doctor can also check if you developed a common condition called diastasis during your pregnancy. The stomach muscles separate and stretch apart and the condition can be aggravated by certain types of exercise. Both Pilates and yoga are good post partum exercise options and something you can easily do at home. Focus on exercises that target the muscles most affected by pregnancy, namely, the abdominals, pelvic floor muscles and the muscles that support your back. Gradually add in some cardio and strength training.

It’s important not to rush your recovery. You should set a weight loss goal of no more than a pound and a half a week. Often all that takes is it cutting out about five hundred calories a day through a combination of exercise and diet. Stay active, don’t starve yourself and take it one step at a time.

 Hello my name is Nisha Sharma, I am the Editor for healthypages.co.uk. I love to write about health and beauty, especially Complementary Therapies, please visit our site for more information Hypnotherapy.

This is a guest post by Nisha. I appreciate her contributions to my site. I know getting back into shape after giving birth is important to all women.

Do you know someone that could use gym workout routines for women? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!

2 Reasons To Do Plyometrics

Plyometrics are popular for two very different groups.  They’ve been popular for a long time for athletes that have a goal to be quicker and more powerful.  More recently they’ve become popular for non-athletes who are looking to be trim.  These can burn a lot of calories!  My article at Ironwarriortraining.com is titled “Plyometrics: What are the 2 main reasons to do plyometrics?”  Read it now for more information on plyometrics.

Do you know someone that could use gym workout routines for women? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!

Should I Do Circuit Training?

To circuit train or not to circuit train is a question many consciously or unconsciously ask themselves.  Circuit training is part of many popular workout programs (i.e. P90X).  Circuit training can be great for burning calories and creating definition.  However, circuit training is not good for everyone everyday.  Read my article at IronWarriorTraining.com titled “Circuit Training- Why you would or wouldn’t use circuit training“.

Do you know someone that could use gym workout routines for women? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!

Top 3 Reasons Why You Have Shaky Hands After Weight Lifting

Top 3 Reasons Why You Have Shaky Hands After Weight Lifting

Shaky hands are a common occurrence for many, after strenuous exercising and weight lifting. Although a frightening experience, instead of freaking out, it will be helpful for you to understand the causes of shaky hands. However, if this shaking happens quite frequently and sometimes bother you even when you are not weight lifting, you better consult a doctor to check if any underlying medical condition is the culprit for the problem in your case. Top 3 reasons for shaky hands are listed below:
1. Fatigue – In a rested position, your movements are controlled by multiple motor units that comprises of a muscle as well as a motor nerve. These units do not work in a synchronised manner. While some muscle units would be shortening and contracting inside the muscle belly, others would be getting longer and relaxing. These motor units overlap a lot, so the apparent contractions of the muscles seem smooth. But when exhausted, few motor units of these muscles stop working and drop out, as suggested by Loren G. Martin, the psychology professor from Oklahoma State University. And as all motor units do not participate well in smooth movement, it causes a trembling movement. When the muscles resume their rested state, the shaky movement withers away on its own and all motor units begin to work normally.
2. Hypoglycemia (Low blood sugar) – This is another common cause of shaky hands. Although a frequent botheration for diabetics, this can be the reason for shaky hands in your case if you do not eat properly. Blood sugar or glucose is the main source of fuel for your body. Lower blood sugar levels are likely to hamper the proper functioning of your body, and weight lifting only makes it more noticeable. Weakness, shakiness, hunger, headache, trembling and dizziness are all symptoms of low blood sugar. To cope with lower blood sugar levels, eating small proportion of a snack around half an hour before lifting weights or when your hands begin to tremble can help you get a grip over your muscles and stop them from shaking in 20 to 25 minutes.
3. Postural Tremors – Holding your leg or arm in the same position for a long time can cause postural tremors, as explained by the Medline Plus, a popular medical encyclopaedia online. For instance, holding out your arms, writing, gripping weights firmly for too long can all cause postural tremors. These tremors also usually disappear within a few minutes as your body muscles resume their relaxed state after changing the position but fatigue, stress, and anxiety often aggravate postural tremors.
Apart from the above reasons, excessive intake of caffeine or coffee, and alcohol can also cause trembling hands. Or, it can also be an alcohol withdrawal symptom, or a side effect of any drug or prescription medication. As regards the medical condition that may cause shaky hands, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease are the most suspected conditions.
Taking a good diet, watching what you are drinking, and sufficient rest can normally help you stop shaky hands. But if yours is an exceptional case where this doesn’t seem to work after trying these things for a month or two, it is advisable that you consult a doctor to find out if any prescription drugs or underlying medical condition needs to be dealt with, to cure trembling in your hands.
What’s Your Story?
Do you also have shaky hands? When and how often do you have it? Which one do you think is your reason for shaky hands? Are you doing anything to cure it? Share it all with us in the comments section.

Brenda Lyttle is a health and fitness expert who writes for the site, http://www.hghtruth.org/.  I appreciate her contribution as a guest author for this site.  For adults who are annoyed with their shaky hands due to their increasing age, she recommends trying hgh supplements to regain that youthful strength and vigor, however she also recommends that you must stick to lifting lighter weights.

What makes up my core?

IronWarriorTraining.com has asked me to be a consistent author for their site.  Here you can find my first article, “What is the ‘core’ and why is it so important?”.  In this article I talk about stabilizer and mover muscles. I relate it to activities such as soccer and baseball that you can relate to.  Training your core is not about just having a “sexy” six-pack.  Read the article to find out what it is all about!

What is the “core” and why is it so important?

Do you know someone that could use gym workout routines for women? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!

How to double your training results with Eccentric Muscle Contractions

Every movement has a concentric and eccentric component.  Last month we talked about the concentric component.  If you only focus on that you won’t get full results.  Eccentric muscle contractions are essential to focus on.  Because you can produce more force with an eccentric muscle contraction you can build muscle faster with the eccentric component than the concentric component.

Eccentric muscle contractions occur when the muscle is contracting and lengthening. This is the opposite of a concentric muscle contraction as discussed in the previous article.

Eccentric muscle contractions are extremely important in during competition and in training!  I had a hard time figuring out whether to focus on competition or training first, but have chosen to go with competition because you will then be more interested in how to train the eccentric phase of your exercises better.

Eccentric muscle contractions in competition
Probably the most important eccentric muscle contraction in competition is slowing down.  Speeding up utilizes concentric muscle contractions and slowing down (aka braking) utilizes eccentric muscle contractions.  After running a race you slow down two ways.  You don’t try to run any faster by concentrically contracting and you try to slow down with heavy, forceful steps.  When your foot hits the ground you try to bend your knee slowly, but it still bends.  The quadriceps muscles- and other muscles, but mainly the quadriceps muscles-  contract, but they lengthen as the knee bends.  These eccentric contractions need not be very forceful after a 100 meter dash because you don’t need to slow down quickly, but when playing a sport such as soccer that requires change of direction you often need to slow down to a complete stop very quickly.

More force is produced through your leg during eccentric contractions than concentric contractions.  This is why almost all injuries occur during the eccentric phase of movement.  You rarely see someone hurt themselves while speeding up or jumping up, but you more often see it when trying to stop quickly or when landing after jumping up.

Eccentric muscle contractions in training
Training eccentrically is vital, but often overlooked.  One reason is  that it is hard to gauge.  When asking someone how much weight they can squat you really mean how much can they squat up.  You aren’t asking how much weight can they put on their back and lower, but not raise.  You can produce significantly more force eccentrically than you can concentrically, however (J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 1986;8(6):288-93).  Think about it: Have you ever lowered a weight in the bench press or in a squat rack, but not able to raise it?  Also, power is significantly increased.  Power is how much work (aka weight you can move a certain distance) in a given amount of time.  One way to improve power is to increase the weight you move, but often a faster way is to decrease the amount of time it takes to move that weight.

Plyometrics
You should not increase power, lowering a barbell quickly while bench pressing or squatting.  Plyometrics are your answer.  I have a theory that the higher you can jump off of something and land biomechanically correct, the higher your vertical jump will be.  This is because you have the ability to produce greater power in your legs.  The height of the box cannot be compared between two people because each person has a different body weight.  This can also be applied to your pushing ability.  Dropping from a kneeling or standing position into a push-up is great for increasing pushing power.

Weight-lifting
Do not neglect the eccentric portion of weight-lifting.  Two ways to maximize the eccentric component of weight-lifting is to go slower on the eccentric component than the concentric component.  The other is to put more weight on than you can lift concentrically so you have to work more eccentrically and then get just enough help to lift the weight during the concentric component.

If you have any questions or want to discuss this topic more with me please feel free to contact me, Nick Rainey, via my contact page. Next month: The final type of contraction: Isometric contractions.

Do you know someone that could use gym workout routines for women? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!