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1.Just Move: Scientist Author Debunks Myths About Exercise And Sleep:
For much of history, human beings needed to be physically active every day in order to hunt or gather food — or to avoid becoming food themselves. It was an active lifestyle, but one thing it didn't include was any kind of formal exercise.
Daniel Lieberman is a professor in the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard. He says that the notion of "getting exercise" — movement just for movement's sake — is a relatively new phenomenon in human history.
"Until recently, when energy was limited and people were physically active, doing physical activity that wasn't necessarily rewarding, just didn't happen," Lieberman says. "When I go to these [remote African tribal] villages, I'm the only person who gets up in the morning and goes for a run. And often they laugh at me. They think I'm just absolutely bizarre. ... Why would anybody do something like that?"
More...from NPR.
2. Is Biking Actually Good Exercise? We Asked Fitness Experts:
There are a lot of reasons to love biking, whether it brings back nostalgic childhood memories, provides an eco- and wallet-friendly mode of transportation, or gives you an energizing way to move your legs to a Beyoncé playlist without needing to know any dance moves. Beyond all of that, biking can also be a great workout with benefits beyond getting your heart pumping.
We asked the experts how bicycling benefits the body, what muscle groups it works, and how to decide what type of cycling is right for you (and how frequently you should do it).
What Are the Benefits of Biking?
Spend more than a few minutes on a bike and you’ll likely feel the immediate cardio impact, among other things. "Cycling, whether indoors or outdoors, can benefit the lungs, heart, skeleton, muscles, and the mind," says Bianca Beldini, DPT, who is also a USA Triathlon Level 1 coach, competitive age group triathlete, and Schwinn indoor spin certified.
Biking can also help get you stronger without overly taxing your joints. "Cycling is a non-impact aerobic exercise that can improve cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health without causing substantial compression through the joints while contributing to building strength and power of the core and lower extremities," says Beldini.
More...from Byrdie.
3. Race Results Weekly Athlete Performance Database Ready for Release!:
RRW Subscribers,
The 2020 Race Results Weekly Athlete Performance Database is available for sale and immediate use!
This plain text file (*.txt) is easily searchable for results of either events or individual athletes. It is essentially a compilation of every issue of RRW from 2020 with all known results and data corrections added. Last year was one of the strangest in athletics, but RRW captured nearly all of the important data you will need for middle and long distance running.
NO SPECIAL SOFTWARE IS NEEDED. Just open the file in any text editor, like Microsoft WordPad, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or even Microsoft Notepad. Search the file as you would any text document.
This is the same file your editor uses every day to look up athlete and event results. It offers more depth and context than the on-line databases which have no descriptive information (like weather, course conditions, and course certification), narration, or other annotations, like event or facility records. The file also includes event stories which RRW published at the time competitions were held.
The cost is USD 175, and covers results from 01-Jan-2020 through 31-Dec-2020. Delivery is immediate via e-mail. It's a tremendous value.
To order, please send an e-mail to Jane Monti.
4. Are you fuelling adequately to maintain health and performance?
Anyone who has observed the damage that a typical group of endurance athletes can inflict on an ‘all-you-can-eat’ buffet could be forgiven for thinking that underfuelling won't be much of an issue for this particular subset of the population.
However, the issue of athletes not consuming enough calories and nutrients to support the demands of their training and competitions is a common and very serious problem. It has become a key area of study within the sports nutrition and medicine community in recent years and led to the development of a syndrome known as ‘RED-S’...
What is RED-S?
The concept of RED-S stands for ‘Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport’ and the issue hit the mainstream press in 2019 when record-breaking American track star Mary Cain opened up about her experiences of being encouraged to dramatically “underfuel” during her time with the Nike Oregon Project and coach Alberto Salazar.
More...from Precision Hydration.
5. Nike React Infinity Flyknit 2 Performance Review:
What You Need To Know
Weighs 9.9 oz. (281 g) for a US M9.0 / 8.5 oz. (241 g) for a US W8.0
Completely redesigned upper for more secure fit
Same React midsole and mild stability components
If you don’t drink Hawaiian Punch with filet mignon then you’re not living life
THOMAS: Last year, Nike introduced the original React Infinity with some lofty promises. There was an emphasis on high mileage durability and a light stability/rockered design that would keep runners injury-free. The shoe looked modern, and we were excited to run in it. I was actually hashtag blessed enough to take my first pair of React Infinity to Nike HQ in Beaverton, Oregon, where I ran on the hallowed Michael Johnson track and the rest of the campus.
They made it a point to show some beat-to-hell pairs in their promotional ads for the shoe, so I muddied them up good to take some authentic Nike real estate home with me. Handing out humblebrags like Oprah over here.
More...from Believe in the Run.
6. Skipping Breakfast Can Impact Your Performance Later in the Day:
Even if you eat the same amount of carbs and calories, research shows that extending your nightly fast can slow you down.
Skipping your morning meal, even if you eat a bigger lunch, can hurt your exercise performance later in the day, according to a small study of highly trained cyclists.
The study participants also burned less fat and more carbohydrates on the days they fasted in the morning compared to the days when they ate breakfast. Their workout also felt harder when they were fasted.
Intermittent fasting may help with weight loss, but when you need to perform that day, eat your morning meal.
Research shows that intermittent fasting - also known as time-restricted eating, when you eat in a limited "window" of hours - can help some people lose weight, lower inflammation, and reduce the risk for diseases like diabetes. But when it comes to your performance, opening that eating window and making room for your morning meal is the way to go, according to a study published in the European Journal of Sport Science.
More...from Runner's World.
7. When to Stretch and Stretching Cold - Best time to stretch for improving flexibility and ROM:
Many people try to improve their flexibility as part of a warm up or cool down; Big Mistake! You risk injury and impaired athletic performance if you try to improve your flexibility during the warm up or cool down. Watch the video below to learn the best time to stretch for improving your flexibility and ROM (Range of Motion)
Watch the video from StretcgCoach.
8. TG-HDL ratio: The blood-fat number to know:
What’s the latest-greatest heart-health indicator?
For decades the medical establishment focused on total cholesterol as the main indicator of cardiovascular and heart health. This despite the fact that it’s relatively ineffective as a predictor — half of people with high cholesterol never have a heart attack, and half of people who die of heart attacks don’t have high cholesterol.
Over the years this morphed into a focus on good and bad cholesterol - HDL and LDL - and then the ratio between HDL and the total. This eventually gave way to a spotlight on the LDL particle size — the vLDL — which was deemed to be very bad, and also contained another blood fat, triglyceride.
The truth is none of these numbers give a clear and simple picture of heart health. However, studies have increasingly demonstrated a better, more stable and balanced view of an important single number that can replace the old ones. This is the ratio of triglycerides (TG) to HDL.
More...from Dr. Phil Maffetone.
9. One Essential Stretch, One Exercise, One Mindset for Winter 2021:
Three simple strategies to keep ourselves moving forward while we wait for change
It’s the end of January. In the northern hemisphere we’re in the depths of winter: it’s cold, it’s sloppy, it’s dark. We’re vitamin D deprived, depressed and darn right pissed off. And still we don’t know when we’ll be able to travel again, or go to an event, or run in a race. Long-term running goals seem as tangible to us now as retirement is to a teenager, and working toward them equally un-motivating.
So let’s keep it simple: We need a few essential things that will help us keep getting better, a few things to focus on to keep ourselves afloat, moving and ready when spring comes again. With simplicity in mind, here is one stretch, one exercise and one mindset to add to your running and get you through winter 2021.
More...from Podium Runner.
10. The Physiology of the Finishing Kick:
If even pacing is so great, why do the best runners in the world always seem to have another gear at the end?
I used to see my finishing kick as a sign of toughness. Nobody passed me in the closing stages of a race, I’d tell myself, because nobody wanted it more than me.
But as time went on, I began to see it from a different perspective. No matter how a race played out, whether it was fast or slow and whether I was way ahead or way behind, I would always manage to sprint the last quarter-mile or so. Why did I always have energy left for a sprint, even if I’d been dropped by the leaders? Shouldn’t I have used that energy to avoid being dropped in the first place? Eventually, my kick became a source of frustration. I tried to race hard enough that I’d have nothing left for a kick, but I almost never managed it.
As a result, I’ve always been fascinated by attempts to unravel the physiology and psychology of the finishing kick. The most recent addition: a study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, led by graduate student Rafael Azevedo at the University of Calgary under the direction of Juan Murias and Guillaume Millet, using an interesting new methodology to tease out levels of fatigue in the brain and body before and after the finishing kick.
More...from Sweat Science on Outside Online.
11. Ask the physio - shin splints:
Paul Hobrough of IchatPhysio takes a look at how to treat what can be a painful leg problem
What Are Shin Splints?
The title of shin splints is not actually using a correct medical term. Shin splints fall into a category of Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (MTSS). Wherever we see an injury being classified as a ‘syndrome’ we fall into a knowledge black hole, whereby we cannot be sure of a single symptom, rather a collection of signs and symptoms that can correlate to a certain injury.
It means that a whole host of complaints can in fact be diagnosed as medial tibial stress syndrome.
"(MTSS) is an overuse injury or repetitive-stress injury of the shin area. Various stress reactions of the tibia and surrounding musculature occur when the body is unable to heal properly in response to repetitive muscle contractions and tibial strain" - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
More...from Athletics Weekly.
12. The Best Time of Day to Exercise:
Men at risk for diabetes had greater blood sugar control and lost more belly fat when they exercised in the afternoon than in the morning.
Is it better for our bodies to work out at certain times of day?
A useful new study of exercise timing and metabolic health suggests that, at least for some people, the answer is a qualified yes. The study, which looked at men at high risk for Type 2 diabetes, found that those who completed afternoon workouts upped their metabolic health far more than those who performed the same exercise earlier in the day. The results add to growing evidence that when we exercise may alter how we benefit from that exercise.
Scientists have known for some time that the chronology of our days influences the quality of our health. Studies in both animals and people indicate that every tissue in our bodies contains a kind of molecular clock that chimes, in part, in response to biological messages related to our daily exposure to light, food and sleep.
More...from the NY Times.
13. What Exactly Is KT Tape and How Does It Work?
These adhesive strips can provide support, relieve pain, and turn your muscles on and off.
If you’ve run a race, you’ve probably seen runners sporting strips of tape - sometimes bright, sometimes flesh colored - down their legs or around their knees. You might even know that it’s called kinesiology tape (or kinesio tape and even “KT tape” thanks to the popular brand for short). But what does kinesiology tape do? How does it work? And can it really help? We tapped top experts in the field to get you answers.
What Is Kinesiology Tape?
Kinesiology tape is, quite literally, tape that you (or, really, your physical therapist or doctor) apply to your muscles. "It’s an elastic tape that provides sensory input into an area, but still allows for full range of motion," explains Laurey Lou, a physical therapist and certified strength and conditioning specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery Sports Medicine in Westchester, New York.
More...from Runner's World.
14. How to balance training with the demands of modern life:
One of the things I love about running Precision Hydration is that I get to spend time around athletes at every level of performance and across an eclectic range of sports.
But how do we - i.e. those of us who aren't professional athletes - balance training with the demands of modern life?
The difference between pros and the rest
At the top end of the scale, my mind is blown time and time again by the intensity, focus and dedication we witness in the top professional athletes we meet as they’re preparing for world class competition.
Whether it’s standing on the sidelines watching NFL pre-season practice in 30 degree heat, when up to 50% of the guys are going to be cut from the team so they’re fighting tooth and nail for their careers, to supporting a bunch of pro Ironman athletes on a camp where they’re logging 40+ hours of training per week, we get to observe human beings pushing the limits of what is possible in very different areas.
More...from Precision Hydration.
15. Skipping Breakfast Can Impact Your Performance Later in the Day:
Even if you eat the same amount of carbs and calories, research shows that extending your nightly fast can slow you down.
Skipping your morning meal, even if you eat a bigger lunch, can hurt your exercise performance later in the day, according to a small study of highly trained cyclists.
The study participants also burned less fat and more carbohydrates on the days they fasted in the morning compared to the days when they ate breakfast. Their workout also felt harder when they were fasted.
Intermittent fasting may help with weight loss, but when you need to perform that day, eat your morning meal.
Research shows that intermittent fasting—also known as time-restricted eating, when you eat in a limited “window” of hours—can help some people lose weight, lower inflammation, and reduce the risk for diseases like diabetes. But when it comes to your performance, opening that eating window and making room for your morning meal is the way to go, according to a study published in the European Journal of Sport Science.
More...from Runner's World.
FEATURED EVENTS:
*Please verify event dates with the event websites available from our FrontPage.
Upcoming Races, Marathons, Races, and Triathlons
January 29, 2021
World Athletics Indoor Tour - Europahalle, Karlsruhe, Germany
January 31, 2021
Osaka Women's Marathon - Oska, Japan
February 14, 2021:
Austin Marathon - Austin, TEX
February 19, 2021:
RAK Half-Marathon - Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirate
Tel Aviv Samsung Marathon - Israel
February 20-21, 2021:
Gasparilla Distance Classic - Tampa Bay, FLA
February 26-27, 2021:
Texas Qualifier - Austin Texas
For more complete race listings check out our Upcoming Races, and Calendars.
Have a good week of training and/or racing.
Ken
Email: webmaster@runnersweb.com
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