September 8, 2022 – There is an old joke Management:
Q: What is the best way to form an Olympic team?
A: Choose your parents wisely!
It’s funny because it’s full of scientific fact: No aspiring athlete has been slowed down by good genes.
looking at a recent study from Spain who explored the relationship between torso size – rib cage and waist – and the ability to run fast.
The researchers used a 3D surface scanner to measure the torsos of 27 male volunteers who ran at different speeds on a treadmill. At moderate speeds, there was no difference between the men with different torso shapes.
But when they reached 85% effort (hard work) or realized 100% effort (all-out sprint speed), the fastest body type became apparent: “relatively narrow and flat torso.”
Therefore, your inherited torso shape can give you an advantage. or not.
You see a lot of those narrow, flat torsos at the Olympics. Body shape can contribute to what coaches call running efficiency, which is a big part of sprinting—but not the only part. There is VO2 max – how your body uses oxygen. There is a ratio of “fast twitch” (running) and “slow twitch” (running) muscle fibers. And there are also abstract things like mental toughness and motivation.
You don’t need the perfect torso to get or improve these traits. This is good news for runners everywhere, because research shows that running can improve your health and help you live longer.
How does running help your health?
Even small amounts of running reduce the risk of dying from a heart attack or brain attackaccording to 2014 study Led by Duck-Chul Lee, Ph.D., of Iowa State University.
Researchers followed 55,000 adults for 15 years. Just 5 to 10 minutes of running, several times a week, even at modest speeds (6 mph, or 10 minutes at a mile pace) propelled the needle toward better health. Runners lived on average 3 years longer than non-runners.
Running reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and Type 2 diabetessays Russell Butt, PhD, one of Lee’s fellow researchers.
“We’ve learned during the pandemic that the right people generally do better against COVID-19,” he says.
Pat is now 76 and a research professor in the Department of Exercise Science at the University of South Carolina. He’s a long-distance runner and has three places in the top ten in the Boston Marathon, so you can guess what his torso looks like.
But as a researcher, his focus is on promoting lifelong fitness habits for all ages. But running is a smart option because it’s “easy to access and relatively inexpensive, and the United States often has ‘community support systems’ such as local running clubs or planned lane systems that recreational runners find attractive.”
The 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which Pate helped develop, recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week. That’s about 20 minutes a day, which should be possible if you’re looking forward to it Be the right size And stay healthy, he says.
For runners, that might be as little as 20 miles a week, while someone training for a half marathon or even 5 kilometers could easily exceed that miles.
But before you start a running program — or go back to one after a vacation — get approval by medical professionals.
Improve running, whatever your body type
Running coaches know the importance of running efficiency. And this does not start in the legs, but in your “heart”.
says George Puckett, a former all-American runner at Bucknell University and founder of the Metropolitan Area Runners Club in the Washington, D.C. area.
Doing basic planks at home is a simple way to strengthen your core.
Besides putting in the miles, Beckett says some exercises will help you speed up:
shaping exercises Like “high knees” and “butt kicks” promote proper mechanics and increase range of motion. Raised knees are a jump-like movement, while rear kicks raise the foot straight from below, near the buttocks. He recommends Lauren Fleishman video Learn how to do these and other exercises.
running hills It also promotes proper form. Even moderate ascents require an active, regular swing of the arm and knee lift.
Intermittent training It can increase your VO2 maximum, or the maximum amount of oxygen your body uses when you exercise as hard as you can. Once every 7 to 10 days, try a faster workout on a calculated flat track or track. Run for 10 to 15 minutes, do some stretching or light exercises, then do four rounds of 800 meters (or slightly faster) at your actual 5 kilometer pace. Take 2 or 3 minutes of walking/jogging “recovery” between every 800 metres, and finish 10 to 15 minutes of jogging to cool down.
push yourself To build mental toughness and self-confidence, which comes with harder or longer exercises. Add a few miles to your longest trail, and include some rolling hills. If you are looking forward to a marathon, make sure to enter about 5km or 10k races to get used to the physical and mental demands of the competition.
Working speed It can help you overcome any shortcomings in fast jocks and slow musculature, and it’s just a roll of the genetic dice. Short, fast sprints (five or six push-ups over 40 or 50 meters) can ultimately make you faster and more explosive, while building weekly miles or increasing the length of your long, steady passes will activate your slower endurance muscles.
Escape from medication
One man at Phuket Running Club would not have beaten the Spanish “stump test”. He was in his late twenties, weighed over 200 pounds, and was in heart condition.
“I was worried I would need CPR training for this guy,” Puckett says.
But a well-planned running program – and an athlete ready for it an act Running – taking the story in another direction. Bucket’s novice ran 4 hours in his first marathon, and through diligent training a few years later, he ran one in under 3 hours. That’s less than 7 minutes per mile.
“When did which – which,“I thought, ‘Well, he can’t go too fast,’” Puckett said. “
But the rookie, who has had heart problems recently, dropped his personal marathon record to 2 hours 37 minutes (running an average of 6 minutes per mile for 26 miles).
“I think he really benefited from the accountability and camaraderie of being at a running club,” Puckett says. “And one day he came to practice and said, ‘My cardiologist wants to know what the hell I was doing. He took me out of heart meds.”
But can running help you wean you off your medications or, better yet, avoid them altogether? Yes, suggests the results of a study conducted in London and published in 2020.
The study put 138 first-time marathoners – men and women between the ages of 21 and 69 – on a 17-week program of less than 30 miles a week before the London Marathon. Blood pressure and arterioles were examined before and after.
Their conclusion: a decrease in blood pressure and aortic stiffness in healthy participants. It was as if they had reduced the lifespan of their blood vessels by 4 years. The benefit was greater in older, slower male runners who had higher baseline blood pressure.
Coach Beckett’s “surprising star” and the results of the London Marathon study are a reminder that it’s not All Our victories are celebrated on top of the medal podium.
Any body can be a runner’s body
Slender and wiry men dominated the first running boom of the 1970s. Currently, 44% of those who finished a marathon are women. In recent decades, people like Oprah Winfrey and hostility world Columnist John Bingham, also known as “The Penguin” because of his swaying gait.
It had none of the torso measurements that would impress the Spanish researchers. But Oprah finished the marathon in 4 hours and 29 minutes.
“Oprah made a lot of people a believer,” says Amby Barfoot, the 1968 Boston Marathon winner. “She was once a very unlikely candidate, and when she did, a lot of people thought, ‘Hey, why can’t I?’ “
And Bingham’s pole of a lumbering piper—attracting slower runners along with encouragement and humor—has put him on his way to a better life, both physically and mentally.
“We will not have dare Get involved in a race like this, with all those fast runners, if it wasn’t for your pole,” a fan rushed into it at a marathon fair.
Bingham smiled and said, “Just remember this: there are a lot of we from there they. “
Mark Will Webber, former Senior Editor at hostility world Magazine and Editor/Writer Quotable Runner.
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