Cool Runnings

I’ve signed up to run the Two oceans half marathon in April next year.  I do not run. This is not my forte.  I do not intend on running for placement, I am not running competitively.  I’m running because as someone who doesn’t run, this is a challenge of great measure.  It does not matter if I come first, somewhere in the middle or stone cold last, I want to say that “I have finished”, there is a lot of satisfaction in that.

Not only is the marathon a personal test, but as I work with runners on a day to day basis I feel that experiencing a part of them will help me, help them.  I want to put myself in their shoes, I want to expose myself to their highs and their lows.  Lets call it research.

I’ve always said to my clients that working with kettlebells will boost their levels of fitness, increase their cardiovascular output, and strengthen and develop their ‘go muscles’ because this is what I have experienced first hand.  However only now that I have hit the road running have I literally felt the surge of all the years of training come together.  My first 5km run, having not even run 100m in over five years was an absolute walk in the park.  My first 10km is still trying to catch up to me.

The ballistic training from kettlebells has increased my power output. My obsession with the kettlebell snatch has not only improved my technique and allowed me to lift heavier for longer but has built strength in my lower back and hip flexors which are vital muscle groups required in running.  My ability to keep running is owed to the fact that kettlebells have improved my conditioning and muscular endurance with less fatigue and lactic acid build up.

The two oceans is known as the worlds most beautiful marathon, I am excited to be a part of it.  I am nervous to be challenging my potential, yet I’m thrilled to be facing the truths of the journey to the end.

To the runners, this half marathon may be a quick afternoon run for you but a nerve racking task to me.  I feel light headed just thinking about facing the road. All though even if I fall flat on my face, at least I will be moving somewhat forward. I respect your sport and look forward to experiencing my first ‘runners high’, I salute you!

Time to get out the running shoes

The power of plyometrics

Do you ever sit and watch the guys from the NBA? I mean really watch the sportsmen, not the game? Besides the fact that these altitudinous men could easily trip over Tom Cruse and fall with their faces in another hemisphere, these guys can jump.

A sportsman’s height or physique has little to do with their abilities to elevate themselves beyond their center of gravity.  Football players, MMA fighters, gymnasts, rugby players, these sportsmen all require explosive power for optimal performance. However even the weekend warrior, housewife or average gym junkie should include explosive training into their regimes.

Developing raw strength and rapid power increases your muscular endurance, efficiency, function and capacity. It improves your rate-of-force production, improves your performance, boosts metabolic rate, enhances your ability to burn calories and of course gives you samurai like characteristics to run raster, jump higher, throw further and punch harder.

Training for fast powerful movements is done through methods of plyometrics.  Plyo’s involve using the resistance of gravity to elevate stored elastic energy in muscles during the eccentric (muscle lengthening) contraction.  Energy is then discharged during the concentric (muscle shortening) contraction which results in an explosive burst.  Therefor increasing the muscles performance.

In ninja terms your muscle is contracting before it is expanding.  These fast powerful movements improve the way your nervous system works and therefor enhances your functioning and efficiency.  However plyo training does require a pre-requisite of strength work.  Smashing out plyometric push ups (clap push ups) are going to be virtually impossible if you don’t already have the core and upper body strength to handle a normal military push up.

Plyometric exercises load your muscles and then contracts them in a rapid sequence. Training your body to contend with the speed or force of the contractions takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day and assuming after 10 box jumps you are going to be able to crack out slam dunks like Michael Jordan, is just going to leave you face down on the floor, in your own sweat.

Include vertical jumps, over head throws, tuck jumps, slams, drop jumping, squat jumps, and plyo push ups into your drills and perform them in a smooth and integrated fashion as quick as possible with as little ground contact time as possible.

Soon enough you will jump like Jordan and bend it like Beckham.

I choose to sweat

I am not an addict to fitness, I am not obsessed and I am not an extremist. Yes, I push my body, I push my own limits, I break my own records, I challenge myself. I choose to feel alive rather than hungover. I choose to release my spirit rather than contain its potential.  Lazy is your choice, dedication is mine.

Why do I choose to sweat?

1) Nobody can understand a comfort zone quite like someone who distances themselves from it entirely. Spending an hour in the rain pushing iron to the elements, fighting fatigue, challenging your muscles potential and holding on when your body is begging for you to stop.  When that weight hits the ground, that moment the pain subsides, that feeling, that rush of blood to every muscle in your body.  That feeling of being completely alive.

2) Setting yourself a physical challenge, whether it be completing the comrades or finally smashing the 20 dead hang pull ups you have been working so hard to achieve. Achieving it.  That feeling of knowing that you have tried, tested and smashed it. The possibilities are endless.

3) Finally seeing how mental strength over powers physical strength tenfold.  Your body begs for mercy but your mind gives it horns. Believe me when you smashing out 12 minute planks, your fatigue sets in at 6 minutes, your body has given in by 8, the last 4 minutes were all mental.

4) I am not competitive, I do not care if you can jump higher, run faster or push heavier than I can.  I sweat because breaking my own records is the most rewarding and fulfilling conviction I have experienced

5) Being in the zone.  You can only really understand being in the zone when you in it.

I can be cliche and continue on about how fitness and strength will change your life forever, how it promotes longevity, how good it is for your heart, your blood pressure and preventing thousands of diseases.  But for me its more about how it changes the way you see and experience the world.

In French they say “Qui s’excuse s’accuse” He who excuses himself, accuses himself

I am not obsessed, I am dedicated