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Longer Lower Legs =
More Efficient Running
Posted October 29th, 2007 at 3:30 PM by Allyson Rosen
Section: News & Results, Running & Training, Health & Fitness, Exercise
People who have longer lower leg lengths (the distance from knee to ankle) will usually have greater endurance during running or walking than those with shorter lower leg lengths.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin showed that people with longer lower legs use less energy when they run (Journal of Human Evolution, August 2007).
In a previous paper in the same journal, these authors showed that people with longer lower legs are better able to prevent heat build-up, which slows you down and makes you tired. When you exercise, almost 80 percent of the energy that you use to power your muscles is lost as heat.
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Does your heart get tired when running and/or during other types of exercise?
Posted March 26th, 2007 at 9:59 AM by Hariz Siddiqui
Section: Health & Fitness, Exercise
A healthy heart is so strong that it is almost never a cause of tiredness during exercise.
Tiredness during exercise comes from your muscles. They run out of fuel or out of oxygen. Skeletal muscles use both fat and sugar for energy.
When your muscles run out of their stored sugar supply, called glycogen, they cannot contract and function adequately. You feel tired, your muscles hurt and you have difficulty coordinating them.
On the other hand, your heart muscle gets energy directly from fat and sugar in your blood and even from a breakdown product of metabolism called lactic acid. It is virtually impossible for the heart muscle to run out of fuel unless you are starving to death.
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Why you should cool down
Posted February 20th, 2007 at 8:00 AM by Martha Jones
Section: Running & Training, Injury & Rehab, Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab, Exercise
At the end of a marathon, a runner sprints over the finish line, falls down and lies unconscious for a short time. What’s the most likely cause? The possibilities include dehydration, hyponatremia (excessive fluid intake with too little salt in the blood), heat stroke, drunkenness, a heart attack or stroke. Usually it is none of these.
Almost all athletes who collapse after finishing a marathon suffer from postural hypotension: lack of blood flow to the brain because blood drops from the brain to the legs.
Treatment is to lie the person on his back, raise his feet high over his head and wait for him to revive. If he or she is not alert within seconds, you should consider the more serious causes of unconsciousness and get medical help immediately.
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TFS Review: The Stick’s “Sprinter Stick”
Posted January 10th, 2007 at 10:00 AM by Adam Jacobs
Section: Running & Training, Injury & Rehab, Gear & Apparel, Miscellaneous, Product Reviews, Special Features, Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab, TFS Reviews
The Stick’s “Sprinter Stick” is an exceptional tool for injury prevention & treatment and was chosen as a “TFS Top Pick of 2006″.
Product: The Stick’s Sprinter Stick
Price: $32.95
Rating: Excellent 8.9/10.0
Pros: Improves performance by accelerating recovery; portable; good value; versatile
Cons: Difficult to use on arm muscles and feet without a partner.
Overall: This is a one-of-a-kind self-massage tool that can reduce muscle soreness, prevent injuries and even make you a better runner.
For those who have never seen it used, The Sprinter Stick is likely to seem quite peculiar. As a matter of fact, when one of The Final Sprint’s product testers first received it, he thought we had sent him: “Some type of a hybrid between a rolling pin and a weapon from ‘Karate Kid’“.
Believe it or not, this observation was quite perceptive. The Sprinter Stick, one of the many models in the The Stick’s product line, is a 19-inch rod of plastic with grey, grooved handles on each end and nine, independent spindles surrounding it’s core. Just as a rolling pin is used to knead and reshape dough, The Sprinter Stick is used to stretch and manipulate muscle. The Intracell Technology of The Sprinter Stick can also be thought of as a type of weapon; one that has proved extremely effective for runner’s in the battle to stay injury-free.
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Don’t forget to warm-up
your heart!
Posted December 30th, 2006 at 7:00 AM by Jeanie Rebb
Section: Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab, Exercise
Most people know that you have to warm up skeletal muscles to help protect them from injury, but many do not know that warming up the heart muscle also helps to prevent heart attacks in people with blocked arteries leading to the heart
Before you try to run very fast, you can protect your muscles from injury by performing a series of runs of gradually-increasing intensity to increase the circulation of blood to your muscles.
The same principle applies to the heart.
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Who was America's most-valuable male runner in 2008?
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Joe said:
Hey Nick, First of all I want to tell you what an inspiration you are to me. I am an "old timer" (just...