STRADA

Happy New Year!

Let's start 2009 with a reminder of what makes up fitness.

THE 5 COMPONENTS OF FITNESS
- A 2 Part Series

In this issue:

COMPONENTS OF FITNESS

CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE

MUSCULAR ENDURANCE

Cycle Oregon 2009
Kickoff Party
February 5, 2009
Tiger Woods Center – Nike campus
Doors open: 6 p.m.
Route announcements: 7 p.m.
Registration opens: 7:45 p.m.
For More Info contact Cycle Oregon.

Cycle Oregon 2009
September 12-19

Cycle Oregon:
The Weekend 2009
July 17-19

Cycle Oregon Website

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January 2009

COMPONENTS OF FITNESS

There are generally 5 components that make up fitness as a whole. This will be a two part series looking at all five. The first 3 we'll address are Flexibility, Cardiovascular Endurance, and Muscular Endurance. Next month we will discuss the final two: Body Composition and Strength. Start your year off by utilizing all aspects!

FLEXIBILITY

Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of fitness is flexibility. Typically we warm-up, workout, hit the mats for core, and out the door. Little, if any, time is devoted to flexibility. Why should you allocate extra time to stretch? Here are some reasons:

Increase range of motion (ROM) and postural improvements

Improve physical and mental relaxation

Decrease tension, leading to increased blood flow

Think you don't have time? Consider these options:

Substitute your normal walk on the treadmill for a dynamic warm-up. Focus on gradually increasing your ROM through functional movement (lunge walk, squat walk, inch worm, lunge with twist.)

30 seconds of static stretching 5 times a week for 6 weeks has been shown to significantly improve flexibility.

CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE

This is the cornerstone for most fitness programs. Cardiovascular fitness is our body's (heart, lungs, and vascular system) level of efficiency at delivering oxygen to working muscle tissue enabling prolonged physical work. We all know that getting our "cardio" in is important, but why? An increase in cardiovascular endurance will have the following effect:

Increased skeletal system strength

Decreased blood pressure

Increased HDL "good" cholesterol

Decreased resting heart rate

Increased heart volume

One of the most commonly asked questions related to cardio is: "What do I do for my cardio?" Unfortunately our answer is always a question. "What is your goal?"
If it's an increase in your general health, American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends:

30 min a day, 5 days a week for moderately intense cardio

20 min a day 3 days a week for vigorously intense cardio
Obviously this won't solely prepare you to run a marathon, however if you are not doing anything this is a good starting point.

An additional method of training that current research shows to be a more effective way of increasing your cardiovascular fitness (VO2max), is to engage in moderately high level interval training. An example of this type of training is 4 minutes at 80-85% maximum heart rate (MHR) followed by 1 min of recovery at 70% MHR continued for 25-30 minutes. This requires a higher level of conditioning to complete, but many alterations can be made in order to use this training model. Start by decreasing the 4 minute interval to 2-3 minutes. If needed, add time to your recovery as well.

Want to know your estimated VO2max? Take the Rockport Walk Test.

Walk 1 mile as fast as possible. After completion immediately record your time and take your pulse. If you don't have a heart rate monitor count the number of beats in 10 seconds and multiply by 6. Send us an email with your age, weight, walk time, and HR and we will calculate it for you.

Compare your results to Lance Armstrong's VO2max: 83.8ml/kg/min!

MUSCULAR ENDURANCE

As the name implies muscular endurance involves the ability to repetitively contract your muscles against a resistance for an extended period of time. Why is it important and how do you gain muscular endurance?

The answer lies within our daily activities. Most of our movements during the day are completed relatively slowly and repetitively: walking up and down stairs, standing - even sitting requires the use of our core to stabilize. A lack of muscular endurance will be most noticeable during higher levels of physical activity such as skiing, running, biking or soccer. During these activities type I (slow twitch) muscle fibers are primarily responsible for continuous mobility. Some physiological properties of type I fibers are:

Slow contraction speed

Efficient use of oxygen (increase in mitochondria and capillary density)

Resistance to fatigue

Luckily if you are doing your cardiovascular exercise you're already developing muscular endurance! Weight training is also a beneficial means for training. When implementing an endurance weight training program keep these points in mind:

High repetition range (15-30)

Limited rest period (30 sec. or less)

Here's an example of a Leg Endurance routine:

Weighted Squats: 20 reps, 4 sets, 15 sec. rest between sets

Lunge walk: 30 reps, 2 sets, 10 sec. rest between sets Circuit training is another method to train muscular endurance. The same principles apply. The only change is the rest period will occur only after the circuits are completed, not after each set.

Circuit Example:

One of the most important things is to make sure you are having fun when you train! It's always more encouraging when you are training for something achievable so create some goals and track your progress. If you're not getting were you want to be, contact us and we'll give you a hand!

Next month we'll continue our fitness series with Strength and Body Composition. Stay tuned....

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