How Much Should You Exercise?

Drugs are prescribed with the “minimum effective dose” in mind. What is the least amount of drug that needs to be taken to have the desired effect? 2000mg of aspirin would definitely dull your pain, but maybe 200mg would give you the same relief with less chance of, uh, liver toxicity. What is the least amount of exercise needed to give you the result you want?

An Experiment of One

It has often been said that we are each an “experiment of one”. Quite simply, we each have to discover what works for us as an individual. A well thought out fitness plan may bring incredible results to one person, yet mediocre results to the next.

If you're the one getting lousy results, do you just throw in the towel and say 'training doesn't work for me'? Of course not. You try something else until you figure out what works for you. PS: a coach can usually help this process move along much more quickly. Contact me if you're stuck!

When you're the one achieving great things it can be easy to assume that what you're doing should work for everyone. How many times have you heard someone say, “oh, yeah, as soon as I started doing [Crossfit, Zumba, yoga, long runs, speedwork, etc], I got WAY better. You should try it!”?

Take that sort of advice with a grain of salt. As a species we're pretty similar. But as individuals we've got enough differences that matter. Here are a few:

  • Height
  • Weight
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Fundamental movement patterns
  • Body awareness and coordination
  • Training history and experience
  • Current fitness level
  • Basic strength levels
  • Basic endurance levels
  • Fast twitch muscle dominant (performs better, the shorter the event)
  • Slow twitch muscle dominant (performs better, the longer the event)
  • How you eat
  • How you sleep
  • Stress levels

I guess I could keep 'em coming, but you get the idea. To optimize your training, you've got to take all of those variables into account.

Maybe there's a nugget in the frustrating experience I had 2 weeks ago that will help you.

I was training like mad for the upcoming New York City Marathon, yet my times were actually getting slower. My easy run pace had eroded by close to 30 seconds per mile and I didn't need a race to tell me it wasn't a good sign!

Tapping into my experience and expertise, I questioned everything. Although I was training more – more miles and more cycling minutes – I was lacking speed training thanks to an annoying calf muscle that got angry with fast running. And due to the increase in mileage, I'd gradually allowed heavy strength training to fall by the wayside.

Sprinting and heavy lifts. Two things that have been proven to work – for me. They amp up my nervous system which allows my brain to recruit more muscle fibers for running. This gives me more power in my stride and delays fatigue, a pretty nice combo!

Fortunately, acupuncture and bodywork by the knowledgeable Chad Bong released the trigger points in my calf causing pain in my foot. I can finally do some faster running and not limp home afterwards!

So I put my theory to the test. I incorporated a small amount of fast running over the course of 3 sessions and did a few heavy lifts. What's heavy? A weight you can lift 3-5 times will do. I deliberately held back so as to not be an idiot and get hurt.  (This is NOT a strategy I would recommend for everyone.)  Remember the theme of this post. I had the experience and knew the risks.

Less than 10 days after my first attempt at speed all of my running paces had improved significantly. The nervous system wakes up and adapts quickly whereas aerobic adaptations take much longer. If I was actually out of shape aerobically, there's no way I'd see such rapid improvement.

As I type this (15 days later), I'm happy to report the MOJO is fully BACK! Whew!

When it comes to training, what have you noticed really works for YOU?

 

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Single Leg Solutions

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Want to quickly assess your risk for a future running-related injury? What about efficiency? Every runner wants to run fast with less effort. Would you like to peal back the curtain and observe a possible energy leak?

The Marching Bridge Exercise

I've recently written about how weak glutes can undermine and eventually derail your training. After working with hundreds of clients over the past 12 years I can say one thing with certainty. Weak butt muscles are an epidemic and, more than likely, you've got some work to do, too. Again, if you've got weak glutes it's not a matter of IF you will get a running injury, but WHEN. The Marching Bridge a simple and effective exercise to build up that critical muscle group.

Slow Down to Get Faster?

 

The summer is a fantastic time to build your aerobic base for the fall racing season simply because its less stressful on the body to run easy when it's hot outside. And whether you want to race in the New York Road Runners 5th Avenue Mile, the Running For Answers 5K, or one of Philly's great half marathons, you need a strong foundation of easy aerobic miles in order to be successful.

Time and time again I see people run amazing times after a solid period of “base” training, an extended period of lower intensity, higher mileage training. The longer the base phase, the better. About 12 weeks is both practical and effective for a seasoned athlete while a longer base phase will benefit the new runner.

Aerobic?

Briefly, aerobic refers to using oxygen as your primary fuel source as opposed to anaerobic sources like lactate. Since we have an unlimited supply of oxygen, as long as we keep the pace slow enough, we can train ourselves to sustain an easy aerobic pace for a long time. Think of those crazies people running 100 mile races in 15-25+ hours...

Even when I attempt to run a single mile as fast as possible, aerobic fitness matters. By achieving a large base of aerobic fitness, I can “stay aerobic” later into the race. This means that I will be able to sprint effectively during the last lap because I haven't had to tap into my very limited anaerobic reserves.

Thanks to the work of Dr. Phil Maffetone and others we've come to better understand why slow, easy aerobic running can have a positive impact on your fitness and race results. By training slowly:

  • The body makes adaptations that simply don't happen as well with high intensity work.
  • You are able to run farther and more frequently without breaking down and requiring lots of recovery.
  • You establish a huge base of fitness on top of which higher intensity work can more effectively be performed. And the results are more impressive, too!
  • You are imparting less stress on the body. Unless you do nothing but eat, sleep and train, you probably have lots of other sources of stress in your life.

The Gray Training Zone – Where You (usually) DON'T Want To Be!

If you're reading this, you may think you know how to run easy, but it amazes me how many people do not actually practice this correctly. Most people are out there running too fast. (not that they think so!)

Many of us settle into what we perceive to be a comfortable pace. Well, what if your perception of comfortable is leading you to run too fast? I guess that's great if you're racing, but not if you want all of those great aerobic benefits.

When running easily, you should be able to breathe solely through your nose. This will be very hard for the person who is not developed aerobically. If this is you, then you need to develop your base.

I think of the gray zone, where it's not that easy and not that hard as being between 80-85% of your maximum heart rate. Proper base training is done between 65-75% effort and is probably close to 180-your age +/– 5 beats per minute if you're healthy. See Maffetone's page for more details.

One exception to this rule is during marathon training specific runs. For most of us, marathon pace is gray zone pace. Although most of our training will be done below this zone and a little will be done above it, it is obviously important to do some long runs at marathon pace in order to adapt specifically to the demands of that pace.

If you don't have a heart rate monitor, then check out coach Greg McMillan's running calculator to determine the proper training paces. It may be surprising to learn that your easy training pace is 1:45-2:15 slower PER mile than your average 5K race pace. If you run a 5K in 8 minute pace, your easy run pace should be 9:45-10:45/mile.

The Runner's Paradox

As an athlete it can seem almost paradoxical to train slow, but trust me, you are MUCH better off if you coax your body to fitness rather than bludgeon your body to it.

New runners: gradually build a huge base and good races will follow. Have patience!

Old runners: after your goal race, return to base building for 2-4 months in order to reach loftier goals next time.

And PS: if you're using running as your primary way of losing weight, you might wanna check out one of my old posts.  Slow distance running is definitely not the best way to do it.