What your gym gear says about you [video - NSFW]
Gloves, wraps, altitude masks, caps… what you wear in the gym can say a lot about you. But you might not like what you hear! Read the rest of this entry »
Goal setting
Training without a goal is like driving without a destination. Sure, it can be fun but it’s ultimately futile. Goals can take all sorts of different forms. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Samsung Gear Fit
Samsung is aiming straight between Apple’s eyes and launching an opening salvo in the battle between these two consumer tech heavyweights. The Gear Fit smart watch is a companion to several Samsung smartphones including the new flagship, the Galaxy S5. I’ve been road-testing it and am impressed by what it can do. But is it enough to abandon my current running watch? Read the rest of this entry »
FitBit vs Jawbone UP
In the course of my day job as a journalist, I recently had the opportunity to play with both the FitBit Flex and Jawbone UP. Here’s what I found. Read the rest of this entry »
Looking for a Running Watch?
One of the great things about my day job is that I get to play with lots of fun tech. Recently, I had the chance to test out two running watches – the Nike GSP+SportWatch and Garmin ForeRunner 620. Read the rest of this entry »
Jawbone UP – Nine Months Later
I’ve been a huge fan of my Jawbone UP fitness band. But recent events have made me a little less enthusiastic. Read the rest of this entry »
Strength to strength – weights help running
Over the last four months or so, I’ve been working a new exercise schedule. Travel permitting, I’ve been training on a three day cycle.
Day 1: run
Day 2: lift
Day 3: rest
There have been times I’ve missed days or moved things – long haul flights can mess things up – but I’ve managed to stick to this reasonably well.
What’s been interesting is that as I’ve gotten stronger, my running has improved and my injuries have faded away.
There’s plenty of research that supports the proposition that glute strength is important for runners. Weak glutes make all the other muscles in your legs compensate. This leads to fatigue and, if you’re not careful, injury. Remember, the glutes are the largest, most powerful muscles you have, it makes sense to recruit them so that smaller muscles like hamstrings and calves don’t get as hammered.
My focus is on two main exercise movements for my glutes: squats and deadlifts. It’s important to learn how to do these exercises with the right form before loading up the iron. The great thing about these is that the equipment you need is minimal.
For squats, you can start with body weight. If that’s too easy, try a single legged variation.
Deadlifts only require a barbell and some weight. But get the technique right so that you don’t injure yourself.
My normal weight session is currently a full body workout that adds bench press, bent-over rows, shoulder press and some ab work to the lower body exercises. The focus is on challenging weights, not maximum one-rep weights. I aim for 6-10 reps most sets. When I can do eight reps easily I usually increase the weight by 5kg.
The next step for me is to split my weights into upper and lower body days so that I can give more focus to developing strength.
New Years Resolutions vs Real Goal Setting
It’s late January and by now a significant number of people who set New Years Resolutions are already giving up. Have you set some fitness goals for 2014? How can you achieve them? What’s the secret of successful goal setting? Read the rest of this entry »
Big Data and Exercise
Anyone who follows business technology will no doubt be familiar with the buzzword “big data”. It represents the recent shift towards large volumes of data that are delivered faster than ever before from many different sources. Well, big data isn’t just a business problem – it’s infiltrating our daily lives in a personal way. Big data has become a part of how we know exercise and manage our health.
Dealing with injury
It happens to everyone who exercises regularly – injury. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been feeling increased stiffness and pain in my right Achilles Tendon. Like many runners, I just put it down to fatigue and my body adapting to an increased training load. I’d started moving from a day on/day off cycle to a two days on/one day off cycle.
Read the rest of this entry »
Run and Lift 