WoW - What's Up in April 2007?

Strength tip: Abs - we love you! Did you know ab crunches are going the way of the dodo? They may work your abs but they are so seriously bad for your back that you are much better to find other routes to strong abdominal muscles. Here’s the great news - good power walkers get strong abdominals from good posture. Keep standing tall! Every time your body is on one leg, and you are standing tall, your abdominals engage to balance you. If you want to give them some extra loading to assist with the power in your hip rotation, here’s a great non-crunch ab exercise.

Using a medicine ball or basketball, hold yourself in a plank position with both hands on the ball. If you are new at this, position your feet wide to increase your stability. Hold this position keeping your navel pulled in toward your spine. You’ll feel your abs working. As you improve, narrow the stance on your legs. When you improve enough that you can do this with your feet touching, try lifting one foot off the ground and holding. WoW!

Stretch tip: Good morning stretch. For those of you who hate getting up for 7am: when you get out of bed, stand with your feet together and reach both hands to the ceiling, so that your arms are in line with your ears. Now lower your shoulders keeping your arms beside your ears. Take a deep breath in and arch your back slightly as you exhale. Hold the arch and breathe normally. After a few moments, take a deep breath in and release the arch. Take another breath in and release the arms down by your side. Repeat as desired. You will feel tall for the rest of the day.

Nutrition tip: Protein to rebuild. As power walkers and marathoners we spend a lot of time musing about carbohydrates. As our first level fuel, it is essential we consume carbs and it helps if we understand how they work for us. (See WoW What’s Up Feb 2007). Still, as many of us get to the late stages of our preparation for spring events, we must give protein its due. The critical role protein plays is to repair tissue and manufacture muscle. The end stages of training for distance events often results in muscle, tendon, or ligament breakdown. High quality, and sufficient, protein ensures that our bodies are up to the task of repairing this tissue. Also, for the endurance athlete, the amino acids in complete proteins serve as a source of fuel. Research has shown that protein is most accessible when it is ingested as food, as opposed to supplemental amino acids. Recommendations on how much protein should be included in your diet vary. For the typical person 1 g of protein for every kilogram of body weight is recommended. When your training regime gets unusually rigorous, as it will in the latter stages of training, you should consider increasing protein consumption to 1.4, or even 1.6, grams of protein for every kilogram of body weight. Remember 1 kg equals 2.2 pounds. If you weigh 145 pounds, your protein requirements should be between 93 to 105 grams of protein per day (as compared to 66 grams for someone not in training). Consider a protein review. Keep track of your protein intake for 3 days and adjust accordingly. A good website to check protein quantities in food is the free nutritive look-up program at www.hoptechno.com. When choosing your protein, keep in mind that foot-strike athletes (that would be us!) often suffer from anemia. If you eat meat, you may want to choose iron-rich meats in your choices to shore up your iron levels. If you don’t eat meat, look for ways to include iron in your diet (your iron requirements are even higher since you are getting it in non-heme form). A good website for this is www.vrg.org.

WoW Power Walking coaches are proud to wear New Balance shoes.