Strength tip :: Side plank with top leg abduction and extension. Here’s a super strength challenge for core and legs. Lie on one side with knees slightly bent in front of you and elbow raising the shoulder up off the ground. Raise your hips and legs (pull the knees back in line with your body) and hold this side plank position. Take a breath in and raise your top leg up as you exhale. Take another breath to extend the leg behind you using a glute squeeze as you exhale. Return the top leg forward and repeat the extension back 6-12 times. Return the top leg to the initial side plank position and lower your body back to the ground. Repeat on the opposite side. Check the blog for a video demonstration!

Stretch tip :: Recent research confirms that static stretching before a run, and we can assume the same would hold true for a walk, reduces speed and efficiency. All those people standing around flopping over their toes and doing the flamingo quad stretch before races are actually impeding their performance. Do yourself a favour and just walk around before the start to ensure that your muscles are warm. If you have to stand at the start line in a mass of people, small range of motion actions will help to keep the muscles warm – moving your body up and down with a heel lift to keep the muscles of the lower leg warmed up, swinging the arms, and possibly lifting the legs up with a bent knee. When the race begins, listen closely to your muscles and increase speed only as they warm up.

Nutrition tip :: Are you following us on Facebook and Twitter yet? I know all the social networking can be overwhelming, even overwhelmingly banal, but there are some genuinely interesting tweets and posts out there. One of my favourite tweeters, who I often “retweet” is Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience), the Globe and Mail columnist. He recently posted an interesting study on Twitter that questioned the value of chocolate milk as a post-workout drink unless that workout is strenuous. It’s a recovery drink only if you genuinely have something from which to recover. Check WoW out on Twitter and Facebook. Through the month, we post interesting bits and bobs of information for both edification and entertainment.

Smiling faces and cheery dispositions required! The famously enthusiastic WoW water station at the Chilly Half Marathon is back and we need you!!! The race is Sunday March 7 and we need volunteers to be available from approximately 8am to noon. High school students can receive volunteer hours and everyone will be rewarded with a fantastic time. This is truly a case of “the more the merrier”. More volunteers, more noise, more crazy hats and outlandish outfits make it fun for you and for race participants. Please RSVP here.

More on the Chilly Half :: The walking division has sold out but if you have registered for the race, there are still tickets for the pasta dinner. This is still one of the best pasta dinner deals going. Table service! Speakers! Good food! And it’s early, which is a good thing. Check out www.vrpro.ca for tickets.

St. Patrick’s Day 5k Race for the Achilles Track Club :: The Achilles Track Club supports athletes with disabilities and WoW has supported this race for the past several years by entering a large and enthusiastic team of walkers. The organizers do recognize a walking division. Yahoo! We encourage you to join our walking “team”. The race starts and finishes at the Steam Whistle Brewery and post-race re-fuelling features chilli and a beer. Reply here for details.

Boston to Big Sur Challenge :: Here at WoW Power Walking we are very excited for Coach Jill and her husband Jay who have been given two of a very few reserved spots for high performance walkers at the Boston Marathon. The Boston Marathon is Monday April 19. And that’s just the beginning of their awesome spring adventures. The following Sunday April 25 the walking wonders will enter the Big Sur International Marathon as the only two walking competitors in the Boston to Big Sur Challenge. We raise a glass (of sport drink, naturally) to Jill and Jay for raising the bar!

Class update :: Many WoW Power Walkers have been taking advantage of our new membership option attending class more than once a week. It’s been great fun to be challenged by the workouts of different coaches, to walk in different places, and to meet new walkers. Basically, it’s another excellent opportunity to get outside and GO! In March our Strength and Balance classes begin again. If you have a membership that you purchased in January, you can attend these classes for no extra charge. Got friends who want to be as fast and fit a walker as you? Tell them our Level 1 classes start in April and May. We will be having an information evening at the Running Company in Oakville on March 31 at 6pm.

Words to walk and live by . . .
What saves a man is to take a step.
Then another step.

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French writer and aviator, 1900-1944.

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