From Yoda to yoga - Confessions of a runner who forgot to stretch

In April of this year, I ran the Vancouver Sun Run, a 10K race that bills itself as the "the third largest timed run of any distance in the world." I ran with nearly 60,000 other runners of all ages and abilities. It was a wonderful spectacle with perfect conditions, cool and slightly overcast. My goal to run a sub-50 minute 10K race seemed well within reach.

Fast-forward 54 minutes and 54 seconds and there I am, hobbling around in agony, my right knee locked up tight, my back sore and words coming out of my mouth in a garbled mess. I looked (and sounded) like Yoda, the character from Star Wars, except without any of his wisdom. A wise runner would have done her yoga. I was not wise. "That runner, I am. Stretch I did not."

In retrospect, it was bound to happen. You see, like many of you, I'm a desk jockey. I sit at a computer all day long, one of the worst things you can do from a mobility and stability stand point. And being a 40-something, I caught the wave of desktop computing from its infancy, sitting on my backside for up to 10 hours a day for the last 20 years. So while I knew about my lack of core strength, and my lousy glute strength, it never occurred to me that my hip flexors would be my downfall.

MyPypeline training coach and triathlete James Greenwood say, "Your hip flexors are the muscle that actually moves you when you walk or run. If it's tight to begin with, it will get tighter still when it fatigues through your race." Oh... bah!

There I was, cruising along at a comfortable 4:45 / km, sub-50 minutes in sight, when at the 5.5 km mark, I could feel my right hip flexor snap tight as a drum. The tightness wound its way around my hip girdle, back to my tailbone and straight down to my right knee. By the time I hit the 6 km mark I was limping along at about 9:15 / km frustrated and angry.

Now I have preached the gospel of doing yoga before but maybe I wasn't doing enough. "Road races are run on hard, uneven surfaces, often stressing one side of the body more because of the camber in the road. If you don't train on those surfaces, you're body won't be prepared for those stresses," say James. "Plus, most racers run far beyond what they trained at. It feels great to 'hammer it' from the gun, but it does catch up with you before the finish line."

If that isn't enough, James goes on to say that as we age the composition of our muscles change. "Our 'fast twitch' fibers, the ones responsible for our speed and power, alter their function over time to become more 'slow twitch' in nature, the one responsible for endurance. We will get slower with age but with correct and regular training we can hold on to more of our speed. However, 'hammering it' is just one more stressor that fatiques our muscles and ultimately causes undertrained muscles to seize up." The 75-year-old who passed me at the 8 km mark obviously knew all of this.

Upon reflection, I can say I did warm up and I did some yoga during my strength and condition training. But this was not enough to prevent injury. Age, race conditions and two decades of a sedentary work style means I have to do yoga regularly. My days of running a race 'cold' are over. A lack of deep flexibility cost me my goal and rewarded with me with three weeks of recovery time.

Don't be that runner -- do yoga.



Fit, Fabulous and 40 is dedicated to anyone who is committed to staying fabulous by eating well, keeping active and maintaining a positive frame of mind. This takes work, so let's do it together. Drop me a comment any time, pass on tips and tricks or just follow along. You don't have to be 40, but you do have to be fabulous!

"Drop 2 or More Sizes Just by Going Shopping!"

Yesterday I wore a pair of capris that I bought last summer. They are a size 12. They were literally falling off. I had the teenage-boy-droopy-bum-jean look. I should have been overjoyed at the validation of losing weight and needing a smaller size. But, as much as I love fashion and the ability to wear more styles because of my smaller size, I don't love spending money. Then, there's the existential crisis of "Do I keep these size 12 pants just in case?"

Existential crisis aside, I marched off at lunch time to find pants that fit. I found a very cute pair of replacement capris that were quite snug but the sales staff assured me that's the way I should buy them as they will "stretch quite a bit". They were a size 4.

Now, I know I'm NOT a size 4. I think I'm a real size 8, or more likely, a 10 and I'm very happy with this. But over the last several years I've notice a trend in retail clothing that has been labeled vanity or flattery sizing. It made me think of the complicity of various industries in the current obesity crisis.

The many designer names in the fashion industry seem to be sized to sell. They don't want us to feel bad about being a double-digit size lest we lose our desire to buy. And companies in the food and entertainment industries want to Super Size it to give us "better value." But what are we really gaining by purchasing a "Jumbo popcorn for just 50 cents more" when we go to see a movie - except a heck of a lot of extra fat and calories. We're getting bigger and no business in its right mind wants us to "feel bad" about it.

This industrial subterfuge should be tackled by grassroots organizations, watchdog groups and government regulation. But we must never forget that we are responsible for our own health and well-being. And we should never confuse positive self esteem and an acceptance of our bodies with bad health and self destructive lifestyle habits. Accepting my pear-shaped body is a good thing, and aspiring to be a very fit pear (or apple for that matter) is even better.

But I'm not activist rabble-rouser or a purist. I believe vanity -- to a point -- can definitely play a positive roll in our health and wellness. Enter - The Skinny Jean. Last year I tried a 4-week fitness program called Skinny Jeans. Oh. My. Gosh. What a tough program! Tons of cardio, yoga and strength training, often two sessions a day. I did manage to complete the program and yes, I fit into my skinniest jeans at the end of 4 weeks - real size 8s!

I felt amazingly fit and strong after completing the program and I learned a lot about how I have to train smart and train hard to really make a difference in my fitness. But no real person (celebs aren't real people are they?) can sustain 2 workouts 5 days a week unless they are an elite athlete like my buddy and triathlete James Greenwood. The dude is super human. So I've returned to 4 workouts a week and a nice normal diet sans the jumbo popcorn. I feel great.

After my retail and fitness adventures, I can safely say I'm happier being a real, fit size 8/10 than a fake size 4.

FITFABFORTY



Fit, Fabulous and 40 is dedicated to anyone who is committed to staying fabulous by eating well, keeping active and maintaining a positive frame of mind. This takes work, so let's do it together. Drop me a comment any time, pass on tips and tricks or just follow along. You don't have to be 40, but you do have to be fabulous!

Yoga for people who don't like yoga classes

I don't like yoga classes. There I said it.

I have done "hot classes" (nearly passed out), done large regular classes (too pungent for my incredibly sensitive olfactory system) and done regular small classes (often carpeted rooms, making the air quality dodgy). In addition to this, I detest scented candles and scented body oils which are often de rigueur in the yoga world.

But the reality is yoga will keep us forty-somethings fabulous. Here's why. As we age, everything about us slows down, from our ability to recover from an injury to our ability to burn fat. And as we spend more and more time at a desk, all of our postural stability and balance goes to hell in a Pottery Barn hand basket. All that hunching over is bad for us. (Go figure.)

Yoga helps build lean muscle mass in the large muscle groups that power our everyday activities and strengthens small muscles groups, many of which are stabilizer muscles. Improved muscle mass gives us better posture and stability and this helps us maintain an injury-free body. Better posture helps us look better (younger) in our clothes. And the increased oxygen that is supplied to our bodies through yoga's breathing practices, helps boost our metabolism and generates a healthy glow.

Lots of good reasons to do yoga. Just no yoga classes for moi.

So I sought out alternatives to yoga classes like a yoga DVD or an online yoga video that I can play in the privacy of my own home. And a yoga instructor who isn't all airy-fairy. I don't do "free-your-mind-at-the-top-of-the-mountain" stuff. Jana Webb's Intermediate Yoga did the trick.

Jana Webb gets limber in her online yoga video, Intermediate Yoga.















Doing yoga at home is very different from being in a class. I was able to control my environment and mitigate any offensive smells or allergens. As a result, I was actually able to perform the focused breathing required for each movement. This was quite a coup for me. I'm a shallow breather as a result of life long respiratory problems and just opening my lungs with deep breathing is a very intense experience for me.

Jana is a great guide. She gives you very clear instruction and gently takes you through what I would consider a fairly challenging routine. To do this yoga video, you need some prior experience and you should be somewhat fit. Jana performs some movements with a block or a strap but you don't have to have any equipment other than a yoga mat. If you are interested in Beginner Yoga, Jana has that covered too.

Jana's intermediate yoga video is a challenging workout that leaves you feeling taller, stronger and more stable. I downloaded it to my laptop, hooked my laptop to my TV, and then did the routine in my living room. I did this because I travel, and instead of having to lug around a DVD or hunt around a hotel for a yoga class, I can just watch it on my laptop or upload it to my video iPod. I'm so darn hip.

And, yes, Jana is FABulous! Luminous and lithe, I give Jana Webb a 5-star rating and her Intermediate Yoga a 4 our of 5 stars.

*****

The 6 Minute Abs Workout Video That Started It All

When I choose this handle for my blog, I had literally hundreds of ideas. For example, there is ample evidence about the benefits of performing core training exercises to enhance posture, balance and stability in mid-life. I wanted to write about this. But I kept stalling. Why would that be? Am I lazy? Of course not.

But I guess I was waiting for the most inspired moment, the complete 60 minute core workout, and the some kind of planetary alignment. I was waiting for perfection. Now I know that in fitness, there is only progress, never perfection. Some times you just have to start. So here goes:

Core strength is an absolutely relevant topic to me and anyone else that works seated at a desk all day long. Our spine rolls out, our abdominals are not engaged to support our posture and as a result our entire core weakens. A weak core opens us up to injuries of all kinds. Deep core strength and the resulting stability prevents injury and gives you better posture. And that will keep you fabulous in - yes, I'm going to say it - middle life.

In an effort to just damn well do it, I choose Tracey Mallett's 6 Minute Quick Cardio Abs Blast. It is actually 6 minutes. That's the first thing. So quick and so zippy that after I was done, I thought, "It's over?" Not that it wasn't challenging enough. It was. Tracey herself does the most challenging execution of the exercises but there are modifications so if you're a newbie, you'll have a good place to start.


Although the core excercises themselves are challenging, I can't underscore enough how easy this video was to do. I played in on my computer screen in my office at work, and had a colleague join me. As Tracey guides you through a series of modified crunch work, she keeps it light and fun. I did this workout in loose work clothes, and although my heart rate did go up, I did not sweat. It was a nice mid-afternoon break that I will do again at home.

You will get a flatter tummy over time with this video. However, more importantly to me, mypypeline.com expert trainer James Greenwood confirms that this is well-executed functional core training that will help improve stability, balance and posture. Finally, it's affordable at $1.99 to rental it for 24-hours and $3.00 to buy the download. And you can try a 24-hour rental by using coupon code D98D6CA at cart.

Getting all of that out of a six minute workout video is impressive and I rate this video FIVES STARS out of five. You can check out Tracey's other videos too. This is a perfect video to get started, and getting started is real progress. FITFABFORTY