Hi Stuart, this is great and I hear you on injuries. For me pretty much every infrequent burst of enthusiasm in the last 10 years has been met with an injury. I'm re-learning to swim now partly for that reason, greatly encouraged by a certain mutual friend. Trying to overcome 50 years of bad technique - every motion of every stroke is completely different. Who knew?
Once I'm through the learner stage I'll start working on your other suggestions. Quick question, for your Recovery slot, how long is long for a walk? The dog likes three miles a day, two in the morning and one in the evening. Like his owner he's a creature of routine...
Hey Simon. Thanks for the feedback and great to hear about the swimming.
Re: your Q on walking. Well, in my experience, it depends (super helpful, right?).
First off, any walk is good. However, the benefits I have seen - and research I have read - seem pretty correlated with a) the speed you walk at (plus any inclines along the way) and b) duration.
The dog being part of this may hamper the speed given his likely propensity to stop and sniff but ideally you want to walk briskly (3-4 miles an hour). That gets your heart rate up but still in a low intensity way. It has the added benefit of using mostly fat (as a percentage vs stored muscle glycogen) as its source of energy (although that is not peak fat consumption which comes at much higher heart rates). Whatever distance you cover try to walk at the sort of speed.
Now, to your question of how long is long. 3 miles a day is ~5000-6000 steps a day for a tall person ranging up to 8000-9000 for someone more petite. The somewhat arbitrary 10000 steps goal was originally a marketing campaign idea by a Japanese pedometer manufacturer. It's a good target if you have the time - and you may be surprised how many steps you add just walking around on everyday activities (your iPhone will tell you) - but I find an hour of brisk walking is a good basis for recovery. If you have the time 90mins+ can work wonders. And walking like this on days before you are training is also a great warm up. It can really lean you out.
It's worth noting (and I'll be expanding on this in a future post) that body builders use walking - and in particular stair climbing machines - to cut their body fat levels during the weeks ahead of a show. Often an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. But again, at a level that gets their HR up and a sweat on. You won't see them out jogging ;)
Hi Stuart, this is great and I hear you on injuries. For me pretty much every infrequent burst of enthusiasm in the last 10 years has been met with an injury. I'm re-learning to swim now partly for that reason, greatly encouraged by a certain mutual friend. Trying to overcome 50 years of bad technique - every motion of every stroke is completely different. Who knew?
Once I'm through the learner stage I'll start working on your other suggestions. Quick question, for your Recovery slot, how long is long for a walk? The dog likes three miles a day, two in the morning and one in the evening. Like his owner he's a creature of routine...
Hey Simon. Thanks for the feedback and great to hear about the swimming.
Re: your Q on walking. Well, in my experience, it depends (super helpful, right?).
First off, any walk is good. However, the benefits I have seen - and research I have read - seem pretty correlated with a) the speed you walk at (plus any inclines along the way) and b) duration.
The dog being part of this may hamper the speed given his likely propensity to stop and sniff but ideally you want to walk briskly (3-4 miles an hour). That gets your heart rate up but still in a low intensity way. It has the added benefit of using mostly fat (as a percentage vs stored muscle glycogen) as its source of energy (although that is not peak fat consumption which comes at much higher heart rates). Whatever distance you cover try to walk at the sort of speed.
Now, to your question of how long is long. 3 miles a day is ~5000-6000 steps a day for a tall person ranging up to 8000-9000 for someone more petite. The somewhat arbitrary 10000 steps goal was originally a marketing campaign idea by a Japanese pedometer manufacturer. It's a good target if you have the time - and you may be surprised how many steps you add just walking around on everyday activities (your iPhone will tell you) - but I find an hour of brisk walking is a good basis for recovery. If you have the time 90mins+ can work wonders. And walking like this on days before you are training is also a great warm up. It can really lean you out.
It's worth noting (and I'll be expanding on this in a future post) that body builders use walking - and in particular stair climbing machines - to cut their body fat levels during the weeks ahead of a show. Often an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. But again, at a level that gets their HR up and a sweat on. You won't see them out jogging ;)
Hope this helps. S.