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This is the first in a series of posts on forefoot running. Basically, forefoot running is landing on the mid foot instead of having your heel strike first.

Our feet are not designed to land heel first. Our ancestors ran barefoot. Try it. Run with no shoes on and you will naturally land on the mid part of your foot. Watch children they run on the balls and mid foot. Modern running shoes are of heel support. This encourages a heel first landing. Running barefoot is a great way to strengthen the muscles in the foot and ankle. However, most people run in areas where foot wear is required for safety purposes.

What is wrong with landing heel fist? Landing heel first usually occurs with the knee straight. This leads to force transfer from the ground into your leg. Because your knee is straight the force is transferred up into your knees hips and back. Many runners complain of knee pain.

A heel first landing usually results in slowing the runner down as they roll from heel to toe to take the next step. The

Heel first landing- causes force transfer to the shins and knees

 more time a runner  is spending on the ground the less they are spending in the air. Essentially more ground time equals less air time and a less efficient running pattern. Efficient running has less ground time than time in the air (when neither foot is contacting the ground). Logically the less time on the round the less time  force is being absorbed by the body.

In this photo you can see the runner is leading with the heel and it is out front of their body. This will lead to the heel striking first and a long period spent rolling form heel to toe.

Mid-Foot strike note calf is loaded, knee is bent and foot is not reaching out front.

In this picture the athlete is landing with a mid-foot strike. When landing on the mid-foot you will note the knee is slightly bent and the calf (gastroc and soleus muscles) is loaded. The calf is now absorbing the shock instead of the knees and hips. Also note, the foot is no longer out front of the athlete. This will result in a shorter ground time as there is less contact area with the ground. No longer does the foot need to roll form heel to toe, for the next step to begin.

Look at all the money you can save with these free health and fitness tips

I did a presentation on this, recently and thought I would share it with my loyal reader(s).

How to get the most results from your fitness budget.

5) Healthy Eating at work- Most people make poor food choices at lunch and say” nothing healthy was available near my work”. If you are going to be eating 5 meals a week or 20 per month at one location you need those meals to be as healthy as possible. Pack your own lunch, ideally a balanced meal of protein, whole food carbohydrates, and essential fats. Better yet, form a lunch bunch with other healthy eaters at work. Then you would have to prepare a healthy meal for five one-time per week (or once per two weeks in a group of 10), instead of for yourself daily. We all know it’s much more reasonable to buy in bulk.  Simply place a sign-up sheet with strict rules for what the foods can be in your office reception or lunch room. A daily organic salad with grilled chicken, fish or meat prepared fresh that morning, and at low cost because you are buying in bulk is a great way to help eliminate food court cheat meal mistakes.

How does this strategy stack up against your current lunch regime?

4) Eat Organic where possible and naturally raised and non-medicated for meats where possible. These foods can seem more expensive when at the grocery counter compared side by side based solely on price. However, organic food has been found to be up to 20 x more nutrients dense.  Your body craves nutrients not calories. Therefore if you eat low nutrient high calorie food your body will still send hunger signals at it will be lacking nutrients. So, when you eat low nutrient food it costs more than the sticker as you are left low on nutrients and you eat again. Also, commercially farmed meats have a lot of hormones which help fatten up the animal. This ends up in your body working against your efforts in the gym.

Where can you eliminate low nutrient foods from your diet and replace them with organic whole food choices?

3) Take advantage of metabolic effects of training and diet. Weight training, including body weight exercise and sprinting for cardio instead of steady state cardio, have a greater metabolic effect after your session ends. Weight training and sprinting increase your metabolism for hours after you workout. This is like getting an extra workout in for frees (no trainer fees, gym fees or even time required). To maximize this effect, its best to train in the morning so your metabolism is working at a higher level all day (burning more calories at rest). For food, digesting protein has a positive metabolic effect (almost 10 calories). By having a small amount of protein with each meal and snack you can basically create the effect of an extra workout (400 -500 calories based on 4-5 small meals each with 2-4 oz protein).

What can you do to maximize your calories burned from metabolic effects?

2) Find a workout partner or join a group class. The extra motivation of working out with someone will push you harder. Additionally, you will have someone holding you accountable (your partner or the group). This accountability will lead to more consistency and consistency is the key to results. As a bonus having a workout partner is cheaper (60% the cost of a one on one session) and group fitness classes are much cheaper than having a one on one trainer.

Who do you know that wants to get fit and will hold you accountable?

1)Eliminating is free. Eliminate grains, sugar and alcohol for as many consecutive days as you can. All of these items cause inflammation. To fight the inflammation your body holds onto water. Eliminating the alcohol will also allow your liver to breakdown fat. Many people workout hard but their body is unable to process fat as a fuel source as it is busy processing fat. Sugar causes your body to release insulin. Insulin is a fat storage hormone. Your body will not be burning fat while you exercise if you are eating sugar or high fructose corn syrup (found in soft drinks). The more days in a row you can go without having these items will increase your chances of burning fat while working out.

Where are you consuming these items that can be eliminated?

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, boot camp, and CrossFit  instructors. Check out his websites http://www.precisionathletics.ca/ and http://www.precision-bootcampvancouver.com

The answer to this may seem obvious but a study was done http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/will-i-get-a-better-workout-if-i-hire-a-personal-trainer/article1555090/

In summary they felt that people with a trainer pushed themselves harder or lifted heavier weights. Over the long term this will lead to improved results. I think this article was on the money but I think saying a personal trainer will help you lift heavier weights sells our services a bit short.  My personal (and in this case professional opinion as well) is that there are three areas where trainers assist clients in seeing optimal results:

1) Accountability- a good trainer will will hold you accountable in your session to meet the performance standard you have set in your previous workouts. Additionally, a good trainer will hold you accountable to do workouts on your own. Having someone check up that you are doing your running program between workouts will motivate you and help with your consistency. Some trainers have further training in nutrition and can provide accountability and motivation in this area as well. I have my Holistic Lifestyle and Nutrition Coaching certification through the CHEK institute(http://www.chekinstitute.com/HLC )and highly recommend working with a trainer or coach with this designation. This certification gets past the Canada Food Guide and into individualized nutritional needs through metabolic typing and also covers sleep and wake cycles, stress, proper digestion and more.

2) Knowledge- A good personal trainer will be able to offer you a more challenging selection of exercises than you can come up with on your own. The average person will select some exercises that they know and enjoy and occasionally increase the weights when they feel they can. A good personal trainer will obviously increase the weights as necessary, but will also make the exercise itself harder. This can be done by adding a balance or stability component, choosing a more complex movement pattern, changing loading pattern (such as lifting with one side and holding with the other).These are just some of the things trainers can do to make the workout more challenging by making the exercises themselves more challenging, in addition to increasing the load. If the load is increasing and the exercise is getting more challenging this is often referred to as double progression.  A good personal trainer will select modifications and loading patterns that are in-line with the clients main goals. Unfortunately I often see trainers miss the boat on this and change the exercises to look cool and are not aligned with the clients main goal and time commitments (i.e. weight loss client that comes 2x a week spending entire sessions learning how to do cleans. Cleans are a great exercise and very technical, a weight loss client needs to be moving not standing around and learning fine details of tough techniques)

3) Motivation- A good coach can and will motivate you in the session to give your most in that workout. Additionally, they should be helping you stay motivated by regularly assessing your fitness, setting goals based on those measurements and then re-assessing. To see an example of our testing you can check out the client experience blog at http://www.precisionathletics.ca/my-journey-to-fitness-personal-assesment/

I feel this area is missed by most people without a coach, along with allot of coaches who do not assess . My personal opinion is that coaches who do not assess are afraid that if they do not get results they will get fired. I personally find when clients are assessed and they do not see they results they wanted it provides a great opportunity to look at  ”why they missed the target”. I have coached 100’s of people who felt they “eat healthy”. yet after busting their butt on our training program (and we push people hard) they did not lose as much fat as they wanted. We re-assessed and they were disappointed. Most of these people were then able to admit there was room to improve their nutrition. After keeping a food log we found that “I eat healthy” is really I occasionally eat healthy food but with no regularity and often skip meals. At Precision Athletics Vancouver we regularly offer incentives and contests to help motivate our clients and friends to help motivate them to train a bit harder and eat a bit cleaner.  For some examples of results possible check out the results of our 21 day fat-loss challenge at http://www.precisionathletics.ca/march-fat-loss-challenge-winners-announced/

Here is an example of a client that saw some results with one of our classes. I recently started a heavy lifting class at the gym in the Vision Critical building. I did a free seminar on heavy lifting and explained the benefits of proper technique and how improving strength would benefit peoples overall performance. I ended up with six students who were willing to meet 1 x per week to get group coaching on the heavy lifts: Squat, dead-lift and pressing. We had our first meet after 6 weeks and saw some amazing results. These guys are benefiting from all three aspects : accountability- they get homework and meet each week with each other to spot and make sure it gets done , knowledge- they get coached every week on technique, motivation- we have regular meets where they can test themselves and measure their progress.

Andy adds 110 lbs to his 1 Rm dead-lift in 6 weeks

.I am impressed with the results from this group in only 6 weeks, looking forward to assessing progress again in 6 more.

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, boot camp, and CrossFit  instructors. Check out his websites http://www.precisionathletics.ca/ and http://www.precision-bootcampvancouver.com

Vancouver Personal Trainer Craig Boyd meets hisgoal of a 400 lb deadlift @ 170 lb bw =235% of bw

I blogged a while back about wanting to deadlift 400lbs. It has been a goal for some time. I got serious a couple months ago and started concentrating on my heavy lifting. I researched and found a great program from The Performance Journal at Catalyst Athletics. Quite a simple program you do 3 sets eachrkout (not including warm up). You do 5’s one week, then 3’s one week, then singles one week. Each set you increase the weight with the last set being 5 lbs higher than your previous workout of that rep range. I followed this program 2x a week splitting up squats and deadlifts and bench press and overhead press.  I have 6 consecutive weeks of personal bests on every lift and it culminated with this 400lb deadlift that felt pretty easy. Looking forward to some new PB’s coming up. In the mean time I have neglected metabolic conditioning so next goal will come there. I want to break 45 mins for a 10k and the grouse grind this summer. I am adding back in more CrossFit WOD’s and keeping the heavy lifting. Will keep readers posted on progress…..

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, boot camp, and CrossFit  instructors. Check out his websites http://www.precisionathletics.ca/ and http://www.precision-bootcampvancouver.com

I drew the winnners today for our month long contest. Everyone who entered and set a goal had a chance to win. Overall, everyone was a winner as we all did better by having a goal to shoot for then “I’ll do my best….”

Body Energy Club Prize Pack- Kristie T

$100 GC to the Fish House in Stanley Park - Kim C

$75 GC to Canberries Spa- Janice B

$50 GC to the Fish House in Stanley Park-  Jenn T

$50 GC to Cranberries Spa- Bobby C

If you enjoyed the contest and want to support Precision Athletics we are hoping to win best in the City in the WestEnder Readers choice Poll for “Fitness Facility”. You can vote here:

http://contest.westender.com/best_of_the_city/entry_form.php

Feel free to throw a vote in for our sponsors Fish House -” best Seafood” and Cranberries Spa – “Spa”

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, boot camp, and CrossFit  instructors. Check out his websites http://www.precisionathletics.ca/ and http://www.precision-bootcampvancouver.com

November has come and gone. With it some of us set some goals and met them. Some set goals but  fell short. The question is, even if you fell short of your goal did you accomplish more than you would have with no goal at all? I know I did. I fell short on my no drinking goal by 3 days so got 27/30 on that one.

As far as the cardio goal I did well on the first half of the month 15/15 , second half of the month I got injured playing soccer and we had our baby so was a bit of a write off (total 20/30).

Definitely worth missing some workouts for

I will be testing to see how I did on the physical challenge goals and posting that here later this week.

Please post in the comments how you did on your goals so we can choose winners. Everyone loves prizes……

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, boot camp, and CrossFit  instructors. Check out his websites http://www.precisionathletics.ca/ and http://www.precision-bootcampvancouver.com

As a person o full time in the fitness industry, I get to see some strange stuff in the gym. I cannot post it all. However, a recent phenomenon has swept the gym I train out of. This applies to people who use the gym not my Vancouver personal training clients. I have been noticing an alarming increase in the number of workouts that center around the bicep curl.

You can summarize that most guys who workout want to have athletic looking arms. However, the amount of time and focus these guys are putting into bicep curls is pretty sad (for the results they will see). Not that the bicep curl is necessarily a bad exercise. However, basing an entire workout on an isolation movement is counter productive.

The bicep is a small muscle group and cannot move allot of weight relatively speaking. So if you are trying to increase the size of your arm by doing multiple sets of  an isolation movement (such as any of a variety of types of curls) you are not going to build allot of muscle.

What should I do to increase the size of my arms? Start with exercises that move allot of weight squats dead lifts, heavy pressing, chin ups (and weighted chin ups) and finish with isolation movements such as curls (if you have energy left). Skipping the movements where you can move heavy weight will produce very little muscle gains.

Think of your bodies capacity for exercise as a big hole in the ground. You are trying to fill the hole up. You can use big rocks, small rocks and sand. Squats and dead lifts are big rocks, pull ups, heavy pressing and rows are small rocks and bicep curls are sand. You are going to fill the hole better and faster by combining the big and small rocks and adding the sand on top. It is more efficient than trying to pack down all that sand.

Stay tuned next time for  the best bicep exercise (if you do need to do isolation work).

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, boot camp, and CrossFit  instructors. Check out his websites http://www.precisionathletics.ca/ and http://www.precision-bootcampvancouver.com/

Well the Precision Athletics Vancouver  November challenge is well underway. Do you need to be a personal training client or boot camp participant to enter. No! Just post your goal in the comments and you are officially entered.

Prizes are in so its last day to sign up. If you start today you will have to go 30 days from now!

Prizes include- 

GC and Product from Body Energy Club http://www.bodyenergyclub.ca/shop/

$100 GC to The fish House in Stanley Park  http://www.fishhousestanleypark.com/

$75 GC to Cranberries Spa http://www.cranberriesspa.com/

$50 GC to The fish House in Stanley Park  http://www.fishhousestanleypark.com/

$50 GC to Cranberries Spa http://www.cranberriesspa.com/

Everyone who enters and completes their goal gets entered in a draw.

So far some of the goals from my Vancouver Boot Camp and personal training clients  are : No drinking from 25 to all 30 days of the month, Weight Loss (Dan), Real Push Ups (Kristie 15) , Real Pull Ups (Shanny 5 Keith 20) , 20 mins of cardio from 25- all30 days (Craig 30, Dan 26, Janice 30). What is your goal?

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouvers top personal trainers and boot camp instructors. Check out his websites http://www.precisionathletics.ca/ and http://www.precision-bootcampvancouver.com/

Every November I do a personal challenge with my Vancouver  personal training and boot camp clients. What we do is choose one thing to give up for the month or add something in for the whole month. For myself I am doing no alcohol for the month and adding  20 minutes of cardio every day. Last month with only cutting alcohol I dropped 7 lbs and felt great.  

Would you like to join? Please add a comment with what you will be adding or dropping for the next 30 days. I am gathering prizes. Everyone who completes the challenge will be entered to win. If you only do cardio 28/30 days  you may still have a chance , let me know your totals. Prizes will be announced here next week.

Print this calendar and put you goal down and mark it off as you go.

My Goals 30 days no drinking, do 20 minutes of cardio 30 days (min 2 rows per week), 1 leg squat increase from10-25, overhead squat body weight x 1 current max 135 lbs, 10 full range handstand push ups current max 2, improve 500m row time from 1:37- 1:30 or below, L-sit 1:30 hold form :45s.

Craig Boyd is one of Vancouver’s top personal trainers, CrossFit and boot camp instructors. His company websites are http://www.precisionathletics.ca/  and http://precision-bootcampvancouver.com/