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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

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/

So you signed up for next years Ironman Canada or another Ironman race, what next? here are my top training tips for preparing for an Ironman event. (many of these will apply to other big competitions)

Top 5 tips to prepare for Ironman:

#5 Get to know the course. I started by riding the course on my  compu-trainer in the winter. That way I had an idea how I would feel at each point (how will my legs feel at the first big climb etc). I would recommend attending a training camp where they familiarize you with the course if you can get to one.  For IMC try www.tri.netfor a week long or weekend supported training camp in Penticton, B.C. At the very least research the elevation profiles on-line and find terrain close to home to simulate it. I trained for Richter’s pass on the Canada Ironman course by riding mount Seymour. Mt. Seymour has a much tougher elevation profile. That way when I got to Richter’s I knew I would be fine.

#4 Start training and racing early. After signing up for IMC, I immediately got serious on my swimming and got into some masters programs. As for racing we signed up for the first 1/2 Iron offered close to here Shawnigan lake 1/2 Iron. It is good to get some feedback on how your winter training went early in the season.

#3 Acclimatize. Get used to the racing conditions. I did the Osooyos 1/2 ironman to get used to racing in the heat (was 36+that day). I also stayed in Osoyoos the following week and trained for even more punishment. However, that made the day of the Ironman seem not that hot.

#2 Rest and recovery. As your volumes of training increase so should your recovery and sleep. If you are adding 5 more hours of volume then make sure your recovery (massage, ice baths, etc.) and sleep increase as well.

#1 Nutrition. I know everyone thinks they eat healthy. To complete a race like this you have to know your body what it needs and what it does not like while exercising. I found out that the bars I was eating on the bike were not digesting , so had to switch to liquid calories (I used carbo-pro liquid it has calories and electrolytes). The result was zero cramping at IMC , even though I cramped at all three races previously in year. I would also recommend Brendan Braziers book the thrive diet. he does a good job of explaining nutritional stress. Basically foods that are causing nutritional stress add to your total stress. When you add in stress form job, training, life the last place you need to be adding stress is your diet. He is a vegan, I did not switch to no meat, but I did use allot of his recipes. Especially good was the home-made electrolyte drink (coconut water, lemon,lime and ginger) and recovery pudding (banana, dates, and hemp protein). The meals and snacks in the book are extremely easy to digest and you can feel the effect especially after a hard training session.

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/

First off I wanted to thank all the people who sent texts and messages in the days leading up to the race, it was awesome. I cannot say how much more pressure/ commitment to finish the event I felt when I received all the messages.

Swim Start

Iroman Canada 2009 Swim Start

2500 people crowd into the start area on the shores of lake Okanagan. I get myself to the far left (outside). It is a longer line but less thrashing. I may note that swimming straight when not in a pool is not my strong point. In this case my tendency to go left is taking me off course. Luckily for me there are tones of canoes and kayaks there (to fish out people with problems). I have a white canoe (thanks guys in canoe #15) escort me towards the first turn. I take the turn (@1400m) wide and they basically end up escorting me the whole way. The closest I came to thrashing with another swimmer is 10 feet. I probably swam an extra 500m but was worth it for a calm swim. Water was great; warm and clean. Sun came over the hills as we headed in 1800m.

I exited the water in 1:35 feeling great. Overall the swim was the scariest part (thrashing with 2500 other people) and I did it.

T1

At regular triathlons you lay out your transition gear around your bike and report to the same spot after each section. At IMC you pack you gear into numbered bags which they give you at each transition (a separate bag each time).

When I exit the water I head to the wet suit strippers. Turns out I know one , Sarah Lowthian who yells my name. I get a high five and some encouraging words before I lay down and the wet suit is gone in one smooth yank. A volunteer hands me my bag of goodies and off I go to the change tent. I completely change out of wet gear and into cycling stuff. Volunteers help us pack our wet stuff away and off to the bike.

Bike

Ironman Canada 2009 Bike

180 km with two major climbs. I have mentally divided it into 1/3. The first 1/3 is Penticton to Osoyoos, one small climb in McLean creek (by ok falls), the rest is mostly flat. I feel great and am keeping my cadence as high as possible. end result is lots of passing people on the flats. I see my legion of fans in OK falls (where we are staying) and it really does give you a lift when your friends and family are screaming and yelling for you. Seems like no time we are through Oliver and Osoyoos is close.

Getting into Osoyoos I have a minor technical (small rock jams in break bad causing it to be really hard to pedal). I get off my bike and realize it is cooking hot (36). Bike is fine I head for Osoyoos and fist climb. Richters pass is a long steady steep climb and it is blistering hot. There is a haze of smoke from the forest fires which is causing problems for some.  I see some carnage (people who drop out for health reasons) on the side of the road. My plan is to stay seated the whole way and save the legs. I manage the climb no problem need to stop at the top and use one of the paper towels I packed in my bento box to wipe the sweat out of my eyes because I am dripping!

First climb conquered and into the rollers (rolling hills in Cawston and Keremeos). In my 1/3  divisions I knew this would be the hardest due to the climb, but it is the most mentally challenging part. We bike past our special needs bags , only to turn down a different road and bike back the way you came to get them. It is about 20km but it seems like forever. Also my Advil has worn off and everything hurts. Seems like forever later  I am at 120 km, I get my special needs bag have 2 Advil an know there is only 1/3 of the bike to go.

Ironman funny moment- as I pull into the special needs area (where everyone gets their bags) there is a competitor leaning on his bike (feet on ground) having a smoke. He looks very content as he puffs on his dart while I get my Advil and disgusting goo wine gum things. I did not stop long enough to see if it was a cigarette or joint. The worst part was he was ahead of me!

 The last 1/3 has the last climb then lots of down hill. After the Advil I feel great. There is now a head wind and the smoke is thicker. The smoke is not bothering me and the headwind does cool it off a bit. Yellow lake is a difficult climb, but not as bad a Richter’s. I am looking forward to the long down hill back into town. Unfortunately the head wind is strong and we are not gaining that much speed down the hills. Worst of all heading into town is a slight uphill. Feels like I will never get off the bike.

T2

I do make it and volunteer takes my bike and points me toward the change area. Turns out I know one of the volunteers, Drew Wilson ( a former IMC competitor and former client). He keeps me laughing ,offers me some of the volunteers pizza (which looked really good) and makes sure I have everything I need. I am off on the run.

Run

Vancouver Personal Trainer Craig Boyd heads out on the run of Ironman Canada 2009

I head out through town and see lots of fans. I have decided to run from aid station to aid station, as there is one each mile (26 x). I am actually feeling great. I am counting down the aid stations 26,25,24,23,22……16. 16 more 1 mile runs??? WTF did I sign up for. By this point I am on Skaha lake 1/2 way between Penticton and Ok falls, my legs are feeling close to done and I have 16 miles left to run. I probably ran too fast between aid stations to start. I am now into the Ironwill portion of the race. You are spent, have no juice and lots of distance to go. I do a walk run combo of no running hills and walking aid stations and any time I feel like my calves are going to cramp.

I make it to the special needs area in OK falls and get fresh socks and my Flip video camera. I want to film the Ironman finish. I just have to walk run 13 more miles to do so. I find some people to chat with and pass the time/ distract us from our ailments. It feels like forever before we are back in town. Using a selective process of only running when its dead flat we somehow manage to run past everyone I know.

Once you rach the last couple km’s (back in town), the fans really keep you motivated. I filmed it and you can see the end of the course where the fans are at the finish line, cheering every competitor like they are the winner. Check the video here:

Craig Boyd Ironman Canada 2009

I cannot say enough how great it felt to finish. I have always wanted to do an Ironman. The fans and volunteers  (4000+) really make it a special event. Thanks to everyone for all the texts and emails in advance and after the event. Big thanks to my family form coming to watch, I could not have done it without all the support.

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/