Friday, October 22, 2010

RUNNING IS THE BEST WAY FOR FITNESS


How to Run Faster and Longer?

Running is, of course, one of the best exercise for ultimate health and fitness, strengthening your heart, lungs, muscles, joints, and bones, increasing your flexibility, and reducing body fat. Running is also a very addictive sport. Once you have started at the beginner's level you want to move higher up the ladder very soon.
You've got the running shoes, apparel, gear and possibly know some things to avoid or do to keep from getting injured. Additionally, you are consistently getting out and running a few times a week and the health benefits are evident. But now you've caught the running bug and you want to take your running to the next level. What do you do? The answer is simple: increase your speed and run farther - without getting injured!
Speed and endurance are tools that comes natural to some while others must train to develop it. If you're ready to take your running to the next level, you may be ready for some speed and endurance training. Gentle challenges followed by rest days can improve your speed, endurance, and motivation while reducing the chance of aches and pains. Here are a few to get you started:


Weight training: Faster running speed and ability to run farther comes from strong legs and abs workout combined with fiery drills. To improve your strength you must do weight lifting. Core strength program should be done 3 to 4 times per week. Floor exercises like crunches, sit-ups, bridge ups, alternating sit-ups, leg curls, etc. should be integrated in your daily regime. These types of exercises are isometric and can help postural strength and increase running economy.




Build endurance: Increasing your usual running distance by just a little can improve your endurance and make the normal distance seem easier to manage. To try it, warm up for 10 minutes and then run 300 to 400 meters more than the longest distance you've run in the past two weeks. Lower your pace a little if need be. Keep extending your long runs by a 300 to 400 meters each time. Do this once a week and rest the day before, and run easy the day after.




Try Interval training: Interval training can significantly improve your endurance and stamina, along with boosting your pace. It is a a type of physical training that involves bursts of high intensity running with periods of rest or running at low intensity or walking. To try this, warm up with 10 minutes of easy running and then run for around 400 to 500 meters at slightly faster pace than usual. Now walk for 200 to 300 meters and then again run at the same pace. Do this workout once a week and you will definitely notice increase in your performance within 3-4 weeks.



Have a good fitness base: Having a good base is important. There are many things that you should consider before training for speed or endurance. Form and fitness are the two important things to concentrate on prior to the start of track season. You can not begin to do sprint type work without a decent level of form, and fitness. You should concentrate on these things for a variety of reasons. One of the most important is injury prevention. Another important reason is because by concentrating on these two things you can dramatically increase base speed and endurance level.



related post

http://www.runningforfitness.org/

http://www.running-mom.com/running-for-fitness.html
 

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