Best Fitness Blog

... by Karli Taylor

Shin Splints, or pain in the front of your lower leg, can creep up on you when you start building mileage. First things first- if you are running on a treadmill, make sure that you have the incline set to at least 1.0. For some reason, all treadmills are set up so that 0.0 incline is actually downhill! This will put undue stress on your shins and knees when mileage starts to get up past 2 miles.

If you are an outside runner, shin splints will occur if you have weakness in the front of your lower leg (tibialis) or tightness in the back of your lower leg(calves). To prevent this annoyance, make sure that you stretch your calves after every run, and on off days try the following exercises to strengthen your shins:

Sit on the edge of a chair and tap your toes on the floor with your heels planted- tap hard to create stress. Sounds simple, but it will prepare your shins for the stress of running.
If you have a resistance band of some kind, sit on the floor with your legs out in front of you, loop the band around your feet and point your toes while pulling back on the band. Point and flex 20-25 times then rest.

Another thing that may be contributing to your shin pain is your foot strike while you run. Focus on striking the ground with the balls of your feet instead of your toes. Toe-running will tighten your calves right up, and tight calves lead to weak shins!

Ladies- if you wear high heels all day long, do NOT come home and run right away. Give yourself some transition time to get used to your sneakers. Going straight from high heels to pavement pounding will put those shins at risk.

Any other pains creeping up on you as? Let me know and I'll try to help you fix it!

Workout Recovery Tips ... by Karli Taylor

So instead of taking about working out, let’s spend a little time talking about what needs to be done AFTER you work out in order to fully benefit from all of that hard work. Recovery may be the most overlooked aspect of exercise. Everyone seems to focus on how many minutes to bike or at what heart rate to run. Improvements in fitness, however, occur during the recovery period between exercise sessions and not during the exercise itself. Positive physiological adaptations to exercise occur when there is a correctly timed alternation between stress and recovery.

When you finish a cardio or weight training session, you are weaker, not stronger right? How much weaker depends on the severity of the exercise stress. If the stress is too great and/or you don’t recover before your next workout, your ability to adapt to subsequent workouts declines. Therefore, what you do the rest of the day when you are not exercising is just as important as what you do when they are exercising.

Here are some basic rules for proper recovery:

Take AT LEAST 1 full day off from exercise each week
Make sure you hydrate - and if your workout lasts longer than an hour, think about using 1/2 sports drink and 1/2 water
Eat a simple-carbohydrate rich snack immediately after exercise- fruit is perfect
Get at least 7 hours of sleep each night
Increase the amounts of antioxidants in your diet- it will make a difference!
Never exercise a sore muscle- it is sore for a reason!
If you are tired, skip the workout- a half-effort will not help your progress, and it may lead to injury.
Look out for signs of over training- high resting heart rate, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, loss of hair, dry skin or excessive muscle soreness-- if you exhibit more than 2 of these symptoms, your body is trying to tell you something- LISTEN TO IT and take a few days off!