January 4, 1988
Fitness: FLEXIBILITY IS KEY TO BETTER BREATHING AND LONGER WORKOUTS
After the first five minutes of an aerobic workout, it becomes easy to judge effort based upon breathing patterns. The harder we push, the more labored our breathing becomes.
Breathing represents a sort of aerobic governor. We gauge effort by our level of respiratory distress. (Generally, we limit the length of our effort in inverse proportion to perceived effort; the more labored our breathing, the shorter our workout.)
The object in aerobic sports is to extend what is called the anaerobic threshold: that point in a given effort when our breathing changes from aerobic to anaerobic, from easy controlled breathing to a barely-controlled gasp for air.
This process involves three related but different factors: VO2 max, vital capacity, and breathing effort.
VO2 max refers to the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to the working muscles.
Four factors determine this ability: 1.) the efficiency of the heart muscle as a pump, 2.) the competence of the blood vessels to transport oxygen in the blood to the muscles and retrieve spent blood from the muscles, 3.) the adequacy of blood return to the heart before transport to the lungs for gas exchange, and 4.) the ability of the lungs to exchange outside air for waste gasses (primarily carbon dioxide).
We can improve the heart, arteries, and veins as a transport system with regular aerobic exercise. As we force the heart to work harder, we increase its size and strength, just as we increase the size and strength of our skeletal muscles with weights.
A trained marathoner, for instance, will often have a heart 50 percent larger than normal. This is how exercise can improve a person’s VO2 max. However, one’s basic VO2 max is determined genetically.
Vital capacity, the ability to inhale more oxygen and to exhale gasses, is not as important to the aerobic athlete as VO2 max, but it is significant because it can be increased through training. For instance, the average untrained adult has a breathing capacity of 120 liters per minute, while the trained aerobic athlete has the ability to take in 205 liters per minute.
Breathing effort is the third factor, where most progress can be made in the shortest amount of time. But it is the most elusive for the average aerobic exerciser.
Breathing effort involves the flexibility of the muscles in the chest and abdomen. According to Bob Prichard of the Somax Posture & Sports Clinic in San Rafael, if muscles are stiff or if there are muscle adhesions present, the lack of chest expansion will limit the breathing capacity by wearing out the diaphragm—the muscle with which we breathe.
It is the diaphragm fatigue, and not VO2 max or vital capacity, that often limits a person’s performance. Fortunately, it is simple enough to measure this capacity.
Lie on your back with a tape measure around your trunk. Exhale all your air and measure the circumference of your chest at the nipple line, across your diaphragm, and at your navel.
Now, while inhaling deeply, again measure those three points. There should be approximately a three-inch difference. If the measurement is smaller than three inches, your ability to breathe is compromised.
One way to loosen the chest is through swimming. Another method involves a regular program of stretches involving the chest.
One chest stretch that Prichard extols is the pull-over. This involves using a modest weight. Lie on your back on a bed or bench, with your head hanging over the edge. Now, with the weight held by both hands, extend your arms and slowly lower the weight in an arc over your head down toward the floor as far as it will comfortably go. Hold for a count of five and allow the weight to pull on the arms. Breathe deeply. Repeat 10 times for a set. Sit up, relax, and breathe deeply. Repeat for three sets.
If this does not begin to increase your measurements toward the desired three inches, Prichard explains that muscle adhesions may be involved. He breaks up such adhesions for clients by using a series of composite probes.
Can increasing your trunk wall flexibility really improve your performance?
It certainly can. One of Prichard’s clients, a rower at Mills College who ran a 10K every day as part of her workout, dropped her time from 55 minutes, 48 seconds to 46:30 in just four weeks, solely by increasing her trunk expansion from an inch to two inches.
Amazing? Just try it. So get out that weight and start breathing easy.
January 18, 1988
Fitness: SNORKELING—THE EASY WATER WORKOUT
Have you ever felt the sting of envy as you watched a really good swimmer glide through the water?
Ever been injured running or cycling and received advice to stay aerobically fit by swimming during your convalescence? Have you ever tried to swim but just couldn’t seem to master it because (pick one):
- You could never coordinate all the moves and breathe at the same time?
- You were afraid of what might happen to you once you lifted your feet off the bottom?
- You had a bad experience in the water once and don’t care to repeat it?
Do all the above apply?
There is a solution to the problems swimming presents to the aquatically inept. It occurred to me recently while vacationing on an island where water sports were difficult to escape.
Let’s start with a simple fact:
Swimming is the best aerobic sport. It works a wide variety of muscle groups, it can be done aerobically, and because the water buoys the body, there is no jarring impact to muscles and joints.
Now let’s add three problems that swimmers face:
- You need a convenient place to swim, or else you’ve got to go out of your way to get to one.
- It is generally complicated to get back into civilian clothes after swimming than it is other sports. A shower is a must because of chemicals in the water.
- You can drown.
Now, let’s add a confession.
I’m not much of a swimmer, primarily because I’m not very coordinated and find it difficult to swim and breathe at the same time. And when I can’t breathe in water, I hope there’s something solid under my feet when I go from the horizontal to the vertical mode in a pool, lake, or ocean.
But I enjoy snorkeling.
The ability to breathe (through the snorkel) while moving through the water (thanks to swim fins) with the bottom of the pool, lake, or ocean clearly in sight (thanks to the goggles) makes “snorkel swimming” a pleasure—and a tremendous way to exercise.
It’s always been fun to put goggles on and dive under the water. It’s easier than swimming. You merely fill your lungs, hold your breath, and let go.
While recently snorkeling off Poipu on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, I spotted a pencil-fish with curvature of the spine. Curious to see why this guy was shaped like a pipe-cleaner instead of a pencil, I went after him. He led me on a merry chase around the bay. At first I kept up merely by using the flippers, but I spooked him and the little guy took off, so I began using my arms and legs and managed to keep him in sight by using a snorkeling Australian crawl.
It didn’t occur to me until the fish lost me in some coral that I’d been swimming all over the bay.
January 25, 1988
Running Roundup: SOME CURES FOR SPRING MARATHON FEVER
It’s no surprise by anyone with marathon savvy that spring and fall are the big seasons. Within the past few years, California has made a bid to become the springtime marathon capital. And in true California fashion, what is offered is a lot of everything.
Two of the younger marathons (in their third year) provide incredibly different courses: the March 6 Los Angeles Marathon offers big media coverage, big bucks, and an urban course; the April 17 Big Sur International Marathon offers serenity, modest bucks, and a course that scenically has no rivals.
Some of the state’s longest-running marathons also are run in the spring: the annual Bidwell Classic in Chico on March 5, the 10th annual Napa Valley Marathon from Calistoga to Napa on March 1, and the 17th annual Avenue of the Giants in Weott on May 1.
Then there is an indoor marathon making its debut—with no entry fee.
A group of UC Berkeley researchers are studying the interplay of energy fuel burned during marathon running. They are attempting to plot the interactions of the body’s stores of fat, proteins, and carbohydrates. What makes the research unique is that the subjects will be running full marathons on a treadmill in a lab setting. The subjects will be hooked up to gas analysis equipment and electrodes will monitor the heart. Periodically, small blood samples will be drawn. Boredom will be broken up by videos and music.
Several days before the marathon test, subjects are given a complete VO2 max stress test and an electrocardiogram assessment. Following the marathon, the subjects receive complete information on their metabolism during the run.
The requirements for test subjects? Must be training for a marathon or similar event and should have been marathon-capable for at least two years, a nonsmoker, and between the ages of 18 and 35.
Anyone interested in running a marathon where the temperatures and wind will not be a factor, call Mark O’Brien at 415-642-9560 any weekday between 9 and 5.
The Mailbag: In listing the results of the Kirkpatrick’s Ironkids Triathlon national championships in Phoenix in a previous column, I inadvertently omitted Betsy Stevens of Fremont, who took first place among 8-year-old girls in the junior division. Her time for the 100-meter swim, 5K bike, and 1K run was 17:20.
A running revolt was averted recently by a quick phone call. Seems there was a scarcity of the long-running Asics/Tiger X-Caliber GT running shoe in retail stores. Upon calling several mail order companies to assess their supply, I was told they had received work from Asics the model was to be discontinued.
I shared the news with some running friends on our annual New Year’s Day run and a full 67 percent of them literally stopped in their tracks and experienced an anxiety attack. (GT fan loyalty runs deep.)
The shoe has the reputation as being the model that put Tiger on the map. It already is 6 years old, but was so well designed when introduced that it built a word-of-mouth following. A call to Asics/Tiger’s U.S. office in Santa Ana put fears to rest: there is a new shipment on a boat somewhere in the Pacific at this very moment.
To nobody’s surprise, the 12,000-member American College of Sports Medicine released a position paper recently against the practice of blood doping. This is when an athlete has blood removed weeks before a competition, stores it, and then, just prior to the competition, has it injected back into his body to provide additional oxygen transport to the working muscles due to greater blood volume. In the 1984 Olympics, a half-dozen American cyclists admitted to the practice.
Speaking of blood, it is perfectly safe for a runner to give blood. It should be given during scheduled down periods during a runner’s annual schedule, and not during heavy training leading to a competition. This temporary lowering of oxygen-carrying capacity makes it difficult to do a quality workout. The Irwin Memorial Blood Bank number, by the way, is 415-567-6400.
Music Survey: For use in an upcoming column, I’d like to know what runners think about wearing headphones while running. Are you for it or against it? Why? If you’re for it, what radio or tape player do you use? What kind of music do you listen to? Do you wear them every time you run? How much do you run? Includes address and phone number. Stay tuned for results.