! month blogging break

Hi,

Due to exams I'll not post till 20 Dec.

I'll be back on 31 Dec.

Till then take care & keep running :)

Ricky

A Diet for a Jogger

Note: This article may not precisely reflect my thoughts on jogging diet. It's a way to bring knowledge around from different fitness sources to one place.

There are 2 keys to healthy living: Exercise & Diet. I've  gone to few top resources to pick what's the best healthy diet & what's the diet that best supports jogging. Following is a list of what different fitness sources are talking about diet:

1. AARP.org

• Mediterranean diet is best for healthy aging & prevents chronic diseases. The article quotes: "The Mediterranean diet includes lots of vegetables (excluding potatoes), fruits, nuts, whole grains, legumes and fish plus alcohol (often red wine) in moderation. It has more of the healthy fats from olive oil and other sources and fewer unhealthy fats from butter, cheese and red meat."

• Vitamin D naturally available from sun highly effective for strong bones, preventing heart disease & strong immune system. Many people take vitamin D supplements to get these benefits. But the article says it isn't needed by most of us.. It quotes: "The Institute of Medicine recommends that people over age 70 have 800 international units total of vitamin D a day, he adds. Because most elderly people get at least 400 IUs through diet and sunshine, Rosen recommends a supplement of 400 IUs for those over 70."

• Eating 1 better 3 apples or  pears a day helps loosing weight, increase exercise stamina & prevents heart disease. The article quotes: "Women who ate three apples or pears a day lost more weight than those who didn’t eat fruit. In fact, the non-fruit eaters barely lost any weight."

2. Mercola.com

• Vitamin pill may give a single benefit but exercise gives you synergistic benefit. The article quotes: "To 'mimic' all of these benefits you would literally need handfuls of different pills -- and even then they could never reproduce the synergistic benefits that exercise has on your body and mind"

• Maximize weight loss benefits of jogging by not eating prior to jog. If doing HIIT jog, eat something within 30 min. The article quotes: "That said, there’s actually plenty of research, and reason, that strongly supports skipping eating before exercise… especially if you’re interested in maximizing your fat-burning potential"

• 1/3 watermelon juice taken prior to jogging effective to relieve muscles soreness in 24 hrs & taking it after jogging reduces inflammation. The article quotes: "If you have a juicer, try juicing about one-third of a fresh watermelon and drinking its juice prior to your next workout. This contains a little over one gram of l-citrulline, an amino acid that seems to protect against muscle pain."

3. SFGate

• Joggers healthy diet consists of carbohydrates, lean protein & healthy fats. The article also gives importance of what time we take food. It quotes: "For your pre-workout snack, choose carbohydrates, lean protein, heart-healthy fats and fluids or a combination of those to give you that pep in your step."

4. About.com

• Mix food to get various nutrients. Also eat small amount of food you like; don't deny yourself. The article quotes: "Try to not get into the habit of eating the same foods day after day……..………..It's important that you eat a variety of fruits and vegetables too."

5. Azcentral.com

• If did HIIT or intense jog & don't feel to eat solid food, blending foods is the way to go. But if jog lasts less than 30 min, no need to worry about post-jog snack. The article quotes: "What you eat after your jog directly impacts your body’s ability to recover and perform well at your next outing."

6. Runningforbeginners.com

• If you've difficulty in controlling amount of food or what you eat, the article gives a method to deal with it like: maintain a diary of what you eat, weekly important food buying plan. It quotes: "Not calories, because that takes the enjoyment out of eating. Add up the amount of fats, proteins and carbohydrates you eat during the day. As a guide, you should be looking to eat 2 portions of protein a day (eggs, lean meat, lentils), 5 portions of carbohydrates (pasta, bread, cereal), 3 portions of dairy food (milk, yogurt, cheese) and at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables. (If you are looking to lose weight, keep portion sizes small – a handful of rice/pasta, two medium size potatoes, one egg)."

7. Livestrong.com

• Eating healthy food also depends upon the amount to time you have. Even if no time, it's possible to have a healthy snack. The article quotes: "Omelet with four egg whites, onion, spinach and some shredded Swiss cheese, an orange, a piece of rye toast, a glass of milk and a small glass of pomegranate juice if you have time to sit down for a full meal, recommends "Fitness" magazine. If you're on the go, grab two slices of whole-grain toast with peanut butter and a banana."

8. Runnersworld.com

• A good way of eating variety of food is to eat different colour vegetables & fruits. Include food which are seeds as they contain much of the nutrients needed to grow a whole new plant. The article quotes: "Seeds--including whole grains, many beans, and even tree nuts--contain the crucial mix of nutrients necessary to grow a new plant, which means they are packed with health-boosting compounds. In addition to traditional nutrients like protein and essential fats, seeds contain bioactive compounds, such as phenolic compounds and ferulic acid, which act as antioxidants."

9. Shape.com

• Eating small meals every 3-4 hrs will keep need of before & after jog snack away. Avoid foods with empty calories which give temporary energy peak. The article quotes: "Eat small meals every three to four hours to keep energy up and going. Eat adequately during the day, and you don’t have to fuel before, during, and after every training session."

Ricky

Jogging in City

We all know the benefits of jogging to life longevity, cardiovascular health, prevention of diseases like diabetes, blood pressure & others. City offers many advantages & disadvantages that we've to take into account while jogging. Things to consider in a city while jogging are:

Deal with Traffic Smartly

In a city, vehicles are the primary source of transportation which makes travelling comfortable. This has added to no.of vehicles on the road. While the city roads are of very good quality, consider how to deal with traffic. The best way to deal with traffic is to not deal with it. Prefer to jog early in the morning anywhere between 5 AM to 7 AM. It has 2 advantages: roads are free & air is freshest with cool atmosphere.

If you're worried about the pollution in city, it's ok to jog. Jog for your health because benefits of jogging far outweigh hazards of vehicle pollution. Today vehicles are made with keeping PSI (Pollution Standard Index) in mind.

If you work late hours, jogging early is difficult. Considering this you might go for a jog between 8 AM to 10 AM or at evening. There are 2 ways to make best use of the conditions:

1. Brisk Walk  +  Jogging

You'll need to be proactive. Before going to jog during peak hours, decide that during peak hour you'll jog when the road is free & do brisk walk aggressively when road congested to clear all the obstacles coming in the way & make your way always. Keep your brisk walk & jogging speed little bit same so that you are in some sort of rhythm.  If you don't do this it's easy to get frustrated by obstacles.

2. Jog Opposite Direction in Peak Hour

During peak hours vehicles move from suburban to city area in morning & vice versa at evening. While jogging, run on opposite road i.e. road for city to suburban during morning & suburban to city at evening. That way you've to face little less traffic which is good.

If jogging with a partner, run one-behind-another instead of side-by-side.

Buy a good quality latest jogging shoes as these shoes have inbuilt reflectors on them.

Get More out of Jogging in Parks & Stadiums

Cities along with having good roads also have other recreation centers like parks & stadium. If you don't jog too fast or do brisk walk, parks are a perfect place. Parks are open for a good amount of time which makes you choose when you want to jog. Parks are abundant in greenery, contain  fresh air which has proved to stimulate mental health.

While you're jogging in park, many people are also walking there & you'll find yourself frequently getting stopped, which makes me frustrate for a short time. To deal with it, understand that they are not as speedy as you or they are doing a different activity than you. They do not have the intention of stopping you. Just keep moving on.

Park surfaces are uneven. Watch out for uneven area & slow down the pace a little to avoid making uneven impact on your knees & ankles.

Jogging in stadium can be done little faster & it's synthetic track is also softer on your body if you're just starting out.

Cities have best quality gyms which gives a  option for jogging on a treadmill if you're constrained inside for some reason. It can be intensified like jogging outside by adding inclines and doing intervals i.e. jogging fast then slowing & repeating this for many cycles.

There are many advantages to jogging by living in a city which many of us enjoy like:

1. You can find jogging apparels easily & in many varieties
2. Gyms, parks are located nearby. Almost every area has atleast 1 gym & a park.
3. Training for a marathon is easier as you will easily find marathon groups & instructors.
4. City people are generally more aware of fitness than countryside folks. So get out to jog in a city & you'll easily find a jogging partner.

Ricky

What to Do: Brisk Walking or Jogging?

Are you already doing brisk walk? If yes, you will be aware of benefits of brisk walk which include very effectively preventing age related diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, heart problems, increasing life longevity.

Brisk walk also puts lot less pressure on knees & ankles compared to jogging. And benefits of both brisk walk & jogging are very much the same.

Walking:

60-minute walk at 4 mph (15 minutes per mile): 243 calories burned
60-minute walk at 4.6 mph (13 minutes per mile): 270 calories burned

Running:


30-minute run at 6 mph (10 minutes per mile): 270 calories burned
30-minute run at 6.7 mph (9 minutes per mile): 300 calories burned

 (Source)

  

Anybody can take benefits of brisk walk by doing it; it's an universal way of staying fit. It is well suited to anybody who is suffering from little knee pain or back pain & is very much safer than jogging. If you've excess weight & also suffer from knee pain & you want to loose weight the safe way; weight loss by brisk walking can be done by increasing Intensity of brisk walk.

2 ways to increase brisk walk intensity will be:

1. Brisk walking at a place which has slopes
2. Carry  dumbbell while doing brisk walk

Don't buy special shoes for brisk walk. Start brisk walk with any shoes that you have.

If you've just decided that you want to be fit, start with brisk walk because starting brisk walk is simple & there are not much skills required to do it. To do a brisk walk:

1. Move legs fast such that it feels, legs pull your body
2. Land on foot heels

Also brisk walk allows body to adapt to fitness without putting much strain on your body which is very good at starting.

One important thing: if you do morning walk or evening walk with a partner, don't do it. Brisk walk with a partner isn't a brisk walk. As brisk walk is less intense, it allows to talk, but jogging being more intense, your heavy breaths won't allow you to talk more. Partner only when you want to jog, not while walking.

If you already do brisk walk, you may want to shift to jog if you like any of the benefits of jogging that I tell you:

As I've said benefits of brisk walking & jogging are very much the same but with jogging the benefits are achieved in half the time compared with the benefits from brisk walk. Approximately benefits of 60 min brisk walk & 30 min jogging are the same.

Jogging is very good for loosing weight. With doing intense activity like jogging, you lose calories even after activity has been finished. So overall calories lost by jogging will be greater than brisk walk. Also research (LINK) has found that joggers eat 200 calories less than they've expended whereas walkers eat 50 calories more than they have expended. Loosing weight is not possible by walking.

Jogging makes bones stronger when it's assisted with resting because jogging will put 3 to 4 times pressure of your body weight on legs.

Earlier people used to complain about the problems that jogging causes like calf pain, shin splints, side stitch. But today aided with specially designed running shoes, proper warm up & techniques, these problems do not exist at all.

The best way to transform brisk walk to Jogging is to do intervals of jogging between brisk walks.

Ricky

Why Cardio has more importance than Strength Training

So you want to have a body like Brad Pitt; you imagine how perfect & attractive you will look with the latest dresses available today combined with your good body; when you go outside your house, how other people will look at you with awe & you'll feel pride of your body. Or you're a middle aged man & are too busy with your job but don't have the time to exercise even though you're very well aware of benefits of exercise. Also though knowing the benefits of exercise, you don't know which form of exercise is good for you: Cardio or Strength training.

First of all I'd like to tell what a normal working man expects from doing a exercise. A normal man wants to have a "little above average fitness level". He wants to exercise because it will keep away common diseases like diabetes, blood pressure, heart diseases etc. Above average physical health would support other areas of life like his work. If he is just starting to gain weight, exercise will help to keep the weight in check. This is also what I aim for when doing exercises.

Previously I had been a strength trainer & benefited a lot from it & I liked it. But recently in a year or so after taking on jogging, running & also learning from various resources, I've come to know few benefits of cardio exercises.

Long Term Great Benefits

I always wonder, for doing long projects in job of ranging from 2-3 months, how much it will be beneficial to have a great endurance mentally & physically, ability to manage stress for a long time during big projects, being focused for long duration of time & how building endurance, managing physical mental stress in jogging would help my work life because of the relation between the physical health & our working ability. Especially as I grow older, I'll be able to work with same agility as I'm working now.

With age our bone weakens & becomes softer causing osteoporosis making it vulnerable to fractures. With age fluid between the joints reduces hampering the free bone motion causing arthritis. Jogging & running makes our bones stronger so that we can freely go from place to place for anything. Also we'll not need help of stick for support.

Also I've mentioned above some diseases that have very-very high chance of occurring in the old age that can be very well prevented by jogging & running.

Enhances Mood

If jogging, running is done in parks with lot of greenery, research has shown that throughout the day we try to put more energy to work thus getting more out of our work & also enhances our mood twice compared to doing exercises which are done indoors like gym.

Jogging outside is a natural way of getting Vitamin D as well.

Other Benefits

• We get encouraged by challenges & attractive things. Running in a 5 K or a 10 K race can be a good way of developing our challenging attitude along with benefiting our cardiovascular health.
• If you want to go above average natural fitness like you want to build stamina or want to loose weight you can transform jogging to HIIT or running.
• Keeping changing places to jog helps to know a new location if you jog there for a  few times & adds new experiences to life making you feel live longer.
• Cardio can be done in 30 min 4 times of a week when done using HIIT. Whereas strength training may take daily 1-2 hrs 5 times a week
• Jogging, running doesn't cost much. The only thing you will need to buy is a good running shoes & an sports dress.

Even though strength training is not as important as cardiovascular training but its still important. It helps to have a standard normal strength. So I also do little bit of dips like 3 sets of 40, 35 & 30 each.

Ricky

Suggested Reading

1. When you've decided to start jogging, there are some lessons I've learned while doing a thing for the first time. Here are a few things you can expect while starting jogging.
2. Here are a few simple & basic skills for doing jogging in the best possible way.
3. Time is no longer an issue for jogging. Here is an article which will perfectly guide you to what time is best for you to jog.

Experiences of Doing a Thing for the First Time

What was the feeling when you did a completely new thing for the very first time? Here is a list that can be your First's:-

• Gave public speech
• Jogged
• Sung
• Applied new marketing strategy
• Stood for your belief infront of powerful people

4-5 days back I tried to learn a dance that too LIVE infront of public. I tried to learn Dandiya & Garba which are Indian dance forms used to celebrate Navratri which goes on for 9 days at night during the month of October (you can google it to know more). Before trying these dance for many years I used to think that as I don't know the steps of dance, so how can I dance? And I should make friendship with someone who knows to dance & ask him to teach me dance during the day time & then after becoming little good, I can dance in actual environment. Even after years of seeing people dancing at Navratri I couldn't emulate a single step properly & neither did I made any friend who could teach me to dance.

So what happened this year that I learned to dance? I was unsure how I was going to do it. I had mixed feelings of fear & excitement; fear of I'll be watched by many people while I'll be learning & excitement about I'm going to learn something new today that I think I like it.  After struggling with these mixed feelings some kind of external energy overpowered me & made me think, "I don't know what's going to happen BUT, I know I'M GOING TO DO IT.

I made a game plan about it. As I didn't know to dance & I didn't want people to know about it, I thought I would go to a Navratri celebrating place where there are lots of people dancing so that I'll not be the centre of attention of people watching it. Also as dandiya is performed in circles I thought I will start at a place in a circle where less people can watch me.

On Navratri night, before starting to dance I asked one of the boys to tell me & demonstrate how to play dandiya during a break. I didn’t want to think about how to ask or anything else as that would had raised many doubts in my mind & may be stopped me from taking action & thus procrastinating. As I was still in a frenzied state of mind I didn’t get much of what he was telling but I understood somewhat by looking at him when he displayed the steps. In the mean time few of his friends had a little laugh as I wasn’t getting the steps. When dandiya started again, I went into the circle at desired place to dance where I will be looked by less number of people & can just focus on doing the steps. While dancing I was little nervous but I didn't care about it. My nervousness was little under control BECAUSE: I had prepared a little by thinking where I'm going to dance & asking one of the boy's for dance steps. After doing steps in many wrong ways for 5 min, I started to get the steps & get into the rhythm but during brief intervals I did missed the steps occasionally but overall it felt good. But I wasn’t happy much because I wanted to build upon the steps & do more complex steps. I started with doing the basic steps with more energy. The person to whom I had asked the steps said I was doing quite well.

On second day I thought I'll learn garba. Again I didn't want to be watched by many people while practicing so I thought I'll go for playing garba early so that there are only few people dancing & only a few people watching & by the time more people come in, I would have got in some kind of rhythm. On that night I went early & garba hadn’t started yet. I stood there for it to get started. In few minutes music was put on & few boys & girls started dancing. I thought I would be at the end of circle & try to follow other people dance steps. But as garba had just started there as only 2 segments in the circle; one segment for boys & one segment for girls dancing at back of boys. If I wanted to learn dance, I had to join the boys segment dancing infront of girls segment. It felt weird to have to dance infront of girls group & girls watching me learning. Another thing was that for the boys segment there was only one row which was leading the whole circle. This wasn’t the situation I had planned. But without thinking much I went to the boys segment. I asked to one of the boys little hesitantly as I didn't know him, to tell me the steps. He happily showed me the steps. I wasn't able to quickly follow the steps but I observed him. He told me it’s simple & showed me each step. I emulated him. I knew I was watched by people looking into my inexperience but I didn't want to think about them at that moment. I wanted to do the steps rights & learn it fast. After struggling for 5 min, I started to get in a little bit of rhythm & became little more confident though I was still not doing it perfectly. While dancing I saw people danced with little variations of the dance. It made me little relieved as my inexperienced way of dancing will be perceived by people as a little variation. I decided raise my head & look up a little, not look at the people but just look up. Previously I had my head little down for the whole time to just focus on dance steps & to hide my inexperience. The whole time I was feeling like a weak person & vulnerable to difficulties. Again, the person to whom I asked said I was doing well.

There are a few things while trying to do this new thing:

1.      I was procrastinating about dancing for many years because of fear of people & not knowing steps but with action, fear & inexperience became less.

2.      I made much of the planning but while practicing in the real world only 2% of the plan got executed. So from now on whenever I'll do a new thing I'll make only 1 to 2 critical plans.

3.      While doing other important things during the day, I got the thoughts of this new thing which distracted me from doing those important things. I'll need to give proper attention to these important things.

4.      I went to practice a little later than my scheduled time because I was little disorganized. I went on to practice even after this delay & I learned many important things. Whenever I’m not as per schedule I will still go to do new things because I'll learn a few important things.

5.      Some unexpected problem ALWAYS comes while trying to do new thing. I’m glad I adjusted to the problem & followed what I had planned.

E.g. For playing dandiya 2 sticks are needed & I thought that I'd get it at the navratri location as at many locations they give it for free. But the place where I had planned to practice didn't have this provision. So I thought I would borrow it from someone who wasn't dancing as I hadn’t brought money so that I can buy it from outside. But no one was willing to donate. So I quickly went to my house (about 10 min from location) got the money & bought dandiya. If I hadn't thought quickly & made excuse that I don't have dandiya, I couldn't have practiced.

6.      While doing dandiya I missed the steps few times but I smiled a little & quickly thought of what are the right steps to do.  Whenever I miss steps while doing a new thing (that's sure to happen), I'll smile a little, quickly think of steps & then do them.

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7.      I learned only 1 step at a time to not feel overwhelmed & if something seems too complex I break up into small parts.

8.      It's ok if:

o   I seem to be too focused in doing 1 step & other things get ignored

o   If some people make weird face (some people surely will)

o   I ask people for how to do it. People are generally very helpful

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9.      I've found that while trying a new thing & asking for approval from people who are not the stakeholders, may give negative comments. It's good to stay away from them as much as possible while doing new thing.

10.   Some people might come with their free advice while you're just a newbie at the new thing you’re trying. Generally these people come just to show their authority to us or to other people around. Deeply they don't care much about you. Stay away from these Free Tips People.

11.   People are ready to help if we ask them & knowing how difficult it’s to do the thing for the first time, they will encourage us & give positive feedback.

12.   Even if you cry because you aren't able to do steps rightly, it's ok to cry because it only tells how much you love doing the thing.

13.   After coming home, for 10 min I think about what I did while practicing & what is the next level of this thing.

 What’s your First Time story? If you’ve already started jogging, what was it like the first time; was it little challenging or did it came naturally to you? Or if you haven’t started to jog yet, it will be good to know how it turns out to be.

Ricky

The Reason Why I Started Jogging

Before giving the reason, I'd like to write a buildup to help the reason to be understood better. I was born on 2 Dec 1986, time (I don't know) in a middle class family. I don't know my condition at birth (I suppose it was normal). As a kid I was very hyperactive. In my house I used to go to places where old things were kept, then open a sack or box  containing old  unused things &  liked to find something interesting like an old magnet, used air filter mask & whenever I found something interesting I enjoyed it very much as if I had made a new discovery. But this hyperactive nature was lost after 12 years of age because I was beaten a lot by parents & that made me dormant. As a kid I was average in studies & wasn't good in playing anything & wasn't encouraged either. My mother is little thin with a normal height housewife & is well talented in cooking delicious food. It's very easy to eat extra when she has cooked food. That's the reason I like eating lot. My father also has a normal height & weight, works in a government firm & can be seen in the house doing yoga, supporting eating green vegetables. Now let me explain reason for me going into fitness thing. Infact there are few reasons which introduced me to fitness & then built my interest towards fitness. As a kid I had few fights with other children. Always after the fights while sitting or sleeping in my room I thought with my little brain, that if I've little more muscles, little more strength, I can easily beat the kid. If I've big muscles, no one else would try to beat me. Also as a kid I was beaten many times by father whenever I did a mistake in solving simple addition & subtraction. Father used to call me in evening or night time for doing math & at the very moment my heart beat slowed down to zero as if I'm dead, my feet felt heavy in the anticipation of I will not be able to solve & I'll be beaten up. Father gives me a algebra equation to solve & at that moment my brain decides to take a rest. I think it was more than math, I feared him. Again my little mind came up with a bold idea that if I become stronger then even if my father will beat me, it'll have no effect on my body. But the thing that I like about father is his health. He's about 55 years  now but doesn't have any disease except for little high blood pressure. I inherited his fitness interest as a child. While in school I had a chronic problem of stamina while running or playing football. But I also had speed as my strength. When I participated in my first race (200 m) for which, first one had to run a qualifying race. The day before qualifying race I ate lot of food as I believed with eating extra food I'll have extra energy to run the race. Next day in the morning I asked mummy to give me 1 more glass of milk with Horlicks (energy drink for kids). That was my preparation for the race. My younger brother came with me to racing ground to see me running & performing. Before the race, I didn't knew how I was going to perform but I was excited that I'm going to run a race.  The race started; I ran with all the energy with full speed & that was showing on the field. I was way, way ahead of all kids. I was at the front & ran like that. But when the last 10 m remained, I ran out of breath; my heart decided that it should stop working now & so not support me for last 10 m; everything inside me strangled me to stop running. At that point our selecting sir cheered me to run & complete it. I completed the race but at 3rd position. Only 2 people had to be selected but he selected me because of seeing my performance in initial part of the race. I was feeling lucky to be selected. Later the person who came first in qualifying race went up to become the best sprinter of our school. I was feeling happy that I was infront of him in the qualifying race for the most of the time but was also disappointed a lot that if I had more stamina, I could have become a very good racer. During last year of school I suffered from epistaxis (nose bleeding), to be specific I suffered from Nasopharyngeal Angiofibroma. My normal life changed to not so normal life. My nose suddenly started to bleed in middle of the class & the teacher told me to sleep on the bench to make bleeding stop & all others started to look at me. This wasn't the kind of attention I wanted. It was also irritating to me as because of me whole class was being disturbed. I bled a lot & when I slept, the whole blood from nose ran backwards to my stomach. It tested bitter. I was worried because all the energy I was getting from food was getting lost due to bleeding. I was admitted in the hospital. Before the operation day, I was told not to eat anything at night & not to drink water after 8 PM. That night I wasn't getting sleep easily. I went out from the bed for 2 times to roam outside. I was having the feeling of a person that is going to be hanged on the next day. But the whole operation went on smoothly thanks to good doctors & anesthesia. I was transfused with 2 bottles of blood. When I gained consciousness at 4 PM next day, my eyes was opened with a very bad headache which quickly developed into a high fever. So after a major operation, I had a headache & then a high fever. Then an acute pain started in my lower spine which my father enquired to the doctor & was told that there I was given some anesthetic injection. This pain added to the problems & I was unable to lie on the bed properly due to pain. After not drinking water for about 21 hours, I felt very thirsty. Parents asked doctor when I could drink water to which they replied after 6 hours. My lip skin had dried up & broken up due to dehydration like tree's bark. After 6 hours, doctors only allowed to have little amount of water. My mummy gave me little water to drink in a glass but I was unable to drink as some blockage was placed in between mouth & nasal passage during operation. So mummy tried to give me water with the help of a spoon. Even with that it was very difficult to get 1 spoon of water down the throat. Drinking even 1 cup of juice was a problem & it took me 1-2 hr to finish it. Agitated with all this I decided "I'll never let my fitness go down so that I've to come to hospital for a operation again". My mummy is great at cooking & loves me very much. After finishing her work by the end of the day mother would lie on the bed & complain me of getting exhausted, chest pain, headache at top of her head & lower back pain. After completing her work she would lie on bed & ask me to gently rub her back to get relief. Rubbing her back did give her little relief but I didn't like that my mom who looks so fit is undergoing this problem. I very much wanted to do something to get her out of this situation. She asked me that we should visit a doctor. I thought, as she got exhausted by the end of the day, the problem was with her stamina & some kind of cardiovascular workout needs to be done to get permanent relief. We went to the doctor first. After conducting ECG doctor told that the report was ok but gave some calcium & iron tablets. Me & especially my mummy was very happy with the report. Now I thought to make her heart stronger, jogging will be a good option. But I knew mummy that, if she goes for jogging alone then she would give up quickly because she likes someone on her side for the support. I told mom that we both can daily go for morning jog to which she agreed. I didn't had any personal interest in it because I was daily going to gym in the evening & I considered myself fit enough but I did jogging with mummy only for mummy to get fit. We went to jog in the morning on the road which is bordered by tall green trees on both sides & has an ample amount of fresh air & it also had a lot of ups & downs. When mummy would jog, she would stop when some person or school busses passed by because of shyness which made me laugh & told her no need to worry about them & continue to jog but she wouldn't do. Other problem was the ups & downs on the road. It was very easy when the road goes downhill but when it came to jogging uphill, it left her gasping & had to change over to walking. As few weeks passed by, mummy claimed that jogging was helping her & now she wasn't getting as much tired walking uphill as before. I was little happy but not that much. I was thinking if there is a way so that she could do continuous jogging without feeling shy of public & some kind of leveled road to make jogging easier. There is a club near our house which has a grassy lawn in it. I suggested mummy if we can jog there to which she agreed. This move was the turning point. After starting jogging in lawn mummy improved steadily from first able to complete 1 round, then to 2 rounds & then 3, 4, 5 …. I also ran with her for the support. With jogging, mummy's complaining of chest pain, headache stopped. It made me very happy. In the meantime I read in the book "7 habits of highly effective people" by Stephen R Covey that for today's knowledge workers, strength is important but Endurance & Stamina are far more important. At that time I was happily lifting weights in gym & had made very good muscular body. After reading the book I thought should I stop gym & start jogging as I only had limited time because I had to study for college. I was struggling to make the decision of should I start jogging & let my gymming subside so my well developed body will not develop well from now on or should I do jogging which can be overall more beneficial for me in the life. I choose to do jogging because of it's benefits in the long run & it was the best option. Also I gave little time to dips & abs for building strength. When I'm doing any work & if I have a long endurance then it'll help me to complete the work. In jogging, training for endurance is done so that endurance develops slowly. I thought that if I develop endurance physically it will help me mentally in keeping endurance in other works I do as I can tell myself that I have developed endurance in other area of life, so I've the ability of endurance. When I started jogging, I continuously reminded myself of this. 

Regards, 
Ricky 

P.S - As I'm busy with a product promotion, I'd like my readers to allow me to post 1 post / week for a month. It'd mean a lot to me.

Should You also run a Marathon?

What is the toughest fitness benchmark currently in the fitness world? What is the fitness goal that is famous among most people? Yes, it's a MARATHON. During the past 10 years, no.of people taking a marathon have increased many folds. But, is this level of fitness actually needed by us? In today's world, most of us are Knowledge Workers i.e. working with brains & amount of physical activity is minimal. Is this level of fitness really needed by a knowledge worker? I want you to consider following things if you've a plan to run a marathon. 

Time: Running a marathon would require you a daily practice of 2 hours. Is it feasible to spend 2 hours of our waking time daily on fitness alone? Spending daily 2 hours on fitness is a waste of time. It's similar to "We need daily 8 hours of sleep for healthy life. But it's possible for a person to sleep for 11-12 hours which is certainly a waste of time." If you've read "7 habits of highly effective people", you'd know, spending just 30 min daily on fitness is a perfect time. Here we're looking for things which can make us fit in minimum possible time. Also it's far more likely that you'll break the daily 2 hour marathon training as compared to daily only jogging for 30 min. 

Marathon Strategies: Humans aren't designed to run continuously for such a long time. Our ancestors used to walk a lot with an occasional sprinting. So we naturally do not know strategies required for running marathon. Special strategies are needed to make us possible to run continuously for 2 or more hours. 

Natural Strength: If your natural strength has been running with speed & if you try running a marathon which is essentially a endurance running thing, it will be going against your natural talent. If you can run with speed for 5 min doesn't mean you can run for 2 hours. Even if your natural strength is distance, do 30 min high intensity running first because it has a lot of benefits. After training for 30 min running, you can consider a marathon. If you're a brainiac then it would be very difficult for you to put your body in extreme physical activity simply because of "lack of interest". Doing jogging for 30 min is much more practical. 

Weight Loss / Endurance: If you've taken up marathon for losing weight or to strengthen your cardiovascular system & are willing to spend 2 hours on it, I'd say it isn't a good idea. It's possible to lose weight or to build endurance in only 30 min. You can save 1.30 hours for doing anything. 

Effect on Heart: Running marathon puts extreme pressure on our heart. During sitting heart pumps 5 quarts of blood per minute; while running it increases to 25 - 30 quarts of blood per / minute. If this rate is sustained for a long time that to day after day which is the case with marathoners, it exerts excessive pressure on heart walls. Doing activities which put stress on heart makes it stronger but beyond a cutoff it has a negative impact. You'd be shocked to know that people who do excessive exercise or are long time marathoners, their MRI shows scars, increased heart enzymes & these same symptoms also show up in MRI of a person after a heart attack. The problem will increase if no proper recovery time provided. Heart responds well to excessive training because like brain cells, heart tissues are less sensitive to pain. So at the beginning there are no signs of heart problems but after sometime bad effects start showing up. Researches:

	Research	Agency
1.	Regular running reduces heart disease by 2-3% but excessive running increases chances of heart disease by 7%	Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010 in Montreal
2.	Heart checkups of people 1 week after marathon showed: Diminished function of right ventricle Increased heart enzymes (markers of heart injury) 12% heart scar tissue	European Heart Journal, 2012 heart study
3.	Rats were put to strenuous activity just like during marathons. Initially rats had good heart condition. By the end of research their hearts had diffuse scarring and some structural changes in heart	2011 rat study published in the journal Circulation

Effect on Muscles: Marathons put great tension on your muscles as well. While running a marathon, body muscles are used at an excited state for long intervals of time. Following things happen when muscles are used in excited state for a long time:

1. Catabolism in muscles takes place in which muscle tissues are broken down to form simple compounds
2. Cortisol (stress hormone) released which leads to catabolism & other chronic diseases
3. Microscopic tears are formed in muscle fibers which if not healed by recovery periods causes injuries

Muscles are of 3 types: slow, fast & super fast. Of these slow muscles are red muscles while fast & super fast muscles are white muscles. Slow less intensity task like marathon exercises red muscle. Fast intense activity like sprinting exercises both red & white muscles. We can take full advantage of an exercise if it is done fast & with intensity.

Evening Practice: If you train for marathon in the evening after your work, you may not feel to train harder even though your body can do the training. A research was done on 2 groups of people to see if doing a complex brainy task affects our ability to exercise. One group was asked to solve a complex word game while the other group was asked to watch a movie. Then both the groups exercised. The movie watching group performed 20% better in exercises. So knowledge workers should do their training in the morning. 

Boring: Running continuously for 2 hours is a boring task & will cause you to get overwhelmed if you're like me. I prefer to do things that give results with minimal practice. 

Newbie Runner: Running for a marathon requires consistent practice of 2-3 months. If you haven't been involved in any physical activity since your school days, it will take even longer to be able to run a marathon. Keep it in mind. 

Extra Luggage: If you run or do exercise for more than 1 hour, you'll need to accompany yourself with water to hydrate your body & some food. But if you do running only for 30 min even with high intensity, you do not require carrying water bottles or food. 

Gender: Thinking that you're a man & you're less prone to excessive running bad effects than women will be a bad thought because researches show that men are more susceptible to heart attack during exercises. For fitness less, high intensity training is better. If it feels too odd to run, no need to run for 2 hours. Just run for 30 min with high intensity & go back to your safe heaven :) After reading this post if you still feel to run a marathon or you feel your life will be incomplete without running at least 1 marathon then Do It :). But listen to your body for how it responds to your training. 

Regards, 
Ricky