Why You Should Do Fartlek Training

Fartlek is a Swedish word and roughly translated means ‘speed play’. Fartlek training involves varying the intensity or speed of your run to improve your fitness and endurance. Fartlek sessions are usually performed for a minimum of 45 minutes and intensity can vary from walking, right up to sprinting.

A fartlek run can be as simple as picking up the pace in between a stop sign, traffic light, etc. mixing up a variety of varied speeds and efforts levels. An interval workout is a short, repeated bout of hard effort followed by a recovery period of very easy running.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

  • It’s a great test for strength and endurance
  • It improves speed and race tactics
  • It improves the mind over matter game
  • It improves your ability to put on a spurt in races and overtake a competitor when tired or knock seconds off your finish time
  • It is great for getting into the racing mindset as a fartlek session mimics the surges of speed you may put on in a race
  • Incorporating these surges of speed helps runners to gauge and learn how much they can push their body over shorter segments while at the same time keeping enough physical and mental energy in reserve to go the whole distance and complete a race
  • There is a lot of flexibility within the workout
  • A fartlek session can be completed alone or with another runner or in a group

Lower Back

There are three different groups of muscles that help the spine to function. These are:

  • Extensors – these enable standing and lifting (such as the Erector Spinae).
  • Flexors – these allow flexion, bending forward, lifting and arching of the lower back.
  • Obliques – these allow for rotation and help maintain proper posture.

LATISSIMUS DORSI

Although being a predominantly upper back muscle, it does play a synergistic role in extension and lateral flexion of the lumbar spine and is also assists in forced expiration and as an accessory muscle of inspiration.

ERECTOR SPINAE

These are a group of muscles that run the length of your spine and is sheathed by the thoracolumbar fascia.

SERRATUS POSTERIOR INFERIOR

Although this is predominantly a respiration muscle, it works to assist in rotation and extension of the torso and connects on the border between the thoracic and lumbar spine.

Lower back muscle pain is very common and so lower back strengthening should be in everyone’s workout routine.

Why You Should Do Drop Set Training

A drop set is an advanced resistance training technique in which you focus on completing a set until failure — or the inability to do another repetition. Then, you lighten the load by 10–30%, and repeat, with little to no rest in between sets.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

  • Promote muscle growth
  • Build muscular endurance
  • Efficient with time
  • Boosts mood and mental health
  • Can promote weight loss
  • Good for motivation
  • Good for fast-twitch muscle fibre recruitment

Why You Should Do Interval Training

It’s not as complicated as you might think. Interval training is simply alternating short bursts (example 30 seconds) of intense activity with longer intervals (example 1 to 2 minutes) of less intense activity.

Whether you’re a novice exerciser or you’ve been exercising for years, interval training can help you make your workout routine more exciting. Consider the benefits.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

  • You’ll burn more calories
  • You’ll be more time efficient
  • You’ll improve your aerobic capacity
  • You’ll keep boredom at bay
  • You don’t need necessarily need any special equipment
  • Great for motivation and keeping the mind active while training

Abdominals

RECTUS ABDOMINIS

This is your “6-pack” muscle. This muscle is essential for maintaining good posture and is primarily responsible for flexing the lumbar spine. It also helps to regulate your breathing and plays a vital role in protecting your internal organs by creating intra-abdominal pressure. The muscle group can be worked in 2 different ways – bringing the chest to the pelvis (as in a “crunch”) or by bringing the pelvis towards the chest (as in a leg raise).

EXTERNAL OBLIQUES

These are the largest of your abdominal muscles. They allow your torso to twist as well as supporting your overall posture, pulling your chest down, and like the rectus abdominis, they help protect your vital organs.

INTERNAL OBLIQUES

These control the twisting and turning movement of the torso on the same side of your body. i.e., when you twist to the right, your right internal oblique and left external oblique both contract at the same time.

TRANSVERSE ABDOMINIS

This is your deepest set of abdominal muscles. It is integral to holding your whole abdominal structure together.