PLYOMETRICS

Plyometric jumping can take your running training to a new higher level but you have to be ready.

This means:

• being able to squat at least half your body weight and ideally more than just half
• you are able to run a 10K, without struggling too much.

Plyometrics is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in sports. Plyometric movements, in which a muscle is loaded and then contracted in rapid sequence, use the strength, elasticity and innervation of muscle and surrounding tissues to jump higher, run faster, throw farther, or hit harder, depending on the desired training goal. Plyometrics is used to increase the speed or force of muscular contractions, providing explosiveness for a variety of sport-specific activities.

The American Council on Exercise has some sound, cautious advice about plyometrics.

Donald Chu has some excellent detail on how to improve your running performance by adding plyometrics to your training.

Soy and Osteoporosis Prevention: What’s the Connection?

The Johns Hopkins Health Alerts had an interesting piece Soy and Osteoporosis - does Soy help aleviate Osteoporosis ?

The risk of developing osteoporosis increases as we grow older. Exercise, proper nutrition, and – when appropriate – medication can all help to prevent osteoporosis. But what about isoflavones?

To cut to the chase the answer is NO. The isoflavones in Soy do not help alleviate Osteoporosis. As you might have read in other blogs I'll take supplements which have a good chance of working but soy can be written off.

Original research at American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Runners Knees ? They hurt much of the time ?

Safety and efficacy of undenatured type II collagen in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee: a clinical trial



Right now I limit myself to running three times a week only so that I don't totally wreck my knees. It's a delicate balance as I hate painful knees but I want to run a 10K in less than an hour during 2010.

I'm experimenting with UC-II to see if it does any good!

The research reports say that it's more effective than glucosamine and chondroitin. I've tried both of these and they have no effect on my knees so I'm hoping that UC-II is better.

Currently, glucosamine and chondroitin are the two most commonly used nutraceuticals in humans as well as in animals to alleviate pain associated with arthritis (6). However, recent randomized controlled trials and meta-analysis of these supplements have shown only small-to-moderate symptomatic efficacy in human OA (7).

An emerging novel nutraceutical ingredient known as UC-II has received considerable attention in the treatment of OA. UC-II is a novel undenatured type II collagen derived from chicken sternum cartilage.