SCHEDULE RECOVERY TIME
You're not slacking off; you're recovering. Take two days off each week, an easy week every month, and a month of active rest—like surfing or riding a cruiser—per year.
CROSS-TRAIN WITH THE RIGHT SPORT
RUNNERS: Cycling maintains leg strength and cardio fitness while giving you a break from impact on your joints.
CYCLISTS: Running and rowing develop strength in the torso, quads, and glutes.
ROCK CLIMBERS: Calisthenics use body-weight resistance to build strength without adding bulk.
SWIMMERS: Rowing builds key strength in the shoulders, arms, legs, and torso.
KAYAKERS: Swimming works the arms, shoulders, and torso, improving power and range of motion.
MIX IT UP
"Strength and endurance are of equal importance, so if you only have limited time, do a little of both." —MARK ALLEN, six-time Kona Ironman champ
YOU NEED MORE THAN CALCIUM
Bones weaken if you do only low-impact activities. Strengthen your skeleton by mixing in high-impact workouts like running, jumping rope, or playing ball sports.
WORK YOUR CORE
A weak trunk can cause chronic back pain and other torso problems. The prevention: crunches and planks (brace yourself on forearms and toes, body rigid like a plank).
BUILD FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH
"When you sit down on an exercise machine, with your back against a chair, you tend to shut down the rest of your body," warns LAIRD HAMILTON. "You want strength that you can actually control and apply." It's called functional strength, and it dictates the way you should lift weights. Here's our complete workout. Do Group 1 once a week. Two days later, do Group 2. Concentrate on smooth, controlled lifts throughout. For descriptions of each exercise, go to outsideonline.com/strength.
GROUP 1 (10–12 reps)
(a) Dumbbell flies lying on a stability ball
(b) Barbell squats
(c) Wide-grip pull-ups
(d) Medicine-ball chops
(e) Standing dumbbell pullovers
(f) Dumbbell lunges
(g) Standing bent-over rows with hand on
a stability ball
(h) Upright barbell rows
GROUP 2 (25 reps)
(a) Stability-ball push-ups
(b) Stability-ball crunches
DON'T OVERDO IT
Unless you're winning prize money, allow six months between marathons or Ironman triathlons.
LISTEN TO YOUR HEART
It will help you avoid overtraining during intervals. Use a two-to-one work-to-recovery ratio. Let's say your intervals last two minutes each. After the first one, recover for one minute and check your heart rate. The first time your heart rate fails to drop to this number on subsequent intervals, you're done.
STRETCHING IS NO JOKE
OK, the scorpion pose is a joke. But daily yoga or stretching improves flexibility and muscle endurance.
FROM THE VAULT The Life & Times of Outside
On Second Thought ...
Wow. As much as the exceedingly wise counsel here makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, we've also spouted some really bad health-and-fitness advice over the years. For example, the time we tendered this moronic little gem: "Exercising above 85 percent of your maximum heart rate yields little or no additional cardiovascular benefit" (7/86). D'oh! But wait, it gets much, much worse. Somewhere among the six cigarette ads in our June '83 Best of Summer issue, you'll find this: "Tanning shouldn't inspire guilt.... Relax. Enjoy the heat. You're going to look great." But don't forget your "tanning product": "Choose a label showing someone with a tan you especially like, then buy that one." OK! And those strange new "SPF" numbers on some bottles? "Some mathematically inclined people pay attention to them." But in our defense, way back in the fall of '79, we had the good sense to hold up for ridicule Chicago physician Allan Charles, who opined that jogging could make a woman's insides fall out. "Their pelvic muscles are too weak," said the good doctor. "They're perforated by the vagina."
