2 Oceans Preparations

The 2 Oceans is right around the corner and it is vital to prepare correctly for sufficient energy supply and minimal lactate accumelation (When your body makes lactic acid, it splits into lactate ion (lactate) and hydrogen ion. Hydrogen ion is the acid in lactic acid. It interferes with electrical signals in your muscles and nerves, slows energy reactions, and impairs muscle contractions. The burn you feel in intense exercise is caused by hydrogen ion buildup.)

Thus said, our body obtains energy from glygen stores within the muscles (we eat glucose and we store it in glycogen stores, either in the muscles or the liver).
When we exercise for long periods of time, often our glycogen stores in our muscles become low and the majority of our energy is gained from liver glycogen and then our fat stores through a process called lipolysis.

Lipolysis is a slow process and therefore we cannot rely to much on those stores and therefore need to restore our glycogen stores to their full potential to allow faster muscle reaction times.

From http://www.marathontraining.com/marathon/m_longr.html i gained simple helpful ways to increase your potential on the running day.

1. Get atleast 8 hours sleep the night before
2. Rest fully two days before the run or if you do want to go for a run, it must be a light run.
3. Hydrate- drinking water only when you are thirsty (too much water can also be fatal). A good combination drink between water and juice is energade or powerade.
4. Eat foods with low fat and high in good carbohydrates. Such as pastas.
5. Stretch
6. Wear comfortable, non-chaffing clothes, often vasoline would help prevent me from chaffing in my arm crease and between my legs. PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE!!!
7. Stay loose by shaking out your arms and shoulders regularly
8. Maintain a regular pace
9. Use imagery, mental rehearsal/visualization, and self-talk to develop mental toughness.
10. Keep your head up, never stop, ALWAYS keep moving forward!

Hope this was a little helpful :)
GOODLUCK AND MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

Speed and agility

My goal this week is to expand my knowledge further with speed and agility training, especially involving a rugby player.



This is what I have come up with- HOPE YOU FIND IT INTERESTING! :-)

Frederick Claro stated that a fast running speed would involve sprinting a distance in the shortest time possible.

Agility is the ability to rapidly change directions without the loss of speed, balance, or body control (Craig BW (2004) what is the scientific basis of speed and agility. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 26(3), 13-14.).



Of course, everyone is an individual and therefore for me, it is my challenge to increase your sprinting speed as well as combine your agility skills in order to create the best outcome individually possible within your sporting field.
The human body is fascinating containing 3 types of muscle tissue. I gathered good explanations for this discussion from: http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/muscle-and-muscle-fibers.html.

The first being Cardiac Muscle Tissue- It is striated and forms the bulk of the Heart muscle. It is involuntary, meaning the muscle contracts unconsciously.

The second type is smooth muscle tissue- Smooth muscle tissue is located in the walls of hollow structures such as blood vessels, the stomach, intestines, and the bladder. Smooth muscle fibers are usually involuntary, and they are non-striated. Smooth muscle tissue, like skeletal and cardiac muscle tissue, can undergo hypertrophy (growth).

The last muscle type and the one I will discuss further is skeletal muscle. “Skeletal muscle tissue is attached to our bones. It is striated; that is, the fibers (cells) contain alternating light and dark bands (striations) that are perpendicular to the long axes of the fibers. Skeletal muscle tissue can be made to contract or relax voluntary (consciously).

All skeletal muscle fibers are not alike in structure or function. For example, skeletal muscle fibers vary in colour depending on their content of Myoglobin (Myoglobin is found in muscle tissue, where it binds oxygen, helping to provide extra oxygen to release energy to power muscular contractions.) Skeletal muscle fibers contract with different velocities, depending on their ability to split Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). Faster contracting fibers have greater ability to split ATP. In addition, skeletal muscle fibers vary with respect to the metabolic processes they use to generate ATP. They also differ in terms of the onset of fatigue. On the basis of various structural and functional characteristics, skeletal muscle fibers are classified into three types: Type I fibers, Type II B fibers and type II A fibers.”

Characteristics of Different Muscle Fibers Fibre Type Type I fibers Type II A fibers Type II B Type fibers Contraction time Slow Fast Very Fast Size of motor neuron Small Large Very Large Resistance to fatigue High Intermediate Low Activity Used for Aerobic Long term anaerobic Short term anaerobic Force production Low High Very High Mitochondrial density High High Low Capillary density High Intermediate Low Oxidative capacity High High Low Glycolytic capacity Low Low High Major storage fuel Triglycerides Glycogen Creatine Phosphate. Metabolic System Used Aerobic System Anaerobic-oxidative System Anaerobic: ATP-PC System

So from the above knowledge, it is of no surprise that the primary muscle fibres we want to focus on is the fast-twitch fibres, type II A and type II B. Predominantly focusing on Type II B for sprinting and agility, because the contraction time is very fast and there is a predominant ATP-PC system used for fast energy supply.

Concerning the rugby aspects of things, it is of course the most obvious that the wing gains the greatest amount of ground over a short period of time. The least expected to achieve this goal would be the hooker. However the forwards have a big task of constantly clearing the ruck and moving from a squatted position or the floor to a standing position moving through forward momentum during the running game.

Most of us all know the basic necessary components for all the players a rugby team.

But the vast differences in weight, height, muscle fibre type and lastly mobility can be challenges to their fitness goals.

Expanding on the above thought, here are a few speed and agility exercises: