Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0

“…”but I would suspect that plenty of dangers lurked in the water and that early man may have swam more out of necessity – to cross a barrier, for example…

Paul, I’m digressing a bit here as it’s off the topic of fitness… we’re only talking 50-100,000 years ago. They’d have had the same sea creatures then as now and today people swim around the shore in every warm country.

Plus the ocean shoreline is a huge rich often easily harvested food source. I’d be leery in assuming humans living along the coast didn’t swim. What primate swims as well as man? None. Or can swim as babies? Only us.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Fair point. I suppose I was being a little lazy or imprecise with my terminlogy. To be more precise I suppose I should have said that walking and running appear to be far the most natural forms of exercise.

Humans can become pretty adept swimmers – but I would suspect that plenty of dangers lurked in the water and that early man may have swam more out of necessity – to cross a barrier, for example. For the most part I guess they kept close to the shore.

Paul.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

“I do think swimming and cycling are fine for aerobic fitness but are perhaps not the most natural forms of exercise”

There’s something called the “aquatic ape” theory: That humans spent a time in our evolution at or near the ocean, and so developed certain anatomical structures different than other primates. Fat bonded to skin for insulation in water (like whales, unlike monkeys), hair growth direction streamlined for swimming, and more.

Human babies swim and know how to hold their breath, they can float with their body fat, and other primates at this age can do none of this.

This is a controversial theory, not mainstream, but the prevailing theory indicates we spent time by the ocean eating an Omega-3 fatty acid rich diet high in DHA, which allowed us to develop such powerful brains… whether we were consummate swimmers or not.

So I’d have to disagree with you about swimming (although I don’t like cycling, personally)!

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Thanks for your input: I welcome your views.

I haven’t read Bill Galloways book. It sounds plausible.

My objective is to be healthy, first and foremost: to be able to enjoy life and whatever activity I care to indulge in. I won’t deny that I wouldn’t mind looking a little more svelte and toned – but I think that will come when I find the right mix. I do strongly believe that a good diet is a vital foundation.

I enjoy being able to run, but its not the be all and end all for me. I came across an article some while back where someone was training to be able to run a mile in 5 minutes. Their rationale was that this could be achieved by short, but intensive training sessions – based, I think from memory on, on sets of 200m sprints. I suspect if you could attain a fitness level where you were capable of running 1 five minute mile a day that might be all the running you ever needed to do. My objective is more modest, to be a able to run a mile in 6 minutes, 10k in 45 minutes and a half marathon in 1.45. I wouldn’t see myself regularly running distances beyond 10k.

With regard to weight bearing exercises, I was in part thinking aloud. I do think swimming and cycling are fine for aerobic fitness but are perhaps not the most natural forms of exercise. They can though add a little variety to the mix,a nd represent a new challenge.

Mike – I do believe in varying exercise to make things more interesting and in order to avoid repetitive movement injuries. I try to listen to my body: I have had one cold in the past 3 years and, touch wood, haven’t really had in other injuries at all. Hopefully that isn’t tempting fate. what has surprised me is that my legs appear to be relatively weak in comparison to the rest of my body – that may be due to over use.

Paul.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Back when I used to do some long distant running, I found it awesome. Instead of upping the daily training mileage forever, he would recommend endurance athletes have a long (and increasingly so if training for an event until you were actually running about 10% further distance than the event itself) run/walk session every 2 weeks, with a variety of shorter runs in the interim including, I believe, either a fast or an interval or fartlek run every other week as well.

Plus rest days. Definitely those.

He felt this allowed an athlete to be as well equipped to cover long distances as those building up to the 10 miles a day on average, 70 miles a week, but with less overall mileage. So a marathoner would actually only build up to maybe 40-45 miles tops, but be as well conditioned due to the long run/walks.

I’m not saying you should follow Galloway’s approach, but just throwing it out there so you know there’s more than one way to skin a cat as it were. Galloway believes in “specificity” in training, whatever you’re training for, and I can’t argue with that.

I know your question about weight bearing exercise was directed at Mike not myself, and that’s as it should be. He’s the expert here and I’m more or less passing info on from experts I haven’t tested myself, at least in my next thought.

But I was reading an article on Military.com about how they recommend Navy SEAL recruits prepare themselves for the rigours of the 6-month BUD/S training. For what it’s worth, people who swim a lot ace that part of the course, but find they get shin splints and so forth when doing lots of running and often can’t finish the course. Likewise, weight lifters don’t do well with the running and often drop out of the course, and runners with the swimming and water work, etc.

I know neither of our goals is to be a SEAL Commando, but it seems to me there’s gotta be some body adaptation going on with the weight bearing exercise and I have to imagine that it’s good to have some in your regimen.

Even calisthenics (bodyweight exercises) are “weight bearing”. The SEAL article recommended lots of that prior to the course, because it’s how they train: light, fast, powerful.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Thanks for your response. It gives me feel for the level of intensity you are referring to.

I am actually finding it quite fun doing shorter, faster runs – there’s a sense of freedom to not being tied down to a set distance or time. – and it actually feels quite good running a little quicker. I am planning on doing 1 longer run a week, trying to cover the distance in a shorter period of time – with a view to getting the long run down 45 minutes. By long, I mean about 7 miles. Otherwise I shall mix and match with quicker miles, interval runs and a few 30 minute slower paced runs.

Do you think it important that you include some weight bearing exercise – like running, walking, etc, for strengthening the skeleton? as opposed to an over emphashis on activities like cycling, swimming, etc.

Paul.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0