Branching Out From Sports Specialization

The negative effects of pushing kids to specialize in a specific sport too early are becoming more apparent, from frequent injuries to boredom to stress. Allowing kids to explore a variety of sports when they’re young helps them discover their strengths and gives them the opportunity to make a wider circle of friends.

Adults can also reap the rewards of multi-sport participation. Engaging in various sports helps you maintain motivation and prevents burnout, thereby keeping your passion for active living strong.

Whole-Body Fitness

Even if you have no intention of abandoning training for your sports specialization, doing something else on off days challenges your body in new ways and uses different muscle groups. The result is greater full-body fitness, better flexibility, and increased agility.

Better Mental Outlook and Improved Neuroplasticity

Participating in multiple sports can benefit your mental health. Challenging yourself in new ways builds a sense of mastery and accomplishment while also stimulating the brain’s neuroplasticity. This improves your brain’s ability to respond to new inputs. When you learn a new sport, you cause your brain to grow in areas relevant to the new skills required.

Fewer Injuries

Sports specialization can cause overuse injuries. By diversifying your sports participation, you reduce the risk of injury by allowing some muscles and joints to rest and recover while you use other muscle groups. Naturally this depends on the sports being played, but including other forms of training such as yoga or Pilates for example can do wonders for your core and for strengthening smaller muscles that we usually neglect working.

Wider Social Connections

Engaging in different sports helps you meet new people and forge relationships within different communities. As an adult, it’s an excellent way to stay socially engaged and expand your network.

Tips for Multi-Sport Success

To make the most of your multi-sport journey, consider some of these practical tips.

Set Realistic Goals

Identify your strengths and objectives for each sport you want to try. Set realistic goals and stick to them. They may change or evolve as you progress, and that’s ok. Every so often reevaluate your goals and set new ones.

Have the Right Equipment for Any Sport

If you can, have the right equipment for the sport you want to try. For example, make sure you have the must-have items for mountain biking to improve your leg strength or the proper shoes for indoor soccer where you can build endurance.

Manage Your Time Wisely

Plan your schedule to ensure you can balance your work, social life, and sports activities effectively. Multiple sports can take up a lot of your time, so try to create a schedule that works for you.

Give Yourself a Break

While you want to commit to whichever sports you choose, sometimes you need a break. Allow your body to recover, and don’t hesitate to take rest days to decrease the risk of injury.

Embracing a Multi-Sport Lifestyle

Adulting is stressful, but embracing a multi-sport lifestyle can unlock numerous physical, mental, and social benefits. Now that you understand the benefits of multiple sports for adults, it’s time to embark on your own multi-sport journey.

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And that is why it matters what you wear on your feet when you’re lifting weights, more so when performing compound exercises like Deadlifts or Olympic lifts.

In this article, we explore the workout shoe market to bring you the top 5 weightlifting shoes available right now. 

What To Look For in a Weightlifting Shoe

Grip

Look for a shoe that provides a lot of floor gripability in the sole. You don’t want any lateral movement of the shoe when you’re lifting heavy as this could cause injury and impaired performance.

Balanced Cushioning

You need a balance between comfort and support in your weightlifting shoe. Too much cushioning will compromise the secure, solid base that the shoe is meant to provide. You should especially avoid excess cushioning in the heel.

Heel Height

Some weight lifting shoes have elevated heels that are designed to provide better bodily alignment when squatting. The amount of heel height really comes down to a matter of personal preference. However the ideal weightlifting shoe height is between 0.5 and 1.2 inches.

5 Best Weightlifting Shoes

Adidas Men’s Powerlift 3.1 CrossTrainer

The Adidas Men’s Powerlift 3.1 Crosstrainer excels in its provision of a wide sole to ensure maximum grip. The provision of a midfoot strap ensures that you are securely locked in to make for a very rigid, secure shoe. There is also extra ankle support and reinforcement through the midfoot area. The high density die cut wedge allows for an ergonomically advanced design and fit. 

The Adidas Men’s Powerlift 3.1 Crosstrainer is a very breathable, comfortable shoe. It features an air mesh tongue, collar and lining. Finally, the Adiwear outsole provides a high level of style and durability.

Nike Metcon 5

There are two big weightlifting exercises by which you can judge a shoe; the squat and the deadlift. When put to the test on those two compound moves, the Nike Metcon 5 for weightlifting comes through with flying colors. An ongoing challenge with weightlifting shoes has been that squats require a higher heel than deadlifts. The Nike Metcon 5 solves this dilemma with a brilliant but simple innovation – removable heel inserts!

The Metcon 5 has reworked the outer design over its previous version to provide greater grip on the floor. This is another extremely breathable shoe. It is a great choice both for pure weightlifters and those who train crossfit style.

Inov-8 Men’s Fastlift 325 CrossTrainer

Inov-8 claims that the Fastlift 325 is the lightest dedicated weightlifting that exists. Combining features of general fitness and weightlifting shoes, it is designed for CrossFit trainers who mix up such weightlifting moves as snatches with dynamic moves like box jumps. The body of the shoe is a mix of mesh and synthetic material. This makes it both breathable and light. 

The Inov-8 Fastlift 325 has a Meta-Flex sole, which provides a solid groove in the sole from side to side. This enhances flexibility for plyometric exercises. However, the shoe is a little light on providing a super firm hold on the floor. This means that it is not the ideal choice if you are a dedicated heavy weight lifter. 

The Fastlift 325 has a raised heel by way of TPU plastic tubes. A single metatarsal strap across the midfoot ensures solid lockdown. 

Adidas Men’s Leisttung.16 II CrossTrainer

The Adidas Men’s Leisttung.16 II CrossTrainer is a strong, secure and visually appealing cross training shoe. The wide platform ensures a secure hold on the floor while the heel lift puts you in a better ergonomic position for squatting, with the heel being one inch higher than the heel. The micro-adjusting Boa closure keeps your feet and ankles securely locked in. This shoe has a synthetic woven upper and a TPU heel. 

NoBull Men’s Training Shoe

The NoBull Men’s Training Shoe is a no frills piece of kit for serious weightlifters. This shoe provides you with an excellent mix of light weight, breathability, secure hold and flexibility. The upper of this shoe is made in a one piece trademarked Superfabric. High carbon lateral and medial guards ensure durability and strength for those one rep max workouts. 

The NoBull Men’s Training Shoe has been created for use in both an outdoor and an indoor training environment. That means you can go directly from squats to a run around the block with no footwear change!

Weightlifting shoes

A weightlifting shoe is more than a gym fashion accessory. It is rather, an essential requirement for anyone who is serious about what they do in the gym. For pure weightlifters our top shoe is the Adidas Men’s Powerlift 3.1, whereas for Crossfitters our recommended shoe is the Inov-8 Fastlift 325 CrossTrainer.

Photo credits:

• Anastase Maragos
• Alora Griffiths
• Victor Freitas
• Sam Sabourin

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1. Extend Your Mileage

The first thing you can do to get more of a workout from your commute is to simply extend the miles you ride each day between home and work. Where you used to go straight, make a turn and go explore some new road.

The result is that you can turn what would have been a 20-minute ride – just enough time to get warmed up – into something much bigger. You can go for long, slower rides to recover and build endurance, or just add in enough mileage to practice some intervals. If you’re headed out for a ride longer than about 15 miles, just make sure you bring some snacks and liquids, to stay hydrated, along with you.

Depending on where you live, you may also be able to find some less busy roads than the ones you normally ride to work. That’s a major advantage, since you don’t want to be worrying about cars passing at high speed while you’re focusing on the workouts we’re about to cover.

2. Increase Your Cadence

One of the simplest ways you can build both bike fitness and endurance is to simply increase your cadence – your rate of pedaling. Moving your feet faster teaches your legs to move more quickly, which works on a very different set of muscle fibers compared to mashing down on the pedals. Even better, pedaling quickly at a lighter resistance will help you ride for more miles without wearing down your leg muscles.

What constitutes high cadence? Generally, riding above 90 RPM is considered high. But, if you’re going to practice high cadence intervals, aim for a pedaling rate of more than 105 RPM. You can monitor your cadence with a simple device that attaches to your pedal. High cadence intervals are a great way to cap off a warmup before you get into some more difficult riding.

3. Add Resistance

Adding resistance is like the opposite of riding at high cadence. Rather than take gears off, you’ll put them on so that you really are mashing down on the pedals with each stroke. This type of riding works out your glutes and quads, with an emphasis on building strength more than endurance. Make sure that you focus both on pushing down on the pedals and pulling them back up to get the most out of this workout.

It’s still important to think about cadence when riding with high resistance, too. If your pedaling speed drops below 60 RPM, you can actually damage your knee joints by putting too much pressure on them. This is especially important for older cyclists. If you find that you can’t sustain at least a pedaling rate of 60 RPM, ease up on the gears a little bit.

4. Head for the Hills

If you live in an area with hills, it’s easy to add a workout into your bike commute. In the simplest sense, you can increase your overall riding fitness, lose weight, and build muscle mass simply by tacking hilly miles onto your commute rather than flat miles. The hillier the route you can create, the better.

If you’ve only got one hill within a reasonable distance of your home or office, don’t worry. Adding hill sprint repeats into your workout is a great way to build strength. The idea is simple – just ride up the hill as hard as you can, glide back down, and then do it all again. Start out with just a few repeats when you’re first adding hills into your bike commute, and gradually add additional laps up the hill as you get stronger.

5. Add Tempo Intervals

Tempo intervals are the bread and butter of bike training. They demand endurance, strength, and mental persistence. “Tempo” could mean different things to different people, but in general it’s the fastest pace you could keep up for 30 minutes when going all-out on the bike. Since there’s a 30-minute cap on how long you can ride like this, it’s not very time consuming to add these intervals into your bike commute.

In general, you’ll want to find an open stretch of relatively flat road for this type of interval workout. Make sure you give yourself plenty of rest between reps as well – as much as half the time of each interval should be spent biking easy. If you’re really tight on time, you can also turn tempo intervals into fartleks. With fartleks, simply ride as hard as you can for as far as you feel, then rest and do it again.

In the end

Bike commuting to work or school provides ample opportunity for getting in a good workout. With the right commuter bike, you can carry your stuff, sprint up hills, and practice riding at tempo pace for extended periods. Best of all, these workouts don’t add much time to your commute and take advantage of the fact that you’re already on your bike. So, try out these add-on workouts the next time you’re riding to work to transform your bike commute into training, just be sure that you have access to a shower at work!

Author bio:

Daniel Atlas is the editor at Rydoze. He loves the great outdoors and wilderness. You’ll find him writing about biking, environment and outdoor world all the time.

Photo credits:

• Danil Sorokin
• Victor Xok
• Max Bender
• Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

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What Studies Show about Sleep Deprivation

There is plenty of research to examine the effects of serious sleep deprivation on physical and mental performance. The number of studies on how the brain and body are affected by not sleeping for a day or two in a row is substantial. It’s a well-established fact that you simply won’t be able to perform at your best or even act like your normal self after some intense sleep deprivation.

However, the studies are less numerous when it comes to figuring out how minor sleep deprivation affects strenuous physical activities like running. Studies have been done, but they are not as detailed as we would like for the purpose of this discussion. What they have shown, however, is that losing a few hours of sleep for a few days in a row probably won’t have a serious effect on your running capabilities. Your body should still supply the same amounts of oxygen and will be able to perform physiologically at the same level for a while.

Your body may not be completely onboard with the idea, giving you some struggles here and there, but it can manage with running after a few days of poor sleep. Your body will adjust eventually to less sleep and continued running activities, but it may not be an easy adjustment period. It’s possible that you may suffer from things like hair loss, constipation, fatigue and other health issues that can get in the way of your running.

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

We have all heard the medical advice that people need 7-9 hours of sleep each night, but you have to realize that different people need different amounts of sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, that 7-9 hours holds true still for people aged 26-64, with older adults needing slightly less (7-8) and anyone younger than 26 needing more.

As you may notice, there is a range with these figures. Some people will need nine hours of sleep to feel rested and to perform at their best. Others can get away with seven hours of sleep a night and not need more than that for much of their life. How much sleep you need to be at your best will depend on a variety of factors, such as your health, weight, level of physical activity, stress levels and more.

Ultimately, you will need to decide for yourself how much sleep works for you. Your doctor can give you some recommendations, but you’re probably going to fall somewhere within the 7-9 range. Like we said before, you can get away with less sleep for a short while, but that will take its toll, both on your health and on your running. Yes, your body may adjust over time if you constantly try to get by on less than seven hours of sleep, but your running performance is going to be hampered, and you won’t be able to reach your full potential.

If you feel like you could be doing better and running longer and not getting as worn out after your runs, then you may want to examine your sleep schedule. It can be worth it to get a bit more sleep in order to keep your body operating at peak performance and to ensure that your running isn’t draining too much of your energy.

Dealing with Sleep Deprivation in Your Running

There will likely be instances where you simply don’t have time to get enough sleep and still want to do your regular running. You’ll have to know how to cope with the stress you are putting on your body. One way to help alleviate some of that strain is to use the proper running equipment, and sites like Jogging Addiction and others offer some great resources to help you find suitable equipment that makes running much easier.

You may also need to adjust your nutrition to deal with the new challenges your body is facing. Talk to your doctor or dietitian about what changes may help. You will likely be advised to increase your carbohydrate intake to give your body more long-term energy.

You will also likely have to deal with higher levels of stress, due to an increased production of cortisol, which is the stress hormone. Coping activities like spa treatments, meditation, yoga and other relaxation methods can help with this issue.

We want to leave you with this thought about how sleep deprivation affects your running performance: You probably know if you are asking too much of your body and if you are not getting enough sleep. Poor lifestyle habits will affect your body’s overall performance and long-term health, so if you feel you can’t make changes to your sleep schedule or your running regimen, then talk with your doctor about what else you can do.

Author bio:

Sofia Alves is an avid runner, conveyor of messages, sunshine addict. Guided by the belief that health is a choice, she recently started sharing her knowledge as a contributing writer at Jogging Addiction. In her free time, you can usually find her sharing stories with friends over a glass of dry wine and a plate of her favorite pesto spaghetti.

Photos by:

• Filip Mroz on Unsplash
• Zoltan Tasi 
• Hutomo Abrianto 
• Adam Grabek 

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So in this article I shall try to give a quick overview and clarification of what exactly calisthenics or body weight training is, as simply as possible, and what sort of exercises are used, so if you ever encounter someone doing it, you will know. Or if you want to give them a try you will have some info to get you started

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Body weight training and calisthenics are pretty much the same thing. There are some basic exercises that are utilized and they consist primarily of using your body weight and gravity instead of weights to train with. Weight can be added to them, but the principle is to get stronger at those exercises first before adding weight to them.

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Naturally when they become too easy with just your body weight you may want to add some weight. But remember, increasing and changing the angles can also make them more challenging, I will demonstrate with an example later.

So some of the basic and most important exercises are:

• Push ups
• Dips
• Squats
• Lunges
• Pistol squats
• Pull ups
• Levers
• L sits
• Hand stands
• A push ups
• Dish hold

Most of these exercises can be extended and have multiple variations depending on your fitness level and what you want to target, but don’t worry, all that will come later as you progress. Just start with the basics initially.

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A great thing about this type of training is that it really works your core and thus you start to develop much more overall strength. But you will also find that if you want to progress and do the more advanced exercises and holds, you will need to specifically train your core as well. Go check out gymnasts, martial artists, or even ballet dancers and their training routines and you will see how much body weight and core training they do, and they are some of the strongest people around.

So that is basically it, pretty simple huh? To give you a quick example on how to increase the angles. Take a push up. You are horizontal and parallel to the ground right. You can increase the angle and do A push ups to work more of your shoulders, and then increase the angle even more till you are perpendicular to the floor and perform hand stand push ups.

If you haven’t tried these yet, I can tell you, they are challenging and require a lot of practice and dedication to master the balance as well as the strength to push up.

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Pardon my bendy handstand push ups at the end :p I was a bit tired by the time I started them, so please remember to keep your whole body straight when doing any handstands.

Music by:

Kerstell – Fragments

Thanks to:

Thanks to Dr Reza Parker for helping me shoot the calisthenics training and getting all the angles and shots that I wanted

Thanks also to Maryam and Siddeeqah for their help :p

To use some of these images checkout unsplash!

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There are so many arguments about what are the best foods to eat before and after a workout, and there are so many people with a set idea of eating or drinking certain things after working out with no room to change or try anything different. You don’t have to change everything you’re doing, if it currently works then carry on, but do not be afraid to try something different and experiment.

Here we will have a look at the different foods and drinks that you can consume before and after a workout and what could work best.

We must also remember that your specific goal, be it muscle building or weight loss, as well as YOUR own body type and weight will determine what you eat and more importantly HOW MUCH of each macro-nutrient you eat, not only for your pre and post workout meals, but also for every single meal you eat throughout the day.

Pre workout Nutrition

Let’s start with pre workout nutrition. When you weight train you exert a lot of energy, and thus your body will need energy, so do not be scared to eat some carbohydrates before training, even when dieting down.

Photo credit: Your House Fitness 

There are 2 types of pre workout meals, depending on the time of day you train. These are:

1. Your first meal of the day, i.e. breakfast. So if you workout first thing in the morning this will act as your ‘breakfast’ pre workout meal.
2. If you train in the afternoon or evening, then the meal you eat directly prior to your training will be your ‘during the day’ pre workout meal.

For both options, the best is to have a balanced meal containing protein, some complex carbohydrates as well as some fat about an hour or an hour and a half before you workout. You do not want to have too big of a meal and anything too heavy which will cause your stomach discomfort while you exercise.

You could alternatively have a protein shake, but the reason I wouldn’t recommend taking a shake or any liquid form of food before working out is so that you can keep fuller throughout your training. I have experimented with both and tend to become very hungry during my workout if I have a protein shake (even with some carbohydrates) and this can sometimes affect my energy and strength levels.

BUT on the other hand there are many people who would rather not eat anything before their workout as they become uneasy and their stomach does not handle the food well while they are training. If this is you, don’t worry, maybe try a protein shake or some form of liquid shake and see if you can manage that to start off with.

For the first option, the breakfast pre workout meal, here is an example of a meal you could have:

• 2 slices whole-wheat toast/Bowl of oats
• 1 banana
• Small protein Shake/1 Tsp of peanut butter

This is a great combination of protein, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and fat to get you started for the day and get you going for your early morning workout.

For the second option, the during the day pre workout meal, we will assume you would have eaten at least one or two other meals already throughout the day. So in an effort to not complicate things, an example of a simple meal could be:

• 1 Apple
• A portion of chick peas/butter beans
• A portion of rice/Sweet potatoes/Cous cous

Post workout Nutrition

After a strenuous and intense exercise session, your body (and muscles) needs nutrients and amino acids to help them repair and recover, so the sooner you feed your muscles after training the better.

For post workout, I recommend a liquid meal FIRST (straight after your gym session). The reason being the liquid will digest quicker than a full meal, and you want to get the nutrients to your muscles as quick as possible to start the recovery and growth process. Then about an hour and a half to two hours after your liquid meal, you can eat a whole food meal consisting of protein and carbohydrates.

So lets start with the liquid meal. The easiest option is to take a protein shake. Mix some whey protein with some water or even better with some milk. To this you can also add some simple carbohydrates, such as apple juice or just plain glucose. There are many studies showing that taking in a simple carbohydrate source will ‘spike’ your insulin, driving more nutrients into your muscles. But honestly I believe you can use almost any carb source, even a low gi source like oats. There is also a few studies showing that, by consuming your protein first, then after a few minutes, taking in your carbohydrates, will elevate your growth hormone levels. Something to think about.

Experimenting

I have experimented with a few things regarding a post workout meal. I wanted to see if I would experience any different or beneficial results by consuming different things.

I tried each of these for a few months:

1. Whey protein with glucose

Versus

2. Whey protein with oats

I never saw or felt much of a difference, thus the reason I stated you can use almost any carb source.

I then tried this:

1. Whey protein

Versus

2. Plain organic full cream milk  (about 500 – 800 ml)

Versus

3. Whole food meal (Rice/Potatoes and Chicken/Fish)

With this, I really wanted to see if the benefits of this ‘post workout whey shake’ would over power drinking just plain milk or eating a normal whole food meal after a workout. Again I never saw or felt much of a difference.

The one problem with marketing nowadays is that many people have been bombarded (by supplement companies) with the idea that after training the ONLY thing you MUST consume is a protein shake.

Has it ever happened that you came home after gym, and forgot you had run out of whey protein? With all hell braking loose, you jumped in your car and raced to the nearest pharmacy to pick up some whey protein in order to have your ‘post workout shake’ in time, so you do not miss that perfect ‘window of opportunity.’

The Conclusion

By all means if you can get your hands on some rice/pea protein, it’s a good thing to have post workout as it does contain all the branch chain amino acids you need as well as glutamine to help you recover. But if not or if your whey suddenly finishes, do not worry so much and run around screaming, just blend your own smoothie with fruit and peanut butter (you can use soya milk or almond milk with it) OR alternatively just eat a whole food meal.

After training, your muscles have been severely strained and broken down so they will absorb a lot of what you feed them, even if you think it’s going to take ages to digest. Too often people tend to over complicate things. Keep things simple.

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