Winnipeg Free Press Newspaper Archives Jul 11 2015, Page 87

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 11, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE D16 intersection D16 pulse SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2015 training basket D O you run? Whether you like to take lackadaisical jogs around the block or you’re a marathoner training for your next race, here is something you need to know: if you run for your body’s greater good, you can take running to a whole new stratosphere of fitness. Here’s the key: stop confining your running to a flat surface. Don’t even make the long slog up your local heartbreak hill. Instead, look for natural terrain with small rolling hillocks that offer short ups and downs taking about one to four minutes to traverse. Look for an area with quick changes in various degrees of incline and decline. You can usually find areas like this in parks or forests. This kind of terrain will develop your fitness in ways you may never have imagined. Consider what this type of running requires, regardless of whether your pace is slow or fast. First, you’ll learn how to stabilize your body mass as you move over the brief hills, because body position differs, depending on the degree and direction of the incline. Your core will get a workout. There’s a more functional kind of balance required, making you more athletic and better protected from falls. A more thorough stretch in your lower body muscles, tendons and joints occurs automatically with the change in incline. Best of all, you’ll burn a lot more calories. According to athletic fitness site LiveStrong, “ Walking on an incline offers multiple benefits whether you exercise to lose weight, improve aerobic capacity or build leg strength.” “ Adding an incline significantly ( increases) the calories you burn during your walk. For example, if you weigh 160 ( pounds) and walk at a 4.0- mph pace on no incline, you will burn approximately 145 calories in 30 minutes. Raise the incline to a 5 per cent grade and you will burn 243 calories in that half hour. Go up to a challenging 10 per cent and burn 345 calories.” But here’s the best part: the article was referring to running on a treadmill! So the plethora of benefits described comes from only one direction: uphill. Yet you gain a lot from the downhill sections of a rolling- hills run, which a treadmill can’t provide. Before detailing the benefits, here’s a caveat: Running downhill, even for very short distances, must first be practised. Injury can result if you don’t first learn how to place your feet and hold your body while running down a shorthill safely. The decline means dealing with the considerable force of gravity, so start slow until you learn your downhill balance while moving over short hills of varying steepness. Tips: keep your feet moving quickly, with shorter steps than those used going uphill. Gravity will make it easier to go faster, but control your speed and learn gradually to go faster in the decline. The extra quickness you gain with practice can make you a much faster runner, while also giving your stabilizing core a terrific workout. If you’ve never done small- hill running, don’t start out expecting to go at the same pace or within the same time frame as your regular flat runs. Rolling- hill running is a lot more work for the muscles, heart and cardiovascular system than merely loping along flat terrain. Stay alert for signs of exhaustion, and stop instantly if you feel tired or if a joint starts hurting. However, once you become good at running, jogging or even just walking over terrain made of small hillocks, the benefits will transfer to all your other activities in ways that will provide impressive improvements in fitness. — Adventure Sports Weekly J ORIE Janzen got into sports nutrition by accident. But after having difficulty finding a dietitian specializing in sports nutrition to interview for one of her nutritional sciences courses at the University of Manitoba, it became a passion. She soon began volunteering to take athletes on grocery shopping trips and giving healthy eating presentations at the Running Room. After getting her degree, Janzen got a diploma in sports nutrition from the International Olympic Committee. Building on her skills, Janzen started consulting for the Canadian Sports Centre Manitoba, where she is now the full- time director of sports dietetics. “ The passion really isn’t just sport, it’s people,” she said. “ Young and old, everyone wants to strive to be better in life.” Janzen says there’s more to life than just food, which is why she also became a certified life coach. “ Whether people are athletes or not, performing on demand is important wherever you are in the workplace.” Janzen works with many Olympic- level athletes and has provided her services to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as well as the Winnipeg Jets and Sport Manitoba. As the founder and former chair of the Manitoba Sport Nutrition Network, she has been able to pay forward some of her knowledge through mentoring dietitians, nutrition students and dietetic interns, among others. “ Someone invested in me, they really gave me a shot when I was coming up,” she said. “ You got to give back. For me, I don’t know everything and I never will. But what I have been given, I want to share.” While not a high- performance athlete herself, Janzen strongly believes maintaining fitness is key in life. “ I’ve kind of used my weaknesses as my strengths to work with people,” she said. “ At the end of the day, you’re human. I wouldn’t say I’m typical in the sports world, but it’s working out.” Favourite workout: I enjoy running, but my knee doesn’t. But I love walking in as much nature as possible. It allows for some private mediation and deep thought. Favourite workout song: If I’m doing more yoga or a cool down, I like Touch the Sky by Hillsongs. It gets you in the right mindset for the day. If it’s a more kick- butt workout, I like pop music. Fitness tip: In terms of nutrition, I tell people to take the time to prepare in advance. If you can plan your nutrition a day in advance, you’re more likely to stick with it. Plan in advance for a better follow through. What’s in your fridge: Regular and Greek yogurt, apples and grapes, corn on the cob, eggs and cheese. Also almonds, chocolate and regular dairy milk, nuts and pumpkin seeds. Guilty pleasure: Red wine and dark chocolate... I can get some decent antioxidants out of both of them. It makes me realize that it’s a treat and it’s all about me at that moment. Got an idea for the Training Basket? Email Scott at scott. billeck@ freepress. mb. ca BY SCOTT BILLECK BY WINA STURGEON THE HILLS ARE CALLING Boost your running fitness by tackling rolling terrain MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jorie Janzen, director of sports dietetics at the Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba, offers nutrition tips to curler Connor Njegovan ( below) at a local Safeway. BOB ANDRES / ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION/ MCT D_ 16_ Jul- 11- 15_ FF_ 01. indd D16 7/ 9/ 15 5: 34: 22 PM