Sam
hey there, i am a few years away from a police exam, the physical looks a bit daunting but i am watching what i eat and running every day, my question concerns strength training. i am looking for the best, cost effective (As i am tight on cash, woes of college life) and most readily available (i.e. found at Wal-mart or amazon.com would be ideal) strength training program for women, be it free weights, muscle confusion or resistance bands, any info or tips would be great,
thanks in advance!!!
I need to be able to double my number of push ups, i have a good year and a half before i am eligible so i should be good on time (i hope :-P)
Answer
I suggest to you that strength training should be a life-long activity for you. Here are a few reasons:
It increases bone density and thus helps avoid osteoporosis.
As a woman it can provide you with much more strength then you probably realize. There are many myths about women strength training: It wonât help much, or if it does you will get masculine looking muscles. Both of these ideas are wrong. It is difficult for woman to develop much muscular size because you body doesnât produce have much testosterone. As far as strength, you can literally double it!
As a woman in law enforcement, strength training could make the difference in your ability to save a life -- yours or another!
As far as training goes, you should be thinking of using free weights and doing mainly compound exercises. These are exercises that use two or more joints. E.g. Squat, dead lift, bent rowing, etc. Whereas isolation exercises use just a single joint such as leg extension, arm curl, etc.
Compound movements are superior to isolation movements because compound gives the fastest strength improvement, has the best carry-over benefit to athletics, and exercises many muscles at the same time, so they are time efficient.
Strength training is based on progressively overloading the body. Start light, then over time make small and regular increases in resistance / difficulty of movements. This triggers adaptive mechanisms in your body and you improve.
The technical websites are now calling the idea of muscle confusion a myth. I've never had any benefit from it. Resistance bands are too limited to be the main part of any strength training program and can safely be skipped.
There are two websites that would be a good places to start.
Take some time to explore Kristaâs site. It has a very good approach to strength training. You will see a section on improving push-ups and meeting other PT requirements. Donât let the photo on the opening page of husky looking girl scare you, the author strength trains and you will see on other pages, has an attractive physique. http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displaysection.php?sid=3
For demonstration of many types of exercise see: http://exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
For books, I recommend the publisher Human Kinetics because their authors, generally have medical education, are grounded in research and practice, and their materials are for the most part peer-reviewed. http://www.humankinetics.com/ I used the search terms âwomen strengthâ and found a list of books. Read the titles and detailed descriptions on this page to see what interests you.
I see several books that might be helpful (Iâve not read them, but I trust human kinetics):
Athletic Strength for Women http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showproduct.cfm?isbn=9780736046329
Strength Training for Women http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showproduct.cfm?isbn=9780736052238
For law enforcement, I also recommend grip and wrist strength training. That may sound strange, but if you think about it, in daily life, you use your hands all the time. A strong grip will give you a better ability to handle law enforcement tools and plus it just makes you feel strong â itâs a confidence builder. Anyways, if grip development is not covered in strength training books you get, I highly recommend John Brookfieldâs Mastery of Hand Strength. http://www6.mailordercentral.com/ironmind/prodinfo.asp?number=1273
Their general website for reference is ironmind.com or http://www.strongandhealthyhands.com/ironmind/opencms/SHHH/
Here is an article by a helpful author, http://www.dieselcrew.com/articles-pdf/femaletraining.pdf It assumes some existing knowledge of strength training, so you may have to google a term or two.
Good training!
Running training programme?
Draco Malf
I want to run the Yorkshire 3 peaks to raise money for a trip that I'm doing.
I obviously need to start training but I don't know where to start... any ideas? I dont just want to have to run every day... something to change it up like strength training?
I want to do it hopefully summer this year if i can or maybe autum?
thanks
Answer
Anyone can be a good runner, you just have to be willing to put the work in so that you can build up your endurance. Endurance is the key to all running, it's the foundation for everything that you'll do whether it's long distance or short sprints, if you don't have endurance you're not going to be able to do either very well. So, since you're just getting into running I would suggest that you start going for some distance runs 1-2 miles 4-5 times a week. You don't have to run fast, in fact you can run as slow as you want, just don't walk. Do this for a couple of weeks and you'll find that it's much easier for you to do, you won't have cramps or stitches, your legs will start feeling better and your times will be dropping. This is a sign that your endurance is starting to grow, at that point you can start upping your mileage and trying to drop your times.
I know this isn't exactly what you wanted to hear, but consistent running is the only way that you're going to build endurance, without endurance you're going struggle. Strength and speed training come after you've built up your stamina, they can't come before because if they do you'll make yourself prone to injury and your not going to substantially increase the amount of distance you can run.
The benefit of starting early is that you have a couple months to train, which is plenty of time to whip yourself into shape. Usually it takes about 6 weeks for your endurance to really build up and and for it to start having effects on your stamina and cardiovascular health. But I guarantee you'll start seeing results WAY before then, after only a couple weeks, of running 4-5 times a week, you'll start to notice that running a mile is much easier, cramps are much less frequent and that you're not nearly as winded.
For the first month or so I would focus mainly on building endurance, the only way you're going to be able to do that is through running often. Don't feel like you have to go out and run three miles on your first day, you're the only person who knows your body and knows what it can and can't do. So for right now, do what you can, and start building up your strength.
Set a mileage goal for yourself, DON'T go by time. That way you have an actual goal instead of simply running until your time is up, it's much more motivating to be running a preset distance and it doesn't feel quite as long. Try using this website: http://www.mapmyrun.com/ Here you can map your runs and figure out where and how far you need to go, I find it's really helpful if you don't have a gps sport watch.
Here's a training schedule that you can use for the first couple months of your training:
Monday: Distance run (1-3 miles as slow as you would like, without walking)
Tuesday: Distance run (1-3 miles as slow as you would like, without walking)
Wednesday: Distance run (1-3 miles as slow as you would like, without walking)
Thursday: Distance run (1-3 miles as slow as you would like, without walking)
Friday: Distance run (1-3 miles as slow as you would like, without walking)
Saturday: Rest or distance run
Sunday: Rest
Now, after a a month of training the schedule above is going to seem pretty easy, this will be because your endurance base has built up and you can start pushing yourself to go faster and you're plan could look a little something like this:
Monday: Distance run (1-4 miles slower 10-12 minute mile)
Tuesday: Distance/speed run (1-2 miles at an elevated pace 8-9 minute mile)
Wednesday: Distance run (1-4 miles relaxed at a 10-12 minute mile)
Thursday: Distance/speed run (1-2 miles at an elevated pace 8-9 minute mile)
Friday: Distance run (1-4 miles miles relaxed at a 10-12 minute mile)
Saturday: Rest or distance run
Sunday: Rest
Make sure that you don't overwork yourself within these first months, since you're just getting into running you're going to be much more prone to injury. Ease in slowly, and once you feel the your body is ready to start ramping up the workouts then you should. This training plan should start putting you into great shape. Hope this helps! Good luck, and feel free to message me if you have any more questions!
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