Saucy Tomato! What are the Health Benefits of Tomatoes?

Editors Note: This post is written by contributor Gina Ryan. Gina is a licensed nutritionist and Wellness coach from Hawaii. Read her Bio on the About page or visit her blog Lunch Without Ed.

Depending where you live in the world you may be swimming in tomatoes right now. Traditionally the overabundance of tomatoes leads to the process of cooking sauce and canning it for the months to come. When the more intricate process of canning is not available it is perfectly fine to freeze your sauce and enjoy it just the same. This post explores the health benefits of tomatoes and shows you how to make your own tomato based sauce from scratch.

If you don’t have a favorite sauce recipe or if this is the first time you may be considering this delightful kitchen project here is a great marina sauce recipe. It even has instructions on how to take out the seeds if this is your first attempt.

Cooked Tomatoes Powerful Benefits

There is something really special about your own homemade sauce and there is something even more special about the cooked tomato!

We have been aware of the wonderful health giving properties of the tom as it contains lycopene, the photochemical which makes them red but which also has significant antioxidant properties.

Lycopene is know as a  carotenoid with some other nutrients in this group like beta-carotene and retinol, which are both found in carrots. Lycopene, in certain foods, is the coloring agent. It also does not have the vitamin A characteristics that beta-carotene and retinol do, but is fat-soluble (so be sure you have some olive oil in  your sauce or your body won’t be able to absorb the lycopene as well) similar to vitamin A. The power of this antioxidant, lycopene is made even more powerful through cooking.

Tomatoes contain 3.1 grams per 100g and watermelon 4.1 grams per 100g of lycopene. Tomatoes also contain amounts of Beta Carotene (which can be converted to A-Carotene) and vitamin C, which fight free radicals in the system. For cancer protection and overall health benefits, tomatoes are a powerful and easy to incorporate into your meals.

What do Tomatoes contain that makes them so good for us?

• Lycopene: Powerful antioxidant that has been linked to preventing skin damage, CV disease, cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and male infertility.
• Beta Carotene: helps prevent night blindness, skin disorders, enhances immunity, slows the ageing process.
• Vitamin C: Another powerful antioxidant. Increases immune strength, repairs damaged tissues including blood vessels, scar tissue and cartilage.

Lycopene has been considered to be helpful in preventing cancers and specifically prostrate cancer. With Italian men having a low instance of prostate cancer we can see for ourselves how helpful the cooked tomato has been for them.

Promoting health with foods containing lycopene can be easy and delightful if combined with other foods containing antioxidants to make delicious meals that help fight cancer. Garlic and onions, both containing powerful antioxidants, can be cooked with tomatoes to make a healthful sauce. You can add some red peppers to a sauce to increase the antioxidant benefit.

Making your own sauce is a healthy, fun and delicious alternative to bottled/tinned sauces when many contain preservatives and excess salt. Click here for a basic  marina sauce recipe. Or do you have another sauce recipe you love???

You can read Gina’s full bio on the About page or visit her blog http://www.lunchwithouted.wordpress.com.

Weights Room Etiquette: Don’t be ‘That’ Guy!

Here is a hysterical clip of what not to do in the weights room. The obnoxious spotter is my personal favorite!

Don’t be ‘that’ guy!

1. The Show off
2. The Grunter
3. The Sight seer
4. The Machine Lurker
5. The Mirror Flexor
6. The Obnoxious Spotter
7. The No-Towel Guy

My Personal additions;

• The Stinky Guy
• The I’m-too-good-to-put-my-weights-away Guy
• The Shorter than short shorts Guy (doing stiff legged dead lifts)

Have you got any funny gym stories to tell? I used to work at a gym that had ’shirts off Fridays.’ It was usually only the boys who partook!

Our Love Hate Relationship With Fat: What is Fat Good For?

Editors Note: This post is written by contributor Gina Ryan. Gina is a licensed nutritionist and Wellness coach from Hawaii. Read her Bio on the About page or visit her blog Lunch Without Ed.

Fat. The word itself will bring up some emotion for most people and for many it isn’t pretty!  Love it or hate it we find it back in the news, now with the scientific community saying the science was not really there all along.

Take for example this quote from a recent article;

“For more than three decades, we’ve been told that fatty foods are deadly, to blame for a full menu of health hazards, from heart disease to obesity to cancer. Regularly described as the nutritional equivalent of cigarettes, fat has been the target of public-service campaigns and municipal bans aimed at keeping us slender and healthy. But a growing body of international research suggests our obsessive fear of fat may be misplaced. A high-fat diet won’t necessarily make us sick or fat; a low-fat diet may not make us healthy or slim.” from Janet Paskin | June/July Ode Magazine.

This is enough to make one think there’s a conspiracy theory out there! The reality is that things are often simply taken to the extreme. If a little is good then a lot must be great type of thinking has gotten the nutrition community into a lot of hot water.

The low fat craze began with the best of intentions and for those who were overindulging in the macro nutrient (Proteins, carbohydrates, fats), lowering their fat intake was probably a good idea. The trouble began when people began to cut the entire nutrient out of their diets. Going from low fat to no fat and fake fat -all the while the population got heavier and yes fatter. Not everyone- just those caught in the cracks. By cracks I am speaking of people who listen to the advertisers.

Reading a no fat box of cookies made one feel they could enjoy the treat free of concern of the impact it may have on their health, because low fat or non fat was the new way to be eating for weight loss and heart health. That is what the makers of the no fat cookie wanted you to believe. Yet it was not true. That box of cookies gave no satisfaction and hence the entire box could have been eaten to try to get the sense that something yummy and satisfying was just eaten and it was full of sugar.  Food consists of micro and macro nutrients and the fact is fat is one of the three macro nutrients and the health and well-being of the human body depends on a regular amount of it, the real thing.

How much fat do we need?

Guidelines suggest that 10-30% of your daily calories should come from fat. The World Health Organization recommends a maximum of 30%, whilst other health organizations recommend only 10%. A guideline is around 40g (1.5 ounces) fat per day for women and 60g (2 ounces) fat per day for men.

Nine fat payoffs

Besides making your bum look big, here are nine more productive ways your body utilizes fat.

• Brain Fats compose 60% of the brain and are essential to brain function, including learning abilities, memory retention and moods. Fats are especially important for pregnant women, since they are integral to fetal brain development.

• Cells Fatty acids help your cells stay flexible, as well as building cell membranes.

• Digestion Fats slow down the digestion process so the body has more time to absorb nutrients. Fats help provide a constant level of energy and also keep the body satiated for longer periods of time. Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) can only be absorbed if fat is present.

• Eyes Fats are essential to eye function

• Heart 60% of our heart’s energy comes from burning fats. Specific fats are also used to help keep the heart beating in a regular rhythm.

• Immune System Some fats ease inflammation, helping your metabolism and immune system stay healthy and functioning.

• Lungs Lung surfactant, which requires a high concentration of saturated fats, enables the lungs to work and keeps them from collapsing.

• Nerves Fats compose the material that insulates and protects the nerves, isolating electrical impulses and speeding their transmission.

• Vital Organs Fats cushion and protect your internal organs.

So take another look at your fat intake and let it be from the most natural state possible, this will help eliminate the trans fats without even trying! Look at using butter, ghee, cold water fish, avocado, nuts, eggs with the yolks, coconut oil and olive oil to name a few. Using fat in a balanced manner is the key to a healthy and satisfying diet for life.

You can read Gina’s full bio on the About page or visit her blog http://www.lunchwithouted.wordpress.com.

Resistance Training for Runners to Prevent Injury, Run Faster and Further

What’s your training program like? Do you focus on increasing your miles each week, maybe a bit of speed work here and there, and of course a token stretch at the end of each session? Well hats off to you because unlike 85% of the population at least you are doing something! But whether you are an amateur runner or a competitive athlete, adding a resistance session each week might just be the thing you need to take your further, faster and with fewer injuries.  This article looks at the reasoning behind resistance training for runners and identifies the top resistance training exercises all runners should do.

What is Resistance training for distance running?

Conventionally we think of resistance training as weights machines, dumbbells, slow movements and heavy weights (with lots of grunting).  Resistance training for runners is quite different. It’s about loading the muscles in a manner that replicates running to improve their strength power, endurance and most importantly coordination. It’s about identifying the weaker muscles in the body and developing them to prevent injury. It is NOT about building unnecessary bulk or damaging already fatigued tissue and I must stress that incorrect resistance training can tighten you up and slow you down.

What purpose does it serve?

There are four key areas that resistance training will help you with: Speed, muscular endurance, efficiency of running technique, and injury prevention.

• Increase strength of your prime movers for speed and distance: The stronger your quads, glutes and hamstrings are the faster your will go and the longer you will be able to maintain your pace. Obviously nothing beats running to strengthen these,  but resistance work involving sprints, uphill and downhill running improve their strength much faster.
• Prevents injury by Increase strength of your stabilisers: Your prime movers can only work as hard as your stabilisers will allow. It doesn’t matter how strong/fit you are, if you have poor hip knee and ankle stability, you will never reach your full potential in both speed and endurance.
• Increase coordination: Similar to stability, the faster you fatigue the sooner your coordination goes. Look at a distance athlete and how smooth their running style is. That is good coordination. All muscles, tendons, ligaments and joint actions are working in smooth unison to create effortless strides. The more fatigued you get the worse these actions interrelate create a less economical stride which slows you down and increases your chance of injury.
• Increase stride length: As you fatigue, your stride naturally shortens, your muscles tighten and you slow down. By increasing your stride length (within reason) you can maintain a faster pace and waste less energy through excessive foot strikes.

Two Training Programs for Runners

Click here for a printable program you can take to the park/oval for your resistance session. Ideally you will need a stop watch and a skipping rope, but exercises can be performed without them.

Click here for a printable program for Core Stability and VMO/Glute Activation. You will need a swiss ball and leg extension machine for these.

The below animations will help you understand the exercises in the programs. Familiarize yourself with these exercises before printing out your workout sheets:

Skipping/Hopping

Bounding

Jumping on/off step

Plyometric Lunges

Burpees

1. Start in a standing position and bend your knees and place your hands on the ground.
2. Extend your legs back into a push up position. Bring your knees back in towards chest and explosively jump in the air.
3. This should be a continuous motion and be fluid.

Walking Lunges (Hand weights optional)

Single Leg Squat (Try not to hold on and I prefer foot to balance in air not across other leg)

What are the best muscle balancing exercises for injury prone runners?

Leg Extension: from 15-30degrees, toes turned out slightly, focusing on VMO activation. Light weight. 3 x 15-20 reps.

Lunges: Focus on the VMO of the front leg and glutes of the front leg. Keep your knees tracking straight and don’t let them internally rotate as you lower.

Core Stability exercises: Click here for a printable program

1. Alternating Single Leg Bridge

3 x 15 reps

2.Double Leg Pike:

2 x 2 min

3. Alternate Arm Swings and Single Leg Raises

3 x 15 reps

4. Side Raises on Ball

3 x 12 each side

Click here for Printable resistance program. Click here for printable Core and VMO/Glute activation program

For more detailed core stability exercises,  click on my core stability four part series linked here.

• Core Stability Part 1- A Remedy For Back Pain
• Core Stability Part 2: The spinal neutral test
• Core Stability Part 3: Challenging your core muscles
• Core Stability Part 4: Functional Exercises -the plank and its wacky variations
• Abdominal Exercises: Exercise Your Oblique Muscles to Get Rid of the Love Handles

Have you got any other Resistance training exercises that would be good for runners? Link to them in your comments below.

5 Great Video Games That Help You Lose Weight

Editors Note: This post is written by blogger Mary Ward who writes about various health care career topics.

Many people attribute the onset of childhood obesity with too much video game playing. There is definite truth to that as kids have gone from playing outside all day long to sitting constantly in front of the screen and playing video games without taking a breather. There is however a new evolution of video games that are actually good for you and/or your children that can help you to burn calories and ultimately lose weight. Who would have thought it? Here we look at the top video games that can help you stay active, burn some calories, and ultimately shed the unwanted weight.

1. Wii Fit:

This is like a whole new movement and nobody wants to be left behind! The Wii Fit is the hottest new game in town and this is the most enjoyable way to burn some serious calories. The Wii was already a popular gaming system with interactive games that made parties fun and kept people jumping. With the addition of the Wii fit, individuals can create customized workout plans or enjoy some excellent plans. You can get some serious calorie burning in on this enjoyable game that makes sweating it out actually enjoyable!

2. GameRunner:

This is essentially a treadmill tied to the screen of a video game, but the fun and the calorie burning are far beyond expectations. You take on a character and move along throughout the game in a rather interactive manner that helps to burn some serious calories in the process. This has gained in popularity so that people of all ages and walks of life that enjoy a good work out and a fun video game can truly have it all.

3. Exer-Station:

This is a big life-sized joystick that allows you to enjoy a workout right in front of your video game monitor. You get a full body workout due to the resistance that this device provides, so once you strap in you can enjoy some music and get a fun little workout in without even feeling like you’re breaking a sweat. This is an excellent way to burn some calories and enjoy a fun video game in the process-fun for kids of all ages!

4. Dance Dance Revolution: (see above you tube clip)

If you’ve always been a fan of dance or just want to enjoy some dancing in the comfort of your own home without anybody observing or judging, then this is a great option. You can participate in any one of the fun and exhilarating programs within this video game and burn the calories while you laugh it up at your results. This is a lot of fun and great for groups or regular physical activity that doesn’t need to feel that way.

5. Tetris Weightlifting:

This is definitely kicking it back old school, but that doesn’t lessen the effect of this game. You can sit at the monitor and decide upon how much resistance you want to enjoy the utmost in weight lifting through a virtual video game experience. Not quite sure if this one is meant to be taken seriously!

Who says exercise can’t be fun?  Certainly not the creators-or users-of these 5 video games; with them, you and yours can be well on your way to fit without ever feeling like it’s a chore.

Mary Ward writes about various health care career topics, including how to choose among surgical technician courses.

Eat Mindfully For Health: Get the Most Out of Every Bite!

Editors Note: This post is written by contributor Gina Ryan. Gina is a licensed nutritionist and Wellness coach from Hawaii. Read her Bio on the About page or visit her blog Lunch Without Ed.

Much of the to do list of eating and living healthy can be achieved by simply using awareness. Paying attention to food and life style choices and actions made daily can simplify the sometimes confusing and contradictory health advice that is available on the Internet and elsewhere. Mindfulness puts the locust of control with you and your body.

What is ‘Mindfullness?’

It is with an understanding of what is meant by mindfulness when we speak of it in terms of eating. Mindfulness is clearly non-judgmental paying attention. Sounds simple and clear enough and this is a great place to stop and do it! Pay attention to what you are doing right now, do it with a noticing, a curious awareness and with out labeling it good or bad -simply notice. Yes, and then if the judgmental thoughts come up… notice that! Being aware of what is present for you in each moment physically, emotionally and physically can free you from reactive patterns and unhealthy habits. Being aware of what is actually happening right now gives you freedom of choice and a sense of balance.

Mindful eating is allowing

Allowing yourself to be with the nurturing and powerful opportunities that present themselves through preparing and eating your meals and snacks.  You begin to access your inner wisdom when you allow the choices to be made from what pleases and nourishes all your senses, by allowing yourself to savor the experience. When the awareness is on what you are doing, in this case eating, you begin to open the doors to your own inner wisdom.
Having awareness of what you like, dislike or feel not one way or the other about is a place to practice the non-judging aspect of mindful eating. As you explore the foods and flavors, textures and tastes you have the opportunity to choose, with awareness, foods that are both pleasing and nourishing.

Mindful eating is a guide

A guide to the physical cues of hunger and satiety giving the power of when to eat and when to stop eating back to the individual, back to you, not a preset time or amount that may work for one person yet not another. For an example: are you hungry just stop and feel the body, be mindful of what the body -your body is feeling. This is connecting your mind with your body and being with what is happening in the moment. The difficulty with “diets” is that many people begin to ignore or fight their own hunger and satiety rhythms. Left unchecked for long periods of time these ignored rhythms and signals leave healthy people open to an array of disordered eating behaviors and in a worse case scenario set up for a full blown eating disorder. Mindful eating is then taught once again as the guide to healthy eating and the body’s wisdom can once again be heard.

People who eat mindfully

• Respect that there are no right or wrong ways to eat but that there are varying degrees of awareness around the experience of food
• Accept the unique experience of their own meal and hunger
• Acknowledge what can happen to the unaware eater and the natural consequence of eating when out of touch with what is
• Direct their choice on a moment to moment basis by checking in with the body
• Have insight about how they can act and choose to achieve specific health goals as they become more tuned into the direct experience of eating and how health actually feels
• See their food, food choices and behaviors as all inter-connected with the earth the people of the earth and the systems used to present the food on the table

Can’t quite see yourself eating in a mindful way?

Try this: Your first drink of the day, be it a tall glass of water or a double latte from the coffee shop on the way to work, drink it with intention, with awareness, mindfully.
Be with the drink and feel it in whatever way it is feeling.
The focus is not on if it is the exact right drink or the right time -all that eventually falls into place when the effort and intention is on what is right in front of you. Drink as if it were the only drink you were ever going to have because it is the only drink you are ever going to drink at that moment!

I’d love to know your experiences of eating mindfully. Did you feel fuller for longer, enjoy the flavours more?

You can read Gina’s full bio on the About page or visit her blog http://www.lunchwithouted.wordpress.com.

Train Hard, Cool Down, Feel Good!

Editors Note: This post is written by our elite performance specialist Andrew Verdon. Andrew has completed a Diploma in Exercise Science, Certificate IV in Fitness, Level 1 Strength Coaching Qualifications with ASCA. He is currently completing a Post Grad Diploma in Applied Science (Elite Sports Training) and will go on to do a Masters in Recovery.

Some recent research has further emphasised the need for a proper cool down after intense exercise. Japanese researchers looked at the effect of  light activity after an intense exercise session on rugby players. While they found it difficult to validate the of  impact any physical recovery on the players they did find the recovery work acted as a mood booster and left the players with a positive feeling afterwards.

Why would this happen? I think even though the positive benefits reported were mental there is still a  physical process going on here. I do believe a proper warm/cool down  mentally gives you a chance to “switch” off after an intense engaging workout or session.

Physically the light exercise will enable the waste products  produced (during the chemical processes of energy creation) to be removed more effectively and will flood the blood supply (including the brain) with freshly oxygenated blood.

So what is intense exercise? A very broad definition I would use is anything that gets your heart rate over around 140 bpm in a session or activity (eg a run or sports game)  or takes you to a feeling of hard exertion say over 7.5/10 if you were to score it subjectively (eg a weight session). If you do either of these invest 5 -10 minutes to warm down. I tell my athletes if they do not have time to warm down then they do not have time to “squeeze” in a training session – it’s crucial!

So make sure you include around 5 minutes of light activity (under 120 bpm) at the end of a session. This may be a walk or cycle or even a swim.

This post is written by our elite performance specialist Andrew Verdon. Andrew has completed a Diploma in Exercise Science, Certificate IV in Fitness, Level 1 Strength Coaching Qualifications with ASCA. Should you have any questions for Andrew, please direct them to the Ask Me section of www.ameliaburton.com.au

The Joy and Health Benefits of Culinary Herbs and Spices

Editors Note: This post is written by contributor Gina Ryan. Gina is a licensed nutritionist and Wellness coach from Hawaii. Read her Bio on the About page or visit her blog Lunch Without Ed.

Herbs (grown naturally in temperate regions) and spices (grown in tropic and subtropic regions) are an incredible and simple way to add flavor and powerful nutrients to your meals. Notice when foods are cooking and the delicious aromas fill the kitchen? The mixture of herbs and spices are releasing some of their aromatic oils to the air exciting the palate and preparing your body for digestion.

The Joy of Herbs and Spices

One of the easiest ways to get involved in your food from the ground up is to grow a simple herb garden. Food takes on a whole new and exciting feel when we have had our hands in the earth in which it was grown. Clipping your home grown dill for lunches cottage cheese or cutting basil for dinners. Pesto makes even the most resistant cook feel more like a creative chef and when we feel good and creative about preparing our food we make better food choices -naturally.

For the novice find some recipes and try and pay particular attention to the herbs and spices being called for and how they are combined . For those of you who have been cooking for a long time and enjoy it already perhaps you can experiment with some of your favorite herbs and spices and try them in an unusual combination making a signature dish to share with friends and family. Even adding a dash of cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice to baked or mashed potato, yam, or squash can begin to open your palate and health up to new horizons.

The Health Herbs and Spices

Besides exciting the palate and preparing the body for digestion by stimulating the production of saliva in the mouth the culinary herbs and spices help to destroy microbes and parasites in foods. They also aid the gut for efficient digestion of the meal while adding important vitamins and minerals to the diet. Generally cleaning and toning organs and speeding the removal of waste products through the colon and keeping the immune system fully functioning .

Common Kitchen Herbs and Spices Health benefits

• Parsley- diuretic, aids edema, fluid retention, indigestion, gas, anti-parasitic, promotes healthy thyroid function
• Capsicum (cayenne)- increases thermogenesis, increases circulation, promotes heart health, aids digestion, enhances performance of other herbs
• Ginger-aids digestion and hypertension, promotes lung function, strengthens adrenal glands (often depleted by stress),relives morning sickness, nausea, gas
• Rosemary- aids strong hair growth, enhances memory function, protects brain from free radical damage, combats fluid retention, topically makes hair shine
• Garlic-has antibiotic, anti fungal, anti-parasitic, anti-viral activity, detoxifies, strengthens blood vessels, lowers blood pressure, enhances immune function
• Peppermint- aids chills, fever, nausea, colic, diarrhea, headaches (internally and externally)
• Sage- aids in mental clarity, circulation, anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties
• Basil- used to relive nervous disorders, headaches, rheumatic pains
• Dill- relives colic, indigestion, gas, promotes breast milk production
• Oregano- anti-oxidant, anti-microbial and anti-parasitic, enhances immune function
• Thyme- anti-parasitic, relives muscle pain and tightness, makes cough more productive, enhances immune function

Using the healing properties of the garden as a part of daily life can be as simple as experimenting with fresh culinary herbs and spices, a new adventure in the kitchen to bring about your own healing and well being, go on spice up your life a bit just for your health!

You can read Gina’s full bio on the About page or visit her blog http://www.lunchwithouted.wordpress.com.

Mental Training for Performance: Your Secret Weapon is your Mind

Editors Note: This article is written by David Hodgeson a Performance Coach, Business Architect and Advisor. You can visit him at I-Acomplish or read more about him on the About Page

Your secret weapon is something you already have unlimited access to, is more powerful than any supercomputer and can be honed to your every whim. I think you already know what I’m talking about. The answer is your mind.

Our minds perform the most complicated tasks without us needing to think about them. This autonomous control in life’s critical  actions hints at the potential of our minds. They say we use around 10% of our mind. This has proven difficult to prove and disprove. What we do know is that the minds ability to adapt is huge. The potential of our minds is incredible and yet we know so little about it. The following example demonstrates what training our minds the right way can do:

Anthony Robbins Experiments with Mind Training and the US Army

NASA, the US Army and numerous other elite athletes have undertaken some form of mind training. In 1987, Tony Robbins and a number of other Mind Trainers (using Neuro-Linguistic Programming) set about improving the pistol shooting in the US Army, the basic qualification at that time was ‘Marksman’, with ‘Sharpshooter’ and then ‘Expert’ coming above that – a Marksman being able to get 30 hits on target out of 45 rounds fired. Two groups of soldiers were taught side by side – one group getting the NLP based training, the other group – the ‘control group’- getting the standard army training.

The control group took 27 hours to get 73 per cent of the soldiers to Marksman level, with only 10 per cent of the group making Expert. The NLP based group took just 12 hours to get 100 per cent of the soldiers to Marksman level, with 25 per cent making Expert.

So what? I hear you say. Well, these same techniques that are undeniably successful can be easily translated to your training. There are a number of techniques that I can pass on and one of the most easy to adopt is using your imagination to increase your motivation towards a goal that you really want to achieve.

Using your Imagination and Visualisation to Achieve Specific Goals

• First of all, find yourself a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted.
• Notice how you currently feel. What emotions are you experiencing
• Next, imagine that future state, maybe you have just finished a marathon, maybe you have finished a grueling gym workout, perhaps you are in those jeans that you promised you would fit back into.
• Now you created that event in your mind I’d like you to repeat the exercise but this time look at the event and see yourself in it. See what you saw, hear the sounds and feel the emotions that looking at this future event create for you.

Now, you have just experienced your future event, achievement or whatever it was, what does it make you want to do? Do you feel more motivated to move towards accomplishing that goal? Do you notice that you feel a little more excited about achieving your goal and all those events and actions that you need to accomplish in order to succeed?

This was an example of a simple way that training your mind can help you achieve your goals. This technique works for everything. Have you used visualisation in your training before?

David Hodgeson is a Performance Coach, Business Architect and Advisor, having created a niche in goal setting, performance and motivation. He works with the most respected organisations in the world and has brought their visions to life. David creates business and personal blueprints, assembles the right team to make the blueprint a reality and keeps everyone motivated throughout the process of accomplishing the goal. You can visit him at I-Acomplish

The World’s Simplest Marathon Training Plan

Written by: Amelia Burton

Many people who have a dream of running a marathon push it to one side because they are filled with the fear that it’s too much training, they don’t have the time, or they aren’t fit/strong enough. Well I am here to dispel that fear by showing you in the simplest way possible a training program for anyone who can currently run 10km without stopping. If you are an experienced marathoner wanting to run a PB (personal best) then this program may not be detailed enough for you.  But if you are a first time marathoner, or an amateur, then this program is exactly what you need to get fit enough to complete 42.2km.

The five ingredients for a successful marathon training program

1.       The 10% rule: A good friend of mine David (who leads the Kirribilli runners) once taught me the golden rule of marathon training; only increase your miles/km 10% per week. This reduces the chance of injury and allows your body the time to acclimatise to the extra running.

2.       One long run every week: As soon as you start running one long run per week, your body will become so much stronger. 30km (18.6 mi) is the magic distance. Once you can run this, you can run a marathon. The more long run’s you get in leading up to the race, the stronger you will finish.

3.      Stretch: I will say this once: If you don’t stretch your entire body properly and deeply, you WILL get injured. I hate stretching after a run because I am tired, hungry, hot, thirsty, so I do what one would call a pseudo stretch (aka a pathetic attempt to stretch). It certainly isn’t good enough, therefore I go to a semi-private pilates class twice per week. Yoga is also incredible for runners. Pilates should be a reformer class focussing on flexibility. Try before you buy because some pilates studio’s don’t put enough emphasis on stretching. If you want to cut costs, buy a yoga DVD and follow that twice per week.  Whatever it takes pleeease stretch, and not just a pseudo stretch!

4.       Speed sessions: Not all your training runs will be long runs, in fact you will see that short speed sessions are part of your program. They will get you running faster and strengthen all your running muscles which helps cope with the longer distances.

5.       Join a running group: This will not only improve the quality of your training but it adds an essential fun, social aspect to running. I do a long run with the Sydney Striders every Sunday, and they put on a breakfast spread afterwards. I look forward to this run as much as I look forward to my Friday night pub crawls (well almost as much!). Google ‘running groups’ in your local area and find out the fitness levels catered for. If you are Sydney based, the Sydney Striders and the Kirribilli runners are fantastic running groups. They are also great for running visitors who want to see more of Sydney on foot.

The 16 week training plan in Kilometres

Click here to view a larger, printable version of this program.

The 16 week training plan in Miles

Click here to view a larger, printable version of this program.

Training notes:

• Shorter distances are to be trained at a faster pace. Use Mc Millans calculator to determine your pace.
• For longer distances do not worry about your speed at first, just get through the distances at a steady pace. It is about how long you run for, not how fast.
• Pick one short run per week to be a bit of a time trial. Record your times each week and monitor the improvements. Don’t be alarmed if they don’t improve quickly, you won’t necessarily get much faster training for a marathon, but boy will you get fitter!
• Fit in a second stretch workout somewhere in that program. I’d be tempted to do it on your shortest distance day, that way you have Saturdays off completely.

Training tools

• Heart rate monitor with GPS: These can be expensive (around AU0) but I wouldn’t train without one. Garmin 405 is by far my favourite. The Polar GPS is second in line.
• Map my Run: If you don’t want to fork out money for a gps, use Map My Run to map your routes so you know how far each workout is. It’s not hard and doesn’t take long. Create your own profile so you can save and share your runs.
• McMillans Calculator: This is an awesome tool where you can punch in a time you did for pretty much any distance, and it will tell you how fast you should be running for other distances. You can read more on McMillans if you want. Minutes per Kilometre are the units we use, and that is what your heart rate monitor with GPS will use too. It’s runners speak, you’ll see!
• Beep test: Or any running fitness test really. I suggest you do one at the start of your training so you know how much you have improved. Always record your heart rate at the very end and exactly 60 seconds after you finish. Sometimes fitness shows itself in the rapid recovery time more so than the test itself.

It’s as simple as that! Follow the training program but ultimately listen to your body. Occasionally you will need to skip a workout, and that’s better than having a slow, frustrating run. If you feel you need more guidance, you can use a marathon training coach to give you a specialised program.

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