Marathon Training Schedule – Don’t Leave Home and Run Without it

Article by Muhammad Azeem Ashraf

Have you heard of the Daily 16?

Retired Major General L.M. Palm of the US Marine Corps wrote the Introduction for the book, Marine Corps Daily 16 Workouts published by Villard Books of New York. In his introduction, he said that the Daily 16 lies at the core of the physical training regimen of Marine recruits who arrive at the training centers unfit and bent out of shape.

The good news: it isn’t a program that is monopolized by the Marines. The ex-General said that it can be followed by “all dedicated men and women from teenagers to senior citizens who seek to be in admirable shape.” (Villard, 1999).

There are over a million runners each year who compete in marathons. The world’s oldest marathon – the Boston Marathon – attracted about 20,000 runners this year. Registration for next year’s marathon begins September 5 – that’s less than two weeks away. Already we’re seeing a frenetic pace among trainers and runners who have big dreams and ambitious plans – a lot of that ballbusting energy is being felt in the country’s track and field centers and jogging paths right now. Do they follow a strict schedule the way the Marines do with their Cooper Exercise Program for the Jogging and Progressive Treadmill?

You bet!

Training Schedule: As Important as Marathon Itself

Without a training schedule and without a commitment to it, marathon hopefuls are like speeding race drivers with blindfolds on. There’s a method to the madness no matter how cruel and unforgiving a training schedule is. Deviate from it and you’ll be light years behind victory. It’s good to focus on the marathon event. We know some runners who also take lessons in visualization and meditation where they use imagery and imagine themselves running towards the finish line and bagging the prize. These are excellent and indispensable training aids, but adherence to your marathon training schedule takes precedence.

Why do you think the US Marine Cooper Program has it all systematically down pat? Because the generals know what they want!

Here’s a two-week extract from the 10-week rigorous schedule:

Week 1: Walk – 2.0 miles – 32 minutes – 3 times a week – 13.5 points weekly

Week 2: Walk – 3.0 miles – 48 minutes – 3 times a week – 21.7 points weekly

The idea here is to earn 61 points by the 10th week, considered excellent for aerobic fitness. A training schedule, therefore, is synonymous to goal-setting. You write down your goals for the future and draw up a time frame for each goal, including specific steps. That’s the logic of the training schedule.

Whether you’re aiming for the half or full marathon, you know what the experts say about “too much too soon.” This is one reason why a marathon training schedule is mandatory. It paces you, breaks you in, and decides when you can transition into higher and more difficult tasks. Call it whatever you want, but your schedule is your compass, your GPS, your PDA. Turn your back from it and you become rudderless.

Training Schedule: Core Concepts

Count yourself lucky if you have a running coach who has extensive marathon experience. Listen to him attentively because his gut instincts will tell him what kind of training schedule is appropriate for your fitness level. Trainers and coaches have a whole slew of training schedules that they design based on a wealth of knowledge from marathon records and performance sheets.

Your training schedule will take into account certain concepts such as:

Long runs.

They get you closer to that much coveted finish line. If you haven’t run for a long time or are accustomed to running only a mile a day, doing 20-mile runs in your first week of training is a recipe for failure. Core concept: build it up slowly.

Pace yourself.

Ordinary mortals can run 26 miles provided they run at the correct pace. Core concept: transition. Start with slow runs then go for faster runs.

M is for mileage. Do not aim for megamiles during your first week. Core concept: don’t burnout!

Rest. Leave ample time for rest days. They re-charge you; this is why some marathon coaches insist that rest days are the second most important component of training. Core concept: give your heart and muscles a break!

Cross-training. It’s not all about running. It’s about other activities that will help you build endurance and stamina. Core concept: avoid injury!

Taper off. Some compulsive runners think they should train up to the night before the marathon. Experienced coaches encourage runners to scale back during the two weeks preceding the marathon.

Core concept: recover!

These are a few components (out of the many) that will be incorporated into your training schedule by your training coach. Remember, though, that while the perfect schedule mainly focuses on the physical routine, it should also integrate diet considerations and hydration requirements.

Treat your training schedule as a sacred guidepost. When marathon day comes, you’ll thank your lucky stars for it.

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Tricep Exercises Without Weights

Your biceps, triceps, muscles in the wrist, and muscles in the hands are the muscle groups that are strengthened with arm exercises. Most people, when they think of arm exercises, imagine curling dumbbells, but arm exercises without weights can be performed effectively.

Biceps is one of the most important parts of the body which are to be build to increase the strength and most importantly for many people as a popularity symbol. People think of increasing the size of the biceps as a status symbol. Apart from all of these they are a very good part to increase the overall strength of the body and the ability to do work or lift weights.

Cardio workouts such as running, swimming, hiking, walking and bicycling can be extremely beneficial for sculpting your body. These workouts are capable to boost metabolism in your body, which consequently burn lots of fats. Your exercise session should start with cardio workouts.

Using the same technique as described above this biceps exercise will be done as a hammer curl with the elbow on the inside of the thigh but instead of holding the wrist just below the palm of the hand hold the wrist just below the back of the thumb.

This is perhaps the best upper body exercise one can do without equipment. While push-ups heavily focus on chest and triceps muscles, to a lesser extent they also work out nearly every other major muscle group above the waist. These include shoulders, arms, back, neck, and abs.

This adds a new muscle building dimension to this classic exercise for your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Put your feet up on a bed or on a chair. Do your Push Ups. This Push Up variation should provide enough resistance for most people to stimulate a little muscle growth.

Lunges Begin the lunge by taking a large step forward, keeping your head up and torso erect. Lower your hips and allow your trailing knee to drop to a point just before it touches the floor – never let the knee touch the floor.

While some people may be going back to elementary school with this simple exercise, it certainly does strengthen the arms. Place your hands on the floor, a bit wider than shoulder width apart, feet stretched out. Slowly lower your body towards the ground, and then push all the way back up.

This is also one of the best tricep exercises. You’ll most likely need a spotter to help you get the barbell off the rack. It may feel awkward at first but after a couple sets, you’ll get used to it and it’ll feel natural. Keep in mind that for this version, you should bring the barbell down towards your sternum rather then the middle to upper portion of your chest as you would with the regular bench press exercise.

Push Ups The push up works the chest, the front part of the shoulder, and the triceps. Often times athletes and body builders will use this exercise to warm up before a workout and for cooling down after a high intensity workout. As you do this exercise consistently, you can really build muscle and develop a higher level of physical strength without having to use weights.

One of the most important parts of overall health is regular exercise. The Surgeon General advises at least 150 hours per week of exercise to improve cardiovascular health. Often times, people fail to exercise because of the large expense to join a gym. There are many workouts, however that can be done without weights. In fact a workout without weights can often times be the most effective.

The first exercise that we will discuss is the pushup. The pushup is very much equivalent to the bench press for weight training. The pushup exercises all of the arm muscles (bicep, tricep, forearm), chest muscles such as the pectoral muscles, as well as stimulating muscle growth in the upper back.

More Tricep Exercises With Weights Articles

Tricep Exercises Without Weights

Article by Arlen Arron

Your biceps, triceps, muscles in the wrist, and muscles in the hands are the muscle groups that are strengthened with arm exercises. Most people, when they think of arm exercises, imagine curling dumbbells, but arm exercises without weights can be performed effectively.

Biceps is one of the most important parts of the body which are to be build to increase the strength and most importantly for many people as a popularity symbol. People think of increasing the size of the biceps as a status symbol. Apart from all of these they are a very good part to increase the overall strength of the body and the ability to do work or lift weights.

Cardio workouts such as running, swimming, hiking, walking and bicycling can be extremely beneficial for sculpting your body. These workouts are capable to boost metabolism in your body, which consequently burn lots of fats. Your exercise session should start with cardio workouts.

Using the same technique as described above this biceps exercise will be done as a hammer curl with the elbow on the inside of the thigh but instead of holding the wrist just below the palm of the hand hold the wrist just below the back of the thumb.

This is perhaps the best upper body exercise one can do without equipment. While push-ups heavily focus on chest and triceps muscles, to a lesser extent they also work out nearly every other major muscle group above the waist. These include shoulders, arms, back, neck, and abs.

This adds a new muscle building dimension to this classic exercise for your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Put your feet up on a bed or on a chair. Do your Push Ups. This Push Up variation should provide enough resistance for most people to stimulate a little muscle growth.

Lunges Begin the lunge by taking a large step forward, keeping your head up and torso erect. Lower your hips and allow your trailing knee to drop to a point just before it touches the floor – never let the knee touch the floor.

While some people may be going back to elementary school with this simple exercise, it certainly does strengthen the arms. Place your hands on the floor, a bit wider than shoulder width apart, feet stretched out. Slowly lower your body towards the ground, and then push all the way back up.

This is also one of the best tricep exercises. You’ll most likely need a spotter to help you get the barbell off the rack. It may feel awkward at first but after a couple sets, you’ll get used to it and it’ll feel natural. Keep in mind that for this version, you should bring the barbell down towards your sternum rather then the middle to upper portion of your chest as you would with the regular bench press exercise.

Push Ups The push up works the chest, the front part of the shoulder, and the triceps. Often times athletes and body builders will use this exercise to warm up before a workout and for cooling down after a high intensity workout. As you do this exercise consistently, you can really build muscle and develop a higher level of physical strength without having to use weights.

One of the most important parts of overall health is regular exercise. The Surgeon General advises at least 150 hours per week of exercise to improve cardiovascular health. Often times, people fail to exercise because of the large expense to join a gym. There are many workouts, however that can be done without weights. In fact a workout without weights can often times be the most effective.

The first exercise that we will discuss is the pushup. The pushup is very much equivalent to the bench press for weight training. The pushup exercises all of the arm muscles (bicep, tricep, forearm), chest muscles such as the pectoral muscles, as well as stimulating muscle growth in the upper back.

Related Bicep Exercises Without Weights Articles

Get a Quality Workout Without the Pricey Trainer

Article by Boda Bo

While talking to a friend recently, she commented on reading a statistic about Hollywood stars and their personal trainers–turns out the average star works out with a personal trainer for at least two hours, several days a week. On top of personal chefs, massage and other pampering techniques, is it any wonder they look as fit as they do? It is, after all, part of the job. I have splurged on a personal trainer myself in the past as well as a nutritionist, and it gets results, but what do you do if you don’t have the money to burn? Try these tips on for size!

Virtual Exercise– Look no further than what is right in front of you: yes, your computer. Turns out, you can find all sorts of fitness and diet websites online and many of them are, gasp, free. That’s right, free. And they are personalized to boot. They do everything a personal trainer does-from creating workouts to tracking fitness goals–pretty much everything except yell at you when you are ready to quit,and I’m sure you can find someone to do that for free! Not only that, but several also have pretty cool diet journals that log your nutrition, count your calories, and suggest ways to increase the nutrition in your diet. A few good ones to try?

The virtual trainer at shape.com is as close to a personal trainer as you can get for free, while the diet plans at Spark are stupendous and it’s easy to figure out how many calories are really in your meals at Fit Watch. Finally a great website for learning how to do all those exercises you aren’t quite sure about? Sports Fitness Advisor shows you how to use dumbbells with animated muscle men while you can find great printable yoga exercises,complete with detailed how to.

Team Up– One of the best things about personal trainers is that they demand accountability–you work out because it is expected, you are paying them! A good way to simulate the experience without the cost? Enlist a workout buddy. Here’s what you do: Take a great big jar and every time you meet up at the gym successfully, or in house for workout DVD?s, or for a walk or run put five bucks in (or one or ten or whatever you can afford but that is pushing it). If one of you doesn’t show, the other one gets to keep double your ante (so if you put in five, she gets ten). After a month or so, you can use the money to go out to a great healthy dinner, buy a nice pair of workout pants, or just keep the money again.

Food Friends: Want to eat healthy but don’t have the time? Again enlist friends. Most whole, nutritious meals are easy enough to make for eight, so enlist a friend (or two or three, the more the merrier) and trade off nights. This works best if you live near each other, of course, because you will be making a healthy meal and bringing it over to your friend one night a week. She brings you one another night. If you have a few friends, you can be making a big meal one night a week and eating as if you have a personal chef the rest. Better yet, make it social if you have the time–dinner parties are the best.

Chest Muscle Without Weights – Challenging Exercises

Article by Jefferie Wilkenson

In this article we will look at some powerful chest exercises without weights as well as some other very effective bodyweight workout exercises.

Decline Push-Ups. To do a declined push-up place your feet on an elevated object such as a box or a chair. Your arms should be on the ground as usual. You will then lower your upper body towards the ground at a steeper angle than a normal push-up. This puts more of a focus on the lower part of the chest. It is always a good idea to mix up the widths of the push-up grips so that all areas of the chest muscles get in a decent workout.

Walk Up Planks. Walk up planks are when you get in the basic plank position, which is the push-up position but with your forearms resting on the ground (and your back flat). With a basic plank you will just hold this position for 90 seconds, but for a walk up plank you slowly walk your forearms towards your midsection arm by arm. Almost squriming along the floor like a snake. The slowly raise your arms off the floor, arm by arm, so that your palms are on the ground and your hands are outstretched in the end position which looks like the top position of a push-up. Then repeat this exercise and carry on going for at least 90 seconds. It is a killer!

Seated Dumbell Curls for Biceps. By sitting down when doing a bicep curl as opposed to standing up you will focus on working out the biceps. It is harder to cheat when sitting down as you wont be able to put your back or leg muscles into it to help you out. It will be the biceps all the way. So sit at the end of a workout bench and hold a dumbell in each of your hands with them down by your side. Start with your palms facing towards your body. Then, one arm at a time, lift the weights up whilst turning your palms up to the ceiling. At the moment of full muscle contraction give the biceps a nice big squeeze for a second or two and then slowly lower the weights down to the ground.

Abdominal Alternative Oblique Twists. This exercise is similar to the basic ab crunch exercises. Lay in a cruch position, but instead of having our arms behind your head have them raised out in front of you touching your knees…almost like a zombie. And then do the crunch exercise by raising your shoulder blades a few inches off the floor. As you raise your body from the floor do it on one side and at an angle to work the oblique muscles. Alternate the side that you lean to each rep. With this abdominal bodyweight exercise, keep going until you reach muscle failure. That is the point at which you cannot physically do another rep because your muscles are exhausted.

Subscribe and follow along with certified personal trainer Mike Roulston, from Mode Athletics, as he demonstrates how to perform effective fat-burning workouts at home with minimal equipment. Visit Mode Athletics at: modeathletics.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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How to Gain Muscle Without Weights

The trouble with body weight only exercises is that nobody takes them seriously, by this I mean, they feel that they are not a real workout, so what happens, people goof around and then get hurt.Believe me if you crank out sets of chins and combine them with either push-ups or handstand push-ups you are going to be sore the next day.

These kinds of exercises includes push ups and pull ups. These two are very common exercise and you do not require any machine for these exercises. You can do them yourself without any help.While you are doing push ups both your chest and arms are pushing weights and while you are doing the pull ups your whole body is used as a resistance.

Yes, the above routines are very hard, but the real point I was trying to make is this, it does not matter how much weight you use-your muscles do not care they just know how hard they are working.

When bulking up, most folks quite rightly start taking on additional calories.

However, they don’t always think about how to spread these calories out throughout the day. It is best to split your meals into 6 per day instead of the usual 3. This gives the body a consistent supply of energy and calories, and avoids bunching large meals together.

When looking at these photos, you have to remember that most of these people do not have your body type. The majority of them are overweight and want to lose fat, not gain muscle. ‘Well’, you say, ‘What about those people who transformed their bodies? They lost fat and gained muscle’. Yes, but almost all of these people were overweight, or had high levels of body fat. In other words, their metabolisms were, for the most part, slow. They simply dieted and trained for fat loss.

A lot of people are eating too many bad fat or simple carbs and not following a weight gain diet strictly. If you want to gain muscle weight the right and healthy way, stay away from eating junk food or fatty foods. Chips, candies, sweets, fast food, fried foods are all unhealthy and what you are gaining is fats and not muscle weight. Junk food contains a lot of trans fats or saturated fats which are a big No No to your weight gain diet.

Next you should take into consideration your exercise and how many days you train, so if you weight train for 25 minutes, 4 days per week you would expect to lose a further 500 calories per day x 4 = 2,000 calories. This means you are burning 17,050 calories per week. To eat your 2,100 calories per week over what you are burning, you would need to take in 19,150 calories per week, or 2,735 calories per day.

Because the body can only uptake so much protein in one shot, Normally 35 grams is max. The time frame to take protein is ideal, once in the morning after your body has burned muscle while sleeping, and again after your workout to replenish lost nutrients. Always take casein at night before bed, otherwise your workout for that day could be lost, your body will burn muscle as energy while you sleep.

The main source of you building muscle will be the number of repetitions that you do every time that you work out. This means that if you do more repetitions you will gain more muscle. When you build muscle in the absence of weights you want to increase the speed at which you do the exercises.

More Gain Muscle Without Weights Articles

Bicep Workout Without Weights

The best exercises for your biceps don’t even require any fancy equipment. All you need is something to hang from. You can get a great pullup bar for under $ 30, or just go out to a local park and perform pullups and chinups on the monkey bars.

Most people that claim that you can’t get a great workout for your biceps with bodyweight training can’t even perform a single pullup. Go ahead and try to do a pullup. You’ll be surprised at how many muscle groups you’re working at once.

I once did a workout that involved 100 pullups. Actually, I’m sorry to say that I never actually got up to 100 pullups. My body just gave up after around 92. I even took a five hour break to try to pull my body up towards the bar again, but still couldn’t.

I also tried to do a rep right before going to bed. Nope, my muscles were completely fried. When I woke up the next morning, not only was my back sore, but so was were my abs, chest, arms, and shoulders.

And I didn’t even do any pushups or ab work that day!

Pullups are truly a complete upper body and abdominal workout. If you can pump out 10 pullups, then it’s time to move onto more difficult variations. Actually, one variation that is easier than the pullups is the chinups. Pullups are where you grip the bar with a palms facing away from you grip.

Chinups are where you grip the bar with a palms facing towards you grip. This grip actually works the biceps muscle more than the pullups. Both variations are great, and you should probably use both variations in your workouts for a complete bicep workout.

www.erinhuggins.com use a regular chair for pushups dips. hey all, here is a simple arm routine you can do to strengthen the arms, strengthen the chest, tone the triceps and tone the chest, tone the biceps. get a great arm routine. tone your arms without weights, do this arm routine in a hotel room, at home, in your dorm room, on the road, wherever. do 3-5 sets of 10 reps 3-5 time a week for maximum results. really working shoulders, biceps, triceps, pecs and core.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Strength Training Without Weights for Moms and Busy Women

Article by Mohamad Al

Performing Strength Training Without Weights for Women is something every busy Mom and woman should think about because the results are as impressive as, and even better in many cases than using weight machines exclusively.The body does not really care if it is receiving work from lifting a dumbbell or a sack of potatoes, as long as the body is being exposed to resistance stimulus; then that is good enough.The other issue is when you are performing body weight exercises, more often than not, you are using multiple muscles/joints which is more functional because all of your muscles are linked together. Therefore, the body is designed to work together.

There are many Strength Training Without Weights Exercises for Moms to use at home or outdoors in the fresh air using minimal fitness tools, and in many instances all you need is your body weight.

I will list some Strength Training Without Weights Exercises, and some will have instructions and others will not because they are either self- explanatory, or it is easy to Google them on the Internet for more instructions.

Strength Training without Weights

Upper Body (Chest, shoulders, triceps)

-Push ups (regular)

-Feet Elevated Push-ups (more challenging)

-Hands Elevated Push-ups (less challenging)

Upper Body (back, biceps, and forearms)

-Pull-ups

-Chin-ups

-Parallel Grip Pull-ups

-Mixed Grip Pull-ups

-Pull-ins (similar to rowing movement)

-Skydiving: lie down on the floor facing down and lift your fully extended arms and slightly bent legs off the floor and hold this skydiving pose for 20 to 60 seconds.

-Table Pose

-Crab Walk

Lower Body (thighs, buttocks, and calves)

-Squats

-Lunges

-Standing Butt Squeeze

-Leg Kicks (hamstring and buttocks) standing on your hands and knees like a horse pose, lift one leg and kick the sky with the bottom of your feet (your leg should be bent 90 degree)

-Heel Raises

Midsection Area

Elbow Bridge (prone position) facing down supported by your elbows and your feet remain the bridge pose for 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

Keep your upper body level, and do not sway the lower back any more than you have to, and don’t bend your legs.

Elbow Side Bridge with the Side Bridge your body will be supported by the right elbow and the outer side of your right foot. Hold the position for 30 to 60 seconds, and then switch to exercise the left side.Bent Knees CrunchesThese are some of the Strength Training Without Weights Exercises for Women to use at home or anywhere they want to work out, and they will get great results from using them.

Building Muscle Without Weights

Let us take a look at how your muscles literally become big maybe not necessarily huge. Your body systems and processes are maintained because of the nutrients that are absorbed by your body after the digestion of food. A well-balanced diet may give the necessary macro-nutrients as well as micronutrients that your body needs.

Doing cardio is what you need to do if you want to gain weight not lose it. By lifting weights you’ll increase your appetite which is a good thing because it’ll make you want to eat like a horse throughout the day. It will also help you gain muscle tone instead of a bunch of extra flat. When you eat a whole bunch you need to make sure you’re doing exercise too.

Alcohol and certain other drugs can increase the level of estrogen in your body that may be one of the reasons behind the development of male breasts. Hence, it is a great idea to avoid alcohol altogether.

During the process of working out, your body naturally produces nitric oxide. This compound paves the way for better blood circulation through one of your body processes called vasodilatation. When your blood is able to move without constrictions, your muscle tissues get sufficient supply of oxygen and vital micronutrients.

One additional tip is to watch what you eat and know your body. Hard gainers may need extra calories but most of us need fewer calories. You can’t see muscle under a layer of fat! You need to make sure your gains are visible.

Simple carbohydrates which are found in fruits such as apple, orange, grapes, raisins and mango are really good for this purpose. You can also consume honey and high energy carb drinks which can provide you with good amount of energy.

Some of the most commonly used exercises for this purpose are bench press and flat DB chest press, bent over barbell rows and close grip chin ups, seated DB shoulder press and standing military press, dips and triceps press downs, standing barbell curls and incline bicep curls, squats and lunges, dead lifts and stiff leg dead lifts, standing calve raises, weighted ball sit-ups and weighted cable crunches.

Then, when we get into high school, we tend to get caught up in lifting heavy weights. This is usually because we need development for a sport activity. We leave the traditional behind and building muscle without weights just doesn’t get the respect that I think it deserves.

To get a solid fat burning workout all you need is plain old-fashion barbells or dumbbells. Maybe even less. To get a good workout, start off with a good set of adjustable dumbbells and a bench.

If you eat more calories than your body is able to use as energy, it will be stored. This point is clear. The key about calories is how to enjoy them in appropriate measure, and how many to consume in relation to your activity level and nutritional requirements.

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