Gallagher Fitness Resources

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  • Logging

    Keeping track of exercise sessions and how we feel during exercise allows us to see improvement, helps us learn to avoid mistakes that lead to injury and helps us stay accountable and consistent. Logging can also be a great source of inspiration, both to yourself and to others.

    More on logging:

    • Provides information on how weather conditions, clothes, shoes and food affect exercise
    • Provides information on favorite places to exercise
    • A “journal of your journey” says John “The Penguin” Bingham
    • No matter where you are at this moment, a year from now you will have traveled to a new place
    • Helps you track physical and emotional change
    • Allows you to feel great enjoyment and accomplishment looking over past experiences
    • What may seem like trivial data today can be the basis for analyzing progress or meeting challenges in the future
    • Reflections on times when things went well often lead to future success in meeting your goals
    • Allows you to analyze what led up to an injury or less-than-satisfactory performance
    • Past problems can help you make powerful changes – if you have the right information written down
    • The accounts of your successes can often lead to more success
    • One of the main reasons why we don’t log is because we don’t want to know the truth!

    Tip from the Big Cat Kahuna:

    • Secure homework slips onto an 8 ½ by 11-inch sheet (4 weeks per sheet)
    • Record actual minutes walked or run each day and total your minutes at the end of the week
    • Leave space after each week to write notes: weather, time of day, route, shoes, how you felt, what you wore, who you went with, what you learned, goals, etc.
    • Have fun!

  • Breathing Awareness

    Do you practice diaphragmatic or “belly” breathing? Do you breathe when you stretch? Correct breathing – slow, relaxed “belly” breathing – is important for effective stretching, rolling out and many other activities. Good breathing helps us relax, increases blood flow throughout the body, and helps relieve built-up tension. With practice, correct breathing is a simple, yet highly effective tool.

    As you breathe in, the diaphragm presses downward on the internal organs and their associated blood vessels, squeezing the blood out of them. As you exhale, the abdomen, its organs and muscles, and their blood vessels flood with new blood. This rhythmic contraction and expansion of the abdominal blood vessels is partially responsible for the circulation of blood in the body. The rhythmic pumping action, referred to as the respiratory pump, also helps remove waste products.

    The respiratory pump is important during stretching and rolling out because increased blood flow to muscles improves their elasticity, and increases the rate at which lactic acid is removed from them. Work on slow, relaxed breathing when you stretch and roll out.

    BREATHING AWARENESS EXERCISE

    Observe your normal breathing pattern without making any changes, nor controlling the breath in any way. Simply observe, and notice the quality of your breathing, depth, evenness, sound, smoothness, roughness, rate. Let the breath come and go in its own natural rhythm.

    Follow the breath from moment to moment, and develop sensitivity by the direct experience of feeling the breath as it enters and leaves the body.

    Breathe in and out the nostrils.

    Feel the breath, and follow it, the moment it enters your nostrils, through the nasal passages, throat, trachea, bronchi and into the lungs. Let the exhalation be a long, slow release.

    Notice whether or not you are breathing equally into each nostril and lungs. Be aware of tightness and restriction in the rib cage. Notice the quality and amount of expansion in the ribs and lungs. Do both lungs expand equally? Into which part of the lungs do you mostly breathe?

    If you practice breathing with awareness, the quality of your breathing will improve with little effort.

    BREATHING EXERCISE #2

    How can I relax and bring my heart rate down? Practice diaphragmatic breathing. Here’s an exercise. It takes practice, so be patient and persistent.

    Get comfortable, either sitting, or lying on your back with pillows under the knees or lower legs on a couch.

    1. Breathe in slowly and deeply, using diaphragm, 4-6 seconds (one-one thousand, two-one thousand, etc)

    2. Hold your breath for about three seconds

    3. Slowly begin to exhale, counting for twice as long as the inhale, and gently pushing from down low for the last 2 or 3 seconds to get that last bit of stale air all the way out.

    Repeat steps 1-3, two more times for a total of three times. Next breathe normally for ten breaths. Then repeat the whole sequence. Although it takes practice, this is a relatively simple relaxation tool and it works really well.

  • Stretching

    STRETCHING

    Done properly, stretching can do more than just increase flexibility. Benefits include increased relaxation, increased body awareness, reduced risk of injury, and reduced muscle soreness and tension. Unfortunately, stretching is not always done properly. Therefore, the benefits are not always realized. Common mistakes include stretching cold muscles, overstretching, performing exercises the wrong way, and shallow breathing.

    Click here for breathing tips.

    OVER-STRETCHING

    Occasionally, the progression of sensations you feel as you reach the extreme ranges of a stretch are localized warmth of the stretched muscles, followed by a burning (or spasm-like) sensation, followed by sharp “ouch!” pain. The localized warming usually occurs at the muscle’s origin or point of insertion. When you begin to feel this, it is your first clue that you may need to “back off” and reduce the intensity of the stretch.

    If you ignore (or do not feel) the warming sensation, and you proceed to the point where you feel a definite burning sensation in the stretched muscles, then you should ease up immediately and discontinue the stretch! You may not feel soreness right away, but you probably will the next day. If your stretch gets to the point where you feel sharp pain, it is quite likely that tissue damage has already occurred and may cause immediate pain and soreness that persists for several days.

    Click here for Trigger Point Therapy information to help your stretching be even more effective!

  • Trigger Point Therapy

    TRIGGER POINT THERAPY

    Trigger Point therapy is an effective injury prevention strategy, increasing muscle elasticity and functionality. It’s like doing your own deep tissue massage. Trigger Point therapy helps you gain a better appreciation of which muscles are tight and how to release them. IT Band Syndrome, Plantar Fasciitis, Shin Splints, Piriformis Syndrome and other common conditions are addressed through TP therapy. You can learn to take care of yourself by treating the cause of a problem, not just the symptoms. You can minimize the aches, pains and conditions that steer you off the path toward your goals, and you can function at a higher level.

    What are trigger points?

    Pain related to an irritable point in muscle or fascia, not caused by acute local trauma, inflammation, degeneration or infection. The painful point can be felt as a nodule or band in the muscle, and a twitch response can be elicited on stimulation of the trigger point. Palpation of the trigger point reproduces the feeling of pain, and the pain radiates in a distribution typical of the specific muscle harboring the trigger point.

    What is muscle elasticity and why is it important?

    Muscle elasticity is the muscle rebounding to its natural state. It is important for sustaining optimal performance without factors of fatigue and injury. Proper muscle function is key for flexibility, balance, power, stamina and injury prevention. An inelastic muscle is like a rope. The muscle loses its ability to lengthen and rebound. In some cases, the rope-like muscle has knots. You cannot stretch a knot out of a rope, or a knot out of a muscle.

    How does the use of Trigger Point tools give me elasticity?

    The TP Massage Ball, TP Footballer and TP Quadballer work to improve the body’s performance by increasing elasticity within the muscles, allowing them to rebound to their natural state. This is achieved through increased blood flow and elevated oxygen use and reduction of scar tissue and muscle adhesions. The tools knead out the adhesions, scar tissue and knots within the muscles. The kneading and the increased blood and oxygen combine to increase elasticity, making the muscle function like a bungee cord instead of a knot-filled rope.

    What is the difference between elasticity and flexibility?

    Flexibility describes how far a muscle can stretch, without regard to how elastic the muscle actually is. Elasticity is the ability of the muscle to rebound to its natural state after it has been stretched. If you tried to stretch a knot in a rope, it just gets tighter. If you stretch a bungee cord, it returns to its normal state. Factors of aging, wear and tear and biomechanical dysfunction due to inelasticity of the muscle and the surrounding connective tissue and fascia can significantly reduce the range of flexibility.

    Gallagher Fitness Resources has been selling Trigger Point therapy tools since 2007 and offering classes since 2008.

    Contact: 503-364-4198 or E-mail Susan for more information or to schedule a Trigger Point session.

  • Using Heart Rate As Your Exercise Guideline

    Exertion is necessary when exercising. Breaking a sweat is good. Over-exertion, on the other hand, especially for beginners, leads to more than just injury. Typically, it’s one of the primary reasons people quit. Unfortunately, they don’t realize it. This is partially because they don’t know how to measure effort and when highly motivated, the tendency of human nature is to over-do it.

    How do you know how much effort is enough and how much is excessive? Using a heart rate monitor or “effort-based” training are tools to help guide you and increase your awareness of effort, be it low (EASY), moderate (COMFORTABLE) or high (INTENSE). Heart rate or “effort-based” training is at the foundation of long term exercising. This, done consistently, leads to life-style changes and the attainment of your personal goals.

    Guidelines listed are for Women’s Clinic participants or anyone starting an exercise program or returning from an extended lay-off. Let’s break up the exercise session into three parts. If going by effort, it’s easy, comfortable, then easy. As mentioned, beginners generally don’t truly understand what easy or comfortable feels like. Their tendency is intense right out of the chute. Stopping to manually take your heart rate is an option. Using a heart rate monitor, however, provides immediate, objective feedback and removes the guess work. Plus, there’s no stopping to check your HR. You simply glance at your monitor.

    Many heart rate monitors apply the 220 minus your age formula and instruct users to program in their birthday. The unit then displays where the user is within a 65-85% range, with optional visual or audible alerts when under or over the target range. For the Women’s Clinic and most beginners I work with, a 60-80% range is suggested, with 85% being a red flag for over-doing it. Most heart rate monitors allow a manual adjustment to personalize your target HR range.

    Warm-up Phase: 60-65% (Effort feels EASY)
    Aerobic Conditioning Phase: 65-80% (Effort feels COMFORTABLE but more of an effort than EASY)
    Cool-down Phase: 60-65% (Effort feels EASY)

    HINT! If your effort is too hard, or you’re not having fun, SLOW down!

    Additional beginner guidelines during Aerobic Conditioning (middle) Phase:

    Less fit people:
    “Error on the Conservative” Try not to go above 75%, especially in the first 6 weeks. You’ll see this reflected in your homework.

    Moderately fit people:
    “Generally” okay to go up to 80%.

    Chronically fit people:
    Occasionally okay to “gradually” progress up to 85%, but do this towards the “end” of the Aerobic Conditioning phase, not during the “entire” phase.

    Generally, be aware that it’s a bit hectic the first week of HR checks but we get through it and it gets easier. So hang in there, respect your group leaders (especially the big groups) and do your best. Read through this information a few times so you know what to expect. You are being given a tool to help you exercise at the pace that’s right for you. Remember my comment on the first night, you’re here for one reason or another, but “nobody here is training to qualify for the Olympic Trails.” Although a few of you may be returning, most of you are still building your fitness base. There is no need to exceed the guidelines. Consistency is the key to your success.

    MEDICINE

    Some drugs raise heart rate and some lower it. Medications may also influence hydration levels which can affect heart rate. If you are on medications and are not sure what effect they may have on your exercise heart rate, please contact your physician and be inquisitive. Let the doctor know your exercise plans and concerns regarding medicine use and heart rate guidelines. How does the medicine you are taking affect heart rate during exercise and what precautions should you take?

    Remember, we’re aiming for an increased awareness of the importance of starting EASY (Warm-up Phase), staying Comfortable (Aerobic Conditioning Phase), and ending EASY (Cool-down Phase). Begin to associate “effort” (what it FEELS like) with your HR numbers, so that eventually you KNOW your effort and trust it.

    Click the following links for more on Using Heart Rate as Your Exercise Guideline:

    Heart Rate Formula

    Conversation Pace

    History of Taking Heart Rates

    Your True Resting Heart Rate

    Three Stages of Aerobic Fitness

  • Three Stages of Aerobic Fitness

    You may have heard that aerobic exercise is the most efficient way to improve overall fitness. This is mostly true, but there is more to overall success in fitness than aerobic exercise. It is the necessary first step to improve overall fitness; and it is certainly the quickest step in the process.

    “Getting Fit” involves three major steps that occur in this order. Be aware, the human body is pretty wise to shortcuts!

    The Three Major Steps

    1. Aerobic Fitness – your heart and lungs get used to processing more blood and oxygen and your cardiovascular system responds by becoming more efficient. Major gains in aerobic fitness can occur in as little as 4-6 weeks.
    2. Muscle Fitness – your muscles adapt to the increase in exercise by getting stronger. This process takes a bit longer – about 8-16 weeks.
    3. Musculoskeletal Fitness – your bones, tendons, ligaments, and joints adapt to having a better cardiovascular system and stronger muscles. This process takes the longest time of all – about 3-6 months! (Depending on your beginning fitness level.)

    Whenever you try to shortcut the process, the human body usually responds with its most noticeable message – pain. Pain is the body’s defense mechanism and it can be employed at any time during these three major steps of getting fit. There are few things more discouraging than to get hurt after “I put all that time in exercising.” Listen to your heart, literally, and many of those aches and pains will never appear.

    Pain is highly avoidable if you exercise patience. You have all been told to avoid huffing & puffing and to keep your pace at a “conversation level.” The primary reason is to keep your heart rate in the right zone. The aerobic zone is between 60-80% of maximum heart rate. Keeping it there for 3-6 months during the majority of your workouts will allow your body to adapt gradually to your new level of fitness. Follow this advice and you will be truly amazed at how much higher that new level will be 6 months from now!

    Monitoring heart rate, during & after training, is a great tool to develop and maintain proper workouts. Heart rate gives immediate feedback on how the body is responding to exercise and to the conditions of the particular day. (See Factors Affecting Your Heart Rate.) The pulse is a direct measure of the effort being put on the heart and the body. Trust it! It’s the best indicator we’ve got.

  • History of Taking Heart Rates

    Historically, during Heart Rate checks in the Women’s Beginning Walking and Running Clinic, many are surprised to discover that they are going too fast. This is a very important discovery because prior to HR checks, they don’t think they’re going too fast. They’re motivated and they’re moving forward. They think they’re doing just fine. Just a few weeks into a program, this “yucky” feeling occurs. Does this sound familiar? With beginners, “yuck” happens when you’ve overdone it.

    Once you realize you are exceeding your Target HR Zone, and associate this with what your effort FEELS like, and what your ABILITY TO TALK is, then you allow yourself a chance to slow down. You gain new tools to experiment with, new tools to assist with the learning process of enjoying exercise and all its wonderful benefits.

    Heart Rate checks, Conversation Pace and learning to “Listen To Your Body” are simply tools to use during this learning process. And it truly is a “process” in that it doesn’t happen overnight and it is ongoing. It takes years to really learn to “listen to your body” and trust and respect it, and then, to actually do what it says! This is where patience comes in. Be patient with the process, have fun learning how to use the tools, and trust your instincts. Then you will know when to slow down and when to pick it up, with confidence and pure enjoyment!

  • Factors Affecting Your Heart Rate

    Factors Affecting Heart Rate
    Happy Running Heart

    Factors Affecting Heart Rate

    There are certain factors affecting heart rate when exercising. Your body relies as heavily on the oxygen/fuel ratio as your car does. Much like your car’s engine, your body uses oxygen and various fuels (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) to yield muscle energy. When this ratio is not in balance in the body, a whole series of physiological events occur.

    These events can be gauged with your body’s tachometer — your heart rate. And much like the automobile engine, the true efficiency of the body’s engine is dependent upon a multitude of parts working efficiently together. Your heart rate will indicate if there is any sign of trouble in your body’s engine.

    A Brief List of Factors Affecting Heart Rate

    These factors play a role in directly affecting heart rate while running or walking:

    1. Emotions and anxiety can raise your heart rate! Unlike an automobile that is purely mechanical, we are not solely governed by working parts. Some days you can “feel” your way to a higher HR.
    2. Body Temperature: If you become too hot or too cold your body senses a thermal stress load. Blood is sent to your skin to enhance heat dissipation to cool you or increases blood flow to warm you. Apparent temperatures (which account for humidity or wind chill) above 70 degress (F) and below 35 degrees (F) will increase your heart rate at least 2-4 beats per minute. Over 90% humidity can equal as much as a 10 beat increase in heart rate.
    3. The terrain. Walk or run uphill and your HR increases. Walk or run downhill and your HR decreases.
    4. Wind. Walking or running with the wind at your back is easy, therefore HR decreases. Walking or running into the wind is more difficult: HR increases.
    5. Dehydration. As you become increasingly dehydrated during a long walk, hike, or run, your blood becomes thicker and waste products build up in bloodstream. Your heart will work harder to maintain constant cardiac output. A fluid loss of 3% of body weight increases pulse rate because of decrease in circulating blood volume.
    6. Diminishing glycogen stores — your muscles primary fuel source. As the fuel depletes, in order to maintain the same walking or running pace, your HR rises.
    7. Insufficient nutrition. HR increases.
    8. Insufficient sleep. HR increases.
    9. Insufficient recovery after a long hike, run, or other hard workout. HR increases.
    10. Recent illness — or — a signal of impending illness. You guessed it!
    11. Medication – depending upon the medication, heart rate can either decrease or increase. Be certain to ask your physician about any medication you are taking and its effects on your exercise heart rate.

  • Your True Resting Heart Rate

    Record your “true” resting heart rate. First thing in the morning, before rising from bed, take it for 15 seconds and multiply by four. Take it 3 or 4 times a week and note the lowest recording. It varies depending on how rested and calm we are, how hydrated we are and generally how healthy we are, or not. Track how it changes, both with life variables, and over time. Happily watch your “true” resting heart rate go down as your fitness level improves. This tells you your consistency is paying off! This gives you proof that you are getting in shape.

    Next, practice taking your heart rate in various situations. For example, take your HR while sitting and relaxed; following a bit of typical daily walking, such as from one room to the next or through a parking lot; after a meal with various beverages; following a “heated” discussion; following a hectic commute, etc. You get the idea. Then practice bringing it down. In my experience, focusing on breathing is the simplest method of bringing it down. Practice, practice, practice! “Are you breathing?” We’ll talk more about breathing in another session.

  • If the Shoe Fits

    Pronation is a normal foot in motion, from foot-strike on the outside of the heel through the inward roll of the foot. Pronation occurs as the foot rolls from the outer edge to the inner edge. Everyone pronates, and the initial pronation is considered an important and healthy response to the intense amount of shock imposed upon the foot and is integral to propelling you forward. If the foot pronates too much or too little and does so frequently, several biomechanical problems may result that will cause a decrease in performance and increase the possibility of injury.

    Fit

    No matter how expensive your shoes are or how much technology your shoes contain, they will not do their job unless they fit correctly. Here are useful tips that can help assure you are getting the proper fit.

    When trying on shoes, if you have custom orthotics or over-the-counter inserts, bring them with you.
    Combining rigid orthotics with supportive shoes can sometimes result in over-correction. Consult with the experts to make sure your shoes accommodate your orthotics for a comfortable match.

    Make sure there is adequate space in the toe box. Leave 1/2 inch between the longest toe and the end of the shoe. This is about a thumb’s width. This measurement should be done while standing since the foot elongates while weight-bearing. If this measurement is done while sitting, there is a good chance the shoe will be too short.

    Check the heel counter to make sure your heel won’t slide excessively and is firm enough to provide stability. A little slippage is normal, but not too much.

    If your feet tend to expand throughout the day, try on shoes in the afternoon or evening to insure you have enough toe room.

    Walk or run in the shoes while in the store, and experience how they feel. They should be comfortable right away, not needing to be broken in. General rule of thumb: If it hurts in the store, it will hurt at home. An expert sales associate will observe your biomechanics while you try out the shoes, providing knowledgeable feedback.

    Knowledgeable Staff/Specialty Shoe Store
    Use the knowledge of staff at a specialty shoe store, Gallagher Fitness Resources. We listen to your specific foot concerns, explain the technology of the various categories, assess the wear pattern of your old, worn shoes, and observe the biomechanics of your stride. Taking all this into account, we can help take the guess work out of finding shoes that will provide you the best comfort and functionality.


    Durability

    There is a wide variety of running/walking shoes. The main types are neutral/cushioned, stability and motion control. Regardless of the type of shoe, the constant pounding will wear out the midsole cushioning before the rest of the shoe. The impact at heel strike is typically 2.5 times or more your body weight. This is the same force that is translated to the ankles, knees and lower back. Running shoes are specifically designed to redistribute and absorb shock to preserve the health of these joints. It is recommended to change running shoes every 350-500 miles or every 6 months to maintain proper shock absorption and help prevent injury.

    Minimalism

    The running shoe world has been buzzing with minimalist/barefoot hype. Gallagher Fitness has an entire line of minimal/natural footstrike shoes from New Balance, Brooks, Saucony, Nike and Altra in addition to the “minimal” racing flats we carry from Asics, Nike and adidas. We want to represent as many choices to our customer base as possible without finding ourselves awash in a tsunami of inventory. To be certain, there are some fads and pretenders trying to make a buck before this minimalist movement implodes. Yet at the same time there are some quality products built by manufacturers who have taken the time and effort to research the final offering and produce a product that will stand the test of time.

    We recommend a very careful and methodical transition to using minimalist shoes, especially if you’ve been in conventional shoes for most of your life. If you’re curious about trying them, we encourage you to talk to our staff individually when you come in for shoes. Trust the cumulative experience we have at GFR over the marketing, which can be confusing and misleading. When used correctly, minimal shoes can be a tool to strengthen your feet and lower legs and assist with form awareness. However, they don’t work for everyone. We’ve seen quite a few injuries. The Good Form Running classes at GFR twice a month will increase your awareness of form, regardless of your shoes. We encourage you to sign up. It’s more involved than princess steps.

    “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” However, if you try minimalist shoes, start slowly and proceed gradually. What works for some, doesn’t work for everyone.