OnFitness Magazine - July/August 2014 - 56

MYTHS
W W W. O N F I T N E S S M A G . C O M | V O L 1 5 N O 1 | 2 0 1 4 5 6

Once a woman reaches menopause, the dreaded mufﬁn top is inevitable. For many women, yes,
and the primary reason is that they do not exercise regularly. Before menopause, estrogen levels play
a signiﬁcant role in how our body fat is distributed - on the hips, thighs and buttocks, where it is
stored for breastfeeding. During perimenopause and menopause, estrogen levels drop and fat may
be redistributed to the abdomen and spill out over your jeans if you gain any weight. All it takes is
two to ﬁve pounds. A serious commitment to exercise and proper diet will remedy this problem.

FRUSTRATED
BY THE NONADJUSTABLE
PARALLEL BAR
DIP WIDTH?

________
Even the type of
handles that can be
turned out or in have
limitations, being that
they have only two
positions. For many bar
dip enthusiasts, the
width is either too wide
or too narrow. But
there's a way to
customize the width of
a bar dipping station.
And here's how it's
done: Simply place two
naked Olympic bars parallel to each other on
the safety pins of a
squat rack. (Make sure
it's not a busy time
when others will want
to use the squat rack for
squats or deadlifts.) You
can easily create any
width this way. The bars
will not roll once you
begin dipping.
Though setting this up
may be a nuisance, and
you may get some odd
looks by people wondering what you're
doing, you'll be glad you
set up this personalized
dipping station. And
don't be surprised if you
eventually see other
trainees copying you.

One of the best ways to estimate threshold is through rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Rating of perceived exertion
is a simple scalar format that an individual can use to provide data on how they feel during an exercise bout.
The most common scale is the Borg scale which runs from
6 to 20, with 20 being maximal exercise. A rating of 15-16 is
where lactate threshold usually occurs. So for an athlete a simple, self-addressed question, "How do I feel?" can provide a
wealth of data.
For example, during a long-and-slow day an individual
would probably or should probably be giving an RPE of 1214, and on a high intensity day, 17-18.
Using RPE can also provide information about improvements in performance. If heart rate at an RPE of 16 was 165
bpm during the bike portion one day, and then three weeks
later the heart rate was 170 bpm at an RPE of 16, there has
obviously been some improvement in biking economy and
metabolic function.
Rating of perceived exertion, as I will show later, can also
give a complete picture of the loading on an individual during
training, regardless of the triathlon discipline the training
took place in.
Volume
Monitoring and planning volume as compared to intensity
is a much easier process. However, while distance might seem
to be the right variable to use to measure volume, time is a
better variable in order to get a complete picture of the total
stress placed on the body during a training session or cycle.
That does not mean distance should not be a variable of
interest, especially for planning purposes. For example, a
triathlete might program in a 20 mile bike ride, so the use of
distance then is ﬁne and useful for planning.
But in order for you to monitor the total amount of volume
between disciplines and even types of training in one discipline
(sprint vs. distance work for example), total time spent in training is going to be easier and universal.
Volume-load
Both the measures of intensity (RPE) and volume (time)
described here have led me to this one point. While intensity and volume are both important variables, it's the interaction between the two that should be of most interest in
monitoring and planning training stimulus, the so-called
volume-load.
Volume-load for triathletes is simply the multiplication
of intensity by time for a given training session. An example might be a swim workout that took 20 minutes (volume), and the athlete would assign an average RPE for the
whole 20 minutes of 12.
The total volume-load then for the session would be
20x12 or 240. Units are not important, but the number represents a way to measure the volume-load from discipline to
discipline and training mode to training mode.
Volume-load is one of the most important variables if
performance gains are to be optimized and overwork to be
minimized.
Over the course of multiple training blocks and performance tapering for competition, a triathlete can essentially get a picture of their own individual physiology and
the optimal amount and timing of the training stimulus.
- Dr. Jason Miller

One of 10 children, Meb Keﬂezighi began his running career
in middle school, going on to win the U.S. Cross Country
Championships in 2001, 2002 and 2009. In the 2004 Summer
Olympics, he won the silver medal in the men's marathon.

Aging
athletes

How they keep the ability to
compete at a high level
BY DWAYNE HINES II

erschel Walker recently made
headlines when he stated he could
play in the NFL today. That's newsworthy because Herschel is 52
years old and in relatively good
condition (he won a mixed martial arts competition
not too long ago).
The ability to compete at a high level at an older
age was not speculation at this year's Boston
Marathon. The winner, Meb Keﬂezighi, is 39 and
well-beyond what is considered prime racing age.
Social media lit up like wildﬁre with runners
expressing hope that they too can hit a personal
record even though they are past what conventional
wisdom says the body is capable of.
Keﬂezighi not only won the race, he also turned
in a personal best time of 2.08.37. The traditional
thinking has been that for marathon runners, ultimate output peaks earlier in life.
Let's take Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins, who has
fought all the big names in his storied boxing career
(De La Hoya, Trinidad, Holmes, Jones, etc.) is still
ﬁghting, and that's impressive because he's 49.
Hopkins uniﬁed the Light Heavyweight title in
April of 2014 by defeating Beibut Shumenov, becoming
the oldest boxer in history to unify a group of titles.
And Hopkins shows no signs of letting up either.
Walker may not have stepped back onto the ﬁeld,
but a handful of men over 50 recently have, playing
linebacker at the collegiate level.

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OnFitness Magazine - July/August 2014

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