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What impact did Arthur Lydiard have on running?

Arthur Lydiard had been a very significant distance running coach coming from New Zealand and his legacy has had substantial influence over the training of runners today. Arthur Lydiard has been recognized for making running or jogging popular in the late 60’s and early 1970’s. Many have even proposed that Arthur Lydiard possibly even created jogging. He coached many Olympic winners from NZ in the 1960s (Peter Snell, Barry Magee and Murray Halberg) together a tremendous impact via some other mentors on various other prominent NZ runners for example John Walker who was the first person to run greater than 100 sub-4 minute miles and also run a mile faster than 3 minutes and 50 second. He was born 6 July 1917 and passed on on 11 December 2004 at the age of 87. He has had been given a number of accolades in his own NZ and in Finland where his guidance became accountable for an increase of Finnish distance running during the early 70’s. The publication, Runners World named Lydiard as the coach of the century as part of their millennium issue. As an athlete himself, Lydiard took part in the marathon at the 1950 British Empire Games, finishing thirteenth having a time of 2hr 54m. Lydiard’s influence on running continues to be enormous and way over and above his personal achievements as a runner himself.

As for Lydiard’s running approach, he believed in separating the season into unique training periods or stages. The base or background time period was the endurance phase which was comprised of at least ten weeks of highest miles that the runner is capable of doing in order to improve their aerobic foundation or background. That’s where his common 100 miles each week originated from as he deemed this to be the optimum. He strongly suggested for the lengthier runs would be about 20 miles. These kinds of distances are run at a pace that was slightly below the anaerobic threshold and is maintained as a stable aerobic speed. The aim should be to build the largest endurance foundation possible for the subsequent phases. The subsequent period had been the uphill training phase which usually chiefly consist of uphill bounding or springing exercises to build power in the legs which was commonly carried out three times a week. Some middle and long distance aerobic work is still done throughout this period which may go on for approximately four or so weeks. The subsequent 4 or so week period was called the sharpening or speed period in which some anaerobic interval and speed work training is completed so the athlete may improve your speed. After that 4 week phase, the difficult running is backed off and the concentration will then be on remaining sharp and fresh for racing.

Many think about it unlikely that any coach are ever going to have more impact on the coaching methods of middle and long distance runners than him. The plan which he created transformed middle and long distance training with regard to the level of work he believed a runner must be undertaking. The running plans was comprised of lots of working hard. The majority of coaching programs made use of by runners nowadays can track their origins back to what was recommended by Arthur Lydiard.

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Abebe Bikala, the barefoot marathoner

The marathon is really a hard distance to run; it is 42 kms of hard running. It’s hard on the body, particularly the feet which is why all marathon runners spend such a lot of consideration to exactly what is on their feet. Marathoners spend considerable time getting the appropriate running shoes and a lot of money is involved in running shoes. Back at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games, Abebe Bikala from Ethiopia turned up for the marathon and there were no running shoes remaining in the teams supplies which would fit him, so he ran the marathon barefoot and went on to win the gold medal. This is often commonly acclaimed as a tremendous achievement. Recently there has been a group of runners who are suggesting the running footwear is not all they can be claimed to be and are recommending that running ought to be done barefoot, much like nature intended. After all, we were not born with footwear and historical humans had to run large distances without running shoes to survive as animals needed to be hunted on foot over long distances.

Running footwear are really only a relatively recent invention. Those who promote the barefoot approach to running love to point to the achievements of Abebe Bikala as even more validation that we don’t need running shoes. There are certainly a great many other justifications both for and against barefoot running, with not much scientific data supporting it. Whilst Abebe Bikala winning gold medal at the Rome Olympics barefoot certainly suggest that it is possible, what those who like to promote his achievements as evidence often leave out that he later went on to win the gold medal as well as break the world record in the marathon at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic games. Abebe Bikala managed to set the world record this time wearing running shoes; in other words he had the ability to run faster when he was wearing running shoes. We may well have evolved to run without running shoes, but we also evolved in an environment prior to concrete and hard surfaces emerged. While the achievements of him were extraordinary, making use of him as proof that it is better does not stack up to scrutiny.

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Girls benefit from doing sports

Media release:

Girls – but not boys – who participate actively in school sports activities in middle childhood show improved behaviour and attentiveness in early adolescence, suggests a new Canadian study published in Preventative Medicine.

“Girls who do regular extracurricular sports between ages 6 and 10 show fewer symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at age 12, compared to girls who seldom do,” said Linda Pagani, a professor at Université de Montréal’s School of Psychoeducation.

“Surprisingly, however, boys do not appear to gain any behavioural benefit from sustained involvement in sports during middle childhood,” said Pagani, who led the study co-authored by her students Marie-Josée Harbec and Geneviève Fortin and McGill University associate medical professor Tracie Barnett.

As the team prepared their research, “it was unclear to what extent organized physical activity is beneficial for children with ADHD symptoms,” recalled Pagani.

“Past studies have varied widely in quality, thus blurring the true association between sport and behavioural development.” She added: “On top of that, “past research has not acknowledged that boys and girls are different in how they present ADHD symptoms.”

A chance to get organized

ADHD harms children’s ability to process information and learn at school, Pagani explained. Sport helps young people develop life skills and supportive relationships with their peers and adults. It offers a chance to get organized under some form of adult influence or supervision.

“Thus, from a public-health perspective, extracurricular sport has the potential to be a positive, non-stigmatizing and engaging approach to promote psychological well-being and could thus be viewed as behaviour therapy for youth with ADHD,” Pagani said.

“Sports are especially beneficial if they begin in early childhood. And so, since using concentration and interpersonal skills are essential elements of sport, in our study we undertook to examine whether it would result in reductions in ADHD symptoms over the long term.”

Pagani and her team came to their conclusions after examining data from a Quebec cohort of children born in 1997 and 1998, part of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development coordinated by the Institut de la statistique du Québec.

Parents of the 991 girls and 1,006 boys in the study reported on whether their sons and daughters were in an extracurricular physical activity that required a coach or instructor between ages 6 and 10. At age 12 years, teachers rated the children’s behaviour compared to their classmates. Pagani’s team then analyzed the data to identify any significant link between sustained participation and later ADHD symptoms, discarding many possible confounding factors.

“Our goal was to eliminate any pre-existing conditions of the children or families that could throw a different light on our results,” said Pagani.

‘Boys more impulsive’

Why do girls with ADHD benefit from sports, but not boys?

“In childhood, boys with ADHD are more impulsive and more motor-skilled than girls — as a result, boys are more likely to receive medication for their ADHD, so faster diagnosis and treatment for boys in middle childhood could diminish the detectable benefits of sport,” Pagani said. “They might be there; they’re just harder to tease out.”

“In girls, on the other hand, ADHD is more likely to go undetected — and girls’ difficulties may be even more tolerated at home and in school. Parents of boys, by contrast, might be more inclined to enroll them in sports and other physical activities to help them.”

She added: “We know that sporting activities have other numerous benefits for mental health of all children. However, for reducing ADHD symptoms, middle childhood sports in elementary school seem more noteworthy for girls.”

That’s why structured extracurricular activities that demand physical skill and effort under the supervision of a coach or instructor could be valuable to any official policy aimed at promoting behavioral development, the UdeM researchers maintain.

Concluded Pagani: “Sports activities in early childhood can help girls develop essential social skills that will be useful later and ultimately play a key role in their personal, financial and economic success.”

About this study

“Childhood exercise as medicine: extracurricular sport diminishes subsequent ADHD symptoms,” by Linda Pagani et al, with the help of Frédéric Nault-Brière, was published September 29, 2020 in Preventive Medicine. The work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanties Research Council of Canada and other funders. They include: the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon, Institut de la Statistique du Québec, Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur du Québec, Ministère de la Famille du Québec, Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec, Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail, and the Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine.

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What ever happened to the toning shoes?

Approximately 10 years ago, the toning shoes had been all the craze. They were shoes which were expected to allow you to firm up and obtain an extra workout if using them. Several even stated to condition the “butts” and cure cellulite on the legs. That did not work out too well for the businesses with legal agreements and despite endorsements from celebrities they soon fell off from selling well.

Toning footwear or what is also referred to as unstable footwear are shoes that is intentionally designed with rocker soles as well as other design characteristics to make the footwear unstable in order that the muscles are claimed to work harder to improve stability. It is primarily the higher muscle exercise that was promoted being a greater workout when using the footwear, ie a tone up. After the footwear arrived on the market the health assertions and alleged advantages made for them were rather astounding. A number of celebrities and sports stars were utilized in advertising material to support and advertise the assertions. Sales of this footwear were pretty considerable on the basis of these assertions and claimed health benefits.

When the appropriate research was completed on these shoes, it didn’t support the claims that were being claimed for the benefits of the shoes. The research did demonstrate that muscle activity was greater and the walking was somewhat distinctive while using the footwear, however it wasn’t enough to give all the many benefits that have been claimed for the toning shoes. As these were health promises that were being made which were never backed up by the research this caught the attention of the medical and advertising regulatory agencies in several countries and they became involved in lawsuits. This finished up in substantial multi-million dollar fines and settlements by a few of the shoe companies that were doing the unrealistic health alleged benefits. A number of class action legal cases were furthermore paid out based on claims that those who purchased the shoes just didn’t have the advertised health benefits from them. This drastically impacted sales and interest in this footwear and they more or less faded away.

There are still a few shoes available on the market that would be viewed as toning or unstable footwear and there is still some research going on with them. All of this doesn’t mean that there is actually something inappropriate using these sorts of footwear. The problem was just the substantially embellished assertions made for the shoes and the advertising around those claims. These types of toning shoes can have their uses. Clinicians continue to find these toning footwear to be extremely ideal for modifying the way people walk with conditions like painful knee arthritis plus some individuals with lower back conditions that may be associated with the way that individuals move. The rationale is when walking one way is uncomfortable, then if the subtle modification can be produced in the way they walk with the aid of these shoes, then there could be a reduction in pain. A possible problem with this strategy could be that the studies are unclear on who might and will likely not benefit. They are also especially useful for individuals who have painful arthritis within the big toe or hallux joints.

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ASBA Announces Publication of Sports Fields: A Construction and Maintenance Manual

Media Release:

Forest Hill, MD – The American Sports Builders Association (ASBA), the national organization for builders, designers and suppliers of materials for sports fields, running tracks, tennis courts and indoor and outdoor courts and recreational facilities, has announced the publication of the 2020 edition of Sports Fields: A Construction and Maintenance Manual.
The book is designed for anyone involved in building, maintaining, repairing or renovating all types of fields. It includes user-friendly technical information on all aspects of fields for various sports, including design, budgeting and planning, site requirements, surface selection, construction, maintenance, repair, amenities and accessories and more. In addition, it includes diagrams, photos, governing bodies and sources for further information.
“In the new edition, we’ve made the book much more user-friendly,” says John Nelson, CFB, ASBA’s Fields Book Committee chairman, who worked to update and rewrite the manual. “We’ve created a more user-friendly publication that follows the process from conception to construction to completion – and also includes illustrations as well as extensive information on testing applicable to field surfaces.”
Additionally, the new publication includes enhancements with real-life information users need, including an examination of the perception of synthetic fields and a review of alternative infills on the market. It is also the textbook for those taking the ASBA’s Certified Field Builder exam. Copies of the new edition of the book are now available at a cost of $44.95 each and are available in hard copy as well as in digital form. Books can be ordered in either hard copy or digital format by going to the web site, www.sportsbuilders.org and selecting the tab at the top, reading “Publications.”
The ASBA is a non-profit association helping designers, builders, owners, operators and users understand quality athletic facility construction. The Association sponsors informative meetings, publishes newsletters, books and technical construction guidelines and keeps its members updated on developments in the industry.