Posts Tagged ‘running’

J vs. C Fitness Faceoff: Best places to workout in Austin

December 29th, 2011
,,,,, - J vs. C Fitness Faceoff

Happy holidays and welcome back! In this week’s Fitness Faceoff, Jordan and Chris share their opinions on the best places to workout in Austin. Read below to see what the two have to say about where they prefer to get their fitness on.

Q: What is your favorite place to exercise in Austin, and why?
C: The Greenbelt. No place in Austin is as beautiful. The challenging terrain makes for an awesome mountain bike/ trail run experience. I’ve been mountain biking the greenbelt for 5 years and I’m still discovering new trails. When it rains enough you can go swimming at Campbell’s hole or Twin Falls. I lived on spyglass for 3 years and spent almost every spare moment I had down there. The greenbelt is the gem of the Austin parks department. Nothing can top it.
J: I’ll admit, the Greenbelt is a great place to exercise. But obviously I have to disagree with you. The Town Lake running trail is definitely my go to spot. It’s the perfect area to run and get away from the city streets, and it just happens to be perfectly positioned almost in the midst of the city. The trees, water and scenery are beautiful and it’s always alive with people, not to mention it’s a fabulous place to people watch. In my opinion, the routes never get old and hey, you never know you might see Matthew McConaughey out for a quick jog.
Q: What makes your favorite place better than others?
C: It’s better because of the varied terrain. There are so many trails it’s easy to get lost if you don’t know what you’re doing. If you’re a pro it makes for endless opportunties to explore and find new challenging terrain. The only downside is during the summer, if there is water you get mobs of teenagers that go down there to drink and party. They leave litter everywhere. It makes me sad.
J: Town Lake is the trail for everyone. Whether you’re looking to go three miles, or 11, there’s a trail for you. It’s shady and offers some relief from the heat in the summer, the changing leaves make it beautiful in the fall and not much can beat a good trail run in the winter. It’s an all inclusive trail that’s perfect year round, a beautiful escape from the city and the best place to run off some steam and stress.
Looks like Jordan and Chris have weighed in on two equally great places to workout in Austin. What do YOU think? Is Town Lake better, or the Greenbelt, or perhaps there’s another place in Austin you prefer to workout, we want to know!
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Monday Morning Scoop: Foods every runner should be eating

October 3rd, 2011
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, - HyperWear - Monday Morning Scoop - running

For all those long-distance, need-for-speed, pavement-pounding runners out there, today’s blog is for you. With fall coming upon us, and hopefully some cooler weather, your weekly mileage is probably increasing, and so should your body’s reserves of essential foods to keep you in tip-top shape.

When you begin racking up those miles, your body not only increases endurance, but also the production of free radicals, which are produced naturally by our bodies. What’s more, the more you run, the more your body produces these agents that over time can slow recovery and increase your susceptibility to disease.

In order to combat these muscle-damaging radicals, there are several foods that aid in protecting your body and keeping nutrient stores full. Matthew G. Kadey, in his article “Natural Defense” for the September issue of Runner’s World, sheds some insight onto just what foods runners should be sure to incorporate into their diets.

First up, black rice, which is loaded with antioxidants that fight off those free radicals, have been shown to provide a defense against cancer and heart disease. Next, Brazil nuts contain a plentiful source of selenium that the body uses to create a “crucial antioxidant enzyme.” Kadey recommends adding Brazil nuts to salads or blending with milk and fruit for a smoothie.

Kadey’s third recommendation, egg yolks, are a primary source of lutein and zeaxanthin that combine to protect your retina and eyes. Egg yolks also contain selenium, vitamin E, high-quality protein and choline, which can help to keep your ticker healthy.

Adding lentils to your diet is said to help improve muscle recovery and decrease risk for chronic diseases. Lentils are a nutritional powerhouse that contain protein and tons of essential vitamins and minerals. A delicious way to incorporate lentils into your next meal is by replacing half the meat with cooked lentils when grilling burgers, says Kadey.

To read the full article and uncover a few more foods essential for runners, you can view Kadey’s article here. Try out some of these foods or incorporate them into recipes of your own and let us know how they turn out!

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Monday Media Scoop: The minimalist’s alternative to barefoot running

September 26th, 2011
,,,,,, - Hyper Vest - Hyper Vest COOL - Hyper Vest PRO - HyperWear - Monday Morning Media

If you’ve run on Town Lake, walked around Whole Foods or paid attention to the footwear of passerby’s, then you have almost certainly seen the peculiarly designed barefoot style running shoes (i.e. Vibram FiveFingers) worn by an increasing amount of people. I for one was curious about where this trend started, if barefoot running really is safe and what are some alternatives to pounding the pavement sans shoes.

In her blog, “Run free? Barefoot running gets harnessed by minimalist shoes,” Erin Renzas dishes on the origins of the current barefoot running craze, and the shoes designed to cater to this running niche.

Barefoot running took off in 2009 after Christopher McDougall published his book, Born to Run. McDougall’s book details his struggle with frequent running injuries and journey to find a better way to run, which, you guessed it—resulted in his turn to barefoot running as the injury cure-all.

“Barefoot running, advocates say, allows the runner to feel the subtle changes in terrain and let the feet, legs and body adjust to better prepare itself for impact. This in turn, leads to more efficient running and less injury,” according to Renzas blog.

Now for some, running barefoot just isn’t a viable option, but the thinking that supports this style of running is an attractive option for those suffering from numerous injuries. Nike offers its Nike Free Run+2 shoe that’s manufactured to be much lighter and simplistic than the average running shoe, while still providing some stability and protection.

View Renzas’ blog to get the scoop on some other shoes that offer this middle ground between barefoot running and the traditional running shoe. And for those of you looking to amp up your running routine in a different way, visit our website to read about how the Hyper Vest PRO can add an additional challenge to any workout routine, or how the Hyper Vest COOL can improve your running by chilling you out!

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The Hyper Vest PRO walks the walk and talks the talk

July 5th, 2011
,,,,,,,, - Hot Topic Tuesday - Hyper Vest - Hyper Vest PRO - HyperWear - endurance - endurance exercise - exercise - functional fitness - training - weight bearing exercise - weight vest - workout

Here at Hyper Wear, we love our products and want everyone to use them, enjoy them and maintain healthy lifestyles with them! Today, we want to take a moment to relay to you how fun, functional, safe and truly effective the Hyper Vest PRO is. Sure, we could go on with great adjectives to describe why you should train with our vest, but we thought it’d be a better idea to let some testimonials and research do the talking.

An article on Livestrong.com, “Benefits of a Weight Vest,” by Andy Chasse discusses how and why weight vests are so effective, and provides some research to back it up. For example, a study conducted at Texas Tech University consisting of two groups of athletes, one training with and one training without a weight vest, revealed that after six weeks both groups improved in various tactical areas, but the one training with the vest improved substantially more.

Weight vests are a great tool to amp up workouts and challenge muscles so they don’t get used to repetitive movements. When you’re pressed for time and can’t come up with new exercises to keep the body guessing, just throw on a vest.

“This unconventional exercise method allows us to throw our systems off whenever necessary,” says Chasse.

Still not convinced? Well then consider the findings of another study in Chasse’s article—a study published in the “European Journal of Applied Physiology” found that of 12 distance athletes, the group running with a weight vest “emerged victorious with improvements in both their VO2 max (a measure of the body’s ability to consume oxygen) and lactate threshold (the exercise intensity at which lactate begins to accumulate in the blood), two crucial factors affecting endurance exercise.”

US Olympic Decathlete, Trey Hardee trained with the Hyper Vest PRO prior to his 2009 season. In a testimonial to Hyper Wear, Hardee had the following to say about the Hyper Vest PRO.

“I have never seen or used a weight vest like the Hyper Vest PRO. It stays tight, comfortable and cool on my body enabling me to increase my bodyweight while training. It makes adding resistance to my workouts effortless…”

So believe the hype! The Hyper Vest PRO is the real deal when it comes to seeing results and improvement. Visit hyperwear.com to purchase your own vest and see why so many people are boasting the great benefits weight vest training has to offer!

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Why listening to music while working out might be better than you think

June 21st, 2011
,,,,,, - Hot Topic Tuesday - burn calories - endurance - exercise - training - workout

For many of us, hitting the gym is a de-stressing, head-clearing, endorphin-pumping, mini vacation from all the craziness consuming our lives. Most of us can attest to running next to the guy who wants everyone around to enjoy the rock concert blaring through his headphones at a tone-deafening volume, as well as the person who’s staring so hard at the wall you begin to think it might actually move if they concentrate hard enough.

Well lo and behold there might actually be a method to rock-concert-man’s madness!

“Listening to the right songs before and during training boosts performance by up to 20 percent,” says Dr. Costas Karageorghis, of Brunel University in an online article on BBC News.

As you might imagine, fast tempo music is better for high intensity workouts, and slow tempo songs are appropriate for your warm-up and cool-down. The article goes on to mention that as you begin exercising, music tempos can be synchronized to work rates, which will help control movement and increase performance. Synchronizing music to workout intensity can also help to focus your attention on the task at hand, firing up those muscles, and will keep your mind from drifting elsewhere and inciting the onset of fatigue.

What are the best songs to workout to? Mensfitness.com compiled a list of the 10 best workout songs, we’ll name the top five and you can click the link to view the rest!

  1. “Lose yourself” by Eminem
  2. “Stronger” by Kanye West
  3. “Romantic Rights” by Death from Above
  4. “Let’s Go” by Trick Daddy
  5. “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes

As for some local recommendations, several of Hyper Wear’s Facebook friends revealed some of their favorite workout songs: Ben Adair breaks a sweat to “Breathe” by The Prodigy, Shawna Aubin suggests songs by the group Avicii, Robyn Pettinger likes “More” by Usher, Dee Fit recommends Static X and Drowning Pool, Rhonda Glick prefers A-Trak/Nike run on iTunes and BOTH Megan Callahan and Dee Fit agree that the Black Eyed Peas are a great group to crank up the volume to.

So, try out the suggestions above, or download your own heart rate-raising tunes. Whatever you choose, pump up the jams and hit the gym because you know that person monotonously exercising in the trance next to you sure wishes they had remembered their iPod!

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Single Leg Training #3 with the SteelBell and Hyper Vest PRO – MMM #90

January 17th, 2011
,,,,,,,, - Bill Meyer - Hyper Vest PRO - Monday Morning Muscle - SandBell - SteelBell - functional fitness - sandbag - single leg - weight vest

Good Monday Morning!

Today I’m finishing up the “Pick 3″ of my favorite single leg stabilization exercises. This week is a combination exercise, using the Hyper Vest PRO and a 40-lb SteelBell, I’ll be performing a Single Leg Toss combined with a Hop N’ Stop.

Stability through deceleration is highly important as most non-contact injuries on the field of play occur when an athlete has put themselves in a poor body position, combined with the speed of movement, and the inability to control the eccentric firing of a series of muscles.

Using Hyper Wear’s innovative equipment, we’re able to help train athletes to avoid non-contact injury through proper deceleration techniques. Check out today’s video and give the exercise a try!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtu1SDzW9ik[/youtube]

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach

MMM 90

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Holiday Running with Your Hyper Vest PRO – MMM #87

December 27th, 2010
,,,, - Bill Meyer - Hyper Vest PRO - Monday Morning Muscle - weight vest - workout

Good Monday Morning!

With holiday shopping being in its prime and the boost for increasing your health with your New Year’s Resolutions upon us, I wanted to give you an up close and personal view of Hyper Wear’s original product: the dynamic and innovative weighted vest, the Hyper Vest PRO! Sometimes overshadowed by our other amazing products, the HV-PRO is a piece of training equipment that can literally be used year-round and quietly make a huge difference in your training program!

Take a closer look right here!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y–5KJ-J_SQ[/youtube]

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach

MMM #87

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Slow Motion – MMM #1

April 20th, 2009
,,,,,,,,,,,,, - Bill Meyer - CATZ - Hyper Vest - HyperWear - Monday Morning Muscle - SandBell - athlete training - weight vest

Every Wednesday from 10-11 a.m. I have the great opportunity to be a co-host on 1300 AM The Zone radio station with Bucky Godbolt.  We talk about everything from training to recovery and nutrition to injuries. They have labeled me the “Guru” of training for the station.

This past week I had one of my athletes from CATZ, Jeremy Green (Stanford Men’s Basketball), on the show with me. When asked what he felt was the greatest benefit he had from training with me at CATZ before heading off to the west coast, he responded by saying his core was super strong and stable, and that his first step quickness made him feel like his opponents were “playing in slow motion”.

To me, that’s an awesome compliment to the training he did with me at CATZ and to the product that he used consistently during his workout – that is, the Hyper Vest.

I would have Jeremy wear the vest during his strength and speed sessions to add that extra edge of athleticism you just can’t mimic with any other piece of equipment as safely and efficiently as the Hyper Vest does.

I quickly told Jeremy that he needs to start looking forward to using the SandBells for the upcoming off season when he’s back in town.  He responded in the way that he normally does – full of confidence and ready to go.

So now, you guys want to see a small piece of how you can make your opponents play in slow motion like Jeremy does day in and day out? Check out the video below and start training for that goal today!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuUYCegvDlk[/youtube]

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

MMM #1

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The Hippy Hippy Shake

October 29th, 2008
,,, - Hyper Vest - HyperWear - athlete training - knee injury - weight vest

All that extra weight you are carrying can no longer be an excuse not to run.  It is not your knees that are failing you, it is your hips.  In order to strengthen your stride, you need to do some cross training.  Strengthen your hips and your knees are running on easy street.

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So, if extra weight is not the culprit in knee injury, then we can confidently say that using the Hyper Vest in your running and cross training is not only safe, but will actually increase your strength to keep you running longer, stronger, and faster.

To learn more about the study, read this article: Straight From the Hip.

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