So we churned out four brisk miles at a pace slightly below 8’00 per mile.  This isn’t an overly difficult pace for me.  But to be fair, it is moderate.  As someone who typically trains alone, I immediately noticed two things.  First, I was breathing a lot harder than Nick was, which was no surprise.  Secondly, it seemed like Nick was taking five strides for every four strides that I took.  I thought, “How can he be exerting such little effort when his feet are hitting the ground that much more often than mine?”  The answers are in the principles of Chi technique.

Danny Dreyer, founder of Chi running

Chi running is about creating forward momentum based on your posture, so that the impact of each stride is absorbed by your core instead of your feet, shins, and knees.  This will not only reduce injury and soreness, but it will improve your running economy as well.  Dlouhy explains, “The largest concentration of slow twitch muscle fibers is in the core–not the legs.  So if we are using our core to run, instead of pushing and pulling with our leg muscles, we’ll be much more efficient from an energy expense perspective.”

Like any change to your normal technique, you should start off gradually with Chi running.  “It’s changing your form.  It’s changing the way your body is positioned.  It’s changing how your foot falls,” Dlouhy points out.  “If I’m doing it correctly, it feels like I’m moving easily, even at higher speeds.”  Here are some key principles of Chi to help you do it correctly and move easily:

• Run Tall–Straighten your spine, elongate, look straight ahead.  Good posture reduces the amount of work your legs have to do.
• Lean Forward–Slightly!  Don’t bend at the waist.  Focus on leaning from your ankles, if that makes sense.  Remember that the primary goal is to keep your entire column in a straight line.  Leaning from the waist will throw you off balance and make your run harder.  Chi running should feel easier.
• Strike Mid-Foot–This will be a change for most novice and even many intermediate runners.  We tend to be heel strikers.  With Chi running, your foot should land in line with your shoulders.  Dlouhy warns, “The ligaments in your lower legs will feel it in the beginning, until you learn the proper Chi running form.”
• Relax–Let the arms swing naturally.  Don’t let your shoulders tense up.  By relaxing and running tall, this enables your body to open the chest cavity and allow for deep, recuperative breathing.

Dlouhy said, in summary, “I moved to Chi running after I dropped out of a race when I was trying to BQ.  I drank the Kool-Aid, and it put me over the hump to achieving a BQ time.”

I’m guzzling a glass of Purplesaurus Rex as we speak.

What Causes Belly Fat Build-up?

Excess belly fat is so common because many factors can contribute to this “spare tire”, “love handles”, “muffin tops”, or “pot belly” syndrome.  If all the root causes are not addressed all at the same time, then there is no way your belly fat will go away.  Here are some factors that contribute to excess belly fat:

• High calorie diet that is heavy on trans fat
  It’s no myth that eating too much can make you fat.  If you consume more energy than your body can burn, then your body stores that extra energy as fat for later use.  Researchers at Wake Forest University have also found that trans fat is a major contributor to belly fat.
• Not enough sleep or irregular sleeping patterns
  Sleep deprivation lowers the amount of leptin in your system, the chemical used for suppressing appetite.  Sleep deprivation can also lower your insulin levels, which helps regular your blood sugar.  Toying with these chemicals in your body so often by sleeping irregularly can have permanent adverse affects on your body (obesity and diabetes) .
• High stress levels
  Prolonged stress can causes our body to produce an excess of the cortisol hormone.  A small amount of these hormones are beneficial, but a large consistent amount can be detrimental to your health in many ways.  You guessed it, one of the drawbacks of cortisol is that it also contributes to belly fat.
• Lack of exercise or incorrect exercise routines
  It’s simple math.  If you consume more energy (calories) than you burn each day, that extra energy gets stored as fat cells.  Believe it or not, localized stomach workouts are actually one of the least effective workouts for burning off excess belly fat.
• Drug abuse (alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana)
  Drugs have adverse effects on your energy levels and appetite.  After one night of binge drinking, your metabolism slows down temporarily and will not recover for two days.  Cigarette cravings often feel like hunger cravings so people misunderstand and ingest food even when they are already full.  A well-known side effect of Marijuana is its ability to promote appetite.

How to Attack These Root Causes

I will be writing a few articles to talk about some of these things in more detail later on.  For now, here are some quick suggestions:

1. Come up with a weekly school/work/life schedule that works in the following elements: 7-9 hours of sleep starting at about the same time each night, minimum 4.5 hours of exercise, grocery shopping, and cooking time.
2. Come up with a healthy eating pattern (more on this on a later article) and try to not eat trans fat.  You can also try to incorporate these natural fat burning foods into your diet. I suggest that if you don’t have time to cook, you should either shift to eating simpler meals (cereal, salad, soup, fruits, steamed vegetables, etc.) or try freezer cooking to save time and still be able to eat healthy.  In general, food cooked at home is much healthier than food purchased from restaurants.
3. Try to exercise at least 4.5 hours a week. Three times each week at the gym: spend 45 minutes on weight lifting workouts focusing on building slow-twitch muscles and spend 45 minutes doing interval training (alternating low intensity and high intensity aerobic based exercises).  Slow-twitch muscles should help you burn extra fat day-by-day.
4. Find a way to de-stress yourself.  Try scheduling a meditation or yoga session weekly.  It might also help to adopt a new regime for getting work done or find ways to improve your mood.
5. Say no to drugs.  Try to limit yourself to 3 drinks at social events.  If you are a smoker, remind yourself that feeling of hunger can just be cigarette cravings.  You really don’t have to drink or smoke to be social.  I’ve lost a total of 20 lbs. ever since I’ve stopped smoking and stopped binge drinking.
6. Take fish oil supplements to help improve your metabolism. See another post on the fish oil supplements out there.

More Help Is on the Way

I will be continuing this discussion in later posts, going into detail on which exercises to perform, which diet plan to follow and which de-stressing techniques to try.  Until then check out my post on using the ECA Stack for weight loss and stay tuned to this blog via the RSS feed!

There are two types of muscles you can develop from physical activity: fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles.

Fast-Twitch Muscles

Fast-twitch muscles activate during short and intense physical activities.  For example, when you are maxing out in benching, your pectoral fast-twitch muscles are being used.

The benefit of fast-twitch muscles is that it gives you explosiveness and short-lived enormous strength.  Because fast-twitch muscles need energy quickly to perform intense activities, fast-twitch muscles rely primarily on a consumption-ready reserve of carbohydrates (glucose in your blood stream) for fast conversion into energy.

The drawback of fast-twitch muscles is that once your consumption-ready carbohydrate reserves are depleted, your fast-twitch muscles ceases to function.  This is why most people who weight train with heavier weights have longer rest periods in between sets (the body uses this rest period to rebuild a consumption-ready reserve of carbohydrates for the next lifting set).

Slow-Twitch Muscles

Slow-twitch muscles are activated during long workout routines with low-intensity or endurance training.  For example, when you are repping out in benching, your pectorial slow-twitch muscles are being used.

The drawback of slow-twitch muscles, is that it cannot react as quickly as fast-twitch and you cannot use it for any intense physical activities.

The benefit of slow-twitch muscles is that it is resistant to fatigue. Also, because slow-twitch muscles do not need energy as quickly as fast-twitch muscles, its primary source of energy comes from fat cells.  Slow-twitch muscles are also more resistant to catabolism.

Focus on Developing Slow-Twitch Muscles to Lose Fat

Most weight lifters today focus on developing their fast-twitch muscles and neglect their slow-twitch muscles.  While I do see the benefit of fast-twitch muscles, if your goal is to become lean and cut, you should tailor your exercise workout routine to developing your slow-twitch muscles.  These muscles are the ones that will help you burn an extra 50 Calories of fat per day.  Thinking on a big scale, if you’ve gained 10 pounds of slow-twitch muscles, you will be burning an extra 500 Calories of fat per day from doing nothing out of the ordinary.

Examples of Slow-Twitch Muscle Exercises

It is easy to come up with slow-twitch muscle exercises.  Just do whatever exercises you do except modify it to be less intense and longer.  For example, if you used to bench 145 lbs. 8 times per set, you can decrease your weight to 125 lbs. and lift 15 repetitions per set instead.  If you run for exercise, try running slower over a longer distance.

I am also a big fan of using your own body weight for weight training.  Mainly because there is a good chance that you are targeting slow-twitch muscles with these exercises.  At home, I rarely use my $700 Golds Gym weight bench, but instead I use the following exercise equipments (which are relatively cheap and useful for targeting slow-twitch muscles):

• GoFit Ultimate Burst Resistant Core Stability Ball with Workout DVD
• Perfect Pushup
• Resistance Bands Exercise Training Set

If I were to recommend a “must have” equipment out of all of these, it would be the balance ball as it lets you perform many different exercises using your own body weight. I have another post on this site on why I love using the stability ball so much. Check it out!

Lastly, if you want to lose weight fast, I also suggest that you try to incorporate these fat burning foods into your diet.