MapMyFitness

How To Get the Most From Cycling in Your 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s

Rachel Daily — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 18:37:55 +0000

There’s that great little phrase everyone tosses out without fail on a birthday that goes “you’re only as old as you feel.” While cliche, it’s a nice saying – as long as you feel good. In order to feel good and therefore young, health, fitness, and a concerted effort to fulfill your body’s needs at every age is of the utmost importance.

With a huge cycling community that plugs into MapMyRide each day spanning every age imaginable, we felt this great article from Bike Radar was a good read. Take a look and see if you agree.

How to get the most from cycling in your 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s

By Get into Road Cycling

Cycling is a great way of staying young – and as the BBC reported, can add years to your life – but work with your body’s changing strengths, weaknesses and nutritional needs and you’ll get better at cycling too. Here’s how…

“Regular exercise throughout life can slow and even reverse factors associated with the ageing process,” said Carlton Cooke, Carnegie Professor of Sport and Exercise at Leeds Metropolitan University.

He said too many people give up their usual exercise when they age, when what they should be doing is adapting it to suit their changing physiology and lifestyle. Here’s how to stay smiling in the saddle, whatever your age.

Cycling in your twenties

In your twenties, you’re at the ideal age for shorter races, time trials or cyclocross

Your strengths

In your twenties you’re virtually bulletproof. Your bones are as dense as they’ll get and you’re as muscular as you’ll likely ever be. Wear your Lycra with pride and lick the competition from the race track to the sportive, even if you haven’t been doing speed work. Your fast-twitch muscle fibres, used for quick acceleration, are most plentiful in your 20s, and your VO2 max – the rate at which your muscles can use the oxygen pumping around your system – is primed.

“It’s now that you need to make the most of your super-efficient anaerobic system with high-intensity sessions lasting anything up to two hours,” said Andy Wadsworth, director of My Life PT and an elite cycling trainer. “Events you should be able to really nail in your 20s are time trials and other shorter, faster rides – think power over persistence.”

Your weaknesses

Endurance isn’t your strength now, according to Wadsworth. “I’ve seen 20-something riders suffer from burn-out because they push themselves too hard for too long – your body can’t cope with really long training rides, although you can recover quickly from shorter, higher intensity workouts,” he said. “Your VO2 max capacity really won’t take you much past the 2-3 hour mark. I wouldn’t advise doing more than 30 hours training a week as an upper limit – your focus really should be on intensity, recovery and form.”

As you approach 30, don’t be surprised if you start getting aches and pains in your joints, said Dr Mark Hamer, exercise physiologist at University College London. “Shock-absorbing cartilage starts to degrade from your early 20s, and people who focus on just one activity tend to suffer muscle imbalances which put extra pressure on those joints, which then wears out the cartilage even quicker,” he said. On top of that, chondrocytes, the cartilage cells in charge of repair, decrease with age.

The food fix

“There’s a direct correlation between nutrition and performance, something most 20-somethings only learn after years of denial,” said Matt Rabin, nutritional advisor to Team Garmin-Cervélo. He recommends focusing on easily digestible carbs so you preserve your body’s protein stores, and drinking pomegranate juice after hard rides to cope with the oxidant load of high-intensity exercise. “Eat simple organic foods and wholegrain energy bars, and snack on unprocessed cashews and almonds for heart-healthy fats,” he said.

The fitness fix

Wadsworth said your 20s should be a decade of fitness foundations. “High power, high intensity short rides and training mean you’re more likely to suffer injuries because you’re less likely to ease yourself into rides,” he said. “Regularly see a physio or chiropractor if you have any niggles, and follow their advice.”

John Herety, team manager for Rapha Condor Sharp, said younger riders don’t have the ‘reference point’ older riders do. “Riders in their 30s and 40s don’t take as many chances as they know how much it hurts,” Herety said. “Becoming more calculating and self-aware makes you a better rider.”

And, he said don’t discount stretching. “It’ll benefit your riding much more to do 20 minutes of stretching than an extra 20 minutes in the saddle,” he said.

Cycling in your thirties

Your thirties is the perfect decade for longer time trials, sportives and triathlons

Your strengths

Natural strength peaks in your thirties, said Wadsworth. “Over time, your body learns how to build and efficiently recruit the key muscles specific to your chosen discipline,” he said. That means that in distances of up to 100km, you can clock consistent times until you’re about 35, regardless of how you train.

The main reason 30-somethings go for longer events is physiology: “Fast-twitch muscle fibres, used for sprinting, are lost before slow-twitch fibres, making it easier for you to go for distance rather than speed as you age,” said Wadsworth.

Your weaknesses

The first signs of middle-age spread might be rearing their ugly head, but don’t blame the clock. “Metabolism slows by around two per cent a year after 30, but the biggest factor in putting on weight is less weight-bearing exercise so you lose muscle mass,” Hamer said.

Lean muscle burns 28 times more calories per gram than fat, he explains, and with increasing pressures on your time – work and family – it’s likely that you’ll forego resistance training sessions, and your waist might start swelling.

The food fix

Avoid upsizing your bib shorts by re-evaluating your calorie needs. On the days when you don’t ride or hit the gym, subtract 300 to 500 calories from your daily total, said Rabin. And never skip meals. “This slows your metabolism, which makes it more difficult to manage your weight,” he said.

The fitness fix

Resistance training is the answer. “Doing whole-body exercises for just 30 minutes twice a week will significantly increase the body’s natural levels of growth hormone to maintain lean body mass at the same time as burning calories,” said Wadsworth. “You’ll also strengthen smaller, supportive muscles around your joints which prevent injury, and improve your cycling efficiency by maintaining the muscle fibres you need for power in the saddle.”

Do lunges, deadlifts, squats, crunches and planks. “Variety, form and control is key – add light weights when possible, but not to the detriment of control.”

Cycling in your forties

In your forties you can put all your riding knowledge towards success in sportives

Your strengths

Your heart rate declines around a beat a year from your twenties but this has “almost no bearing” on your performance in your forties, said Carlton Cooke. “It’s your VO2 max – how efficiently you process oxygen and feed your muscles during exercise – that’s the real determinant now. The frequency and intensity of training sessions has a positive impact, so even throwing in the occasional 30- to 60-minute quality ride can have a big impact on your VO2 max.”

Wadsworth reckons you’ll need longer to recover from harder rides and races. “Combined with more demands on your time, this may mean riding more for fun and the challenge to finish than hoping to beat any personal bests,” he said.

Your weaknesses

Your peak bone mass declines from your twenties, but in your forties it can start to nose-dive, especially in cyclists, resulting in lumbar spine, hip and knee problems. “While cycling can be beneficial in terms of reducing impact on joints, because it’s non-weight-bearing it doesn’t maintain bone mass the way running would,” said Hamer. “Without such stress, bones become prone to injury and fracture.”

Also, cycling is notorious for burning up calories, but, said Rabin, hardcore cyclists might not be eating enough to offset what they burn, depriving their bodies of bone-strengthening nutrients such as calcium and vitamin D.

“These shortfalls could also trigger physiological problems such as lower levels of oestrogen in women and testosterone in men,” he said, “hormones that can slow bone breakdown.”

The food fix

Match your calorie intake to your expenditure, but make sure they’re ‘good’ calories, Rabin said. “Oily fish such as mackerel is a great source of vitamin D to maintain bone density, as well as omega-3 and omega-6 oils for joint health – and keep snacking on nuts, seeds and fruit to maintain antioxidant intake which will be increasingly depleted as you age.”

The fitness fix

If you’re a returning cyclist, take it steady. “If you start cycling again too fast or too much, you’re inviting injuries,” said Herety. Regular cyclists need to watch out for the I’m-old-so-I’m-slow trap. Throw in some high-intensity intervals and hills to remind your muscles and your mind that you still have a fourth (or fifth) gear.

Cycling in your fifties

In your fifties you should be focusing on club riding and shorter sportives

Your strengths

Your climbing and finishing prowess might not be what it was, but distance (and persistence) could be your joker. Dr Simon Jobson, sports scientist at the University of Kent, said the body seems to compensate for some shortfalls relating to the ageing process. “Leg bloodflow in middle-aged athletes has been shown to be around 10 to 15 per cent lower than in younger athletes,” he said, “but new research shows this reduction might be compensated by an increased ability to extract oxygen at the muscle site. And while your heart can’t pump as fast, it can maintain stroke volume by increasing cardiac filling.” Translation: you’re getting the same quantity of oxygen delivered to the muscles as you did when you were younger, but in a different way.

Older athletes may also have greater fatigue resistance, said Jobson. “Consistent and regular training does seem to provide fitness benefits which can continue well into the fifties, which can counter the inevitable decline in muscle mass with age,” he said.

Your weaknesses

Your bones are still very much moving targets on the endangered list during this decade. Testosterone levels and bone density decrease 0.4-0.75 percent annually from age 45. By age 80, men (and women) have lost approximately 20 percent of their bone mass. But cycling could be the perfect antidote.

“Osteoporosis isn’t exclusively about the quality of bone,” said Cooke, “it’s also about the quality of muscle surrounding and supporting the bone. If your muscles are built up and stronger you’re less likely to fall and break a bone, no matter what state the bone itself is in. The fact of the matter is that you will have accidents if you ride regularly, and you’ll get back to cycling in half the time if you maintain muscle and bone strength.”

The food fix

You might have the mental strength to push on through – perhaps even more than in your youth – but you need the fuel delivery to the muscles to get there. One mineral that is particularly important in delivering oxygen to the muscles to be burnt is iron – and even a mild deficiency in the mineral can have a negative impact on your stamina.

“It’s a vital mineral used in the transport of oxygen,” said Claire Lane, exercise physiologist at Bath University. “The longer you exercise, the higher the rate of red blood cell production and the greater the need for iron.” Don’t limit calorie intake while upping any training regime, as this will severely restrict iron intake.

Rabin also advises any cyclists over 50 to take the antioxidant Coenzyme Q10, which he said may improve energy levels, improve flexibility and general vitality. “It’s much easier to stay healthy than it is to recover from injuries,” he said, “especially as you age.”

The exercise fix

Nerve conduction and reflexes slow down as we age, and unfortunately for older athletes this can translate to deteriorating balance and accidents, said Hamer.

Pilates, the Alexander Technique and yoga can all work wonders in training and maintaining the neural system, he said. “Work on your proprioception – your ability to know where your limbs are without looking – by standing on one foot with your eyes closed and doing slow single-leg squats and toe-touches,” he said. All core exercise work will help shore up the muscular corset around your midriff responsible for keeping your back in position as you age. Keep this strong and your pedalling will stay efficient too.

“Whatever you do, don’t slow down your pedal cadence,” said Wadsworth. “People in their fifties think riding in bigger gears will take the strain off their hearts, which in isolation is true, but you’ll be putting extra strain on the joints and ligaments and in turn your back, so keep cadence around 80 to 90rpm.”

Article via Bike Radar

You can follow BikeRadar on Twitter at twitter.com/bikeradar and on Facebook at facebook.com/BikeRadar.
You can also improve your fitness and train with us on training.bikeradar.com.

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10 Workouts for Your Morning Commute

Rachel Daily — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 16:07:55 +0000

Whether you have kids you’re racing to get to school every day, are trying to blend your morning green goddess power smoothie while painting your nails and feeding your dog at the same time, or are doing a much needed morning shower power hour, the mornings are a bit hectic for most of us to say the very least. Why not turn that stress into positive feelings about what a great workout you’re getting?

Maybe you don’t live in New York or even a city with a subway system but this list of morning commute workouts from the team over at Mashable is pretty spot on. Check out our favorites below and let us know in the comments what they missed. What do you think? Should we make a MapMyMorning app? Just kidding.

“You’re a very busy person: Meetings, manicure appointments and walking your dog take up a lot of your schedule. When you can barely sneak a few extra minutes of shuteye, how can you possibly find the time to attempt to work out?

Put Candy Crush away and prepare to turn your boring morning commute into a thrilling, full-body, gut-busting workout session.

Have fun on the way to the office with these 10 invigorating exercises. You’ll earn a new respect at the office as someone who takes charge of their life and means it when they add time management as a skill on Linkedin.

But, please, leave a bottle of Febreze and some deodorant at the office.”

Images & article via Mashable

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National Women’s Health Week Recap – Tips for a Stress Free Summer!

Rachel Daily — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 16:46:39 +0000

This past May 11th – 17th marked National Women’s Health Week and we were a proud partner of this initiative. National Women’s Heath Week is an observance led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health to empower women to make their health a priority. Sometimes it’s hard in those busy schedules to maintain a regular appointment schedule.

What does it mean to be a well woman? It’s a state of mind and a dedication and commitment to being as healthy as you can be! By making the choice to get and stay active, make healthy eating choices every day, sleep enough for mental health and find positive outlets for stress, a healthy lifestyle will affect every aspect of life in a positive way.

National Women’s Health Week may be over, but there are important steps you can take all year long for better health.” In addition to getting active, you can also:

Visit a health care professional to receive regular checkups and preventive screenings.
Eat healthy.
Pay attention to mental health, including getting enough sleep and managing stress.
Avoid unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, texting while driving, and not wearing a seatbelt or bicycle helmet.

Also, don’t forget to download and take your MapMyFitness or MapMyWalk app with you as you exercise. Activity is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Check it out:

You can check out this fact sheet for more information. What’s your summer health goal to stay stress free and healthy?

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MapMyFitness On the Road: Bay To Breakers

Rachel Daily — Wed, 28 May 2014 05:19:05 +0000

The MapMyRun Tour from MapMyFitness on Vimeo.

MapMyFitness has 24 million members all over the world and thousands that send us emails, Facebook messages, and tweets every day. We decided it would be fun to meet some of them face to face and see how they use their MapMyRun app to stay motivated and stay moving.

While a minivan could have worked, we instead decided to snag a classic 1970’s Airstream, deck it to the hilt with Under Armour gear and snacks any runner would love, and head out for the West Coast on the first ever MapMyRun Tour. We stopped in Albuquerque, NM, Phoenix, AZ and Los Angeles, CA during our trip west.

Our final stop was sunny San Francisco – home of Bay to Breakers, the oldest, largest, craziest race in the entire country. Once we parked our large silver chariot, we ventured out to meet both locals, and those who had travelled far and wide for the big run. We set up shop in the expo center for two days of race preparation with the Under Armour team. Our team was present to dare any and all race participants brave enough with the MapMyRun Hayes Hill Challenge and a pretty intense photo booth.

The Hayes Hill Challenge was open to anyone using the MapMyRun app during the race and automatically tracked the fastest results along a course on the route – which were all displayed on our digital leaderboard. Hayes Hill is no easy feat. While it is one of the most daunting hills in the city, the speed of some of the first runners up it was nothing short of impressive.

Starting the race off was a fleet of elite runners that were playing for keeps. Amongst them was Boston Marathon 7th place finisher, Nick Arciniaga, who signed autographs in the Under Armour booth the day before with the Bay to Breakers mascot, a giant pink ape. Following in their running footsteps were about 50,000 other runners decked out in costumes, alter egos, group run themed packs, and countless other spectacles that drive the knowing smiles and nods when someone utters “Bay to Breakers weekend” in the San Francisco area.

We met some pretty incredible MapMyRun users, welcomed hundreds of new members and saw more than 1,300 people take us up on our Hayes Hill Challenge. We would tell you more but we’re already in serious talks to plan next year’s costumes. Speaking of which – if you want to join us in the race up the hill, you can practice using our custom training plans we developed specifically for the Bay to Breakers race.

If you took pictures of our Airstream, hopped into our magical wonderful .Gif machine, or just said hello at the race, we’d like to know about it and thank you personally. Leave a comment below! Congrats to all the 2014 Bay to Breakers runners and we’ll see you next year!

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MapMyRide Father’s Day Giveaway

allison.glass — Tue, 27 May 2014 22:13:53 +0000

We all like the idea of owning something unique. When MapMyRide power user and artist Thomas Yang offered one of his limited edition pieces (he only makes 100 copies of each), we jumped at the opportunity to share his art with our community.

100copies is the brainchild of Singapore Creative Director Thomas Yang. An avid cyclist, he decided to combine two of his passions – bicycles and art – into 100copies. All of the products offered are original designs created by him and are limited to, as the name suggests, 100 copies. Each piece of work is watermarked, labeled with the title and edition number. As such, no two copies are ever completely identical.

Just in time for Father’s Day, you could win the Together We Ride poster – the perfect gift for the cyclist in your life.

Enter to win today.

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MapMyFitness Syncs with Walgreens Balance Rewards

Rachel Daily — Tue, 27 May 2014 16:23:02 +0000

Ever notice how the closest convenience store goes unobserved until you are in dire need of socks, allergy medicine, band aids, toilet paper, gummy vitamins – you name it? Then, as if it knew you needed it, Walgreens appears enveloped in soft glowing light and trumpets sounding marking the momentous save that just occurred.

The MapMyFitness team loves Walgreens for far more reasons than just their handy sock aisle. In fact, we are proud to say that we were chosen to be one of only a handful or partners that Walgreens works with in the health sphere and one of only three mobile apps! Because of this partnership, MapMyFitness users can now sync their account with the Walgreens Balance Rewards program to earn points for their activity.

Walgreens Balance Rewards allow you to get points for healthy activities you do every day. Use those points on future purchases and let the MapMyFitness app sync your workouts to the platform automatically! Breezy easy.

What’s the catch? No catch. Go ahead and link those accounts up, get to walking, and save on future healthy purchases at Walgreens. Yes, skipping for joy totally counts as steps.

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Be Smart – Run Far: The Science Behind Running a Marathon

Rachel Daily — Tue, 20 May 2014 19:00:06 +0000

Wheeoo wheeooo nerd alert ahead! The awesome PBS show, It’s OK to be Smart, did an episode on the science behind what the human body requires to run a marathon. Find out how the marathon got its name, why YOU are better than a cheetah, and how you can give those muscles enough energy to avoid hitting the dreaded wall.

Watch below!

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Sync Up With the Withings Pulse

allison.glass — Fri, 16 May 2014 14:27:24 +0000

Are you curious about your daily activity? How about your weight fluctuation? With the Withings Pulse and Smart Body Analyzer Scale – staying in tune with your body’s activity is getting a lot easier.

The Withings Pulse is a “wear it your way” activity tracker to monitor your daily movement and sleep, read vital signs and improve your overall health. During the day it captures steps, distance walked, elevation climbed and calories burned. At night, it monitors your sleeping cycles. The Pulse was even the first fitness tracker to capture heart data through a sensor on the back of the device.

New to our growing platform of connected fitness, you can now sync your Withings Pulse directly to your MapMyFitness account. By connecting accounts, you’ll see total steps taken (in distance) uploaded daily to your MapMyFitness workout history. Getting started is simple.

Connect Withings with MapMyFitness:

Download the MapMyFitness app and create account.
Download the Withings app and create account.
Visit the Device Connect page on MapMyFitness and select Withings.
Log into your Withings account, and then authorize the connection.
Get moving!
Once connected, every time you manually sync your Withings device, your activity will automatically load to your MapMyFitness dashboard.

Don’t stop at steps – check out your weight. The Smart Body Analyzer Scale is called smart for a reason. This scale measures weight, body composition, heart rate, and even air quality. All of this information is viewed and stored in your Withings app. By adding your scale as a connected device, you can sync new weight information daily via Bluetooth Smart. Throw away that paper journal – everything you need to keep track of your health and fitness is going digital.

*The just released Pulse O2 will sync with MapMyFitness the same as the Pulse. Only distance information is collected at this time.

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The Build Your Best Self Challenge

Rachel Daily — Wed, 14 May 2014 22:10:34 +0000

Fitness is so much more than hitting the gym or buying new running shoes. To build your best self, attention to a healthy diet, exercise, and the proper amount of sleep and recovery time between each workout is absolutely crucial.

Whether you’re new to running, lifting weights regularly, or even training for a triathlon, chances are you’re going to need to figure out how to recover from the tired muscles and sore body that can result from strenuous exercise and be ready to get back at it the next day. That’s where lowfat chocolate milk comes in. More than 20 studies support the benefits of recovering with the high-quality protein and nutrients in chocolate milk after a tough workout. It has the right mix of carbs and protein to refuel exhausted muscles, high quality protein to build and repair muscle, and electrolytes and fluids to replenish what’s lost in sweat – so it’s good for way more than just a sweet 3pm treat. Last month we took a poll of our users to see what their favorite post run snack was. Chocolate milk ranked in our top three.

Which leads us to our newest challenge to hit our boards : the Build Your Best Self Fitness Challenge. By tracking your workouts (and logging your recovery chocolate milks) between April 22nd and June 16th, you could win a $1,000.00 Under Armour gift card. Yes, that’s three zeros.

You won’t be the only one working hard. Team CHOCOLATE MILK member, Apolo Ohno has hung up his speed skates to train for the IRONMAN® World Championship triathlon – a 140.6-mile swim-bike-run event in Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i. Building his recovery plan around chocolate milk, you can monitor his progress and see how he does taking on the biggest athletic challenge of his career!

So what are you waiting for? Grab those running shoes, hit the pavement, and remember whatever you’re building, build it with chocolate milk. 60 days starts….now!

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Welcome to the Refresh: Android 3.0

allison.glass — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:59:24 +0000

We’re excited to announce a long-overdue update to our Android apps: Version 3.0, available for download now in the Google Playstore. This update include more than just a face-lift. It has a whole new look and feel, including new functionality, especially for our growing MVP community.

We’ll cut to the chase. So what’s new?

Complete app redesign with a new workout recording experience
New app navigation, including slide out menu
New friending capabilities
New mobile graphs post-workout
New MVP features including mobile coaching, custom spits, heart rate graphs, leaderboard filtering and live tracking.

The most obvious change in Version 3.0 is the new look. We created clearer, beautiful splash screens to help make your training a breeze. Most of your activity will take place through the stacked navigation menu, found in the upper left hand corner of the app. Everything you need can be found here – record a workout, log a workout, find new friends, connect a device and more.

Next up is a new recording experience. An upgraded integration with Google Maps now lets you see your neighborhood in 3D with buildings, tilting and real time compass navigation as you go (perfect for the mounted phone during a bike ride). Also view your progress in new stats tiles within your workout. Done with your workout? Slide-to-finish functionality lets you end your workout when you you’re ready.

Dig a little deeper into your workouts with more data and mobile graphs post-workout. After saving a workout, view courses and splits instantly. If you’re training with heart rate, now you can see heart rate analysis (and zones*) on your phone and online.

Need a little motivation? Find new friends to train with directly within the app. Connect via Facebook, Twitter or your Contacts list to invite others to join your MapMyFitness community. Here you can also view, accept or deny friend requests. Grow your team and hold yourself accountable through a little friendly competition.

Looking for more? Upgrade to MVP. Our most requested feature new to the Android update is mobile coaching. Enable mobile coaching to provide audio feedback based on your training needs. You can set up coaching based on time, pace, speed, distance and duration. Our MVP users can also filter leaderboards on criteria (age and gender), and view custom split information.

Our team has been hard at work, listening to the recommendations of our Android community, and building new features. We’re eager to get your feedback. What’s your favorite feature of the new update? What would you like to see in the future? Leave your comments in the section below.

MVP pricing is $29.99/annual or $5.99/monthly. Live Tracking is now an MVP feature. As a part of this new offering, we are extending a 2-week free trial for MVP to experience all of the new features.

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