- February 2008
- Volume 2
Inside this Issue
- Feature Article – Mindfully Eating Chocolate
- Exercise of the Month – Ball Squats
- Sports Training and Technique – Spin Your Pedals
Mindfully Eating Chocolate
It’s nearly Valentine’s Day, the holiday symbolized by red hearts, flowers, love notes, and of course chocolate. 
This year, when your sweetheart gives you that beautiful box of treats, enjoy each piece mindfully – with full awareness. Imagine you have never had chocolate before and use all of your senses to savor the entire experience.
Start with your eyes by admiring the box – the size, graphics, and wording. All the clues about what you will find inside. The marketing department spent numerous hours and dollars on the box design, appreciate the presentation of this final product.
Touch the box with your hands and feel the texture of it and any ribbons or adornments. Open the box, remove the inner covering and gaze upon the rich delights. Notice the appearance of the goodies – shapes, colors, and patterns.
Bring the box to your nose, take a long whiff and savor the smell. Select a treat, remove any wrapping, and just like with the box admire the appearance, feel, and smell.
Take the dessert to your mouth and indulge in a small bite. Slowly roll it around your tongue and experience the consistency – crunchy, smooth, or creamy. Focus in on what you taste – sweet, sour, salty, or bitter. Notice the volume of the candy – light and airy or dense and heavy.
As you begin to chew feel your jaw muscles moving and notice the noise in your ears as your teeth come together. Finally, as you swallow be sensitive to the passing of the food down your throat.
After you have eaten the last bite, pause and ask yourself if you really want more now or if you are satisfied and will save the rest for later.
How long can you make that box of chocolates last?
Ball Squats
The quadriceps as you might have guessed from the name consists of four (quad) muscles. The inner or medial quadriceps muscle the Vastus Medialis is attributed to having a role in the proper tracking of the kneecap. Sometimes this muscle does not develop equally with the other quadriceps muscles causing an imbalance, which can lead to knee problems. Participation in sports such as cycling and running can contribute to the underdevelopment of this muscle due to the strong reliance on the lateral quadriceps, Vastus Lateralis, in these activities.
Personal experience and nagging knee pain has made me a strong advocate of including an exercise to target the medial quadriceps in strength training routines. The ball squat shown below is one option. The stability ball behind the back is optional. The exercise can be done right against the wall or free standing which will be more challenging. A medicine ball is shown between the knees but any soft ball can be used such as a soccer ball or volleyball.
Starting Position: Place your feet approximately hip width apart and slightly in front of the body with your back to the wall.
Movement Down: Inhale and slowly lower your body until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Your knees should stay in line or behind your toes to reduce knee strain.
Movement Up: Exhale and push down through your heels to rise up. Squeeze the medicine ball to activate your inner thigh muscles by pressing inward with your knees.
Challenges: Add weight with dumbbells or hold a heavy medicine ball. Stand on an unstable surface.
Spin Your Pedals
Remember when Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France – seven times? If so, you might also recall how Lance popularized the fast spin of >90 revolutions per minute (rpm).
What are the advantages of spinning at such a high cadence?
Increased blood flow… studies have shown that during the initial push down phase of the pedal stroke when the quadriceps muscles are contracting (shortening) blood flow is significantly reduced particularly to the main working muscle, the lateral quadriceps – Vastus Lateralis. The faster contract – relax cycle of a higher cadence improves the pumping action of the skeletal muscles to return deoxygenated blood to the heart, thus oxygenated blood is more rapidly distributed throughout the body.
Reduced muscle stress… as pedal frequency goes up the amount of force applied during each pedal stroke goes down resulting in less muscle fatigue.
What are the disadvantages of spinning at such a high cadence?
Increases in heart rate, ventilation (breathing) rate, oxygen consumption, and cardiorespiratory fatigue… these are nervous system responses caused by the increased frequency of limb movement.
The right cadence for you depends on many factors including what type of riding and events you are doing, fitness level, power output, quadriceps muscle fiber type distribution, and training experience. For many cyclists ideal pedaling cadence falls below 90 rpm. Strive for a cadence that is comfortable, doesn't spike your heart rate and breathing, and is maintainable for long durations.
To increase your pedaling rpm practice quick, fast spins where cadence is taken up to maximal over 30 seconds to one minute and held for as long as possible. Also try some faster cadence intervals where cadence is brought up ~5-10 rpm and held for a few minutes at a time.
Reference: High-Tech Cycling, Edmund R. Burke, PhD