An athlete should be concerned with reaching a good weight first before going through hard workouts. It is better to lose weight to run than to run to lose weight.
Although most imagine that the popular athlete who runs and trains several times a week is slim and trim, it is enough to take a look at the groups of runners who go jogging in any of our parks to realize that many of them do not. they have managed to eliminate those extra pounds. Running without more is not a guarantee of an ideal figure. A runner should first worry about reaching his ideal weight before going through hard workouts to improve his running times. It is more profitable to reduce weight than to increase kilometers or intensities.
It’s not just a matter of aesthetics, far from it: it’s a matter of performance and running efficiency. You will improve your times much more if you reduce the extra weight, rather than doing more and more intense sets. Simply eliminating those 5-6 extra kilos will radically improve your times. Optimizing your power-to-weight ratio is key to improving your times.
Progress will come through improved strength to achieve the perfect power/weight equation.
Any runner who trains slightly overweight and loses a few kilos to reach his ideal weight will achieve a significant improvement in his times. Normally a regular runner has cardiovascular conditions that are difficult to improve. Progress will come from improving strength to establish the perfect weight/power equation. If you reduce your weight, the strength needed will be less and easier to achieve.
Why is being lighter faster?
Well, it is a truism. Running is to move, to propel oneself by overcoming the force of gravity, so the more weight you have to move, the more resistance you will put up. And, conversely, the less weight you have to lift, the faster and longer you can do it. The longer the distance over which he runs, the lower his B.M.I. (Body Mass Index) should be. While for an 800M runner the BMI may be 20, a 10K or marathon runner should be 19.
It is essential to perform strength exercises that help to preserve muscle and reduce body fat, only then you will be more efficient in the race.
There are several factors that determine how fast you are: your fitness, achieved by how hard and smart you train, your weight and to a lesser extent your genetics.
As you get older, you lose muscle mass after 40, which affects your metabolism and your physical performance. It is essential to perform strength exercises that help preserve muscle and reduce body fat, only then will you be more efficient in the race. It is important that you are able to define your ideal weight, where you will be most efficient and achieve your best times. Your ideal weight is determined by an equation that factors in your age, gender and fitness level. If you achieve this, your times can be reduced from a couple of seconds per kilometer and kilogram lost in a 5-kilogram race to a minute and a half per kilogram lost in a marathon race. The deterioration of running performance is determined by the loss or gain of muscle strength and weight.
How do I know what my ideal weight is?
Each person is different and runners with the same height may have a different ideal weight, since their bone density is different. I think the best weight gauge is the one you see in the mirror when you can see your abdominal muscles free of fat, that’s it! It is not necessary to mark the ‘six pack’, but you can at least guess it.
How to lose weight?
Losing weight does not mean stopping eating. If you don’t ingest the right dose of nutrients to fuel yourself properly and therefore have the energy to train and perform in a race, you will eliminate all your chances of improvement. You need to eat and eat well. Your diet should consist of 80% fish, legumes, vegetables, nuts and fruit; lean meats only 10% and healthy fats a similar percentage.
The period needed for a regular runner to reach his or her ideal weight will be between four to nine weeks.
According to the American Council on Exercise, a long-distance runner should always have a BMI above the 18.5 threshold; below this it is not recommended and could even worsen his or her performance by having less muscle mass than necessary.
The BMI should be between 19 and 20, above which marks would also stagnate. As far as body fat percentage is concerned, women should be above 14 percent and men above 6 percent. Being well nourished is the guarantee of being able to train properly, when you have full tanks you perform better.
How much time do you need?
The period needed for an average runner to achieve his or her ideal weight will be between four to nine weeks. As a runner is not going to stop training during this period to concentrate on weight reduction only, it is important to make training and weight control compatible, not reducing the daily calorie intake beyond 500 calories per day. The ideal would be about 200-300 during these 4-9 weeks in order to reduce it progressively and slowly.
A runner should differentiate three periods during the year. The two or three weeks in which he competes in the target events, in which he should be at the ideal weight. After the competition he should observe a rest period of at least one week, abandoning the training to improve in the next cycle and during which he can gain 2-3 kilos. You should not worry about starting to train with those extra kilos, since during the 8 to 16 weeks of training, the excess fat will be sculpted and reduced.
