Speed Development For Athletes: Fill & Download for Free

I have used bicycles for most of my personal transportation needs throughout years, and have owned several standard diamond-frame road bikes with drop handlebars. In the last decade, I have owned three recumbents, and have test ridden several recumbents in my travels around the country.The primary force (over 70%) that restricts the speed that can be obtained on a bicycle is aerodynamic drag. The design of the recumbent bicycle puts the rider's body into a reclined position. This position reduces the area of the rider's body that is affected by aerodynamic drag, increasing the efficiency by up to 30%. With an aerodynamic fairing, the efficiency increases even more.In 2016, at the World Human Powered Speed Challenge in Battle Mountain, Nevada, an experimental recumbent bicycle with full aerodynamic fairing set a speed record of 89.50 mph. The shell cuts down aerodynamic drag to 100 times less than the most streamlined cars.In 1933, Francic Faure rode a recumbent bike to set a new hour record in France by riding 28 miles in one hour. In 1934, the Union Cycliste Internationale outlawed recumbents from all competition, and has not relented to this day. The result of the UCI's action has kept the recumbent out of the public's eye for 80 years.Diamond-frame bicycles represent 95% of all bicycle sales. Tandems, recumbents and unicycles make up the rest. Most people haven't even heard of recumbents. Even fewer people know about velomobiles.Recumbent dealers represent a fraction of bicycle commerce, so finding a recumbent is more difficult. Recumbent manufacturers tend to offer only high-quality vehicles with proven components, so they can be more expensive than a diamond frame.Recumbents and velomobiles are a logical step in the evolution of human-powered vehicles. But in the so-called developed world, the majority of countries are car dependent. In a world where the bicycle has little value in daily life and is only seen as something for athletes or leisure time, a superior design can easily be overlooked. It won't be the first time, and I doubt if it will be the last.The above cutaway shows how the recumbent uses design to reduce aerodynamic drag as much as possible, resulting in greater speeds.

I said a while back that the king of all weight training exercises is unequivocally the squat. I won’t pedal backwards on that declaration.That said, if you aim to build power, speed, strength and athleticism, you’ll want to incorporate dead lifts. As an ancillary benefit, if you go hard enough, your back will look like a cobra’s.Most folks think the dead lift is a lower body exercise, and it is, but it might be the best possible move for your upper body as well. In actuality, it’s a total body performance perfectly capable of building power from the soles of your feet and up. From powerlifter and strength coach, Andy Bolton:The deadlift is an amazing exercise and one that you should include in your strength training routine if you want to add slabs of granite hard muscle to your body from head-to-toe, strengthen your posterior chain, and increase athletic performance. In fact, there may be no better exercise for working the hamstrings, glutes, entire back, and grip, and for making you bigger, faster, and stronger.We often talk around here about the various factors responsible for building confidence. I can’t speak for women, but for men, strength is a substantial contributor. Every seven days, as part of my 5 x 5 program, I deadlift twice. On the days when my power is on point, I leave my sessions feeling invincible.Think back to when you were a kid. How did you put your physical strength on display? You likely picked up a heavy object, or your little brother, and beamed with pride. That’s precisely what the dead lift is. It’s picking up the heaviest possible object and owning it.Now, those who can pick up the heaviest objects can also physically negotiate life more seamlessly. We can grab shit and move it around with ease, whether it be boxes or suitcases or other humans.I write a lifestyle site read by professional athletes. As such, I often write for them. Gentleman (and ladies), performing dead lifts powerfully will make you a better baseball player, boxer, basketball player or sprinter. From stack.com:Few exercises are simpler than the Deadlift. The move essentially mimics squatting down and picking something up off of the floor. Yet, it’s acclaimed as one of the best exercises for athletes who want to get stronger, faster and more powerful.Almost all fundamental sports skills, like running, jumping, throwing and tackling, start when you put power into the ground. The power travels up through your core and into your upper body. So, the more force you put into the ground, the better you will perform the skills for your sport.”Perhaps you’re not an athlete. You just want a more muscular physique and are perpetually hunting a V shape. No judgment there; you’re human. We like to think logically around here. Which of the following options will more likely inspire your back muscles (think cobra) to expand and become denser? Sitting down at a machine and utilizing a pulley to lift a stack of say, 200 pounds, assisted? Or, bending down and lifting 500 from the floor, unassisted? Exactly.Deadlifting is the base upon which back strength is built. Deadlifts stress every major muscle group in the posterior chain, from the base of the erectors to the top of the traps.Whatever your gender or profession, if you can choose only two exercises for athletic and physique development, choose the squat and the deadlift. Oh, and read a book, muscle-head.

I have used many flagship android phones before. And I can tell you one thing. They start begging you to go easy on them after 1.5–2 years.I work in a 9–5 job, I drive 3 hours a day, I train for triathlons (Cycling, Swimming and running) and listen to audiobooks and music. I travel every now and then.So when I started using Apple products including an iPhone, here is my experience:Not just the iPhone. But the entire ecosystem of products is amazing.iPhone: 2 years old iPhone 8. Every time I hold it, I praise the designers who crafted this masterpiece. Needless to say, software is the soul of this masterpiece. I felt like changing my phone few days back. You know why? Not that it was slow or wearing out but because I got bored. Just saying. I’m glad I can take it to the pool for under water pictures.Apple Watch: 2 years old watch series 3. Works like a charm, never fails me. It got me into endurance athletics as it repeatedly pushed me to close the exercise rings, breathe more and move my body. I lost 14kg and now I’m a part time triathlete. I use the watch for tracking my swimming, cycling and running. Oh and - I time my handstands for 1–2 minutes using the timer in my watch. Guess what? I took the picture below using my iPhone and watch. How? I timed the iPhone camera using my watch! What?MacBook Pro: My 3 years old device. My first Apple device. I fell in love with Steve. I even started consuming Apples, the fruit (Just kidding. Lol). This thing changed my paradigm about computers. It was like my school notebook made of anodised aluminium. The touch bar, the swipes, the speed, the experience.This thing = Dell XPS 13 + Presidential Suite in Taj Mumbai + A glass of french wine + All the fine things in life worth living for.AirPods: 2 years old. Wireless, intuitive, streamlined. It changed my relationship with audio. No not talking about being an audiophile here. It made my life easy. Switching from one device to another, Auto pausing music if I removed one from the ear for some reason and auto playback once I plug it into my ear.This gave me company for more than 3,000km of cycle rides and more than 1,000km of runs and more than 20,000km of travelling.End note: If you love experiences in life and you want to cherish your best moments without being bothered with crash reports, frozen screens and connectivity issues, go for Apple.Edit: I forgot to mention that when I go for a run, I don’t carry my phone for music as I listen to music through my watch which connects to the airpods seamlessly. Technically, holding a phone and running hampers your running form. Also keeping the phone in the pocket doesn’t go well. So the watch does act like a mini iPod ;)Edit 2: A developer would want to create an app for iOS more than for android as Apple wants their customers to pay the developers for the amazing applications they create. Just an anecdote from a developer I came across.Edit 3: I got the new iPhone SE 2020 and gave the iPhone 8 to a family member. :p The new SE is cheap (Got 128GB one for 29k), has iphone 11 processor and RAM, improved camera from the iphone 8. Show me an android within 30k that can beat iphone SE 2020. Battery is average agreed.