THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504210232
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 28 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, BEACON SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
ATHLETES MIGHT BE WASTING considerable time in their training. Some, in fact, are doing more damage than good.
Michael Corrie would like the opportunity to help and thinks he has the technology to do it.
A sports physiologist, Corrie is working out of Gymstrada and training a group of bicycle racers and a marathoner. He specializes in runners, cyclists and triathletes, but says his formulas and evaluations can help anyone - even the weekend warrior wanting to gain an edge.
``Few people are evaluated as to what they are capable of doing before they start training,'' said Corrie, a former Tabb High swimmer and part-time cyclist. ``We do metabolic stress tests, get the results, analyze them and write an exercise prescription. There are other methods like biomechanical analysis that are available.
``There is a tremendous amount of information that's not readily available at your regular health spa.''
While these practices are much more important to the serious athlete, they can be helpful to the person looking to take off a few pounds or simply improve their performance at the weekend softball outing.
Unfortunately, the word hasn't gotten out.
``The technologies are so new, people don't know it's out there,'' Corrie said.
Gymstrada sends potential trainees to Virginia Beach General Hospital, where they take a stress test on a metas a bachelor of science in sports physiology and is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine.
Every 10 seconds, the computer measures things like heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen uptake. The training prescription can then be written to get the athlete as close to his or her anaerobic threshold as possible for their given sport.
``It provides a significant training advantage,'' Corrie said. ``What a lot of people don't understand is that the quality of exercise is much more important than how hard you train. You could actually be hurting your chances of performing at your best by not working the right energy system for your particular sport.''
Corrie has been working with local distance runner Lisa Buckman, who recently competed and finished the Boston Marathon.
``We did a video analysis and noticed that late in her running she was losing power because her upper body was weak,'' Corrie said. ``Weight training went into the prescription.''
Heading into the race, Buckman, a 31-year-old competing in her fifth marathon, was noticing the benefits.
``I ran a half-marathon to see how things were going and I had no problems at all,'' she said. ``I felt so strong near the end it was scary.
``I never would have thought that upper body weight training would have helped so much, but really seems to have.''
Buckman is proof, like many athletes who benefit from scientific training at places like the U.S. Olympic Training Center, that such practices work.
Now, local athletes who aren't at the Olympic level, can get the same caliber training right here in their own back yard. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
``Few people are evaluated as to what they are capable of doing
before they start training,'' says Michael Corrie, a sports
physiologist and former Tabb High swimmer.
by CNB