Why is it necessary to warm up properly?

Tags: fitness

When fitness experts talk about ‘doing a warm up’, they generally mean doing some kind of general activity that gradually raises the heart rate. They will happily tell us that doing so reduces the risk of injury during the following workout – but don’t often explain exactly how. In fact, a good warm-up should involve more than just this ‘general activity’. The second, less commonly described aspect is the ‘dynamic stretching’ we mentioned in last week’s article. And there are many more reasons to warm up than simple injury risk reduction

WHY WARM UP?
When you start moving in any way that raises your heart rate, certain changes start to take place in your body. Your respiratory rate increases. Bloodflow throughout your body increases, which means that the levels of oxygen and nutrients that are delivered to your cells also increase. In effect, all your body’s systems are warned you’re going to be making demands on them, and primed to meet those demands.

Once you’re at this point, you’re ready to move onto dynamic stretching. This, you’ll remember, involves slowly performing the same kinds of movements you’ll be making in your workout, and gradually increasing the speed. As specific muscles, tendons and joints follow the movement patterns they’ll be expected to complete later, they become used to the movement, and less likely to tear when the movements are made at higher speeds. This stage also works as a cue for your nervous system to ‘switch on’ the specific neuro-muscular connections it will need for those movement patterns.

Lastly, this two-stage warm-up helps you to prepare you mentally for the coming workout. Regardless of what that workout might be, you’ll do it better, and enjoy it more, if you’re able to bring your full focus into it. By taking the time to warm up before you start exercising ‘for real’, you’re giving yourself the mental space to switch your focus to where you need it to be.

HOW SHOULD I WARM UP?
The general part of the warm-up can be done in any way that gets your heart beating faster. If you have a piece of cardio equipment available– a bicycle, rowing machine, or stepper – feel free to use it; or simply walk and then jog. Whatever you use, start very gently, and gradually increase the intensity until you can feel your body getting warm and your heart rate starting to rise. The specific intensity will depend on your current fitness level – but it should have you working at a level where you’re energised, not exhausted.

Some people continue until they feel a light sweat, but because this can be more reflective of humidity than body temperature (and because some people sweat more easily than others), it may not be the most useful measure. Experts suggest 3-5 minutes, but if your exercise environment is particularly cold, it may need to be longer.

Once you’re feeling warm, it’s time to bring in the dynamic stretching. What you do here will depend totally on what kind of exercise you’re planning. For a martial art, it might involve light sparring at ¼ speed, or simply performing some of the techniques in slow motion. For a sport, it could involve mimicking the same kinds of movements you’ll be using on the field or court, in a slow, controlled way. There are no specific time guidelines for how long this should take – but allow enough time for repeating each movement, starting slowly and gradually increasing the speed until you’re working at the level you expect during your workout

Finally, once you’re warm, stay warm. Especially if the workout that follows will be particularly vigorous, don’t stop to do a static stretching routine. This will give your body a chance to cool down again, and undo much of the good you’ve done by warming it up in the first place. If you have any questions about either kind of warm up mentioned in this article, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me on tanja@optimumlife.co.nz. Otherwise, may every day bring you closer to your Optimum Life.


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The Aging Athlete: Tips For Staying In Shape As You Grow Older

elderly exercise:

Tags: Fitness, aging, athlete, sports, pschological, self-analysis

Most athletes are born competitors. Since our early years, we have been conditioned to think in terms of "how many," "how much" and "how fast." The cruel twist of fate parallels the wisdom of age with the slowing of the fast-twitch muscles. The athlete who wishes to retain enjoyment in his older years needs cunning as well as brawn to do well, feel well, and be well!

Our primal instincts regarding the ever-upward ascent of our achievements have to withstand the changes in absolute measure (hardly any of us will be faster at sixty than we were at twenty, or even forty). We have to learn to take pride in finesse, in working with our changing bodies in a cooperative dance rather than a wrestling match, and to do so with the fond eye of a lover rather than the stopwatch of our high school coach.

How can we find the psychological energy to alter the deep-seated paradigm of measurement by numbers to a more profound acceptance and support for our now-aging bodies? How can we convert trial by numbers into admiration for coordination, reverence for grace and respect for complexity? Not an easy task, to be sure.

As in so many areas of life, a good starting point is self analysis. What brings me joy in my physical life? When do I thrive and which conditions make it possible?

A historical analysis can be useful. Write a series of memories, no more than 250 words, and let yourself recall when in your life you have felt best about your athletic achievements. Were you alone, as in weight lifting for example, where the solitary meditation brought you into competition with yourself? Or do you fondly remember team sports where the pleasure of a shared win was greater than anyone 's individual achievement? Did you enjoy pageantry, such as the baseball stadium, with uniforms and marked-out running lanes, or did you prefer the isolation and simplicity of cross-country running? Your goal is to understand the preconditions that set you up for success so that these can be redeveloped in other venues.

For example, I loved long distance running. In high school I ran cross-country. Even in track, I preferred the longest distances. As an adult I gradually morphed into a marathon runner until knee surgeries and lower back pains suggested that this was no longer the best sport for me. As I analyzed my love of running, I found that I enjoyed working out with my teammates as well as their companionship on the subway ride to the park in the Bronx, more than an hour from our school in Brooklyn. I enjoyed the planning for the race almost as much as the race!

I began to see that I enjoyed sports where a theoretical understanding was as important as the actual performance. Gradually, after trying various classes at my gym, I found that yoga gave me many of the same values I associated with running. I read about the mind set which made holding postures possible and it was remarkably similar to the strategies for long distance running! The only difference was that my body thrived in this new regime. There were no more swollen knees, no Ibuprophen or ice packs. I just showed up, took classes with my fellow students, many in their twenties, and felt terrific afterward.

Like others who have found joy in adapting their sports to their bodies, I had come to a new sport partly by serendipity (I had a tried a few other classes) and partly by having a prepared mind. I knew the feelings I wanted, I just didn't know which sports would create those feelings.

Similarly, a friend of mine was a B level squash player ("A" level is professional). She couldn't move as quickly as she used to, nor as dexterously, having injured her shoulder cartilage. She analyzed other sports with a range of motion similar to her squash stroke, but with more limited shoulder movement, and decided to try archery. Six years later she competes at national level tournaments. She found that she loves the discipline of archery and the range of motion was perfectly suited to her current shoulder conditioning. In addition, having watched herself through tournaments over many years, she wasn't prepared to give up the rankings and associated measures of success which give her a sense of accomplishment.

By analyzing the parts of experience which defined our pleasure, we were both able to find sports which defined areas of strength and competence in our current bodies. We each still feel like athletes, but in a style which responds to our current capacities. The advantage we gained from the mental analysis was a resource in finding a physical form. As in so many areas of life, luck favors the prepared mind. About the Author
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John Trauth is co-author of "Your Retirement, Your Way" (McGraw-Hill, 2007), a step-by-step curriculum which explains the secrets for happiness in retirement and helps readers prepare for the psychological, strategic and financial aspects of this major life transition. Learn more about this book and take the free "retirement readiness quiz" at http://www.YourRetirementYourWay.com.

Seven Habits to Avoid for Your Weight Loss Success

by: Cathy Wilson

There are commonalities of those of us that struggle with weight. Due to many years of unhealthy habits and food choices, we have found ourselves overweight or obese. Habits are hard to break but they can be broken. Replace the unhealthy habits that have made you heavy with healthy habits to not only help you to lose weight but to keep it off and maintain. I've probably lost 2,000 pounds in my lifetime only to lose and regain plus a few bonus pounds from the diet. To help you to lose weight and reach your weight loss goals, notice if any of these habits are applicable to you. If so, change the habit, change your weight, change your life.

1. Eating sweet, sugary treats regularly. If you can eat a bite of something you'd like to eat, great! However, if it is a trigger food to set you off on a day-long binge (or longer), it is best to avoid eating it in the first place. Be aware of your behavior and know yourself. There are some food choices that I just can't handle. Thanks to losing my weight and maintaining it for years, I'm now able to be more in control. My trigger foods have lost their power over my ability to make healthy choices.

2. Eating the majority of meals in restaurants or fast food. Restaurant portions are huge. Usually, a portion in a restaurant is the equivalent to three or more healthy portions. If you must eat out, ask for a to go box at the time that you order. When your meal comes, take your single portion and put the rest in the box. You'll save calories and money to eat it the following day. Fast food is void of nutrition but packed with calories, fat, and carbohydrates. Fast food may be fast but it is far from healthy. The additional time you spent in preparing something healthy for you is minimal compared to the additional time spent trying to lose the weight from fast food.

3. Faster causes fatter. Slow it down. Did you know that it takes 20 minutes for the physical message to get to your brain that you're satisfied. Yes, it take 20 minutes for your brain to essentially catch up to your stomach's "I'm full" cues. Eat slower to allow sufficient time for your stomach to communicate with your brain. In 20 minutes, you can consume a lot of excess food. Try putting your fork or spoon down between bites.

4. Have a sedentary mindset. Look for little ways to be active. Exercise is important yet being active is also a mindset. Look for ways throughout your day to be more active. Little things can lead to a more active lifestyle and extra calories burned along with a boost to your metabolism. Take breaks and go outside for a different perspective and for some fresh air. Muscles were meant to be used rather than sit at your desk all day. Take the stairs instead of the escalator; park further away rather than drive around for a closer space. People that lose weight and maintain it have a mindset to move their body.

5. Don't exercise regularly. There's no way around it, exercise is a component to weight loss. Exercise (such as walking) a few days a week along with resistance training is the key to weight loss. Resistance training is important because it builds muscle. Muscle helps boosts your metabolism and burns more fat. Even walking around the room, walking in place or lifting hand weights during commercials while you watch television can make a difference.

6. Eating as a recreational activity. Eating in response to true hunger is a physiologically and psychologically satisfying, nurturing experience. Many people eat out of food triggers, soothe emotions, or even provide an outlet for boredom. Eat because you are physically hungry and not according to the clock or in response to your head.

7. Skip meals. One of the ways to encourage a late day binge is to skip meals. By skipping meals results in larger meals and unhealthy food choices. Being overly hungry triggers eating fast and overeating, along with poor food choices. Feed your body throughout the day to avoid issues with insulin and blood sugar rise and crash episodes.

Habits are created and habits can be broken. Identify habits that encourage overeating and making unhealthy food choices. Become aware of how many habits don't serve you well and assist you in losing weight. After you're aware, it's time to take action. Take the heavy habits and exchange them for healthy habits. Before you know it, your new healthy habits will be such a natural part of who you are and what you do with your diet and activity per day. If you're tired of being heavy, ditch the habits that make you heavy. Healthy habits are the way to reaching your weight loss goal. Article Source: http://physicalfitnessarticles.net


is a weight loss life coach. Cathy lost 147 pounds six years ago. Her passion is helping clients achieve their weight loss and life goals. Cathy works with clients to create a weight loss life plan that is customized to each client. Cathy is a member of the International Coaching Federation, International Association of Coaches, and Obesity Action Coalition. Visit Cathy's website: www.LoseWeightFindLife.com

Are You Trying to Lose Fat the Hard Way?

By: Jerome Kellner

Seeing my old friend Penny recently after many years was an eye opener.Penny (not her real name) got a mention in my book, as the wonderful woman she is, a woman with a chronic overweight problem. She belonged to a professional group I was part of. She was a personable gal, and readily shared with us her frustrations at exercising faithfully, going to the gym, walking mini marathons regularly, yet she just could not get the fat to go away.One huge reason this was so became abundantly clear at a potluck for our group. Penny brought potato chips and sodas. Bingo. One food item and one beverage choice anyone one who is interested in losing fat healthfully and permanently should ever eat or drink.Not even at an occasional potluck. Seriously. There are just too many other wonderfully healthy choices, both beverages and foods, to choose from.The point of this story is one I make repeatedly: if you are a person who tends to put on weight, you can exercise regularly and energetically, and you will not lose weight if you are eating things like potato chips and drinking sodas. That is just the way it is.It had been at least five years since I had seen Penny, and I immediately recognized her when I saw her get out of the car with another woman, both ready for their afternoon walk in the park. Penny looked exactly the same. Still exercising energetically and regularly. And still way overweight. Now, I did not ask her, but I will go out on a limb and guess that she was still eating potato chips and drinking sodas.That would be a good guess because if she had eliminated those bad choices, and all the others in her diet, and continued to exercise energetically and faithfully, she would have lost all the weight she was still carrying around.You might ask how I know this. I know it because that is my experience, and that is the experience of thousands of others. As a person who has battled overweight and overeating, as a person who has a huge appetite, and is a lifelong lover of food, it was not until I cut all the junk, refined foods out of my diet that I got to my ideal weight. And stayed there permanently.That is just the way it is. That is what it takes. That is the solution to overweight in our world today.So the lesson to learn from the long, ongoing story of Penny is simple: lose weight the easy way. That is, get your eating and drinking habits together. Cut out all the chips, sodas and other high fat, sugar filled refined foods that so many think are okay, normal. They are not and these are the exact items that have made America the fattest nation on earth.They have got to go. When you eliminate the junk foods and replace them with a balanced, plant-based diet of whole, natural foods, and exercise faithfully, then you will see the fat go away. And not until then.Ask Penny. She has been eating the junk foods and drinking the junk beverages for years, while exercising faithfully, and she remains way overweight. She has exactly one half of the fat loss equation right, and the other half wrong. And the result is chronic overweight, year after year after year, not to mention a lot of frustration and overweight-related angst, undoubtedly.I am an exercise nut. I do it my way, and really enjoy engaging in a whole lot of different forms--walking, hiking, jogging, biking, swimming, weight lifting, and more. I love exercise. For me, all exercise is good, whatever you do. It is a joy and a wonder to move the body and perform all the wonderful physical things we can do.But as wonderful as exercise is, it really is not much fun if you are overweight. I know; I have exercised as an overweight person and as a lean, fit person. It is much more fun without all the extra baggage.When you are trying to lose fat, do not be like Penny and sabotage your exercise efforts by eating junk foods. Exercise daily and eat right daily. If you are not eating right, you can exercise faithfully forever and get zero fat loss results.
Article Source: http://physicalfitnessarticles.net/
Jerome Kellner is author of The Maui Diet. He's lived on Maui since 1972 and enjoys biking, hiking, swimming, snorkeling, kayaking and exercising in his outdoor gym. See http://www.themauidiet.com/

Effective But Simple Weight Loss Tips

By: Julie Morris

Are you looking to lose weight to improve your appearance, your health, or even both? If you are, you may be looking for advice. The good news is that there are a number of tips that you can use to help you successfully lose weight and hopefully achieve your weight loss goal.

When it comes to losing weight, the best thing that you can do is eat healthy. Eating healthy involves watching the foods that you eat, not necessarily how much food you eat. Of course, you may want to restrict the amount of foods that you eat, when on a diet, but it is more important to focus on the foods that you do eat. For instance, if you were to eat fruit instead of chips, you could have more fruit snacks with your meals than you would be able to if you were just to eat junk food.

Since eating healthy is an important component of losing weight, you may be wondering how you can go about doing so. One of the first things that you should do is find and familiarize yourself with healthy meals. You can do this by way of standard internet search or by buying a collection of healthy eating recipe books. To reduce the boredom often associated with healthy eating, especially if you are not use to it, it is important that you spice up your foods and try to not eat the same meals over and over again each week.

In connection with healthy eating, regular exercise is also important to weight loss. If you are looking to lose weight, you should start an exercise plan for yourself. Exercise is important as it burns off calories. When you burn calories, the amount of calories that your body absorbs decreases. This is, essentially, what makes it possible for you to lose weight. If you have not been exercising regularly in the past, it is important that you take it slow. Exercise is a great way to lose weight, but you do not want to overdo it, especially at first.

If you do not currently have an exercise plan or program in place, you may be wondering more about what you can do. One of the many ways that you can go about finding exercises or workouts to do is by buying a collection of fitness magazines. Many fitness magazines have detailed exercises outlined in them, often accompanied by pictures. You may also be able to find free instructional workout videos or exercise moves online. As a reminder, it is important to start out slow or at least start with exercises that would be easy for you to.

Eating healthy and regular exercise are both important components of losing weight, but there are additional tips that you can use to help you lose weight. One of those tips involves finding a workout partner or a workout buddy. This is a person who can exercise with you, whether your exercise involves visiting a local gym or just going for a walk at a local shopping center. Having a workout partner may help to keep you motivated and it may help to keep exercising and losing weight fun and exciting for you.

Another way that you can go about successfully achieving your weight loss goal is by spicing up your exercises. As previously mentioned, you can use the internet or fitness magazines to find workouts for you to do at home. To help reduce the boredom often associated with exercising you will want to change up your exercises, often on a daily basis. For instance, one day you may want to use a treadmill, the next day you may want to lift weights, and the next day you may want to do an exercise DVD, and so forth.

You should also consider making exercise and healthy eating logs or journals for yourself. These items can be used to track your progress. If you have a good week, like one where you completed all of your exercises, you may want to think about rewarding yourself. Your reward does not have to include food; it can be something as simple as a sticker or treating yourself to a movie. Journals and logs have been known to help many individuals looking to lose weight and it may be able to do the same for you. Article Source: http://physicalfitnessarticles.net


Julie Morris recommends a Top Rated Home Based Business- Work At Home & Eat Healthy Chocolate - Not A Bad Combination. Take A free Tour today at www.EarnWithJulie.net

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How to Select new Running Shoes

By: Ian Smith

As a runner the most important piece of equipment you can have are your shoes.
This is the reason that runners spend a great deal of time checking out shoes, until they find the best running shoes for their feet, not only for the fit, but also for the kind of running, and training they will be doing.

Whatever you do, you must not pick a shoe because it looks good in the shop, so what are you to do to make sure you pick the right shoe, because be reassured there could be several shoes that will be right for your feet and your running requirements.

How do you find the right shoe, and why is that so important?

The scope of this article is limited, so rather than try to make recommendations, which will probably be wrong, as I don't know anything at all about your feet, or your requirements.

In other words, are you going to use them as track shoes or trail shoes. There is a huge difference between running on a flat track, and on a boulder strewn, wet, muddy trail!!

Add to this the fact that your feet will hit the ground hard over 1600 times every mile that you run.
If your footwear is the wrong size or unsuited to your biomechanical needs, you are going to find it uncomfortable, probably annoying, and even worse it could lead to injury.

What is the right shoe for my feet?

A combination of a good fit and excellent biomechanics.
The fit is obvious, but what do I mean by biomechanics?
Put simply it is all about a word called pronation.

Pronation is the natural movement of your feet when they touch the ground.
All feet roll inwards as the ball of the foot touches the ground. You can either check this out yourself by looking at the wear patterns on your old running shoes.
If you tend to wear out your shoes first on the outside, you probably tend to underpronate; if you wear out your shoes first significantly more to the inside, look for a shoe for over-pronators.
It isn't complicated but you would do well to find someone with experience as a runner to watch you running from behind before you make a new purchase.

There are four categories based on the degree of pronation.

1. Neutral Pronation, require shoes with a good balance of stability and flexibility.
2. Under Pronation has not enough foot motion, and they require good cushioning and flexibility in their running shoes
3. Moderate Over Pronation require Stability Trainers
4. Severe Over Pronation requires Motion-control trainers.

You should by now have worked out your pronation factor, so your shoe selection must be governed by this.
The other consideration is shoe fit, and the easiest judgement, is does it feel good, and is there room between the end of your longest toe and the front of the shoe. The shoe needs to feel snug at the heel, and comfortable.
At the end of the day, if you have used and liked a particular make of running shoe, then stick with that brand, but make sure you are buying the correct shoe model bearing in mind your pronation factor. Article Source: http://physicalfitnessarticles.net


Ian Smith is a former international sportsman who contributes articles to websites featuring sporting footwear. He recommends Adidas, and suggests to check out www.adidas-shoes-guide.info