stretching and lengthening Archives

Weekend Warriors Increase Performance

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Shelli Thompson

race for the cure 2009 028 — Weekend Warriors Racing for The Cure

Are you a weekend warrior? Training for marathons, playing basketball with friends or just doing wild and crazy things. You won’t be able to do those things if you don’t take care of your body. Your performance can be increased for more fun, less tiredness and more competition. It’s not hard to do and many of the things we do on the weekend can be enhanced in much the same ways.

I’ve worked with a lot of weekend warriors, and there is one thing I tell all of them: you won’t get the best performance out of your body or have the most fun you could have if you limit your exercise to your weekly activity. by only exercising on the weekend you actually increases your chances of injury.

Here are some simple tips that I’ve found work for pretty much everyone. These tips will allow you to improve your performance and stay in the best possible shape for your weekend-warrior adventures.

Stretching.

No matter what sport you’re into, your body will perform better if you continue to have your full range of motion. Supple muscles simply work better. I’ll be happy to give you advice on stretching exercises to enhance your performance at your chosen sport, or else you can look up Yoga stretches online. Just be sure to follow this simple rule: do not continue stretching into pain. Pain means you’re doing damage, and that won’t help your performance at all.

Weight training.

Weight training improves our bodies’ overall performance by making us stronger and increasing our endurance. Even if your sport depends on speed – like competitive running or swimming – you need strong muscles to make that speed happen. Weight training also improves our bone density and keeps our bones strong.

Cardio work.

Cardio work is the ultimate means of improving your performance by increasing your endurance. There are a lot of possible cardio exercises you can try, from dancing to kickboxing. The point here is that you can’t expect your body to perform its best on weekends if you’re not working on your cardio fitness at least one or two times a week in between competitions. Strengthening your heart is a great way to increase your performance.

I know that these tips may sound as though I’m trying to take your weekend fun and turn it into a chore and we don’t like chores. But that’s not the case! Any of these activities that you can do during the week will improve your weekend performance and make your weekend activities more fun for you.

You don’t have to decide to devote your life to fitness to achieve improved performance. Even if you spend a total of three hours a week on some combination of stretching, cardio, and weights, you’re going to see a measurable improvement in your ability to enjoy your weekend activity. You will also feel better and more fit and there is nothing better than that.

Now, if you do want to go all-out – for example, if you want to improve to the point you’re running 10ks instead of 5, or you’ve decided that, just once, you’re going to be able to dunk that basketball – of course you’re going to need to work harder. The more effort you put into anything, the more you’re going to improve.

But if you just want to enjoy what you’re doing on the weekends more and perform a bit better, just scale the exercise tips I’ve given you to a level that will help you meet that goal. You can improve performance and your health with any additional amount of exercise than what you are doing right now. Continuing to exercise during the week can be a challenge with work, family and a million other things that can get in the way.

Now Thats A Stretch!

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Shelli Thompson

Downward Dog is a Great Stretch

That your doctor will tell you before you get stiff and can’t touch your toes that you need to keep your flexibility as you age in order to lead a healthy life is a real stretch. If your doctor told you before it was almost too late it would be really helpful.

I taught fitness classes for 25 years of varying nature. I taught from age 2 1/2 all the way to 90 years old and one thing I always did was talk about the importance of flexibility.

Many people would ask my advist after their doctor told them that they need to work on flexibility with different stretches. Many of those students could only reach about mid shin when they reached for the floor.

I saw tremendous improvement in many students after attending Yoga and classes specifically designed for stretching and addressing stiffness that comes with age.

Why is this so important?

You see, we only have 4 types of tissues in our bodies. These tissues are made up of cells with the intelligence to know what they are needed for.

Within each type of tissue there are different uses for instance Epithelium is our skin and it has different functions such as protecting us from the outside world, it absorbs in the stomach and intestinal lining, it filters in the kidneys and it secretes from glands.

So let’s look at Muscle tissue and the different functions it performs.

Muscles are responsible for body movement, muscles move blood, food, and waste through the body’s organs and it is also responsible for mechanical digestion.

If you notice Muscles are responsible for moving blood and blood runs through veins. The walls of your veins have the same type of tissue that your muscles are made up of.

What we all need to understand is that when you have a tissue type in the body that is affected in a negative way all of the tissue that is similar in nature will have a similar problem. If muscles get stiff all of the tissue that has the same make up will be affected.

So if we have the same tissue responsible for our muscles and our veins, what do you suppose will happen to your veins when your muscles get stiff and inflexible?

I think you got that right, your veins become stiff and hard, allowing for the sticky, gunky build up known as plaque and also allows cholesterol to block the veins due to their lack of flexibility. The real danger though is the build up of plaque. This Plaque can break free from the walls of your veins and arteries and actually cause blockage. Depending on where the blockage is it can lead to a heart attack or a stroke.

Do we want to wait until we are all stiff and “stoved” up before we start to work on our flexibility? Certainly not and the reason for that is it can be a long road back to having some semblance of flexibility if you have lost it at an older age.

Chances are you won’t get it back completely but there is definitely a chance of that happening with perseverance and determination and the really important ingredient would be dedication.

Don’t let you muscles get stiff, make sure and stretch morning and evening and you will never be sorry you took the 10 minutes to get it done, it is an investment in your future.

Make sure and join Health Pulse Magazine and they explore stretching and lengthening all of the muscles in the body in their special series, “That’s a Stretch” coming soon.

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