3. Constantly affirm your positive self-concept and create a positive system in other people
4. Actively pursue goals and declare your vision and your mission
5. Share your vision with friends and coaches
6. Support your friends who play, work out, work on something hard (verbally and non-verbally)
7. Model yourself after someone successful, especially one who did well through hard work
8. View negative and destructive criticism as a statement of a critic who may be somewhat jealous
9. Be a dreamer and dream great successes, harness the ultimate power of your imagination to reach your goals
10. Constantly acknowledge the fact that the only person you have control of is yourself and you will take your positive and negative qualities wherever you go
A good trainer or coach has the ability to get people to do things that they don’t want to do in order to have things that they want to have. -Tom Landry
“The one thing that seems to deteriorate quickest with inactivity is insulin sensitivity,” says Ben Hurley, a professor of kinesiology at the university of Maryland at College park.
Type 2 diabetes by far the most common kind occurs when the body becomes insensitive, or resistant, to insulin in the blood. When insulin stops working, blood sugar level rise and diabetes sets in.
Regular exercise reverses the damage.
“It increases insulin sensitivity and makes the cells better at taking in glucose and processing it,” explains I-Min Lee, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
“The data are striking ,” says Hurley. And it’s not just and issue for adults. “Type 2 diabetes used to be a disease of middle age,” he adds. “But now we’re seeing it in young people. It’s a sedentary disease.”
Hurley sounds like researcher Steven Blair talking about the metabolic syndrome, which raises the risk of both diabetes and heart disease.
Doctors diagnose the syndrome when people have a large waist, low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and elevated (though not necessarily high) blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglyceride.
“The metabolic syndrome is misnamed,” says Blair, who is president of the Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas. “It ought to be called the inactivity syndrome.”
This might sound obvious, but many people forget this, especially when they’re really hungry. Take your time and chew each bite thoroughly so you’re more aware of when you’ve had your fill. Stop when you’re full, even if it means leaving a few delicious bites on the plate
2. Use a doggy bag
Portions in many restaurants are huge. Don’t feel obligated to clean your plate. If you get a meal that looks like way more you need, immediately ask for a take-out container and save half for later. That way it’s not as tempting, you’re not wasting food, and you have a snack for later
3. Recognize the difference between hunger and craving
When you are hungry, eat something. I don’t want anyone starving around here. On the other hand, if you are not really hungry but crave a bag of potato chips or a donut, try to find a healthy alternative or go without
4. When an apple just won’t do
Sometimes when you really want that donut, no number of apple slices is going to help. Go ahead and have a donut – a donut, not three donuts. Instead of eating a bag-full of fat-free cookies, have one real cookie if that’s what you really want, and don’t feel guilty about it. Sometimes thats the only way to be satisfied.
5. Variety is the spice of life
Eat a variety of foods every day so you get all the vitamins and nutrients you need. Eat mostly grains, vegetables, and fruits. Cut down on fats, oils, and sweets.
6. Arm yourself
Surround yourself with healthy snacks so yo’re not tempted to eat things that are bad for you. Load up on apples, bananas, or strawberries for when a sweet tooth hits you. Cut up some carrots sticks, and keep them in the refrigerator for a quick snack. Apples with a little peanut butter are a great snack
7. Eat small meals
Instead of eating three large meals a day, try eating five or six small meals or snacks throughout the day. This can prevent you from getting really hungry and overeating at mealtime
8. Don’t eat right before going to bed
Although I realize this can be difficult because of work schedules, try to have your main meal in the middle of the day instead of at night. Also, eat dinner a few hours before bedtime so you give your body a chance to use some of those calories before you sleep.
Muscle cramps are painful, sustained contractions of all of the muscle fibers in a muscle. They can last for just a few seconds or continue for several hours.
Although cramps can occur during sleep, they usually occur during intense exercise. No athlete or fitness buff in any sport is immune to this common condition.
Thera are many causes:
Salt deficiency
Low levels of other minerals such as potasium or magnesium
An injury or strain on the muscle
An obstruction of the muscle’s blood supply by sustained muscular contraction
Hyperventilating – breathing too fast when it is not necessary, which prevents the body from using calcium
Most common cause of cramps in athletes is a low body level of one or more minerals, particularly potassium and salt. Potasium is the mineral that is lost in large ammounts during hard exercise.
I suggest that you eat more fruits and vegetables to replace potassium. I do not recommend that you increase your dietary intake of salt. When an athlete consumes large amount of salt, his body loses its ability to conserve salt. Consequently, if he suddenly decreases his intake, his level will become unusually low and this will cause cramps.
If you still continue to have cramps in spite of an increased intake of mineral-rich foods, see your physician. Since potassium and magnesium are found primarily inside the cells, blood tests are not always an accurate measure of the body’s level of the two minerals. The best way to measure this minerals is to cut out a piece of muscle and measure the amount of minerals inside it. However, because the treatment of mineral deficiency is so simple – eating fruits, vegetables, and grains – a muscle biopsy is never necessary.
Along with the other benefits of getting in shape – increased self-confidence, improved mood, longevity, and health – weight training has benefits of its own. While looking good in a bathing suit is great, there are even more reasons to get toned.
Lifting weights builds muscles that can help you loose weight. Muscles burn more calories than fat because muscle is more metabolically active than fat, even when you’re standing around and even while you sleep. In short, muscles are calorie-hungry in general and at all times burn more calories than does fat.
The benefits of building strong bones
Weight-bearing exercise increases bone density. This is especially important as we get older because bone density, which increases until we’re about 30 years old, begins to decrease after that age.
Weight-bearing exercise helps prevent osteoporosis, a progressive decrease in bone density that weakens bones and makes them more likely to fracture.
It’s much easier to prevent osteoporosis than to treat it. This disease affects millions of people, especially older women. Even if you are a healthy male, keep reading. Twenty percent of the victims of osteoporosis are men. And if you’re an older adult, strength training can help you remain independent. As you get stronger, you increase your ability to move around and reduce your chances of failig. Also, building bone density helps prevent hip and spinal fractures and other problems that can develop with age.
Lift weights to improve posture
Strong back muscles lead to better posture and fewer lover back problems. Muscle building increases power and strength, making you more confident in all aspects of your life.
Many athletes include weight training in their fitness routine to improve their performance and to build strength that prevents their chances of injury.
I’ve been weight training regularly since beginning of my high school studies and can tell, that consistency and intensity are the keys to lean, healthy, solid body. I’m north California surfer, where waves get sometimes bigger that I can handle. While keeping strong body by lifting weights, I’ve been able to manage my falls on steep waves without injury.
Myth 1. You can become fit by exercising a few minutes a week
A basic element of fitness is the capacity of the heart to do work. This is called cardiovascular fitness.
To achieve cardiovascular fitness, you must push your heartbeat to more than 60 percent of its maximum for at least thirty minutes three times a week. Your maximum is the fastest your heart can beat and still pump blood to your body. If you are between ages of twenty and forty, that level is about 200 beats per minute. That means that you must raise your pulse rate to 120.
If you are trained athlete and want to maintain a high level of fitness, you must raise your pulse to at least 80 percent of its maximum, or 160 beats per minutes, for an extended period.
Since bowling and golf do not raise your heartbeat to these levels, they do not give you cardiovascular fitness.
Myth 2. The more you train, the more fit you become
You can make a mistake by training too hard or by training too much.
The more intensely you train, the less training you can do. Beginners often exercise so vigorously that they become breathless and must cut their workout short. As a result, they don’t get enough exercise to achieve fitness. A good rule of thumb for a beginner: never exercise so hard that you are gasping for air. As your level of fitness improves, you will be able to exercise more vigorously.
Myth 3. The best way to improve your fitness or athletic performance is to train hard every day
Every time you exercise vigorously, muscle fibers are slightly damaged and your muscles burn up their fuel and become depleted. You must allow time for your muscles to recover. If you don’t, you will be more susceptible to injury.
Myth 4. If you attain a high degree of fitness, you will remain fit even with layoff
Ridiculous!
Whether you’re runner who can run ten miles with ease or tennis player who can play three hard sets, you will not be able to handle the same workload after a layoff or even a few weeks.
This is called reversibility, and describes the fact that your muscles – including your heart muscle – quickly loose their ability to utilize oxygen efficiently if they are not stressed constantly. As a result they do not have the same capacity for work after a layoff.
Myth 5. You don’t have to do stretching exercises if you’re fit
To stay flexible, you have to stretch regularly even if you’re fit and active!
Myth 6. Exercise can harm you because it enlarges the heart
Exercise puts a moderate stress on your heart, which causes it to become stronger, larger, and more muscular.
Heart attacks are caused by failure in the supply of blood to the heart. In an extremely well conditioned person, the arteries supplying the heart with blood are enlarged, and are therefore much less susceptible to clogging or stoppage. This almost guarantees that individual immunity from heart attack.
Myth 7. A normal electrocardiogram means your heart is healthy and you can safely perform vigorous exercise
Not so. A normal resting electrocardiogram means very little. There are reports in the medical literature of people dying of heart attack immediately after taking a normal electrocardiogram.
A stress electrocardiogram, taken while you are exercising, is another story. If your stress electrocardiogram is normal, you are extremely unlikely to have a conventional heart attack when you exercise.
Myth 8. Vitamin supplements improve fitness and performance
There is no scientific evidence to support this belief. The average American for example eats so well that his diet provides all the vitamins he could possibly need.
Actually B12 injections can only perk up pure vegetarians who have abstained from eating animal products for at least ten years, or persons with pernicious anemia – a rare disease in which this vitamin is not absorbed from food.
A more common cause of chronic fatigue in athletes is potassium deficiency.The treatment: eat large quantities of fruits and vegetables.
Myth 10. Athletes require more protein in their diet
Muscles are composed of protein, but scientific studies clearly show that protein requirements do not rise significantly with exercise. Hard exercise depletes muscles of muscle sugar (glycogen), not protein.
Myth 11. Steak and potatoes are the best pre-game or pre-exercise meal
Stake ranks as a poor source of immediate energy. Furthermore, the fat in the stake is relatively slow to digest and, if eaten too soon before exercise or game, can actually impair performance.
The best athletic fuel is carbohydrates – found in potatoes, crackers, pasta, rice and bread.
Myth 12. Exercise should be avoided in cold weather because cold air can freeze your lungs
Frozen lungs has never been reported in an athlete.
