Fitness, Training, Health & Conditioning

What do you normally think of when you are doing a warm-up? Is it the traditional jog a few laps to increase blood flow to the muscles to make them more flexible? Is it the basics of a few stretches that kids will hold for a few seconds, then move on to the next one? That is pretty much every warm-up I did in P.E. all the way through school.  

Lets look at a different perspective on how to truly prepare the body. If you have not looked go back to the early philosophy posts. In them we discuss how your muscular system is in a constant state of change based on the various stimulus or lack of stimulus it receives. I know many of you have said to your kids that if they don’t use their muscles, they will lose them. How true this is. So for a warm-up you must then assume that outside of your class they are not doing enough to provide the necessary stimulus to their muscular system to keep it working efficiently. 

How would you warm up someone who had not been allowed to use any of their muscles for over a week? Would it change what you would do with them. I hope it would. Without going into the boring lecture we all know and give to our students and parents, kids are simply not as physical as they used to be. Video Games, Computers, Ipod’s and all the other time wasters are really limiting the physical development of our children. 

So to do a warm-up that will provide the necessary stimulus to the muscular system and will allow you to truly improve the efficiency of the muscular system requires a different approach than the standard. Let me give you a different example of what is all entailed in a proper warm-up. Here are several components that are important to consider. First is the traditional idea of wanting to lengthen the muscles or “flexibility”. Lets take this a step further and say first we want to take the joints through a full range of motion. Specifically lets focus on the shoulders and hips, the two ball and socket joints in the body.

For the shoulders I like to break it up into 4 directions, Horizontal push and pull, Vertical Push and pull. Think of the body in the anatomically correct position, standing with palms facing out and knees and feet pointing straight ahead. So for the horizontal push it would involve the muscles involved in pressing the arms out in front of you, for instance a pushup. Horizontal pull would then of course be the opposite of this motion, the act of pulling the arms back towards the body. Vertical push and Vertical pull would then be the act of pressing the arms over the head and then pulling them back down. 

This is a very basic version but If you do an exercise for each of these 4 directions you will have given the necessary stimulus to the muscles of the upper body to promote full range of motion in that joint.

We can do the same thing for the lower Body, use these 4 planes, Flexion/Extension, and Abduction/Adduction. Flexion being the act of moving the femur superior towards the pelvis. Extension then would be the opposite, abduction is the lateral movement of the femur away from the midline and adduction is bringing it back. 

Next Post we will cover the remainder of the components of a warm-up.

For the last few years i have had the opportunity to teach Physical Education at a Private Christian School. Growing up I think I took every P.E. class available all the way through college. There was one thing in common with all of them, they were all about games and did very little to teach me how to take care of my body post high school and college. Now to be fair, I did only take one Yoga class in college and that did help but still it was not designed for me to take the class beyond the walls it was held in. Even the weight training classes were more geared towards traditional power lifting for athletes which is a terrible way to train in general, let alone when you are no longer in sports.

I would like to try an give all of you P.E. teachers a different perspective to help aid you in your curriculum. Taking the 15 years of personal training into the physical education world has allowed me to create a class curriculum that will not only fit into the national and state standards for Physical Education but also supply the kids with a chance to learn how to take care of themselves.

I have seen so many incredible P.E. programs over the years and I hope you will find some of this information valuable. Feel free to use it however you feel it will best benefit your program.

So how do we start testing and recording for a weight loss goal? First if you refer back to the philosophy we talked about a long time ago we discussed how you are a living adaptive organism that constantly changes based on the stimulus it receives. So to make yourself as successful as possible I recommend that you take out as many of the variables as possible. What I mean by this is that your body will change based many factors, sleep, food intake, current hydration levels, exercise. So you may decide that in you goal setting you will weigh in first thing monday mornings, depending on your activity level and what you ate on Sunday, that could drastically affect your scale weight on the Monday weigh in.

So try to do something like this. First set your initial short term goal of hydration. You make it through your 5 days and then to reward yourself you go out and purchase a nice accurate scale to weigh in on. Lets Say Monday mornings right when you get up will be the big weigh in day each week. To make this as consistent and accurate as possible we will set up a Sunday Schedule. Each Sunday try to eat the same breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Try to eat them at about the same time as well. Also ensure you are drinking the same amount of water each Sunday as well. Finally attempt to go to bed so you get the same amount of sleep. All these things should help keep things as organized as possible. 

Now as far as short term, do the same thing I showed you in the running example, come up with all of the components of losing weight and list them out. 

1. Water/Hydration, 2. Cardiovascular Exercise, 3. Strength Exercise, 4. Nutrition, 5. Vitamins/Supplements, 6. Sleep, 7. Proper Workout attire

Ok so it is late and i only came up with seven. Still it makes for an easy task of setting up smaller goals that will help to reach the long term ones. My long term goal is to lose 50 pounds. I will accomplish my first goal of consistently drinking 75 ounces of water for 5 days. My reward is a nice scale to use for my first official weight check. From there you can set a significant number of smaller goals based on all the different components. 

I will give more example of these in the next few posts.

So at this point you should have your goals in place and a timeline full of small attainable short term goals all leading to your long term ultimate goal. Now how do you monitor your progress on these goals. As a part of your schedule, give yourself a specific time table on the goals. Take a look at your long term goals. First you have to establish your starting point.

For my 5k goal I am going to attempt to establish a time.   It may be ugly but go out and run. Make sure you do a proper warm-up which I will give to you in a few posts. Since I followed my own advice I have already worked on a few short term goals so I have been fully hydrated now for about five days so I am off to get my brand new pair of running shoes. 

So I finish my warm-up and I am off. I have not run in awhile so I have no idea about pace so just go for it. Even if you have to walk try as hard as you can to finish your run. Record you time when you are done. 

Now you have your initial time with which to work with. From here we can do several forms of testing and recording to help us along the way. 

Ok next post I will give you a similar example with a weight loss goal.

Now that you have the example, It would be a great idea to write out the next few months of your short term goals. Make them simple and attainable. As long as they have something to do with your long term goal you will feel good about what you are accomplishing. Feel free to be working on multiple short term goals all a the same time. Give yourself as many positives as you can.

The second part of the first task was to come up with your current time schedule. With your schedule in hand, how much time were you able to open up? If you said you were going to work out at 5 AM everyday and you normally go to bed around midnight, keep dreaming. Make sure you do not sacrifice your health to achieve your goals. All research in this area that I have ever read points to a lack of sleep being one of the leading causes of illness and stress. On the opposite end if you are going to try to work out very late at night be ready to stay up late because it will be hard for your body to slow itself down to where it can be at rest for at least an hour after any type of vigorous exercise. You can do stretching and yoga style workouts but you will want to avoid getting your heart rate up and keeping it up before you plan on going to bed.

Look at your short term goals and compare them to your time. I’m going to stick with running the 5k as the example as we go through the rest of this step. Lets say the example schedule I came up with allows me to have about an hour to exercise 4x’s per week. I have time available from 5-6pm on Tuesday and Thursday. Then I can also make time in the morning on Saturday and Sunday. Making use of the time will be the easy part. More importantly, what can you do on the days when you do not have the hour. Well, I can work on my short term goal of hydration. I can also work on my flexibility goal to help improve my stride. I may not have an hour on the other 3 days but I will do 5 minutes of stretching in the morning and before I go to bed.

In the example I’ll say that I chose the Tuesday and Thursday times because those are the days I take my daughter to dance practice. Instead of using that time to just sit and read the paper or mess around with the latest app on my iPod touch, I can warm up and get a good run in. This makes this time hard to not have. As long as my daughter goes to dance I will get a workout in. I am paying for dance so she will be going unless she happens to be sick.

I believe that this is why so many people choose to work out early in the morning, nothing interferes with this time.

The last point on this is if at all possible try to get someone else involved in your goal. Working in pairs or a group is by far the best way to help stay on track. If you find someone who is dedicated to the same goal as you, consider yourself lucky!.

Ok so hopefully you have done the first part of this already, if not go do it now. Here is the saying I want you to remember when it comes to your goals, “Look long, See Short”. Always be looking forward towards your long term goals but you must see the progress through a series of much shorter and easily attainable goals.

Now with your Long term goal in mind, were you able to make it specific? Remember the broad scope all encompassing type of goals are very hard to attain. Set something Specific, “I want to drop my dress size by 4″, “I want to be able to run a 5k in under 20 minutes” Now With these goals in mind lets look at making a timeline. How can you break your goal up into smaller ones that can be attained quickly.

I encourage clients to look at the various components of their goal. Lets take the running one for example, how many components can you list that will positively impact your ability to run a 5K in a specific time? Lets see if I can name ten;
1. Flexibility, 2. Nutrition, 3. Proper Footwear, 4. Strength Training, 5. Running, 6. Proper Attire, 7. Mental training, 8. Sleep, 9. Proper Hydration, 10. Running Surface, 11. Injury Prevention.

I got eleven just to make myself feel smart. Ok so out of the list how many things can you name that could be goals. Here is how you can make yourself not only feel successful but be successful. First I mentioned Proper footwear, Proper attire, and mental training. Lets use these as our rewards. So our first goal towards becoming a better runner is going to be hydration. I am going to drink a minimum of 75 ounces of water everyday for 7 straight days. Once I accomplish this I will go out and get fitted for a nice pair of running shoes.

Now not only have we put ourselves in a better position to run from, I also accomplish 2 more by getting good running shoes which will help with the last goal of injury prevention. This is a great way to keep yourself on track. This is what I meant by “Look long, See short”. We are working hard at our long term goal but we can see our progress towards it with the smaller goals.

If you need help with any of your goal setting, Send a message and I’ll try to help out!

Now is the perfect time for us to start focusing on the most predictable of all New Years Celebrations. The “this is the year I get back in shape” resolution. I have helped thousands with this goal over the last decade and a half and i would love to help you get this resolution right this year.

The best way to start is to determine what is your real motivation. This seems simple and obvious enough but I have found this to be the issue that causes many to fail. The issue with most fitness resolutions is that they are to broad in their scope or they are simply unrealistic. If your resolution is say, I’m going to get in great shape this year so I look good this summer. With a broad scope such as this it makes it very hard to stay focused on your intentions since you have only the long term goal. I also do not like these types of goals because it makes it very easy to put it off since you feel like you have plenty of time until its too late.

How about the unrealistic goals? Like I’m going to lose a certain amount of pounds by a certain date. For instance I am going to lose 20 pounds in the next 2 months. This is a hard one to control since you will have so many ups and downs and if your like most you will need to find a significant mount of time to dedicate to this.. This also encourages a constant watching of the scale which is never a god idea. For some you out there this may work but it takes an incredible amount of will and determination and to be honest. To be honest, if you had that type of determination you most likely would not be making this goal in the first place.

So how do you set realistic fitness goals that are achievable? First sit down and be realistic with how much time you are wiling to dedicate to this resolution. Once you decide on this, think it over for a few more days while you tell many of your friends about it. This will help to see if your time management plans will work. A good friend will tell you if your idea is a bit out of reach by reminding you of all the things you have to do in your life. The time you have to dedicate to your goals will truly determine everything about them.

I recommend that you make out a week long schedule of what your currently do. List it hour by hour, include everything from when you eat, to when you watch TV and everything else you do? Once you have this completed then look at where there are pockets of time available to you. Is there additional time in the morning? Evening?, Lunch? Do not look for large chunks of time. It does not take multiple hours everyday to make yourself get into better shape. Every little bit counts and is that much more than what you are currently doing. Also do not feel like it needs to be the same time everyday.

So here is your first assignment in building your New Years Resolution, 1. Pick your Goal, 2. Put together your calendar as it looks now.

Finish this and tomorrow we will move to the next part of the goal setting

Last post on this for now. I wanted to touch on one more part of this. Once your child has achieved the level of physical awareness necessary to perform most of their basic movements (walking, running, jumping etc) I highly encourage you to keep them involved in some form of structured physical activity. Obviously as we discussed in the last one try to provide an environment in which they can have some freedom to challenge their bodies on a daily basis.

My wife and I after getting our kids through Gymboree were looking for something similar but geared towards a little older kid. We tried several different things from various sports camps (advanced babysitting in my opinion) to martial arts (to specific) and finally found the best option to be gymnastics. I know Dads will think they do not want their kids running around in tights and what not but trust me guys thats not what it is.

At the ages of 4-7 there are great classes for kids that are just giant obstacle courses to challenge them with. There is great coordination development on the trampolines and who does not love falling into a giant pit of foam blocks? And they can just wear shorts and a t-shirt. To be honest I think gymnastics was the best choice simply based on the strength kids gain while in it. My son is not real big but has become very strong and much more flexible since he got in. By the age of 5 he could even do a handstand.

Finally please avoid the trap of your son or daughter getting sport specific at a young age. It happens most frequently with soccer. Encourage your kids to play various sports since each provides a different type of stimulus to the muscular system all helping to keep their body working as efficiently as possible.

Ok so I wanted to give you some more things to consider as your kids develop. Another one I noticed in regards to when the kids begin walking is to not place them in those little rolling chairs. The ones I’m referring to are the big circle chairs that you place them in standing up so the only thing that touches the floor is the ends of their toes. This is truly horrible on the development of their natural gait (walking) patterns.

Again , I cannot stress it enough, let them develop on their own, they know what they are doing. I would like to also encourage you to get your child involved in some sort of age appropriate, structured fitness class. My Children have all gone through the Gymboree program and I felt it did wonders for them. If you are unfamiliar with this program, it is a class setting where kids are encouraged to explore. It is a large room full of padded blocks and slides and stairs. They have balance beams, tunnels, and many other physical options for kids to try.

This is a great way for them to not only develop socially by interacting with the teacher and other students, it is tremendous for them physically. To be honest they really need this every day. This cold cost you a fortune so lets also talk about some ways to make your house a good training center for kids.

First if you have stairs, encourage your kids to use them. Obviously supervise them at first. The stairs are a great training tool for kids learning to walk. Have them crawl the stairs over and over. Get them to use both legs to try and get up onto the steps. This is wonderful for building strength and integrity in the hip joint. Make your back yard a safe spot for your kids to play and explore. There are several options for outdoor play structures that you can get your kids on everyday. Try to find one that has several different types of muscular demand.

I live in Oregon and we have a company called, The Kid’s Backyard Store. I am sure every state has an option like this. Check it out at www.thekidsbackyardstore.com. I really like the variety these offer even in the smaller versions. These can be fairly expensive so for a smaller budget, try little tikes, http://www/littletikes.com or even Toys R Us for some cheaper yet real good options. Inside you can get various climbing and crawling aides that are soft and do not take up a tremendous amount of floor space. Lakeshore learning had a good variety of these available. Above is the picture of the one My wife chose for our youngest daughter.