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The Total Self: Mental Preparedness
NOTE: This article (and this site) is no substitute for sound medical advice. Please refer all health/wellness related questions to your Primary Care Provider.
This article is some food for thought. It’s a simple “pre-workout checklist”. Kind of a mental checklist for you before your workout. Situational Awareness is not just a fancy word for the military. Please use this. It will help.
Preparedness for each workout is critical to success. You and you alone are responsible for making sure that you are doing the right exercises to meet your goals. It’s also your responsibility to make sure you come to each session ready to work hard and give it your all.
If you don’t, you can rest assured you won’t be able to give a maximum effort and therefore, progress could be slow to get going.
Fortunately, if you follow this pre-session checklist, you can feel confident you are going in fully prepared.
1. Have you eaten? If you are not fueling your body right before each workout, you will not perform optimally. Aim for a light meal or snack containing protein and carbohydrates around 200-400 calories.
2. Motivation, please. Each person is motivated by different techniques. Whether you watch a video of your favorite athlete or you say some positive affirmations to yourself, do something that will get you inspired and ready to get it in.
3. What are your goals for the session? Make sure that you set a purpose for each workout – one thing that you want to accomplish to move yourself one step closer to success. Accomplishing that purpose will work wonders.
4. Clothing and footwear. While you don’t need much to get in a workout, you do need to make sure you go in prepared. Don’t overlook the importance of this.
5. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!!! Dehydration can be just as bad as skipping a pre-workout meal, so make sure you are fully hydrated going in.
6. Clear your head. Before you get started, clear your head of anything, deal with anything that will impede your progress. Workout partners and trainers are not mind readers, so make sure you are mentally prepared to get that workout in.
So have a look over this check list before each workout- and you can feel confident you are getting the results that come from the hard work you put in at the gym.
Preparedness is surely one of the basics. THE BASICS ALWAYS WIN!!!
RESOURCES
https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/how-to-prepare-your-mind-and-body-for-basic-training
https://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/features/8-ways-to-think-thin#1
https://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/motivation_articles.asp?id=2355
Mental Tips for Weight Loss – Train Your Mind To Lose Weight
15 Ways for Success with Your Fitness Regimen
How many of you have kept with your New Year’s pledge to lose weight, perhaps turn your life around? If you’ve fallen off track, that’s no big deal (over 85% of Americans break their New Year’s pledges in under 45 days). In case any of you all need a refresher, or a plan to get over the hump (or just to stay the course), here is my list of 15 ways to have success with any fitness regimen. This is by no means a comprehensive list… but hopefully it will work for you. There is no shortcut to ideal health (whatever that is for you), no magic pill that lets you hit your five-a-day target and no single exercise that gives you a shredded physique in minutes. It takes time, hard work and an educated approach to get in shape and stay in shape. Following these tips will make your fitness quest (and life) a whole lot easier.
1. Prepping for Success
The better path to a sound diet is found by using your weekends wisely. Use the extra time you have on your weekends to make large batches of healthy meals that you can portion up to cover at least a couple of midweek lunches and dinners, avoiding the certain death of your fitness goals via fast food.
2. Mix Up Your Exercise
Variety is – cliché alert! – the spice of life, and many sports and activities support each other in ways you won’t realise until you try it. For example, strength training for your legs and core will make you a better runner, while those addicted to dumbbells will find Pilates works muscles they’d never even considered.
3. Calibrate Your Fitness Technology
If you invest in a fitness tracker, don’t just sit back and assume that following the preset targets will lead you to glory. Adjust the steps, active minutes and calorie targets regularly to build on your progress, or make them more realistic if you never get close and have started to ignore them. If you don’t engage with your fitness tech, you’ll quickly discard it.
4. Add In Extra Activity
This one of the oldest tricks in the book: take the stairs not the escalator, or get off the bus a stop early and walk. Any activity is better than none, and will only encourage you to do more. And if you really want to up the ante, try sprinting up the stairs (safely) each time you take them – clinical studies found that short bursts of high-intensity stair-climbing can make a significant difference to your cardiorespiratory fitness.
5. Keep Tabs On Your Visceral Fat
You can be skinny on the outside (at least your arms and legs), but fat on the inside. Visceral fat is the type that builds up around your organs and often results in a pot belly. It’s linked with heart disease, several types of cancer and type 2 diabetes. Check your waist-to-height ratio (WtHR) to see if you’re at risk. Grab a piece of string and use it to measure your height, then halve it. If it doesn’t fit around your waist, get exercising – visceral fat is the first type to go when you start a health regimen.
6. Value Your Rest Days
When you start on a fitness kick, it’s tempting to exercise every day while motivation is high. This is a bad move, and one that may see your motivation flame out within weeks, because you’re always exhausted and won’t see the massive improvements you expect for your efforts. Why? You’re not giving your muscles the time and rest they need to recover and grow.
7. Up The Intensity If You’re Short On Time
Health and wellness experts still promote the 150 minutes of moderate activity a week minimum, but now offer an alternative option of 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week. That’s running or singles tennis, for example, rather than cycling or walking, which count as moderate. You can also mix the two, so 60 minutes of vigorous cardio plus 30 of moderate will do the trick also. Bear in mind the guidelines also demand strength exercises on two or more days a week alongside your aerobic activity.
8. Treat Your Body Right
Nothing derails a health kick as quickly as injury, as many serious injuries will start out as small ones- you may think it’s OK to push through. Scaling back the intensity for a few days is better than having to shut it down for a few months. If you have an urgent desire to hit the gym, target a different part of the body from the one that’s bothering you.
9. The Drive for Five
Eating at least five portions of fruit and veg a day should be at the cornerstone of your healthy diet plan. What’s not wise is getting in a rut and eating the same five every day, because different types of fruit and veg contain different vitamins and minerals. A good way to vary your five-a-day is to eat different colors, as the hue is a decent indication of the nutrients they contain.
10. Don’t Undervalue Your Sleep
There is tendency for people who sleep very little to brag about it, as if it’s an indication of their commitment to life. However, getting the full seven to eight hours is vital to a healthy lifestyle, as it provides the energy for your exercise and even influences dietary choices – a 2016 study found that in the day following a night of limited sleep, people ate an extra 385 calories on average. You don’t snooze, you lose.
11. Increase Your Cadence On Your Runs
If you are consistently picking up injuries when running, one change it’s definitely worth trying is to up your rate of strides per minute (your cadence). If you overstrike, thus taking fewer steps, you put extra pressure on your knee and hip joints. Try and take more steps, which means your feet will land more beneath your body, reducing the impact on your joints.
12. Give It Your All or Turn It Loose
The first time you try an exercise it’s very hard, but at least quite novel. The second time the novelty is gone, and it’s still hard, leading to the temptation to quit. Try it at least once more, as the third time is often the charm – when a sport or workout starts to become as enjoyable as it is tough.
13. Count Reps Backwards
This is a mental trick that might make resistance workouts a little easier. Counting down the reps means by the time it’s really hurting you’re at the 3,2,1 stage, which feels closer to the end than 8,9,10 or whatever target you’re going for. It won’t work for everyone, but it’s worth a try.
14. Make Full Use Of Your Street Furniture
Exercising outdoors is a great way to ensure you get your hit of vitamin D (if it’s sunny) as well as a good workout, and it doesn’t have to be all cardio. As well as the exercise machines that litter many parks, you can nearly always finds a bar or ledge for pull-ups, or a bench or wall to do dips on. Rarer treats can even include chains to use as ersatz TRX ropes.
15. Record Stats and Progress
Nothing builds motivation as efficiently as seeing signs of improvement, so make sure you keep some kind of record of your activity. It can be as simple as noting your record five-rep max or fastest 5K time, using either one of the many excellent fitness apps available or old-fashioned pen and paper.
In closing, these tips and tricks will help in your fitness goals. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is a fundamental building block in fitness and in life. Knowledge (alongside hard work and dedication) is the most essential of the basics. THE BASICS ALWAYS WIN!!
Best Exercises for Teens
BEST EXERCISES FOR TEENS
This article is about the teenagers. That period of rapid growth and maturity. Experimentation and lessons learned. It can also be about fitness and wellness, which is right in our wheelhouse. Do you (as a parent, coach or teacher) have a teen who is not really adjusting well to fitness? Maybe he/she is a hardgainer, or the teenager has a very low metabolism. I have a list of very easy (and very good exercises that can help turn the tide in the favor of fitness) exercises that can make a difference in a teen’s life. As always, seek the advice of a physician. This article is not a substitiute for sound medical advice or opinion. Now, the list.
The best exercise routine consists of three basic components: 1) aerobics, 2) strength training and 3) flexibility/ stretching.
Aerobics: aerobic exercises quicken your heart rate and breathing, and are good for your heart.
Some great aerobic exercises are: rowing, basketball, lacrosse, hockey, soccer, swimming, running, dancing, tennis, biking and boxing.
Strength training: strengthening your muscles allow you to be able to increase your endurance. Also, muscle burns fat better, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you can burn.
Pull-ups, push-ups, rowing, running, squats, crunches, biking, any type of weight lifting
Flexibility: A flexible person has a lower chance of getting sprains and strained muscles
Dance, ballet, martial arts, yoga, Pilates, gymnastics
How do I know what exercise is best for me?
Pick something that you find interesting – if you hate running, don’t run!!!
Do you like to work out alone? Or with a group of people?
Ask a coach or gym teacher how you can get involved with a certain activity or sport
Talk to a doctor if you are unsure whether a certain exercise plan is right for you
Why is exercise so good for you?
Exercise produces brain chemicals called endorphins that make people feel happy
Exercise helps people sleep better (just don’t work out right before you want to sleep!)
It keeps your body at a healthy, managable weight
Lowers your risk for certain diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure
Keeps your bones strong – so no osteoporosis when you are older!
Helps you lose weight
How much exercise should I be getting?
Experts recommend that teenagers work out for at least one hour every day. The exercise should be “moderate to vigorous”.
Is there such thing as exercising too much?
Yes, and it is called compulsive exercise. Because teenagers’ bodies are still developing, they need enough calories to support that process. Exercising too much burns all the calories necessary to develop and function properly. Too much exercise is also a sign of a possible eating disorder. It is also possible to train too much for a certain sport. High school athletes should not train more than five days a week, and should have two or three months of rest per year. It is not recommended that you exercise with an injury – it will only retard the healing process.
Also, exercise is a great way for teens to discover things about themselves, socialize with others and to be able to see themselves in a different way. In closing, with the obesity epidemic in America today really hitting the teens hard, exercise for teens should be mentioned as a way to help them build for the future. Exercising is free, and should be a basic part of anyone’s life, especially for teens. THE BASICS ALWAYS WIN.
Beating Procrastination
Procrastination… killer of dreams. Procrastination… killer of hopes. All by simply doing nothing. Simply by what’s called “active avoidance” (doing something in the place of the thing you set out to do due to fear, etc). Procrastination is a problem in every field, killing productivity, slowing growth in companies, ending some companies. Yes, procrastination is a problem. But how do you solve it? It’s a learned trait, but how to understand and defeat it?
I have compiled a list of 8 ways to beat procrastination. Basic steps- the basics always win. Basic steps that make a big difference. Before we delve into the list of ways to defeat procrastination, we must define it. Procrastination is the practice of putting off urgent tasks in favor of more pleasureable ones, thus effectively not doing the thing you set out to do in the first place.
All in all, procrastination is not laziness. It is a way that seems to be easier for one who is under stress. In the end, procrastination costs. It costs you (depending on the situation) time, it costs you all kinds of things you value and hold dear. In a lot of ways, Procrastination is insidiously easy. It can become a mindset of putting things off. That is the wrong mindset if you consider yourself a man or woman of action. Procastination can strip you of motivation, it can strip you of effectiveness, creativity and even honesty/integrity. It is dangerous to allow procrastination in your life.
Now… here’s the good news. Procrastination can be beat. YES. But what say you.Are you willing to try? This list I compiled will no doubt help you get to where you need to go. Procrastination is a force, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING is as powerful as the force of the human spirit. Here is the list:
1. Focus on an area in which you find procrastination most problematic (getting in shape, homework, doing reports for work).
2. Begin small and progress as you experience success. Be patient. Establish your own deadlines. Be realistic in setting a timetable. Hold yourself to the deadlines.
3. Break the project into smaller parts. Chip away at it in small bites. Don’t wait for that “big chunk” of time.
4. Set a definite beginning time. Break the inertia of inactivity. If getting started is especially troublesome for you, set a time for 10 or 15 minutes. Commit yourself to doing something on the project until the timer rings. Then you can decide whether to stop or continue. Chances are you will gain momentum and continue after the timer stops. If not, try another 10 minutes later in the day.
5. Do the most important things first. Avoid the distractions of the trivial and routine tasks when a higher priority job is waiting in the wings. Examining each task in light of your goals will help you set priorities.
6. Reward yourself for completing parts of a major task. It can be anything. Contract with yourself for a big reward for completion of important tasks. A pizza, sleeping extra late on a weekend, or shopping for something may help motivate you to complete the job. Be nice to yourself.
7. Establish a “Commitment to Excellence”. Excellence is a sufficient level of performance for most things in life, and for many tasks (a new hobby, cleaning your room) adequacy is all that is necessary. Give yourself permission to be less than perfect. A good garden may have some weeds. You might double the amount of time spent typing a paper, attempting to get the spelling perfect. Could that extra time be better spent in another activity which will gt you over the hump? Maybe so.
8. Procrastination is a learned habit, and can be defeated with a more constructive habit, giving your greater control over your life. If procrastination has limited your achievements, do something about it now!
TRUST THE PROCESS
The first podcast for 2017… on YouTube. Enjoy (I apologize for the audio lol)
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