Making the best of your workouts

Hello. I just wanted to share some things that may help you with your workouts, training, etc. Check out the list below:

- Set goals to help you determine what you are striving for and how you want to feel when you get there

- Perform a proper warm up with a light cardiovascular exercise as well as dynamic movements

- Be in the moment. Focus on what you are doing

- Feel the muscles you are using on the exercise you are performing

- Focus on what you want, not what you don't want

- Focus and feel every rep and movement

- Leave your workout knowing you did the best you could for that day

- Do your best, don't sell yourself short

- Have fun - gotta remember that

Quote of the Week

Always do what you are afraid to do. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

What is Core Training?

Core training is essential to training for athletes as well as fitness enthusiasts. The core has been called the "power zone" and "power house" where the body's center of gravity is located. Most of all it is where all movements are initiated.

The muscles of the core include the abdominals, muscles of the hip and back. They are located at the core of your body where the limbs extend from. These muscles are responsible for developing power, maintaining balance and stability and improving coordination.

Just imagine performing a golf swing or even carrying groceries and how important it is to use your core to perform these movements. The benefits of a strong and stable core include:

• Increased power development to help with those movements that require changing direction, accelerating the body or limbs, etc.


• Improved stability and efficiency to be successful of providing an anchor for the major muscles of the upper and lower body.


• Improved balance to enhance athletic, recreational and daily living activities.


• Reduce risk of injury

Core training can be easily implemented into an existing strength routine by doing the following:

• Perform exercises standing on one leg or unstable surfaces


• Change seated exercises to standing exercises


• Make controlled movements in different planes of movement - rotate, diagonal, etc.


• Have feet together rather than apart when standing or sitting on a exercise ball


• Perform the exercises at different speeds

Hints to remember:

• Always control the movement performing


• Focus on what muscle or muscle group (s) using during the exercise and FEEL them working


• Read your body


• Maintain your posture

Go get'em. There are a lot of fun ways to train your core. Enjoy!!!!!

Resource: NSCA's Performance Training Journal, Volume 2, number 6.

Quote of the Week

"Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be sclaed by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C's. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable."



- Walt Disney

Vitamin D

The Low-Down on Vitamin D
Dr. Katrina Wilhelm
Naturopathic Physician
katrina.wilhelm@clubsports.com

The Basics:

When UV light hits the skin, cholesterol starts its conversion to vitamin D – often called hormone D by naturopathic physicians because of its hormone-like action in the body. Vitamin D regulates the immune system and is used to treat rickets, osteomalacia (a specific kind of bone demineralization), osteoporosis, cancer, and psoriasis (a skin rash).

Vitamin D couples with calcium very strongly, so it should always be taken with meals, foods high in calcium, and calcium supplements.

Sunshine exposure for 20 minutes of the face and arms (no SPF skin lotion) will produce about 200 IU of Vitamin D per day. Moderate sunburns can produce 10,000 IU of Vitamin D per day. Excess production will be stored as the inactive form for winter. In the Northwest, we rarely have the sun high enough in the sky to produce Vitamin D.

Supplementation is with the active form, so there is no storing over for the winter. And, it is very important to know that because this is a newer topic in medical research, there are many different opinions on how to do it. Clinically, we see a steady rise in the body’s Vitamin D levels with lower supplementation doses.

Get a Doctor on Board:

It is imperative that a physician order a blood level of Vitamin D to determine a baseline level and manage supplementation. An individual should not supplement for more than 4 months without a blood level assessment.

Foods Concentrating Vitamin D:

These are listed from most concentrated to least concentrated.*
Sardines, Cod Liver Oil, Mackerel, Herring, Tuna, Salmon, Shrimp, Halibut
Morel, Shitake, and Chanterelle mushrooms
Pork, Egg Yolks, Lamb, Beef


Toxicity Symptoms May Include:

Headaches, weakness, nausea and vomiting, constipation, frequent urination, thirst, diarrhea, and calcification of soft tissues such as kidneys, lungs, and the tympanic membrane in the ear.

Quotes

"The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. "
~Ayn Rand~

I'm Back..... Optimizing Your Workout Tips

Yes, I am back. Many apologies for a big delay in entering posts for y'all.

I want to share with you some tips on how to optimize your workouts. Put these tips to good use and perhaps you may have some to share as well......

• Set goals or have a vision in mind. When you have something(s) to shoot for the likelihood of getting there is greater.
• Ask for support. The support may come from family, friends, doctors, teammates, personal trainer, etc. With having the support you have greater accountability and motivation to continue on your journey.
• In the movie theater of your mind, run your movie of being successful and what you want.
• Focus, focus, focus. Get connected with yourself physically and mentally. Pay attention to what you are doing with your sport, resistance training workouts, cardiovascular workouts, etc. How does the exercise you are doing feel? Where do you feel it? It will help you optimize the efficiency of your workout, as well as connecting to yourself physically and mentally.
• Stay positive. Remember that the input you put in your head as well as what you let in very powerful. It is so powerful it helps determine the road to your destiny and goals.
• Read your body.
• Breathe (could not resist that one)
• Have fun - remember this one!!!

Make it a great workout!!! YOU have the POWER!!!

More next week. Thank you for your patience.

Lori