Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter candy, anyone?

Obviously your diet is extremely important. In fact, I would say that it is more important than exercise itself. If you ate healthy foods 100% of the time (lean proteins, healthy fats, fruits, veggies, and whole grains, in reasonable portions) and did not exercise, then I would be inclined to say that you'd be healthier than if you ate junk food most of the time and exercised moderately. "Inclined" is the key word here.

But let's face it: We like our sweets! Most Americans have a sweet tooth that can be tamed with a sampling of chocolate or a peanut butter cup or the occasional ice cream (put the three of these together and you have my ultimate weakness!) However, a lot of people give in far too often when it comes to the sweets and candy. My advice is this: Find a happy medium. Will you lose all of you progress in your fitness routine by stopping by the ice cream stand on your way home from work? Well, if it's a daily stop then yes, of course you will! But there is absolutely nothing wrong with indulging yourself once in awhile with a sweet reward for you hard work. If you can control your cravings and allow yourself to enjoy a cookie or two every now and then, then you're setting yourself up for long-term success. Don't beat yourself up if you find yourself eating a few too many jelly beans today. Enjoy them and come back strong again tomorrow!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Kids Are Alright

I was given a chance this spring to do something that I absolutely love: To coach track and field. Well, I don't yet know if I love to coach track and field because this is my first go around at it, but I absolutely love the sport itself. I ran cross-country and track back in the late 90's at Marancook Community School, and I can honestly say that I've missed both sports since graduating in 2000.

Now I'm not one of those people who clings to their high school glory days by telling stories from 12 years ago to anyone who has an open ear. No, I'm a guy who ran a 4:46 1600 meter (the mile, and a promising time for me at the time) as a junior in my last meet of the season at the Eastern Maine Championships in the spring of 1999, only to follow that performance up with a senior year that saw me contract mononucleosis early in the season. Coming down with mono early that year was a huge let down for me. I was coming off a solid cross-country season and indoor track season and was really amped up for a great finish to a memorable high school career. I had personal goals of running a sub-4:30 mile and to run a sub-1:50 800 meter (half mile). But all that changed when I wasn't even able to practice due to the dreaded kissing disease!

As I recovered throughout the season, I found that running the 1600 with any sort of effectiveness was not going to happen. I became winded and extremely tired during the last 2 laps. This led me to focusing on the 800 meter, a middle-distance event that is more like a long sprint. Needless to say, my high school running career, while once was filled with a lot of promise, came to a disheartening end. But the fire was still in my belly...

Fast forward 11 years. I was hired on the spot to help coach at the Gray/New Gloucester Middle School. I've been given a wonderful chance to leave an impression on a group of kids who are more or less just starting out in track and field. We've only had a couple weather-shortened weeks of practice, but it sure feels good to be back on the track. Although I won't be the one trying to run a personal best mile, I am going to do what I can to teach kids on how they can succeed in their events. Working exclusively with the runners (mostly the 800 and 1600 runners and some sprinters), I've come to realize just how much I've really missed track and field. I'm hoping to lay a foundation for the kids that they can build off of when they get to the high school level, and hopefully they can enjoy some of the successes that I enjoyed when I was their age.

But in the mean time, Go GNG Patriots! Yeah, that little burning fire that's been in my belly since the Spring of 2000 will never go away...      

Saturday, April 9, 2011

"There's no crying in baseball"

Even though Tom Hanks' famous line came in 1992 from the movie A League Of Their Own, it could certainly be put to use here early on in the 2011 Major League season.

Not only does the start of the regular season mean that summer fun is right around the corner, it also means it's time for a lot of big-time-money-making ball players to find themselves in pain and on the disabled list. I don't follow baseball as closely as I do the NFL, but I've noticed a lot of injuries to players this year, specifically to "side" muscles throughout the league. Several well-known players such as Evan Longoria, Jason Bay, and Brian Matusz, among others, have found themselves watching from the dugout due to oblique or intercostal muscle strains.

Oblique muscles and intercostal muscles serve separate yet similar purposes (both assist with breathing while oblique muscles help rotate your torso). They can also be injured the same way. Both injuries are usually common in athletes who are required to rotate their torso quickly with a lot of force. Obviously baseball players, whether it be a pitcher or a batter, need to rotate their torso forcefully in order to throw the ball or swing the bat. However, these injuries can be avoided with proper conditioning and stretching, something I'm wondering if ballplayers are getting enough of.

How does this information relate to the everyday person? Well, with it being spring time you are probably out in your back yard doing some cleaning, right? Perhaps you are lifting something down from a shelf in your shed and putting it on the floor beside you. Or maybe you are throwing some brush up and into the back of a pickup truck. Or maybe you are checking to see if your lawn mower will start by pulling on that frayed old cord. Regardless of which of these or any other movement you might be doing, chances are you are breathing heavier and rotating your torso. The real key to preventing injury is to stretch...

Click here to see some stretches you can do for your obliques. There's no crying in baseball and there shouldn't be any crying (from injury) in your backyard projects!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

INSANITY...

...is defined by Webster's Dictionary as "a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder." It also happens to be the name of the 60-day workout program I'll be starting tomorrow. That's right, tomorrow I will be embarking on a 60-day journey of self-punishment in a quest to successfully complete what is considered the most difficult workout ever put on DVD.

Check out part of the infomercial...

You're probably asking why in the world would anyone want to put themselves through such misery. The answer is simple: because it's there. I love taking on challenges that most people would deem impossible, difficult, or uncomfortable. That is why I ran cross-country in high school. That is why I hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in 2005. That is why I ran the Boston Marathon and completed P90X (at the time the hardest workout ever put on DVD) in 2007 and why I am hooked on triathlons after doing my first last summer. And that is why I want to conquer Insanity in 2011.

However, that isn't the only reason. Like I said, I'm a triathlete and road racer and figure this is going to be an unbelievable tool to propel me to the next level this summer. Insanity is largely cardio based, designed on a training concept known as MAX Interval Training. Anyone who has ever taken one of my classes or talked with me about exercise knows that I'm a HUGE fan of intervals (short bursts of intensity followed by longer periods of rest).  It's the best way to get in shape and strengthen your heart in the shortest amount of time. Well, the creator of Insanity took traditional interval training and flipped it so that you preform long periods of high intensity training followed with short periods of rest. The final product: The most intense training system ever put on DVD.

So these next 2 months should be a pretty interesting ride. Updates will be given (if I can function well enough). Wish me luck.