Thoughts Are Things!

Did you know that your thought patterns can determine whether you succeed at your health goals?!?  It’s true!  Negative thoughts can keep you from achieving anything, and that’s especially true for fitness and eating habits!  It’s time to turn those negative thoughts around and turn them into positive thoughts!

Thinking thoughts like “I hate exercising” certainly won’t help you get up off the couch, and only you can stop you from thinking those thoughts!  Start out easy by gently reminding yourself that you love feeling healthy. You like to be strong and coordinated and the feeling of having plenty of energy, so why not repeat those things instead? Also, simple things like taking the stairs or asking your parents to away from the mall are simple ways of working a little more exercise into your daily routine.  Start small and build, and feed your brain positive thoughts to reward yourself for healthy choices.

When it comes to healthy eating habits, thoughts like “I already ate 2 slices of cake, a sundae and 4 cookies, what does it matter if I drink that soda?” aren’t helpful.  One less sugar bomb is always one less! Just because you eat something unhealthy doesn’t mean that you’ve ruined your nutrition! But always eating unhealthily does, so take the chance to make a change instead of giving yourself another chance to beat yourself up with junk food.  Why not keep healthier snacks with you at all times.  If you always have some carrots or a protein bar your locker or backpack at school, you’ll have no excuse not to reach for the right thing when hunger hits! 

Start thinking that every little thing you do can help lead you into a healthier lifestyle!  Each time you do something healthy, think to yourself, “I did good again!” Pretty soon you’ll have a lot more positive and healthy thoughts swimming around up in your head, and you might just end up being healthier AND happier!!!

(photos: morguefile.com)

Winter Sport Fitness

The most important muscles to strengthen for all of these sports are your thigh muscles – front and back! The muscles on the front are called the ‘quadriceps’ or ‘quads’. Quad is Latin for ‘four’, and that’s because there are four muscles on the front of your thigh that work together. Two of them are on the sides and stabilize your knee from the sides. One of them goes down the center, and handles both pulling your knee towards your chest and the straightening of your knee! Then there’s one more deep central one that helps out in the pulling your knee towards your chest movement.

To strengthen these muscles, you can sit on the edge of your bed (or a sturdy desk) with your thigh completely supported by what you’re sitting on, sit up straight, and slowly raise your shin until your leg is straight, tense and hold for a count of 2, and slowly lower back down. (The muscles actually work harder on the way back down, so do this as slowly and smoothly as you can for the best training!). See if you can do 3 slow sets of 10 repetitions with a 1 minute break in between. If it’s easy, you can always add more reps to each set.(Our intern Jonelle is helping out!)

To stretch these muscles, stand up straight with one hand holding something sturdy (nothing that might fall with you!). Bend your foot towards your behind, and grab it with your other hand. Pull the foot closer to your behind to stretch. To increase the stretch (if you’re bendy), try to scoop your behind down and to the front (like a bad dog with its tail between its legs).(Jonelle should have her knees closer together here!)

The back of your thigh includes the muscles of your rear end. They all have pretty technical names that no one ever remembers (except the gluteus maximus…or your behind!), so we’ll just focus on what it does. The long lean muscles on the back of your thigh are responsible for pulling your calf towards your thigh (so are some of the calf muscles), and the ‘gluts’ are responsible for making us stand up straight, instead of having your behind stick out. Because it helps us stand up, it is known as the ‘most human’ muscle, and it’s also the biggest in the body!

To strengthen these muscles, try some squats! Place your feet hip wide apart and facing straight ahead (lots of people flare their toes out or in – don’t do it!). Imagine stretching out your behind to sit down on a chair behind you. To stop you from falling over backwards (!), stretch your arms and whole upper body out in front of you for balance. Your knees should always stay behind your toes to protect your knees. Once you’ve slowly gone as low as you can with your heels on the ground and knees not shooting ahead of your toes, then come slowly back up to standing, and then squeeze your behind at the top.The more you stretch out your behind, the lower you can go. Reps are same as above: 3 sets of 10, and build as you have more strength.

To stretch these muscles, place your feet hip wide and facing straight forward. Then bend over forward from the hips (not your back!) until you feel the stretch. Think of it as making a sway-back, then leaning over as far as you can without losing it. This way, you can be sure you’re stretching your leg muscles and not just your lower back. If you can’t go very far, you can use a chair to hold on to while you stretch. After a while, this stretch will grow and you should be able to touch the floor with ease. (Jonelle needs to flatten out her back here! It's a good idea to check out your form in a mirror to be sure!)

Remember! Always check with a parent and/or doctor before starting a new exercise routine! Always go slow with new movements, and if something hurts, stop immediately and seek help!

Tune in next time for the insides and outsides of our thighs!

 (photos: Eric Shimohata/KEWL)