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Monday, June 5, 2006
10 Ways to Teach Kids About Safe Exercise
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Although your children probably prefer sports and fun activities to a regimented fitness program, there are a few kids who do take interest in exercising along with Mom and Dad. The American council on Exercise offers top 10 ways to ensure a safe and effective workout for your kids when they decide to join you at the gym.
Set training goals. If you’re creating a regular routine for your children, be sure to outline the objectives of their training in simple terms (for example: to become stronger, healthier and fight off colds and flu).
Fast and easy demonstration. Pick up the equipment your children will be using and show them exactly how it’s done properly and what not to do.
Proper supervision. Many kids lack confidence or worry about proper formand technique. Be sure that they have attentive supervision by you or a qualified instructor.
Spot’em! When your children start using weights, it may be difficult for them. Be sure to be there to assist them untill they acquire more strength.
One at a time. Forget about presenting your children with a circuit training routine. Start out with one task at a time to ensure they don’t become confused.
Slow progression. Do not introduce new moves until the first ones are mastered. It’s better to teach kids the right way than for them to unlearn the wrong way.
Praise them. Always make a point to give your children positive reinforcement. Pat them on the shoulders, encourage them along and tell them they’re improving.
Specific feedback. Along with positive reinforcement comes a specific reason for it. It’s always better to give a reason for your compliment.
Careful questioning. Children are quiet by nature. Be sure to ask open-ended questions that draw more than a yes or no answer to better understand their fitness goals.
Pre-and post-workout chats. Spend time chatting with your children before and after their workouts to get to know what makes them tick.
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Weight Loss and Fitness Mythbust #2: Dieting Will Eliminate Fat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is a big myth I fight to correct everyday. Stay with me on this: Your body can’t tell the difference between you dramatically reducing your calories to lose weight with a diet, or starvation. The science behind it is simple: when you dramatically reduce your caloric intake, your body shifts into a protective, survival mode by slowing your metabolism down so you won’t burn as many calories. This means your body holds onto your ugly body fat and burns up your valuable, figure slimming muscle instead. Why does your body eat up your own muscle tissue instead of burning fat while you are deducing your calories? Because your muscle is what burns the most calories. As a matter of fact, muscle is the only tissue in the body that utilizes fat as energy. To keep you alive for the long haul, your body cannibalizes what burns the most calories! In other words, you will breakdown muscle to get it’s primary energy. Thus, drastically reducing your calories will make you fatter!
In the beginning of a diet you WILL lose weight by dramatically cutting calories. But it won’t be fat loss, it will be water weight and lean muscle tissue – the exact OPPOSITE of what you want to get rid of. There are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. So, when a diet promises to help you lose 10 pounds of weight in one week, it can’t be fat. Why? Because 10 pounds of fat is 35,000 calories. That’s 5,000 calories per day. Even with exercise that is a an impossible feat.
Science has proven this over and over again. It’s an undisputed universal fact. Not only will harsh diets slow your metabolism down to a crawl, causing your initial weight loss to come to a gradual halt, they will also inevitably bring about a “rebound” effect. This rebound will make you even fatter than you were before starting the diet. This is the result of, among other things, losing muscle. When you rebound, not only do you generally put on more weight than you actually lost with the diet, your percentage of body fat increases because your body cannibalized muscle tissue as an energy source during the dieting process. Thus the “yo-yo” effect that almost all calorie deprived dieter’s experience.
Remember, weight is nothing more than a measure of gravity pulling an object toward Earth. It is not a measure of body composition. No matter how you look at it, there are no shortcuts. You must simply eat right and combine it with the right form of exercise.
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