Newsletter Archive
March 2007
IN THIS ISSUE
Hello
from Cor Clinic!
We have an exciting newsletter this month, packed
with great information regarding your cardiovascular
training and the health and fitness of the children
in your life.
In addition, we are rolling out several new
programs that will begin in April and information
about our free Supermarket Tour taking place this
month at Whole Foods Market. Hope you can join
us!
As always, we welcome any questions or suggestions
you have. Please feel free to contact me for additional
information about anything in the newsletter.
If you have a question that you would like answered
in our monthy Q&A, please submit it to me
via email and I will try to address it in next
month's newsletter!
Yours in health,
Patrick Ward, Ms(c), CSCS, CPT, USAW Club Coach
FEATURE ARTICLE:
The Kids Aren't Alright
Well, we really did it this time. Childhood obesity
in on the rise, with two-thirds of all school
age kids in the United States now considered overweight
or obese! Kids are less active today then they
ever have been, and to a certain extent, the fault
lies with the parents. That's right, the parents!
Sure, the older kids ought to know better, but
what did they learn as younger kids? From whom
did they learn that this way of life is acceptable?
It is the parents who are not teaching their
children to get up and move and be active. It
is the parents who are bringing home soda, cookies,
candy, sugary cereals and fast food dinners. Somehow
it has become completely acceptable for a 10-year-old
child to get home from school, plop down in front
of the television or the computer, sipping out
of a 2-liter bottle of soda, and having McDonald's
for dinner (again).
I remember when I was a kid (wow, I feel like
my grandfather telling me how things used to be
back in the good ol' days!). We were not allowed
to sit inside after school. As soon as we got
home, we'd change clothes and go outside to play
on the basketball court, the football field, the
baseball diamond or the swimming pool. I can't
remember a time when I wasn't playing some game,
involved in some sort of sport, or just plain
running around playing with my siblings and the
other neighborhood kids. That was just what kids
did - and it wasn't even that long ago!
In the past several years, I have worked with
many children trying to get in shape or prepare
for a sports season. One thing that has amazed
me more than once is that even if some of these
children are not overweight, a number of them
lack the ability to perform basic athletic movements.
I think the reason for this is because unlike
the kids of the past, today's kids are generally
just not active enough and have not had enough
exposure to sports to enhance their ability to
process and execute movement. It's not to say
that every child has to play a sport, but many
of the basic movement skills required in life
are learned through activity in childhood, organized
or otherwise.
Go out and play!
Today's young child is often one with bad posture,
weak joints and muscles, uncoordinated movement,
terrible eating habits, excess body fat and a
low self-esteem, to boot. So, what can we do now?
As the parent, the person in charge, it is up
to you to take the first step. Motivate your child
to develop an interest in his or her own health
and fitness by being a role model. Get active
with your child.
For example, instead of sitting around on a Saturday
afternoon watching TV, head out to the park or
an open area, and put "play" on your
agenda. Teach your child that exercise is not
"work", but rather "fun".
Set up a series of exercises that you can do together.
For example, run to one end of the field and perform
50 crunches. Run back to the other end of the
field and perform 10 push ups,. Finally, run back
down the field and perform 50 jumping jacks. Take
a rest., drink some water (not soda!) and then
do it again. This is also an excellent way to
teach your child to set a goal. Use a stopwatch,
and every Saturday try to beat the previous week's
times!
Have a basketball court nearby? Try a game of
one-on-one, or even a round of Around the World
- remember that from your childhood? Bike rides
and hiking are two other fun family activities.
Take advantage of our beautiful surroundings and
what's left of the not-so-hot weather before summer
kicks in!
Activities like these will not only get your
child excited about exercising, it will help to
improve your fitness as well!
Resistance Training for Youth Athletes
Older children, and children who participate
in sports might consider learning about weight
training. I started weight training at the age
of 13. Some may think this is too young, but actually,
when properly implemented, not only is weight
training can be one of safest activities in which
your child can partake, it is a life-long habit
and skill that will serve them well into adult
hood.
The key phrase here is "when properly implemented."
Whenever children play a sport, it is always with
100% intensity. Can you recall a time when a football,
basketball or soccer coach told his athletes to
give only 70%, not 100%. You can't. Why? Because
it doesn't happen. Children go out and play with
total intensity all the time.
Unfortunately, if your child lacks some base
levels of strength and conditioning, lack core
strength or stabilization, produce faulty movement,
or are placed in a situation that forces them
to produce a movement that they are not ready
for, they run the risk of getting injured.
In the weight room, we don't start at 100% intensity.
Actually, it is just the opposite. In the weight
room, we can take the intensity and the speed
of the movement and slow it down to something
that is more manageable and controllable. This
allows the child to properly learn the movement,
so that when the time comes to reproduce it in
a game situation, they already have that movement
pattern programmed and are able to execute it
properly and safely.
When I am working with a younger athlete, I never
place stress on them with performance-based tests.
It is my feeling that these tests force the athlete
to worry more about the weight on the bar rather
than the quality of the exercise they are performing.
Coaches who test their athletes looking for big
numbers are doing them a disservice in my opinion.
The most important thing to teach youth athletes
at that level is how to become a technically proficient
lifter. This helps to teach the athlete the value
of exercise and the importance of proper and safe
training - a value that I wish someone had taught
to me when I was a high school athlete. Like most
youth athletes then, we didn't have a strength
and conditioning coach to help teach us technique
or tell us how to set up a safe efficient weight
training program. We were just told to "get
in the gym and lift big." I acquired a lot
of bad lifting habits from this type of coaching
(or lack thereof). This is one of the reasons
I enjoy working with youth athletes. I value the
opportunity to help develop them to their fullest
potential and teach them about safe and efficient
lifting.
If your children have an interest in exercise
and working out, the worst thing you can do is
tell them that they have to wait until they are
older. Take that opportunity to teach them about
proper training and allow them to get interested
in living healthier at a young age.
Whatever activity you encourage your child to
do, encourage them to do something. Don't let
them become part of the growing statistics on
inactive, overweight and obese children. Let's
start turning those numbers around!
RESEARCH REVIEW:
Effects of Resistance Training on the
Physical Capacities of Adolescent Soccer Players
Christou M, Smilios
I, Sotiropoulos K, Volaklis K, Pilianidis T, Tokmakidis
SP., J Strength Cond Res. 2006 Nov;20(4):783-91.
My Comments:
In keeping with the youth training theme, I
decided to look at this article which was published
in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning late
last year (2006). The researchers were examining
what effects a 2-day a week strength training
program would have on youth soccer athletes. They
took a group of boys, age 12-15 and seperated
them into 3 groups. A group that participated
in soccer 5 days a week, a group that participated
in the same soccer practice five days a week as
well as a strength training program two times
a week and a control group. What they found was
that the both the soccer training group and the
soccer-strength group improved their lower body
strength, their vertical jump, their running speed,
as well as other soccer specific characteristics.
The difference was that the strength training
group tested significantly higher on those performance
tests. As well, the strength training group also
increased their upper body strength by a marginal
amount (due to the fact that soccer is a game
which demands high amounts of lower body strength
and little to no upper body strength, it would
make sense that the group who only participated
in soccer training did not improve their upper
body performance).
These findings led the researchers to conclude
that a combination of both soccer practice and
strength training can be used to enhance the overall
development and physical capabilities of young
athletes.
What this mean to us:
I have been a strong advocate of youth training
for a long, long time. I think it is extremely
important to get your children into some sort
of exercise and resistance training program, not
only for the improvement in their performance,
but also to reduce their chances of incurring
an injury in their sport. Typically when I give
a lecture or talk to parents about training for
young kids they always say "Isn't that dangerous?
Can't the children get injured?" My answer
is always the same "If we do things properly,
it is the best thing for them." This isn't
merely my opinion. There is a significant body
of research that strongly supports strength training
for youth athletes. What people have to remember
is that on the field, your child is always engaging
in activity at 100% intensity. The speed of the
game, the intensity with which it is played, and
the velocity with which they produce movement
can not be slowed down. If you children are playing
sports already, they are already placing high
amounts of stress on their bodies. In the gym
however, we can take the intensity and slow it
down to teach the young athletes proper movement
and technique. This will really help them to develop
a "repertoire" of movement, so to speak.
How can we use this information to our
advantage:
We can use this research to our advantage by
getting our children into sports conditioning
programs focusing on flexibility, mobility, core
stability, strength, power and endurance. One
of the main reasons why the Russians had such
great Olympic athletes was because they started
training them at young ages. At seven and eight
years old, children participated in training programs
that focused on endurance and work capacity running
and swimming and stretching. As they aged, their
performance was then tested and it was determined
if they would be better suited for strength and
power type of sports (olympic weightlifting, basketball,
soccer, volleyball, track and field) or for more
endurance based sports (marathon and distance
swimming or skiing). When they were put into these
groups, around the age of twelve to thirteen,
they were still doing basic general training except,
but part of the training year, they would focus
on things that were specific to the sport for
which they were training. By the age of 16 the
athletes were performing their sport for most
of the year, with the other part of the year being
spent doing more general work; basically, an offseason.
By the age of 18, these athletes were Junior World
Champions and by the time they were in their twenties,
they were gold medalists!
Without their strong foundational base, which
was layed when they were young, these athletes
would not have been able to excel to these high
levels of competition.
Wrapping it up:
If you are interested in getting your child started
in a strength and conditioning program, I highly
recommend seeking the guidance of a qualified
strength and conditioning professional, who has
an understanding of how to safely develop and
progress your child's program, and only has your
child's best interests in mind.
MONTHLY Q&A:
Q: When I do cardio, I try and
work in the "fat burning zone" that
is listed on the machine. Sometimes my heart rate
goes higher than this. Does that mean that I'm
not burning fat anymore?
A: Truthfully, the "fat
burning zone" on the cardio equipment never
made much sense to me from a training perspective.
What the fat burning zone really tells us is that
at a lower work rate (lower intensity), we are
burning a higher percentage of our calories from
fat. On paper, that sounds like a great thing!
The only problem with it is that at that lower
work rate, we aren't burning that many calories
to begin with. Whether the calories are coming
from fat storage or not, doesn't even matter.
Technically, we burn the most percentage of fat
when we are at rest. So, if you want to burn only
fat, just take a nap! But again, how many calories
are you really burning overall when you are sitting
and lounging around the house? Not much!
Okay, so where am I going with all this? Really,
what we want to look at is total caloric expenditure.
Significant research points to the fact that at
the end of the day, the most important thing is
caloric expenditure. Have you created a caloric
deficit? Have you burned more than you take in?
When we get into the gym and actually push ourselves
hard, we burn more calories. When we push ourselves
really hard, we are not doing aerobics anymore.
We are anaerobic. This change happens at around
80% of your Vo2max (the maximal amount of oxygen
your body can take in and use efficiently). In
an anaerobic state, there is a shift in metabolism
from fat as the primary source of fuel, to carbohydrates,
in the form of glucose in the blood, and glycogen
in the muscles. While this may sound counterproductive
to your fat-burning efforts, a simple bit of math
can show us that those who work harder in the
gym, have greater results.
Lets start by taking two people. Person A always
walks or jogs slowly on the treadmill for 30 minutes,
so that they can stay within their "fat burning
zone." Person B however, uses their 30 minutes
to work very hard and push into their anaerobic
training zone. They might just work as hard as
they can for 30 minutes or they might use a series
of intervals where they are alternating one hard
minute with one easier minute.
So, we will say that hypothetically, person
A is working at a rate of 8 calories per minute.
For 30 minutes this person is burning 240 calories,
and in the "fat burning zone" 80% of
those calories came from fat storage. That would
be 192 calories of fat.
Person B is working a lot harder, at a rate
of 15 calories per minute. So, for 30 minutes,
this person is burning 450 calories (nearly double
what person A is burning). However, because this
person is working at a higher work rate, burning
more overall calories, and working anaerobically,
this may mean that only 60% of those calories
are coming from fat storage. But, because Person
B has burned so many more calories overall, even
though the percentage of fat has gone down, he
is still burning (technically) 270 calories from
fat, or 60% of 450 total caloric expenditure.
Sounds great, right?
The reason I said "technically" about
was because in reality, we don't know. The amount
of fat that you burn is also going to be dependant
on what is in your body at the time (i.e. the
amount of glucose or insulin in the blood). So,
if you just had a meal prior to your cardio training
session, your body is going to have a more readily
available source of energy (in the form of glucose)
and it will easily take advantage of that.
Worrying about how much fat you have burned
during a cardio session is silly. It is like worrying
about how much muscle you are building while lifting
weights. At the end of the day, the main you need
to look at is "Did you burn more than you
took in? Are you in a negative calorie balance?"
Working harder during your workout and monitoring
your diet are the best ways to positively affect
your metabolism and get down to your desired body
fat level.
Do you have a question you'd like to see
answered in next month's Q&A column? Email
your question to pward@corlcinic.com
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