Second Issue

How to Set Goals

When you are trying to stay in shape, goal setting can be a very powerful means of keeping on track. It allows you to visualize what physical and mental improvements you hope to achieve by exercising, and enables you to determine the best means of doing so.

Setting goals can be an exhilarating process because it assists you in deciding what direction you wish life to move next. By setting the right goals, you might find that you develop your body and mind in like never before.

For a goal to be powerful, it needs to perform three key functions:
 

1. It must motivate you;
2. It must be something realistic that you can believe in; and
3. It must be something that you are able to take actual steps to accomplish.

When your goals motivate you and you actually consider them something that you can achieve, you will find yourself driven to undertake the actions necessary to bring them to fruition.

In addition to its immediate benefits, the goal setting process can also help you in the long term. The goals you set should take into consideration what you want to accomplish once your initial goals have been met. Your long term goals should be complimentary to those you have set yourself in the short term – for instance, you might aim to improve your aerobic fitness steadily each month so that you can compete in an end-of-year marathon. This will keep your enthusiasm levels up as you develop healthy lifestyle habits, preventing training fatigue.

Goal setting is made up of four key parts:

1. Evaluation – Before you can move forward and realize your goals, you have to work out where you are now in relation to them.

2. Goals – It is important for you to decide what your actual goals are. This should not be based on what you feel you will be able to achieve or on what society tells you that you should want. These are your own personal catalysts for action; they are what you imagine yourself having when you dream about the future.

3. S.M.A.R.T. Goals - S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-sensitive.
 

• Specific: You should be able to easily express your goal in one or two sentences. If you can’t, it probably isn’t specific enough.

• Measurable: Your goal should have an aspect that is able to be measured (e.g. the waistband on a pair of pants), otherwise you will be unable to ascertain how successful your efforts have been.

• Attainable: Your goal must be something that you genuinely believe you will be capable of achieving given your current circumstances.

• Realistic: If your goal is not something that you can undertake practically, then it is not realistic.

• Time: Every goal you have should have an allotted timeframe. This way you can ensure that you have not given yourself too little (or too much) time to accomplish it.

4. Accountability - When you have well-defined goals, it is easy to be honest with yourself when trying to measure your success in reaching them. I wish you all the best in achieving your personal fitness goals throughout 2010.

All the best,

Fire and Ice: How to Relieve Muscle Pain

When engaged in strenuous activity, be it a high intensity workout, sporting activity or something else entirely, often you can come away with your body aching. When attempting to alleviate this pain, it is often difficult for the layperson to discern which of the two major remedies (ice or heat therapy) is appropriate to use. Below is a basic guide for when to apply each treatment.

Ice Therapy:

Cold therapy with ice is the ideal way to treat acute injuries (rapid, sharp injuries that occur during or directly following physical exertion). A good way to tell if an injury is acute is whether swelling develops. If the area of discomfort begins to swell, the injury is acute. To remedy this, you should apply an ice pack to the injured area, which will help by reduce the swelling and limited further internal bleeding. Wrap the ice pack in a slight cloth and apply it repeatedly to the injured area for 10-15 minutes, allowing the skin temperature to return to normal between applications. You should continue to ice the injury site several times a day for up to three days.

Heat Therapy

Heat-based treatment is usually used for chronic injuries (injuries where no inflammation or swelling has occurred). Muscles that have become raw and rigid benefit most from the use of heat therapy and it is often used before exercise to stimulate blood flow and render muscle exertion less painful. The use of heat is also advisable where tight muscles or muscle spasms are concerned. As heat therapy naturally raises skin temperature by increasing circulation, you should not use it to treat injuries where inflammation is present. To utilize heat therapy safely, apply a heat source (e.g. hot water bottle or heat cream) to the area of discomfort for 15-20 minute intervals, taking care not to burn your skin through over-exposure. There you have it – a simple guide to both methods of muscle rehabilitation. Of course, should injuries persist or seem particularly severe, it is always advisable to seek medical advice as soon as possible.

Exercises for the Month Exercises for the Month

Bicycle
Lie on your back with your knees bent 90 degrees and hands behind your ears. Pump your legs bicycle-style as you rotate your torso. Do 20 pumps

Stick Crunch
Lie on your back holding your hands out past your head (alternatively you can hold a broomstick). Crunch so that your hands or the stick extends past your knees. Do 12 to 15 repetitions

Bench-Knee Raise
Lie on your back with your feet flat on the floor and your hands near your hips. Raise your knees towards your rib cage, and then slowly lower your legs back to the starting position. As soon as your feet lightly touch the floor, repeat. Do 12 repetitions

Two-Handed Wood Chop
Hold a dumbbell with both hands next to your right ear. Flex your abdominals and rotate your torso to the left as you extend your arms and lower the dumbbell to the outside of your left knee. Return to the starting position, and then finish the set of repetitions and repeat, moving the weight from your left ear to right knee. Do 12 to 15 repetitions on each side

Swiss Ball Pull-In
Get into the push-up position, resting your shins on a Swiss Ball. Your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. Roll the Swiss Ball towards you by pulling your knees to your chest. Pause, and then return your legs and the ball to the starting position. Do 6 to 12 repetitions

Swiss Ball Superman
Lie face down on a Swiss Ball so that your hips are pressed against the ball and torso is rounded over it. Bend your elbows 90 degrees, so that your hands are pointing forward and elbows are pointing back. Slowly extend your back until your chest is as far off the ball as possible, extend your arms forward and hold that position for a few moments. Draw your arms back into the starting position as you return your torso to the ball. Do 12 to 15 repetitions

Note: These exercises should be augmented 15 minutes of power walking daily in your own time.

Healthy Mind, Healthy Body: Organising Your Mind for Fitness

Before you commence any exercise regime, it is important that you organise your mind in order to beneficially alter your dietary habits. A key component in re-organising your mental attitude towards fitness and weight loss is behavioural modification. When you are starting out, you should use the following steps as a way to make sure you are eating appropriately.

Step 1: Confine Your Calories. Place all food in one room in the house: the kitchen. By designating an area where food is to be eaten, you train yourself to not to snack in other areas of the house (think of it this way – since birth you are taught to sleep in a bed, not on the bathroom floor).

Step 2: Mini Meals.You should attempt to eat four to five small meals (minimum) per day. Planning when you eat your meals will ensure your insulin levels are stable, and that body fat will be easier to burn when you are exercising.

Step 3: Trick Your Tummy. When there is less food on your plate, you are not tempted to overeat by finishing off excess food around the plate. You will feel just as full completing a smaller plate, and for extra points, try putting a bite-sized portion back into the serving bowl before commencing dinner.

Step 4: Eat to the Beat. Try to eat one bite, then two, and then stop before going any further. To remove temptation once again, place your fork back on the table. This should help you make your meal last longer than 20 minutes, which will let your brain know that you have eaten sufficiently and not to panic, and make you feel like eating more!

Step 5: Let the Clock Be Your Waiter. Serve yourself meals according to what time of day it is. Don’t leave dinner until after 8pm as you will be very unlikely to burn these calories. If, however, you simply must eat near the witching hour, try to limit yourself to a tablespoon of Lean Matrix Protein Powder mixed with water, which will help speed up your metabolism.

Step 6: Junk the Junk. Snacking on junk food between meals is fantastic at adding excess fat to your diet, which makes the logic of only eating appropriately between meals equally fantastic.

Step 7: Avoid Food Therapy. When you are feeling stressed out is probably the worst time to start eating. Being down in the dumps prevents your from being able to clearly judge the type of food your are eating, or how much. Worse still, because you are looking for something to cheer you up, you will probably find yourself eating comfort foods like desserts and pizza.

Step 8: Rest Easy. Ensure that you get an adequate amount of sleep each night – at least seven to eight hours worth. Getting to bed before midnight ensures that you will sleep soundly, allowing your body (and mind) to relax and recuperate.

Step 9: Splash Out. Keeping your kidneys in working order is vital if you want to avoid hoarding fat. To make sure this is the case, you have to make sure you’re a properly hydrated by drinking daily one-half to an ounce of water per pound of body weight. If you want to lose weight, you can’t ignore water.

Step 10: Stay in the Zone. When exercising regularly, always make sure you are still exercising within the calorie-burning zone suitable for your gender. Men and women have different needs in most aspects of life, and this is certainly one of them.

Step 11: Brush Between Meals. After you have eaten your meal, brush your teeth to reinforce in your mind that the meal had ended, as well as to alter your mouth’s chemistry, which will suppress any linger urges you might have about eating more.

Step 12: Dream It. Use your imagination to create a visual image of the benefits that fulfilling your fat loss goals will bring.