Attitude Check

Where has the family dining experience gone?

Do you remember back in the day when having dinner at home used to be a family nostalgic experience? From the preparation, to dining, to the table discussions after dinner. These were well spent quality times. We would chat and laugh  for a while then sometimes even go for long walks.  Where have those days gone? Many families today have kids, adolescents and teenagers that typically have unhealthy eating habits that are uncontrollable. Some gravitate to foods that are high in fats, others to sugary junk foods while some just restrict their food intake, cutting calories and skipping foods that have a high nutritional value.

Encourage healthy eating and increase family bonding time

Family matters

What can parents and families do? Encourage healthy eating habits and increase family bonding time at the dinner table.  This starts by fostering the similar behaviors and attitudes their parents and grandparents had back in the day. Here are some ideas:

Be a positive role model

Children learn values from parents, family members and what they see around them.  They will do the same with their bodies, they will mimic the attitudes, behaviors and lifestyles they experience.  If parents are constantly treating their bodies like garbage then children will do the same.

Take up physical actitivity

Parents should take charge of  their families and encourage physical activity. Focus on the long term benefits of exercise. Kids who are phisically active do better in school and life. Make it a point to talk about physical activity anytime. Kids like it very much when the ydo things with their families. This is a great way to make fitness fun.  make it a family requirement.

Be a player. Not just a cheerleader.

Don’t sit on the sidelines and yell your lungs out.  Get up and get in the game.  Trust me you can benefit from this too. Imaging all the fun you can get from kicking or throwing a ball. 

Eat together more often

Think about this. As an adult you are the decision maker about what your kids should be eating.  In a sense you can consider yourself “Big Brother”. Create a healthy home environment by stocking the refrigerator with the likes of fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy.  NO JUNK FOODS.

Make it a family affair

Encourage healthy living and an active lifestyle for your entire family. In my family it’s a requirement.  I’ve always seen my dad working out, running, riding bikes etc.  Now I’m doing the same thing with my kids.  At times I’m too tired to go so they lead the charge.  The point I’m making here is that being active is not rocket science.  Any family can do it.

Target Heart Rate Training is a systematic method of improving your cardiovascular fitness. By exercising at sufficiently intense levels, you can overload your cardiovascular system. During rest, your body adapts to strengthen the cardiovascular system. Over time, your heart becomes more efficient at delivering the oxygen and fuel required by the muscles to maintain this higher level of performance. The skeletal muscles also become better at extracting oxygen from the bloodstream. With continued consistent exercise, the cardiovascular system continues to consistently improve.

 How do you know how hard you are working out? The difference between the volumes of oxygen exchange during exercise is what the muscles used to burn fuel (mostly carbohydrates and fat). The rate of this oxygen consumption is called VO₂ As you exercise at progressively more difficult levels you will reach your maximum capability. This maximum rate of oxygen consumption is called the VO2 max.  This is the best way to measure exercise intensity.

The second best way to measure exercise intensity is your heart rate during exertion. The heart rate is much easier to measure than VO2 but it is a very good approximation of VO2. This means that if you know your maximum heart rate (the fastest your heart rate is capable of pumping), you’d have a convenient method of monitoring your workouts.

 To accurately determine your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220 then multiply that number by 1 (or 100%).  The result will represent the maximum number of beats per minute at 100% of your cardiovascular efficiency.

Knowing your maximum heart rate will allow you to estimate where you can train to bring about cardiovascular improvements. The maximum heart rate formulas provide an approximation of your true maximum heart rate. But by estimating conservatively, you can use these estimates as the foundation for monitoring your exercise intensities.

 Once you’ve determined your estimated maximum heart rate, you can construct a “target zone” for your workouts. Normally, trainers specify “zones” for you to work in. This is because the human heart rate changes continuously. It would be virtually impossible to maintain any selected heart rate. In addition, it takes a while for the heart to “come up to speed.” For these reasons, a “target heart rate zone” has evolved to become the most practical method of measuring exercise intensity.

Target heart rate zones are expressed as a percentage range based on your maximum heart rate. For instance, your goal may be to maintain your heart rate of between 124 and 144 bpm (beats per minute). For tracking purposes, you would most often only track the duration of your exercise in which you were between your minimum and maximum heart rate goals (your duration “in the zone”).

Most training schedules incorporate different types of workouts (e.g. long, slow distance, high intensity intervals). You can construct different target zones depending upon the type of workout you are performing. Heart rate monitors can help you stay in that zone so that you can achieve your goal for that workout. The heart rate monitor will tell you the amount of time you were in your target heart rate zone. This makes it far more convenient to track your workouts.

Target heart rate training lets you track improvement over time. This is indicated by a gradual reduction in your resting heart rate. Another indicator of improvement is that you’ll need to perform at higher levels to perform the same exercise at the same heart rate range as before. For instance, you may find that you need to run on a treadmill at say, 4.5 mph to stay in your target heart range when you first start out. You will find that over time you will have to run at, say, 4.8 mph to get your heart to stay inside your target heart range.

Target heart rate training provides a scientific approach to tracking your improving levels of fitness. Heart rate monitors allows you to measure exercise intensity independently of what activity is being performed by focusing on heart rate as the measure of exercise intensity.

Strength Training Tips 

• It isn’t always what you do but how well you do it.
• Drinking water while working out will prevent dehydration and facilitate a faster recovery.
• Always challenge yourself.  Take it to the next level.
• If you are a beginner start with a two day per week work out to acclimate your body to your exercise program.
• Always exercise with caution to prevent injury.
• Using slow movements can increase your muscle tone when exercising.  Always do 5 – 10 minutes of warm up and cool down before and after your workout.
• Never perform any exercise with ballistic movements.  All exercises should be performed smoothly.
• Start with full body exercises then move to individual muscle groups.
• Full body exercises can minimize your work time while maximizing your benefits.
• Inhale while lifting (muscles shortened) and exhale while lowering (muscles lengthened).

Cardio Training Tips 

• Controlling your breathing when doing cardio will prolong your activity.
• Breathing rhythmically with your exercise will solve you breathing problem.
• Perform a cardio routine at least three times per week.
• A brisk walk in the park is a great way to kick start any cardio program.
• Knowing your heart rate training zones will help to improve you cardio training.
• Always do a 5 – 10 minute warm up and cool down before and after your cardio training.
• Choose a different exercise each time you do cardio.
• Listen to your body.  If you feel dizzy stop your activity and sit down. 

Stretching Tips 

• Stretching improves your flexibility, so do it. Do it consistently.
• It is a good idea to stretch between each set of your exercise.  This will prevent muscle soreness.
• Never hold you breathe while stretching.  Breathe normally.
• Stretching is most effective following a workout because the body is completely warm.
• Stretching done before a workout will help to prevent muscle and joint injuries.
• Never overstretch.  Overstretching can cause joint and muscle injury.
• If you bounce while you are stretching, your muscles will not allow you to stretch.
• Take a stretch to the point of tension (not pain) and then hold that position for approximately 20-30 seconds.
• Always listen to your body — if it hurts, you are stretching too far!
• Find a flexibility class that works for you.
• Always warm up first.

When engaged in any fitness training program there are several universally accepted scientific training principles that must be followed in order to improve conditioning and performance. These principles are:

The Principle of Individual Differences

Because we are all different people we will respond differently to exercises. A proper training program should be modified to take individual differences into account. Some considerations are:

• Large muscles heal slower than smaller muscles.
• Fast or explosive movements require more recovery time than slow movements.
• Fast twitch muscle fibers recover quicker than slow twitch muscle fibers.
• Women generally need more recovery time than men.
• Older individuals generally need more recovery time than younger individuals.
• The heavier the load lifted, the longer it will take the muscles to recover.

The Principle of Overload

The principle of overload states that a greater than normal stress or load on the body is required for training adaptation to take place. The body will adapt to this stimulus. Once the body has adapted then a different stimulus is required to continue the change. In order for a muscle (including the heart) to increase strength, it must be gradually stressed by working against a load greater than it is used to. To increase endurance, muscles must work for a longer period of time than they are used to. If this stress is removed or decreased there will be a decrease in that particular component of fitness. A normal amount of exercise will maintain the current fitness level.

 The Principle of Progression

The principle of progression implies that there is an optimal level of overload that should be achieved, and an optimal time frame for this overload to occur. Overload should not be increased too slowly or improvement is unlikely. Beginners can exercise progressively by starting near threshold levels and gradually increasing in frequency, intensity, and time within the target zone. Exercising above the target zone is counterproductive and can be dangerous.

The Principle of Adaptation

The body adapts to stress in a highly specific way. Adaptation is the way the body ‘programs’ muscles to remember particular activities, movements or skills. By repeating that skill or activity, the body adapts to the stress and the skill becomes easier to perform. Adaptation explains why a beginning exercisers are often sore after starting a new routine, but after doing the same exercise for weeks and months the athlete has little, if any, muscle soreness.

The Principle of Use/Disuse

The Principle of Use/Disuse implies that you “use it or lose it.” This simply means that your muscles hypertrophy with use and atrophy with disuse.

The Principle of Specificity

The Specificity Principle simply states that a training program must go from highly general training to highly specific training. For example, if you are a beginning exerciser, you may start out with a easy general strength training program before moving on to more specific training in the way of plyometrics or kickboxing. The principle of Specificity also implies that to become better at a particular exercise or skill, you must perform that exercise or skill.

Researchers at Children’s Hospital in Seattle said yes. “Children are raised not only at homes but also in their communities” said Dr. H. Mollie Greves Grow, MD MPH, of Seattle Children’s Hospital  in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Grow noted that, disadvantaged neighborhoods may present many obstacles for children’s weight, such as less access to healthy foods and more to unhealthy fast-food outlets. She added. “A disadvantaged environment can set families up for ill health, and it’s unfair to blame them for not taking enough ‘personal responsibility’ to manage their weight. We don’t yet know all of the factors that may create disadvantages, but we know it is present and associated with higher obesity.”

In my many years of coaching I have worked with many families from different socioeconomical  background and  have seen the differences and traits between them. It is a prime example of differences between ‘the haves’ and ‘have nots’. I concur with their findings that families living in higher socioeconomical communities often have less issues with childhood obesity than families living in lower income neighborhoods. Communities that have access to and can afford the accalades of an improved social environment often have way less prevalences of childhood obesitity while across the tracks in areas where there is less access to healthy foods and more to unhealthy fast-food joints and places to play you will often find a higher rate of obesity among children and teens. 

What can be done?  Parents, teachers, coaches, preachers, pastors, community leaderers can become active mentors for the kids in their communities.  Local organization’s can also participate by creating partnerships with schools, cummunity service organiations and other groups that are focused on families and children.  It may be a challenging endeavor but nonetheless it can be done.

What can you do as a parent? Your options are limitless.  For example, you can be deligent about what foods are in your home and how your child eat, you can play an active role in your child’s lifestyle, you can be a role model and lead by example. Don’t be afraid to get involved. It may seem a bit overbearing but consider the alternative. Every person is ultimately responsible for what happens to them. Their decisions can be influenced by  the environment they live in as well as the relationship they have with others.

Can a village raise a healthy child? What’s your opinion?