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Lifelong sports are not often found in our schools. One of the reasons may be costs, but another reason is that the schools just do not have the facility or personnel to teach a lot of the lifelong sports. While many schools have swimming and tennis, few have facilities for some of the other lifelong sports, even if they have teams.
When I speak of lifelong sports, there are only a handful. They are golf, tennis, squash (or racquetball), swimming, horseback riding and cycling. There is a good chance that you will be able to participate in these sports throughout your life.
Lifelong sports help our children to learn how to be fit. When they enter adulthood already knowing how to have fun while keeping fit, they have a huge advantage over people who do not have that skill. Look at how many kids go to college and pack on the pounds.
So, if your child has tried all the team sports and still feels like a square peg in a round hole, let them try one of the sports that they can use forever. Who knows, maybe they find their niche and save you all that college money by getting a scholarship in one of these sports! At the very least, you may get a big thank you from them someday when you are out with them on the golf course.

Tags: Sports Fitness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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Some golfers believe that weight training can hurt their game. Au contraire!! People are all different and golfers need to look at what they want to improve and where their weaknesses lie when they are starting a weight training routine.
If you have weak shoulders, weight training can help. What about pain in the back or elbows, again, weight training can help. Are you worn out after a few holes? Then you may need to work on your stamina and weight training can help.
Golfers need to identify their specific weakness and work on functional training to improve those areas. Training with a personal trainer is the ideal way to achieve those results quickly. If you are interested in discussing your goals, drop by and see me.

Tags: Sports Fitness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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WHY – According to the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, it is still up in the air if stretching helps reduce injury. BUT there are studies that show it has many benefits. Also, it helps prevent soreness and has been shown to help increase your strength gains.

WHEN – AFTER Cardio or strength training. Stretching before can be risking damage or injury to your tendons. Make sure you have warmed up for at least 5 minutes before you stretch.

HOW – Be sure to stretch gently. Don’t bounce or use momentum to increase your stretch. You should not FEEL PAIN! Be sure to breathe normally and do not hold your breath.

Tags: Sports Fitness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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Flexibility Training is one of the most overlooked parts of fitness. When people do perform stretching exercises, they often do so incorrectly or inconsistently. Flexibility is a form of training that is poorly taught and even more poorly executed. Ask anyone from coaches to athletes on how to perform flexibility training and you will see faces filled with doubt.
Flexibility is defined as the normal extension of all soft tissues that allow full range of motion of a joint. Everyone knows that. What is usually missing is the “why” you need to stretch and even more importantly the “how” to stretch.
There are several main reasons to perform flexibility training as part of your routine. The main benefits are defined by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) as:
1. Decreased chance of injury
2. Prevent the development of muscle imbalances
3. Correct existing muscle imbalances and joint dysfunction
4. Improve posture and correct postural distortion
5. Enhance strength and power.
For injury prevention, it is key to focus on prevention of muscle imbalances as well as correct any imbalances you currently have. A corrective training program can be designed from a postural and movement assessment as muscle imbalances are obvious to the trained eye. Postural distortion is a fancy term for dysfunctions in your body that affect the completion of the kinetic chain. What this means is that your body is a complex instrument where different things work together to perform movement. Having a dysfunction means that you are not allowing your body to have the most efficient source of energy from all of its working parts. It is like a speed bump for the body, you slow down your movement or are forced to perform the movement in an incorrect way.
There are four main types of stretching. These are static, corrective, dynamic and active. Everyone needs to have active as part of their routine. This is your warm-up plan in layman’s terms. You perform sports specific movements to warm up muscles that are pertinent to your sport. An example of this is when a golfer is seen doing test swings before a game. Static is the other form of stretching that everyone needs. This is where you perform longer (usually 30 seconds each) held stretches after you are finished with your game/workout. This is the type of stretching that makes you less sore the next day and more flexible over time.
Corrective and dynamic stretches are important for certain members of the population and most athletes. These are not your everyday stretches that you learned in high school. They are specific to a sport and unique for each individual. These need to be performed prior to a workout and need to be personalized for you. Your certified trainer has training in how to design and implement these types of stretches once it is determined that you need them.

For more information on Sports Specific Training, visit my website at www.4fitbodies.com.

Tags: Chapel Hill News, Fitness, Flexibility, Sports Fitness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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What workout is the most effective for seeing visible changes in your body? It needs to be a combination of cardio and weight training. The cardio is good for your heart and burns calories. It also helps reduce stress. Weight training is critical if you want to see real results. It is your muscles that shape how you look and it is building these muscles that increases your metabolism. A study done by Auburn University found that metabolism was increased by an average of 60% when the combined plan was used.
Being a busy woman, you need to look at doing efficient moves to reduce the amount of time that you spend without sacrificing your workout. Multi functional moves may be your best bet. They make you work hard and they do double duty. Some great moves combine upper and lower body, such as side lunges with lateral raise or squats with a bicep curl. These moves really make you work so you will continue to burn calories at a higher rate than if you split them into separate moves.
Another great time saver is to cut out your rest periods. You need to be careful here! You want to ensure the body part still gets a rest – so you move on to another body part. An example would be doing one set of push-ups (upper body) and then moving right into a set of squats. This way, your upper body is resting while you work your lower body.
Be sure you are lifting enough weight to make a difference. A study by the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that participants chose a weight that was only 42 to 57 % of their one-rep maximum. You need to lift more than 70% of your one-rep maximum to gain strength. You want to be efficient, but it is also important to be effective and using heavy weights is the only way to get that done.

Tags: Sports Fitness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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