Fitness | Sports Coach

Swiming with straw head

It’s a fairly nonsensical thing, but swimming in the pool will inevitably dry your hair. Swim long enough and frequently enough and without taking the proper precautions you can end up with a serious case of straw head.

Dry hair can be and be an unsightly nuisance. It doesn’t have to be that way, however. Many regular swimmers have reported great results with just a few simple steps.

Hair is comprised of two sections, and inside and an outer shell. Chlorine in the water actually acts as a drying agent and leaches essential oils from hair. This breaks down the outer section, exposing the inner section and causing it to dry out.

The lack of oils in hair is what causes the dull look and the cracking of the outer later and splitting of the dry inner layer is what causes split ends. The first step in stopping the destructive process is to rinse your hair with regular water before entering the pool.

Another important tool in the arsenal against straw head is a swimmer’s cap. These rubber shells won’t keep your head completely dry, but they will act as a barrier between your hair and the harsh chemicals.

They also aid in the other good step, which is applying some sort of hair treatment oil before putting on your swim cap. Some swimmers use a coconut hair conditioner, and there are always specific brands of hair treatments made especially for swimmers.

There are also conditioners and shampoos available which are also designed to combat straw head. People with lighter colored hair might find some value in these products as their hair can commonly turn green after a while.

Finally, when it comes to drying your hair try to pat it dry, or let it air dry if it’s short enough. The key is to avoid rubbing your hair.

Filed Under: Fitness, Swimming Tagged With: Hair conditioner, Swim cap, swimming

The Truth About Swimming for Weight Loss

Swimming offers benefits for the whole body with low impact on joints and bones. But is swimming a good choice if you want to lose weight? Recent studies claim that swimming may not always be the best way to shed pounds. Is this true?

Some health and fitness specialists say that water’s cooling effects can slow the calorie-burning process. In the water, you don’t heat up as you would on land, so your body doesn’t have to work as hard to cool itself down. What’s more, some people claim to be so hungry after swimming that they eat more calories than they just burned. Other say that swimming makes them so exhausted they’re left with little energy for anything else.

Yes, Swimming Can Promote Weight Loss
Assuming those claims might be true for some people, can you swim to lose weight? Certainly—if you keep in mind some of the pitfalls.

There’s no argument that if you burn more calories than you eat, you’ll lose weight. Any exercise, including swimming, will burn calories. The fact is, if you weigh 150 pounds, you can burn 400 to 700 calories per hour while swimming. And a frequent, consistent, rigorous swimming regimen will “rev up” metabolism and improve the body’s ability to burn fat.

How to Make Swimming a Better Fat Burner
Get serious about your technique. Studies show that skilled swimmers who move with speed and ease in the water burn far more calories than less serious swimmers who just flail around.

Don’t eat high-fat meals after swimming. Avoid taking in all those calories you just burned. Go for high-fiber snacks that are filling but low in fat: fruits, vegetables, nuts and beans, for example.

Don’t exhaust yourself. Start with a couple of swimming sessions per week and gradually work up to five or more. Alternate rigorous strokes like freestyle or butterfly with more leisurely styles like breaststroke and backstroke. Doing so will raise and lower your heart rate, which burns calories more efficiently—and you won’t wear yourself out for the rest of the day.

Filed Under: Fitness, Swimming Tagged With: Physical exercise, Weight loss

Stretching and swimming

Like all athletic past times and exercises proper stretching of all the muscle groups is a must. Aside from playing a major factor in preventing injuries like strains and pulled muscles, proper stretching can also improve muscle growth.

For swimming there are a few key stretches to consider. It’s important to properly warm up shoulders and arms, as those are the two areas where swimmers are most likely to experience some sort of injury.

The key to good stretching is flexibility. One basic stretch for warming up before entering the pool is to reach upward with each arm alternately, pressing the ear flat and reaching as high as possible. A good thing to keep in mind here is a nice, straight line. It might be tempting to pull or lean forward, but it’s key to maintain a nice, 180 degree line from your heels to your finger tips.

Another good stretch for improving flexibility is the bridge. By bridging your back upward off the ground, you can bring your shoulders in line with your head. If you can’t straighten your legs at first, that’s normal. Try elevating your feet by placing them on the couch or a stack of gym mats.

There are also a number of yoga poses which will help with flexibility and with stretching over all, so it’s worth the time to learn a few basics. A beginner’s yoga reference guide will have some good places to start.

In the end a lot of the traditional arm stretches are going to be good for warming up. Pulling your arm across your chest and stretching the deltoids; pulling your elbow behind your back; locking your arms behind your back and pulling up toward your head.

Just remember, the key is to feel a warm, stretching sensation. If you are feeling acute pain then you are doing it wrong, or need to warm up more slowly.

Filed Under: Excercises, Fitness, Games Tagged With: Flexibility, Muscle, Stretching, Warming up

Six Ways Swimming Can Improve Your Body

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Swimming is a good exercise option for people of all ages and fitness levels—even those with disabilities or chronic pain. When you’re in the water, your bones and joints don’t bear all your weight. The vigorous movement of swimming places stress not on your weight-bearing joints but on your muscles.

Strength
While swimming is low impact, it’s still a great way to get strong because swimmers use major muscle groups in both the upper and lower body. And water offers 12 times more resistance than air, forcing swimmers’ muscles to work harder.

Endurance
Muscular strength alone is not the same as overall fitness. Water exercise, though, can build both strength and cardiovascular endurance. Swimming develops muscle strength through water resistance and raises cardiovascular endurance through aerobic activity.

Flexibility
Swimming, in tandem with good stretching, can boost flexibility and range of motion. Water’s buoyancy, resistance and temperature encourage muscle flexibility, and the smooth movements of swimming tend to stretch and lengthen muscles.

Weight management
Regular, calorie-burning exercise is key to successful weight management. People weighing 150 pounds can burn about 400 to 700 calories per hour while swimming, depending on their activity level. Frequent, regular swimming can speed metabolism, lower body fat and improve the body’s ability to burn fat.

Cardiovascular health
Because swimming uses so many muscles and your body is working against water resistance, even a low-key water workout can elevate your heart rate. When you’re swimming, your heart, lungs and circulatory system go all out to deliver oxygen and energy to each of your moving parts.

Overall toning
Olympic swimmers have terrific physiques. Years of training in the water have given them long, lean bodies with toned muscles. Swimming is the perfect sport for anyone who wants to feel fit and healthy—and look it.

Filed Under: Activities, Fitness, Swimming Tagged With: Fitness, Physical exercise, Physical fitness

Health Benefits of Swimming

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Swimming is great exercise, especially if you do it regularly. Swimming works every muscle in your body and can also be used as a relaxation technique. Swimming is also fun when in a recreational setting. On a hot day, it’s great to take a dip in the pool and cool off with your friends nearby.

Swimming regularly builds endurance as well as muscle strength. You can also get a cardio-vascular workout, depending on what type of swimming you do. While swimming is a great workout, it is not recommended to lose weight due to the body being in colder water.

Swimming is good for the lungs and can also reduce your risk for heart attack and stroke. It also helps keep your joints flexible and is great for people that have a hard time doing land-based exercise. Some people have a hard time running and find that swimming is easier for them.

People with back pain or pregnant woman can have an easier time in the water as it helps with the discomfort of back pain. If you find that you are highly stressed, try swimming. Its benefits have been known to relax and reduce stress levels.

Swimming after having had breast cancer surgery is also recommended because it helps to strengthen the weak muscles. Many times normal exercise like running or bicycling is difficult after surgery. Swimming can help relieve the pain associated with exercise and also helps to lift the spirits of recent surgery patients. Swimming can be taken at a slow pace if need be, and gradually worked up to a faster pace.

Before you begin any exercise program, make sure you talk to your doctor to get the okay from him/her. You made need to take it slow at first, but you will soon find yourself fit and healthy from regular swimming sessions.

Filed Under: Fitness, Swimming

Why Coaching with Love and Concern for a Team Works for Kids

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Being a coach of a sports team for children can really play an influential part in a kid’s childhood. That first coach is someone that leaves such a lasting impression on the child that they will be talking about it when they are 80 years old and sitting in a nursing home.

With such a task ahead of you as a sports coach it can be a bit intimidating. So how do you know that you are coaching the right way as compared to the wrong way? How do you know that you are leaving a good impression on a child?

The answer really comes down to instinct. If you are coaching from the heart and with the thought that you must guide a child through a very important part of their life and let them learn how to play a certain sport, then you are probably going to leave a very good impression on these children. However, if you are coaching them as if there is a hoard of sports betting sites nipping at your heels and trying to get them to win, then you probably aren’t going to be that coach that everyone remembers.

Children’s sports should be all about having fun, trying out a sport and meeting new friends above everything else. There is absolutely no need for anyone to act like these young children are professional players and have millions of dollars resting on their shoulders, because they don’t.

Remember if you coach with love and instinct then you’ll be a coach that children will love. If you act like these children have the world riding on their shoulders and end up being that screaming, raving coach, then you probably will not be a part of a child’s memory and if you are it won’t be favorable!

Filed Under: Activities, Excercises, Fitness, Games Tagged With: Alternative, Child, Coaching, Health, Muay Thai, Sport, United States, Vancouver

Enjoy Sports Without Blowing Your Budget

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Sports are the fun way to keep fit, make friends and even improve self-esteem. From table tennis to football, any person of any age can take up a new sporting hobby that’s perfect for them. What about a sport that’s perfect for the funds too? Everyone these days is doing their best to save money and shave off a little here and little there. It’s true that some sports require pretty pricey equipment; some sports fanatics could easily have a stack of True Religion jeans for what they shell out on a single golf club. However, even if you’ve already cut out daily lattes, you don’t need to cut sports from your budget too; sports are still for everyone, no matter how little you have to spend. To get started, look at these ideas for keeping your love of sports alive without breaking the bank:

• Buy used. Open up the phone book and see if there’s a used sporting goods store in your area. They offer equipment that’s still in useable nick for much less than retail price. Online classifieds are a great place to find deals on equipment too. Your friends or family may also know someone who’s looking to get rid of a bat or helmet that’s been sitting in the garage.

• Start or join a local league. Ask local sporting stores, work colleagues or friends if they know of any amateur groups that get together for weekly games of soccer, tennis or whatever your favorite sport may be. These groups don’t need to shell out for the pricey padding or official balls; they’re in it for the pure love of the game. Can’t find one? How about forming your own? A few flyers around town and you may find a handful of people who’d love to do exactly what you’re doing.

Filed Under: Activities, Fitness, Sports Tagged With: Business, London, Minigame, Nintendo DS, Sport, Sports equipment, Sports game, Table tennis

Want to Model? You Can’t Spend All Day on the Sports Betting Sites

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There’s nothing wrong with playing on the computer after a long day at work. It can be very relaxing, and a lot of people enjoy making a few wagers on one of the sports betting sites. If you want to model, though, you’ll have to do more than that. Do you have a portfolio? Have you had any experience? Do you fit the height/weight profile of the companies you’re thinking of applying to? There’s a lot more to being a model than just looking pretty, but too many people don’t realize that. Instead, they get a few pictures taken and wait for the offers to come rolling in.

Unless they’re incredibly striking and very, very lucky, that generally doesn’t happen. Instead, they languish in their ‘real job,’ wondering why they haven’t been ‘discovered’ yet. If you want to be discovered as a model, you have to show the world that there’s something to discover. Do all the research you can on how a person gets into modeling. Narrow that research down to the companies that you’d like to work for, or the agents you’d like to represent you. Then, research them more carefully. Find out what they want, specifically. If you don’t have it, move on to the next company.

Some agents are more specific about people of a certain height, weight, or ‘look.’ When you find an agent that matches up with your abilities and qualifications, send them your photos. These shouldn’t be things a friend took at the beach. They should be professional photos that were taken with modeling in mind, with professionally done hair and makeup if at all possible. That will give the agent a chance to really see how you look, and you may get to proceed from there.

Filed Under: Activities, Excercises, Fitness, Games, Surfing, Swimming Tagged With: Bookmaker, Gambling, Models, Recreation and Sports, Sport, Sport betting, Sportsbook, United States

Is football the most physical of all sports?

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With the National Football League resuming play recently, some of the sports worlds biggest, strongest and fastest athletes will once again take center stage in one of the worlds most physical of sports.
Sports enthusiasts would be hard pressed to find any other activity that boasts 300 pound men, that bench-press 400 pounds and run a sub, 5.0 forty yard dash.
Basketball is not even considered among the “contact-sports”, yet boasts 7 feet tall men weighing 270 pounds that battle for position under the hoop. Basketball could hardly be considered one of the most physical sports as participants rarely engage in hand-to-hand combat during competition.
Football is unique among all the contact sports as contact takes place on every single play. As the ball is snapped, offensive and defensive lineman rush violently into one another to gain an advantage. As a receiver crosses the middle, despite thinking of catching the ball, this player must be thinking of the violent collision that could take place. A running back who is attempting to cross the goal line during short-yardage situations can expect to be run into by 300 pound men willing to do anything and everything to stop the rushing attempt. Event the quarterback who attempts to avoid contact at all cost, fears the hit from a defensive lineman or linebacker as he attempts to complete a pass down field.
About the only other sports that boast a similar amount of contact are rugby and sumo-wrestling. While rugby boasts players nearly as large as NFL lineman, the severity of impact is not the same on each and every play. Sumo wrestlers who have an initial violent collision, often find themselves grappling for the clothing of their counterpart in a non-violent act that concludes their match.
As the NFL season commences, watch the collisions of the interior lineman on every play. Pay attention to the big hits in the secondary. Watch the running back collide with the linebacker on a goal line stand, and then decide if football is the most physical of all contact-sports.

Filed Under: Fitness, Sports Tagged With: Basketball, National Football League, Sport

Fancy a Dip?

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Step aside, yoga, there’s another way to increase physical fitness and boost your mental health: Swimming.

For years, swimming has been touted as an excellent form of exercise, and for a multitude of reasons. It’s low impact, so it’s easy on the muscle, bones and joints, which makes it an activity that people of all ages can take part in. And because you’re in water, the risk of an exercise-related injury is far lower than the injury risks associated with other activities such as running, walking and biking.

But the benefits don’t stop there. Since the water provides natural resistance—it’s actually 12 times more resistant than air—those who swim can enjoy some serious calorie burning benefits, and depending on your weight and the intensity of your swimming, you can blast more calories in one hour of swimming than what you would normally burn in an hour at the gym. And while you’re burning calories, you can also enjoy improvements in your endurance, flexibility, cardiovascular health and strength (lean muscle mass).

Body and Mind

That’s not to mention the mental benefits of taking a few laps around the pool. Studies have shown that swimming forces you to focus on regulating your breathing, which ultimately leads to relaxation and a meditative state. The sensation of weightlessness and floating adds to the overall relaxed feeling, and most swimmers agree that a dip in the water usually leaves them feeling relaxed and refreshed.

With all of these benefits, it’s no wonder that researchers began to study the effects of swimming on aging, and in their research, there have been some significant findings that suggest that regular swimming can slow the aging process and actually prolong life. Now there’s a great reason to hop into the pool.

One study conducted in 2009 by researchers at the University of Indiana found that the physiological markers associated with aging were slowed dramatically (up to 20%) among study participants who swam regularly. Additional findings revealed a positive correlation between swimming and increased respiration, muscle mass, bone density, cardiovascular activity and neurological function, further supporting findings that swimming significantly benefits your overall health.

Filed Under: Excercises, Fitness Tagged With: Health, Muscle, Physical exercise, swimming