Physical Exercise | Sports Coach

The Importance of Adequate Hydration for Athletes

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The advice to drink enough water on a daily basis is a common one from nutritionists and fitness coaches. This recommendation is especially important for athletes and anyone engaging in constant and strenuous physical activity. The majority of the weight of the human body is made up of water. Even muscles, which are often thought of as solid mass, consist of water to the tune of over 70% of their weight,

The Consequences of Low Water Intake

When athletes do not drink enough water, negative processes take place in the body. An athlete loses water through a variety of ways. Intense athletic activity leads to an overheated body and excessive perspiration. Add to that the regular loss of water through breathing and elimination and the end result is a body that is dehydrated and needs continuous fluid replenishment. A dehydrated athlete can suffer from both physical exhaustion and mental fatigue. Additionally, when the body is dehydrated, blood volume is decreased, leading to the slowing down of the sweating and cooling mechanism.

Determining How Much Water to Drink

There is no set advice that fits every athlete when it comes to the subject of hydration. Many factors come into play. The intensity of the daily activity, the length of physical exertion, the heat of the environment and a person’s own fluid reserves all play a role in determining how much water a particular athlete should drink.

The thirst mechanism should be heeded. If an athlete is feeling thirsty often, he is not drinking enough water. Ideally, athletes should drink before and during their workouts, and immediately after exercising.

Filed Under: Fitness, Sports Tagged With: Dehydration, Physical exercise, Water

Is stretching or yoga good for body before long distance lap swimming?

Although swimming is one of the safest and least impact prone forms of exercise, long distance non stop lap swim can lead to chronic back problems if proper and methodical warm up exercise such as stretching or yoga is not performed before hand.

Animals in the wild are more attuned to their bodies than humans. lions, tigers and wolves are known to naturally engage in stretching before going for a hunting expedition or travelling long distances with their families. One of the most iconic poses for large animals such as lions is the forward and backward bend on their four legs in alternating order to loosen their musculoskeletal system.

Humans can learn a lot from animal kingdom and many stretching and yoga postures have been derived directly from animal movements which can help loosen the joints and muscles inside body before putting it to a good intense workout.

Several yoga postures such as serpent pose, lion pose, swan pose and monkey pose can help calm and loosen many crucial pressure points in the body before going ahead with a non stop long distance lap swim. The area around ankles, knee caps, thighs, glutes, upper as well as lower back, and the entire length of arms including elbows and shoulders should be stretched systematically based on modern warm up poses. Those who cannot practice yoga for religious reasons can do general stretching or pilates to warm up and condition their body before an intense lap swimming regimen.

Methodical stretching for 10-15 minutes can relax and free up all the tension inside joints and condition the heart rate and body temperature for an intense one to two hour non stop lap swim.

Filed Under: Excercises, Swimming Tagged With: Physical exercise, Stretching, Yoga

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

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

Swimming gaining in popularity as a cardiovascular mainstay

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As more people make the commitment to exercise regularly, swimming has proven to be a viable option for those wishing to avoid the aches and pains that accompany running and other high impact exercises.
When people begin their exercise regimes, they may be horribly out of shape, and significantly overweight. A 400 pound man, can’t expect to run multiple miles, and in some cases might be limited to walking very short distances.
Swimming is a way to get started exercising without the typical pain in the ankles and knees that sometimes stop the exerciser before they really get started. There is nothing worse than starting an exercise routine, only to be so stiff and sore after day one that all the goals and hopes of a healthy lifestyle are washed away before they are really given a chance
The benefits of swimming are not limited to just the obese or a beginning exercise enthusiast. Even high-level runners sometimes substitute swimming into their normal routines, to cut down on mileage and wear on the body. Swimming allows the body to dig into its cardiovascular reserves, without putting excess stress on the feet, ankles and knees.
Finding a place to swim may not be as difficult as you think. Many gyms in metropolitan areas include usage of the pool in their normal monthly fees. YMCA’s are typically equipped with swimming pools, and public pools often offer ‘adult-only’ swim nights for parents and other swimming enthusiasts who don’t want a pool full of hundreds of kids during their workout.
Ever hear of a swimmer getting hit by a car? Unlike runners and bikers that face trucks, SUV’s and other obstacles during their workouts, swimming provides a relatively stress free environment to improve one’s cardiovascular health.
For those looking at putting variety into their routines, swimming, lifting weights and running or bike riding can provide a well rounded routine that keeps the body and mind fresh.

Filed Under: Sports, Swimming Tagged With: Fitness, Health, Home and Garden, Physical exercise, Shopping, Sports, Swimming pool, YMCA

Sports could be the key to your child’s health

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With America’s continued decline in fitness and rise in obesity, getting your child active and involved in sports could be a major contributor to the health and well being of children.
Gone are the days when children went outside and played for several hours during the day. The rise on internet social media and video-games has turned American children into virtual couch potatoes.
Sports are a great way to get children moving. The National Football League recently introduced a program that encourages youth to get outside and play for at least an hour a day. The one element most sports involve is running, and running is a great way to lose weight and stay healthy.
Different children like different sports. Full contact sports like football might be too much for some children. A sport like swimming may not be the answer, especially if your child does not have the proper training or confidence to spend time in the water.
Find out what your child likes to do, and then do it with them. Not only are children registering off the scale, but also adults are leading sedentary lifestyles because of todayâ€™s on-line working environment. Playing sports together is a great way for familyâ€™s to get healthy and spend time together while doing it.
Many youth donâ€™t even like sports, but there are groups and leagues that provide non competitive sports for both youth and adults. If your child isnâ€™t competitive or doesnâ€™t want the pressure that team sports brings, they can still find something that keeps them actively engaged while exercising.
Even golf, which isnâ€™t considered a physically active sport, forces participants to walk around a course for several miles while working on flexibility and mastering patience and mind control. Youth soccer is exploding across the Unites States, and millions of youth can be found on Saturday morningâ€™s across the country, running around and having fun.
Sports are not for everyone, but encouraging youth to get outside and get moving is a great way to create healthy lifestyles that will last a lifetime.

Filed Under: Sports, Swimming Tagged With: Child, Contact sport, Health, National Football League, Obesity, Physical exercise, Sport, Youth

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

Active for Life

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Most people know that being active is the key to staying healthy well into your senior years. It’s also widely known that as we age, our muscle mass begins to deteriorate, our joints stiffen and our bones become weaker and more frail. Taking up regular daily exercise can help stave off the effects aging has on the body and improve overall health and well being. And it can be fun.

Start simply by incorporating exercise into your daily routine. Go for a walk in the morning or evening, ride a bicycle down the street—whatever you do, the activity doesn’t have to be vigorous or strenuous in order for your body to receive the benefits of exercise. And no matter your physical condition, there’s an activity that’s right for you. Whether that means going to the gym and working out with a friend or personal trainer, or joining a sports team, exercise will keep you healthier and increase longevity.

According to the National Institute on Aging, whatever activity you choose, your focus should be on building up your endurance, strength, balance and flexibility. A sample workout plan might include a mix of stretching the muscles pre- and post-workout, along with walking and light weight lifting. Swimming is another great activity to incorporate into your workout. It not only satisfies helps increase strength, endurance, balance and flexibility, it’s great for burning a high amount of calories and it’s easy on the muscles, bones and joints.

After a few weeks of activity you will start to see benefits, including an increase in energy and strength. You may also being to notice that your getting more quality, restful sleep as your body is responding to the increase in physical activity and seeking ways to repair and restore itself for the next day.

Use common sense when taking up a new exercise routine and make sure to stay hydrated and take plenty of breaks. If it’s been a while since you’ve exerted yourself, make sure that you start gradually into a routine so that you can prevent injury. Also, talk to your physician before starting any activity.

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

Exercising In Water Provides Great Health Benefits

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Many people that need to be exercising and thinking more about their health are those that deal with such things as obesity, disabilities or chronic injuries which makes it harder to exercise and easier to be inactive. Swimming and other aquatic exercise are good options for people of all ages and varying fitness levels because they have less impact on your joints than other types of exercise do which makes it easy for those dealing with pain, size or injury issues. Also, there are many health benefits that are associated with swimming like increased flexibility, muscle building, cardiovascular endurance and weight loss or maintenance.

Flexibility or the range of motion of a person’s muscles and joints is often taken for granted by people. You don’t know how much you need it until you experience a lack of it. Water exercises and swimming, when done with good stretching, can improve your flexibility and range of motion. That is why water is often used in therapeutic settings and physical therapy to help increase flexibility for a person. Water makes movements smoother which leads to lengthening, stretching and toning the muscles.

As people age, they tend to lose muscle mass and flexibility which can lead to difficulty in performing simple, everyday tasks. Muscle strength and endurance don’t always go together, but swimming can actually build both of these at the same time. With swimming, the body naturally meets water resistance so no matter what you are doing or what speed you are moving you build muscle. And when you move at a fast pace in the water you not only build muscle strength but endurance as well.

Swimming can be enjoyed by anyone and everyone and is also one of the best cardiovascular exercises available. Those suffering with anything from knee or back problems to disabilities as well as those that are overweight can exercise easily in the water and gain better health and a stronger body as a result. And as an added benefit, those swimming or doing other aquatic exercise can increase their metabolism and in turn lose weight or maintain their weight.

Filed Under: Activities, Excercises, Fitness Tagged With: Health, Physical exercise, Weight loss