Tag Archives: fitness

January 2, 2012 · 1:46 PM

Fitness New Year Proposal

Happy New Year!
But, please people, hold off for now on the gargantuan fitness resolutions for January 1, 2012. Please. It is January, folks. It’s mid-winter Kansas here;  dark, cold, and there’s more than likely snow on ground. January is not, I repeat, IS NOT, the best time to make fitness resolutions if you want to give yourself the best chance at success with those resolutions.
Instead,  try to accomplish some baby steps forward at this time. Eat a little better and move your body a little more often. Maybe try to learn something new your body can do or perhaps do something it hasn’t done in a while. Take the baby steps, then make a new target date for the big fitness resolutions. A new date when the weather is a little better, when the sun shines a little more and life in general makes the big fitness changes easier. I propose we designate a new date, perhaps April 1 (April Fool’s Day), to be the official date of the Fitness New Year.
So, take those baby steps, build some confidence in your body and what you can do. Lay the groundwork for significant lifestyle fitness changes come April 1, 2012.
Coach Hays
P.S. I am going to try something new in 2012. I will  attempt to post daily  the FamFit and Human Weapon workouts on Twitter under the hashtag #FamFit .  Follow me @coachhays64, if interested. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Rants, Training, Writes

Tagged as , , ,

November 6, 2010 · 8:32 PM

The Physical Space: A Coach Hays Rant

Rest Day Read (SR-57)

The Physical Space a Coach Hays Rant

The secret to physical preparation lies in the the work.  The physical space is a vital component of that work.  The outpouring of heart and soul, blood and sweat, time and effort, is key.  The pressure applied by the athlete toward themselves over time prepares the body for physical challenge, much like pressure applied to carbon over time results in the formation of a diamond.  Hard work, every day, every minute, every second.

The secret to success is not a shiny new training space with matching new pieces of equipment.  The success lies not in mirrors and color coordinated outfits.  The success lies in offering a good physical space which, above all else, is safe and effective. Let me repeat, safe AND effective. A good physical space needs heavy things to lift, move and carry.  It needs places to hang from, drag things over and move upon.

The environment has to be welcoming, the athletes should want to go there to work.  Athletes should know they are expected to be there.  The cultivated physical, mental and emotional environment must make the athlete want to show up and put it out there every session.  Everyone gets better, everyday.  That is how teams are made.  That is how athletes learn to trust each other and become a unit, a team.  Players know their teammates are putting it out there.  Hard work and trust become contagious.  Then the diamonds are formed.

Leave a comment

Filed under Rants, Reads, Training, Writes

Tagged as , , , , , ,

April 1, 2010 · 1:21 PM

Happy Fitness New Year!

Fitness New Year
Back on January 1, 2010, I designated April Fool’s Day 2010 as the first day of the Fitness New Year. Well, today is the day! And I must admit, it wasn’t a bad idea. The weather was cold, crappy and there was a buttload of snow on the ground 1-1-2010. Today? Well in Clay Center, KS, it is absolutely beautiful; sunny and mid-70s with the associated Kansas “breeze”. I know, I know, I am a freaking genius! No, not really, but today is as good of day as any to turn over a new leaf.
Start today with a clean slate, eat better, move more often and use movements that expand your range of motion as much as possible. Baby steps are still steps!
Last night it was 80+ degrees. The Mrs. Hays and myself went on our first “real” bike ride of the year. After going up the Hill from Hell, The Mrs. Hays actually admits she wishes she would have not stopped Fam-Fit over the winter. HA! Can I use that as a ringing endorsement? Sure, I can…

Fam-Fit
Enjoy 30 minutes of favorite outdoor activity.
(Me, I took the day off, had a parade then pulled the rose bushes out. Proceeded to cut out an area of the nasty Bermuda grass then expanded the vegetable garden in a Napoleonic fashion to double the empires previous size.)

Leave a comment

Filed under Rants, Reads, Training, Writes

Tagged as , , ,

March 5, 2010 · 2:45 PM

Rest Day Read 3-5-10

Rest Day Read (SR-13)
Epilogue to The Purposeful Primitive by Marty Gallagher
“By generating a methodical and sustained physical and psychological effort, the human body is forcibly morphed from what it is into what we want it to become: leaner and more muscular. The human body is not seduced, lured, cajoled, convinced or persuaded to alter itself-it is forced to alter itself.”
“Sub-maximal training yields sub-maximal results”
I can’t even remember where I ran into this promotional free download file to Marty Gallagher’s excellent book, The Purposeful Primitive, but it convinced me to buy the book. Once I read the book, it ignited a change in the way I approach life and fitness. I highly suggest the book and suggest adoption of its principals.

Leave a comment

Filed under Rants, Reads, Training

Tagged as , , , ,

March 2, 2010 · 12:11 PM

One Month and Counting…

It’s March! Only one month until Fitness New Year’s Day! You haven’t heard? April Fools Day is now also Fitness New Year’s Day, the start of the fitness year. See, it’s blogged and everything, so it is official. Get that fitness resolution ready to roll in 30 days!

Leave a comment

Filed under Rants, Reads

Tagged as , , , ,

February 23, 2010 · 10:52 AM

Rest Day Read 2-23-10

Rest Day Read (SR-11)
Exercise as Medicine?
SR-11a An ADHD Med Without Side Effects by ADDitude Magazine Editors
“Exercise turns on the attention system, the so-called executive functions-sequencing, working memory, prioritizing, inhibiting, and sustaining attention…On a practical level, it causes (ADHD) kids to be less impulsive, which makes them more primed to learn.”
SR-11b Riding is My Ritalin by Bruce Barcott
“For the past 30 years, athletes, coaches, sports psychologists and medical researchers have probed and debated one of the most complex mysteries of the human body: How does exercise affect the brain? Common sense and our own experience tell us it does something. Every parent knows the best way to settle down a hopped up kid is to take him out to the playground and run the bug juice out of him. A generation ago, teachers and coaches frequently use this approach as well.”

Folks, we need more “bug juice” run out of us. In a previous post, the evidence suggests a mutation in the “wandering” gene may play a role in ADHD. Let’s see, we can treat a genetic predisposition to want to move (and go, go, go) by exercising the body/brain or we can overload with medication. Which should we choose? Which would we choose? Which DO we choose?

Leave a comment

Filed under Rants, Reads, Training

Tagged as , , , ,

February 9, 2010 · 9:32 AM

Rest Day Read 2-8-10 pt.2

Part 2: Rest Day Read (SR-8)

Fitness and the Brain
Yesterday’s article by Ms. Rodi talked about the basics of how the brain learns and presents four stimuli for learning, 1) Novel experiences prime the brain for learning the new information. 2) Repetition makes the learning permanent. 3) Complexity increase learning or more simply, we learn better with movement. Stimulation of the brain in multiple ways seems to make the neural connections stronger. 4) Hebb Rule – associate learning with positive stimuli, i.e make learning an enjoyable, positive experience. Note that “positive stimuli” does not mean it has to be EASY.
Today’s article by Debra Viadero from Education Week takes more of a look at exercise connected to learning in schools. The more I begin to learn on this subject, the more I want to visit our school board, district superintendent and school administrators and slap some sense into them. Why are we spending big dollars focusing on crap that is not working AND turning right around and cutting the relatively cheap programs that research shows helps increase academic performance? My hope is that you become motivated to contact said school officials and ask questions. Make them account for their decisions. Make them account for choosing to stay in the dark.

Article SR-8a
How to Build a Better Neural Highway? By Cyndi Rodi
“Complexity in movement engages the cognitive and motor areas of the brain in tandem. This facilitates more efficient and effective brain function that provides for better information processing and recall.”
Article SR-8b
Exercise Seen as Priming Pump for Students’ Academic Strides. By Debra Viadero
“Had the creators of No Child Left Behind looked at the data, they would’ve have realized that physical activity is good for the brain,” said Charles H. Hillman, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
With his university colleague Darla M. Castelli, Mr. Hillman assessed the physical-fitness levels of 239 3rd and 5th graders from four Illinois elementary schools. Their findings published last year, in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, show that children who got good marks on two measures of physical fitness-those that gauge aerobic fitness and body-mass index-tended also to have higher scores on state exams in reading and mathematics. That relationship also held true regardless of children’s gender or socioeconomic differences.”
Article SR-8c
Will CrossFit Make American Kids Smarter? By Lisa Bakshi

Leave a comment

Filed under Rants, Reads, Training

Tagged as ,

February 3, 2010 · 11:59 AM

Fam-Fit Rest Day Read

Rest Day Read (SR-7)
(Note: The next several Rest Day Reads and associated commentaries are going to be on the subject on the benefits of exercise.)
The Deadliest Sin by Johathan Shaw
“America loves to think of itself as a youthful nation focused on fitness, but behind the vivid media images of robust runners, Olympic Dream Teams, and rugged mountain bikers is the troubling reality of a generation of young people that is, in large measure, inactive, unfit and increasingly overweight.”

“”The modern lifestyle is a radical departure from the one in which we evolved. Though scholars disagree on the relative amount of time that our hunter-gatherer ancestors spent running versus walking, the evidence suggests that they covered a lot of ground either way: 10 to 20 kilometers a day walking among men and about half that for women”, says professor of biological anthropology Richard Wrangham.”

H1N1 Outbreak! The panic was everywhere. The nation’s medical system shifted into high gear to fight this dangerous strain of influenza. The education of the people, the vaccination of the people, the hand washing skills, the coughing/sneezing skills and the awareness we developed over the course of the last year helped avert a medical disaster. The people of the United States of America should all reach back to pat themselves on the back for their response. Then we should all turn and slap ourselves across the face. Why you ask? Because, we have become nation sitting-on-our-asses and eating ourselves to death. Obesity and its myriad of disease side-effect is THE major issue in our society, yet we seem to ignore the 800 lb. gorilla sitting in the corner. The evidence is out there and it is starting to stack up in such a overwhelming pile its simply can no longer be ignored: A large percentage of the medical problems in our country can improve with exercise.
Hey, Mr. Obama, want a REAL health care plan? You want a plan to lower health care costs and save billions of dollars? Let’s spend 5% of the amount you propose for health care reform and use it to promote fitness for all ages. Let’s use it to get people moving. Let’s get Americans living, learning, thinking and innovating. Now, that would be a real stimulus package.

Leave a comment

Filed under Rants, Reads, Training

Tagged as , , , ,