Title: Two Minute Warning!

Date: 06-28-2008

The end of June is your 2 Minute Warning for the Halftime of 2008

By Mike Ryan,PT,ATC,PES
www.MikeRyanFitness.com

As with a head coach of any team, he/she will assess the first half of their game and make the necessary changes for the second half. What adjustments and changes are you going to make to improve your body’s performance for the second half of 2008? What did you learn about your body from January to now that needs to be changed?

The adjustments you make in the next 2 weeks to your Health Game Plan for the final half of this year will allow you to go into the ‘end of the year locker room’ healthier and happier!

Head Coach Halftime Plan:
I. Evaluate

a. Offense – Cardio, Strengthening and Training Partners

Balancing your cardiovascular exercise and your strengthening exercises is crucially important. You need them both but avoid staying in your comfort zone with the type of exercise that you “like doing”. For example, if you have chronic knee pain and running makes your knees hurt, get on the bike or the elliptical training instead of running your injury into the ground because you “like to run”.

Focus on what you NEED to do not just what you would LIKE to do.

Training partners are there to kick you in the gluteus maximus when you want to sleep-in and to give you their honest opinion when you really need it.

b. Defense – Nutrition, Flexibility and Sleep

It’s a tough world out there and the best defense is sometimes a good offense! Eating correctly, consuming the necessary antioxidants and getting your sleep is usually just what an active body, at any age, needs to get stronger and to properly recover.

It is extremely important to realize that our amazing human body will, in most cases, heal itself, fight disease and get stronger as long as we do not do anything to get in the way! If we are diligent in providing our body proper hydration and nutrients, normalized its flexibility/mobility and allowing for sufficient rest, the human body will be better tomorrow than it was today!

c. Special Teams – Attitude, Mentors and Affirmations

Your success as an active adult will be influenced by what you do ABOVE your neck as much as what you do BELOW your neck. Creating positive mental images (visualization), phrases (affirmations) and thoughts (attitudes) will drastically improve your body’s performance and your body image.

If these concepts are new to you, you should be as excited as a child in a candy store right now because your entire lifestyle is about to be supercharged as you learn more about the value of sports psychology!

II. Make Adjustments

a. Offense - Get the right kind of workout partners in your corner and make the adjustments that need to be made to both the type and the frequency of your exercises.

b. Defense – Let’s face it: we really are what we eat. All our internal systems use the fuel we give it to heal and improve our bodies. If you put bad gasoline and junk in your car’s gas tank, our car’s performance will drastically suffer. Why would you think that your body is any different?

c. Special Teams – If you are not exactly where you want to be in your life right now, you probably need to adjust your attitude. Find a mentor(s) who is doing what you want to be doing and ask him/her to teach you the shortcuts to help you reach your goals. Create two phrases (affirmations) that you can say to yourself that makes your heart quicken and your enthusiasm soar!

III. Finish 2008 Strong

You are not getting any younger so make THIS year one to remember for all the right reasons. Take this article to heart and make yourself proud of how well you improved your body and mind in 2008. WHEN you do that, I want to hear back from you with the exciting details so I can be proud of you too!

M.R.