By Diana Bocco

According to a recent poll, 88 percent of Americans make health or weight-loss resolutions once summer gets near. According to that same poll, more than 60 percent of those resolutions are already out the window by October 1. Why? Because most of them are plain unreasonable.

Is there anything sensible you can do to make yourself healthier, thinner, and stronger year-round? “Forget about fad diets and strict fitness regimens, which do not take into account your own unique metabolism, preferences and overall goals,” says weight-loss authority Dorie McCubbrey, MSEd., PhD. Instead, “focus on developing a routine of self-care that takes you to your goals and feels so good that you’ll maintain it—and your weight success—for life.” Here are ten great examples:

CUT 100 CALORIES FROM YOUR DIET. While this may not sound like much, an extra 100 calories a day adds up to 10 pounds a year! Switch from regular to light mayo (and save 100 calories per tablespoon), steam your food or use nonstick cooking spray (instead of oil or butter), eat cornflakes instead of granola, or take the croutons out of your salad.

ADD ONE NEW VEGETABLE TO YOUR DIET EVERY WEEK. If you always eat the same vegetables week after week, you can try switching to different ones in your salads, your sauces or your scrambled egg mix. If you’re already eating your veggies, simply try to add an extra serving or an additional vegetable to your diet every seven days.

DUMP ALL-LIQUID CALORIES. One of the best things you can do for your health (and your waistline) is to give up sodas, artificially sweetened juices, and sport beverages. These liquid sugars cost money, offer zero nutritional value, and are very fattening. “High-calorie beverages don’t contribute to satiety, so if you drink them routinely, you are likely to overconsume calories leading to weight gain,” says Catherine Christie, PhD, RD, director of nutrition programs at the University of North Florida. If water and unsweetened tea won’t do it for you, look for light or diet options.

TAKE A MULTIVITAMIN. You’ve heard this one before. Now, actually do it.

GIVE UP ONE CARB A DAY. Rather than switching to a low-carb diet (which often works but leaves you weak, tired, and with bad breath), find the worst carb you consume during the day and give it up. Is it the doughnut you eat every morning? Switch to a mini-bagel, preferably whole wheat. Better yet, have scrambled eggs and a piece of fruit. Keep the baked potato at lunch, but give it up if you’re eating it only at night.

MAKE RED MEAT A RARITY. Saturated fat can lead to heart disease and increase your chances for cancer, high cholesterol, and gout. Red meat is also high in fat and has no major nutritional value except for its iron content, which you can get anyway from other proteins and dark green vegetables. Instead of beef, choose skinless chicken, turkey, or fish.

SWITCH to the “better” version of your favorite “bad” foods. Love dessert? Switch from ice cream to yogurt. You’ll save about 150 calories and gain a ton of calcium and beneficial enzymes. Or, choose an omelet over fried eggs and you’ll avoid artery-clogging fat and actually have a chance to add veggies and mushrooms to the mix.

In the end, it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing thing. Even little changes can make a world of difference.

By Diana Bocco

Direct from the original Crazy Horse in Paris, La Femme is a breathtaking mix of choreography, light displays, and stunning women completely in the nude. Established in 1951, the show has evolved into a French cultural phenomenon famous for its productions that celebrate beautiful women and the art of the nude. To many professional dancers around the world, a chance to perform in this show would be a dream come true.

One of the things that make the show so different is that the women of La Femme have embraced their curves. No skinny dancers here. “La Femme has always billed itself as the art of the female form,” says Marianne Veritas, the dance captain and show coordinator. “While society does seem obsessed with the extremes of XXL silicone implants or gaunt thinness, these can look like caricatures on stage. You need a perfect balance of slimness and curves to work at La Femme, a look much harder to achieve but ultimately more desirable.”

Veritas believes that anybody can benefit from following the La Femme Workout. What makes the workout so effective is knowing your goal. Each dancer at La Femme has her own weight limits, based on what she weighs and what her body type is. “Never compare your weight with the girl sitting next to you, but look at how the weight sits on your own body,” Veritas says. “Show off the good bits and work out the bad.”

A seasoned dancer herself, Veritas emphasizes the importance of doing “a little and often” rather than going crazy in the gym one week and give up the next. “Start slowly, build up your workout, and make it a habit of everyday life,” she advises.

The La Femme Workout
Tips for transforming your body from a world-renowned female revue

A slim waist: With the body very straight and with the legs spread apart the width of the shoulders, elbows folded and arms crossed at the chest, turn the body above the waist to the right and left. Keep the buttocks tightly squeezed together and the legs stretched out so that the bottom half of the body stays immobile.

A round derriere: Stand with the body angled slightly forward with the arms crossed in front, or press one hand against the wall. Flexing one foot, raise that leg up and back as high as you can eight times, then change legs. The body weight rests on the leg on the ground, and the quadriceps resist and harden.

Long and tapered thighs: It’s important that these two exercises be done one after the other.
To taper: First, stand with the arms held straight out to maintain balance, legs spread apart in a ballet plié position, with the feet pointed outward. Keeping the knees bent, lift feet off the ground while flexing the buttocks and back muscles in order to keep the body upright. This exercise works the quadriceps. Twenty to fifty repetitions.
To lengthen: First, bend one leg and grab that foot in your hand. Press the foot against the buttocks and pull the leg backward.

How Women Are Roughing It Just for Fun

By Diana Bocco

By day, she might be a pharmacist, public accountant, journalist, or stay-at-home mom. But on weekends, she suits up with a harness, crash helmet, and kneepads and becomes the daring woman who enjoys climbing trees, speeding down a mountain, or tumbling around on a track. What drives these otherwise everyday women to take up extreme sports like solo rock climbing, roller derby, or competitive tree climbing?

Some women have felt “the call” since childhood. That was the case of Rhonda Wood. Growing up, she regularly climbed trees with the neighborhood boys. That led to a career in botany and a job as an arborist manager at the Disneyland Resort, where she climbed trees in order to shape them as Disney characters. When she crossed paths with the organizer of the Western Chapter Tree Climbing Championship, it was a match made in heaven.

“Before I knew it, I was in Arizona, climbing with all these great guys that were so supportive,” Wood says. “It was such an exhilarating thrill to be climbing in these trees on pure adrenaline, scampering through the branches like a squirrel.”

Meghan Goldmann, an art curator who belongs to the New York City’s Gotham City Roller Derby League, is motivated by the pure love of the sport. She said it was love at first sight after seeing a championship game in 2005. “Roller Derby is a relentlessly hard game to play, but it’s also fantastic to play since it’s so energetic and lively,” Goldmann says.

Aside from the intense physicality of the sport, many women are also attracted to extreme sports because of the camaraderie. Holly Harmon, an account manager with a Phoenix-based PR firm, said that she doesn’t play team sports because she doesn’t have a competitive nature. But extreme sports keep your workout going, and also helps build and extend friendships.

“In extreme sports, you can be competitive (with yourself) and still enjoy the company of friends that are working toward the same goal,” Harmon says “You can support, encourage, and learn from each other without having an agenda.”

Chris Ashford of Optical Edge, Inc., a company that specializes in pocketsize adventure trips, says there has been an increase in women earning salaries in the last ten to fifteen years, and that has led to them wanting to make their own decisions about how to spend the money. “They often want to try something new and exciting,” Ashford says.

For Harmon, there’s no question that she’s made up her own mind about her choice of leisure time—if it can be called that. Despite the potential hazards, expense, and considerable amounts of time that snowboarding and rock-climbing take, she is delighted at the chance to be outdoors to clear her head and decompress. The need to pay attention at all times to her surroundings and her body also gives her the chance to appreciate them. And, of course, there’s the joy of pushing her body’s limits

“The feeling afterwards of making it to the bottom of a hard ski run without stopping or ascending a 150-foot rock face is unexplainable,” Harmon says. “It helps me to realize how much I am truly capable of and helps to put other areas of my life into perspective, both the physical and nonphysical.”

By Diana Bocco

If the idea of spending your spring evenings pedaling a Lifecycle exercise bike is less than appealing, take heart.

“There is really no good reason to go to a gym to work out on a beautiful day,” says nationally certified personal fitness trainer Annette Hudson. “In fact, if you usually work out inside, an outside workout can be just the variety that your muscles crave. When muscles are challenged in new ways, they adapt and work harder. This makes them stronger while burning fat.”

Working out outdoors provides a number of benefits that gymgoers never get. Hudson believes that the number-one advantage of working out outdoors is the fact that it beats gym boredom. Another major advantage would be the convenience and affordability (free!). Then, there’s the multitasking: you can get your vitamin D and your suntan all at the same time!

In a gym, things are pretty simple for the muscles, as the main challenge is increased weight. In nature’s gym, the core muscles (abs, obliques, and other stabilization muscles) have to work harder. This doesn’t mean an outdoor workout is always superior, but when used for variety, it can literally work your butt off. “I remember a time when my body-builder husband was complaining that he wasn’t going to get a chance to go to a gym during our vacation,” Hudson says. “I offered to give him a ‘gymless workout.’ He assured me that one of my cute little workouts wouldn’t be effective for a strong guy. Of course, that was a challenge I couldn’t resist. My big buff hubby got very sore, and I proved my point. By the way, he’s never let me train him since.”

There are really no limits as to what you can do outdoors. Besides the obvious biking and running cardio routines, Hudson recommends swimming as a great way to get your heart rate up without ever noticing that you’re breaking a sweat. She also likes hiking in the great outdoors for a heart workout; and playing tennis, basketball, Frisbee, golf, or volleyball won’t even seem like a workout because you’ll be too busy focusing on scoring points.

Remember that when working in our warm climate, you must protect yourself from the heat. Remember to drink enough water, use sunscreen, and wear light-colored clothing, preferably made of 100 percent cotton.

“One great trick is to weigh yourself before and after a workout,” says Hudson. “If you weigh less after, you didn’t drink enough water.”

If you’re not ready to completely give up the gym, by all means, don’t. Instead, use outdoor workouts to add variety and intensity to your normal routine. Most importantly, do them to have fun!

By Diana Bocco

Getting in shape for a wedding should begin as soon as the wedding date has been set. “My recommendation for brides is to make it a part of the wedding planning,” says exercise physiologist Heather Nettle. “Just as you would schedule appointments with photographers, caterers, and [dressmakers], make sure each week includes at least one fitness appointment with yourself.”

Here are nine other tips for making the most of your prewedding workout:

MAKE IT CLEAR. Fitness personality Rocco Castellano emphasizes the importance of setting realistic goals. When setting goals, remember to make them specific: “I will lose fifteen pounds of fat or three inches off my waist for my wedding.” It’s okay to set big goals—don’t sell yourself short—but also remember to set realistic deadlines—losing one or two pounds per week is a good start.

INCLUDE THE GROOM. Not only will you be toning up and looking great together, but it’s also an excellent way to spend quality time together and bond. Nettle suggests taking ballroom dancing or salsa dancing lessons together. It allows for fun for the two of you in an otherwise hectic time, not to mention giving yourselves something to show off on the Big Day.

STICK TO THE WEDDING THEME. Find a special class geared specifically toward the event: bridal or bride/groom boot camps, butts and guts, specific arms-only classes, abs classes, and so on. Group exercise classes are a great way to focus on what you need while making the most of a 60-minute exercise session.

CONCENTRATE ON YOUR UPPER BODY. A variety of bicep, triceps, and shoulder exercises will help arms look great in a sleeveless wedding dress. Shapely biceps are a symbol of fitness and strength. In combination with the triceps, they give your arms an eye-catching appearance and make you look great in any sleeveless outfit.

BE REALISTIC AND EFFICIENT. “The time before a wedding is hectic enough without taking on a really time-consuming or intimidating new exercise program,” says Ben Roman, part of the sports medicine team at Columbia University Medical Center Eastside. “Shared fun activities like a bike ride can let both the bride and groom get healthy and blow off stress together.”

EAT WELL. “One of the most important things is to eat regular, well-balanced meals,” says Karen Lush, a corporate dietitian and program development manager for Jenny Craig, Inc. “Skipping breakfast on the way to a fitting, for example, may seem like an easy way to cut calories, but it may actually set you up for overeating at lunch or dinner.”

REACH OUT. Having a workout/healthy-eating buddy can also help you stay motivated. Lush also advises future brides to go over the latest wedding plans with their fiancés during an evening walk, and discuss flower arrangements with their bridesmaids during a round of golf. Of course, if you don’t play golf, there’s always biking or walking.

FOCUS ON CARDIO EXERCISE. This will help you eliminate stress, burn fat, and increase your energy level. Toning arms and trimming around the midsection can be accomplished most quickly by doing cardio five times a week for thirty minutes or more in your target heart rate (60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate, which is calculated by subtracting your age from 220).

Finally, remember that brides come in different shapes and sizes. You can’t change your genetics. ”Keep an open mind and work with your body type when choosing a gown,” says Holli Ehrlich, founder of the Wedding Workout network. Do not focus on the dress-size number. The more confident you feel in you gown, the more beautiful you will look.”

By Diana Bocco

Studies show that the average American gains about four pounds every year from mid-December to January 1. While that may not seem like much, the same studies show that most people don’t lose that weight after the holidays. After 5 years, that’s 20 extra holiday pounds! Here are some ways to make it through the holidays without risking your waistline in the process.

Share the joy—and the food. It’s hard enough not losing our minds during the holiday season, let alone losing weight! If you’re able to maintain weight through all the office parties, gift baskets, and fruitcakes, you are doing great. “If it’s hard to avoid the temptation of having these foods around and the guilt of wasting food is too much, get in the spirit of the holidays and give them away,” says Pamela Ofstein, director of nutrition services at eDiets.com. Bring the goodies to the office (your colleagues will love you), go for a walk around the neighborhood and drop some off to your neighbors (great way of meeting them), and be sure to always send your guests home with plenty of food. Of course, it’ll be up to all of them to exercise their own self-control!

Don’t blame the kids. Ellie Taylor, registered nurse and coauthor of Feeding the Kids: The Flexible, No-Battles, Healthy Eating System for the Whole Family, recommends avoiding a common diet pitfall: using your kids as an excuse to buy or make lots of extra holiday treats! “The reality is that the entire family—including dieting adults—will usually end up eating any goodies that come into the house,” Taylor writes. “And your kids really don’t need all that extra sugar and fat any more than you do.” Kids already get tons of holiday goodies from parties, school, friends, and so many other places! So, this year, decide what your family’s top favorite treats are, and enjoy those—but skip all those extras.

Get out of autopilot! According to Michelle May, M.D., author of Am I Hungry? What to Do When Diets Don’t Work, many people blame holiday weight gain on all the “special” food. But if the food is so special, why not give it the attention it deserves? Eat mindfully by reducing distractions and sitting down to eat, even if it’s just a cookie. “Appreciate the appearance and aroma of your food, and savor one small bite at a time by putting your fork down. You’ll eat less food but enjoy it more.”

Don’t hibernate. Karen Lush, MPH, RD is a corporate dietitian and program development manager for Jenny Craig, Inc. Lush recommends getting out and enjoying the beauty of the season. Depending on where you live, it might be a hike along leaf-laden trails, several runs down a nearby ski slope, or ice-skating on an outdoor rink. Get the whole family together for a rousing snowball fight. Build a snowman. Make snow angels. ”Be a kid again, and enjoy special time together as you model positive exercise behaviors for your children.”

Always keep something on your plate. During the holiday season, an empty plate tells the host that you are hungry for more. No one believes you’re full if your plate is empty. But if your plate still has a bit of food on it, that sends the signal that you’ve had all you can possibly eat.

Don’t drink your calories. According to Janet Bond Brill, PhD., a nutritionist and exercise physiologist, liquid calories such as eggnog and sweet mixed drinks can add up to 1,000 additional calories to your holiday meal. “To avoid that, try alternating a glass of zero-calorie Perrier or diet soda with a glass of healthy red wine, or try wine spritzers to celebrate the holiday spirit without adding pounds,” Brill advises.

Finally, remember that the holidays are about people, not food. Concentrate on socializing, spending time with your loved ones, and having fun. Think about what you are celebrating along with how great the food is!

GIFT-GIVING IDEAS

The holiday season is also a time to think of your friends and family. Dr. Kurt Hong, MD, works at Valens Medical, a medical weight-management office operated by board-certified physicians. Hong recommends including nutrition and fitness-themed gifts to help others focus on healthy lifestyles and enjoyable activities. The following is a sample of the possibilities.

Holiday Food Gift Suggestions
Herbal teas
Mulled spices
Gourmet fruit spread
Carrot, zucchini, or cranberry bread
Bran muffins
Basket of fresh fruit
Dried fruit plates
Decaffeinated coffees
Smoked fish
Bran muffins
Fresh herbs
Gourmet popcorn
Favorite healthy recipes
Hot cider with cinnamon sticks

Other healthy gift options
Cookbook or subscription to a magazine that features healthful recipes
Wok or steamer
Spider plant to help fight indoor air pollution

By Brian Sodoma

There is no dearth of unique exercise programs promising the best results, and a wealth of self-help media is readily available in the click of a mouse. With all the tools and information for physical and mental well-being at the world’s collective fingertips, one could certainly make the argument that there is an individual pathway to health and happiness for everyone.

But in a world full of answers and fixes, more and more people are discovering the true pathway to health and happiness lies within—more precisely, in the very breaths we take.

Meditation is one of the most intense exercises. It involves not only focusing on breathing, but also using this focus to strip the human psyche from incessant thinking and information gathering. Sevak Khalsa, who teaches yoga and meditation at Yoga Phoenix at Ninth Street and Oak in Phoenix, said that proper breathing is frequently overlooked when it comes to people seeking out optimal health. According to Khalsa, most people don’t realize they are breathing incorrectly. He emphasized the importance of breathing from the belly and not the chest.

“Athletes, singers, artists all know to breathe from the stomach,” he says. “Fifty percent of the world is breathing backwards….Once a person creates a habit of healthy breathing their deep subconscious gets clear. With all of the stuff in our minds, as humans, when we can release that, it allows us to get perspective; become grateful; become healthy, happy and whole.”

In one 2004 study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology , researchers at the University Children’s Hospital in Bern, Switzerland monitored breathing patterns, focusing on the deep sighing breaths of twenty-five babies. They concluded that the deep sighs were necessary for the baby’s body to “reset regular breathing patterns.” Is there, then, an opportunity to learn how to breathe properly from those beings most dependent on us for life?

Proper breathing through meditation, Khalsa emphasized, is the gateway to mindfulness, a serene state of mind that separates us from judgments and analysis, and replaces these acts with a recognition of the moment and an eventual deeper understanding of self. Ultimately, mindfulness helps people create the life they want, instead of reacting to the world in which they live, says Keith Jones, a personal coach and trainer in Scottsdale who incorporates subtle meditation techniques with his clients. Jones meditates daily for two 30-minute sessions. This practice began years ago, when he saw a profound shift in his career as a financial planner. He had befriended a colleague who always seemed to have an indifferent reaction to stock-market swings, a contrast to Jones’ impatient, emotional responses. This colleague introduced Jones to meditation, which he said is in part what led him to a life of choice instead of reaction, and ultimately to a different career.

“Before you leave the house or enter that meeting, I tell people to take a moment to clear their mind and their thinking,” Jones says. “It’s so subtle. You don’t even know it’s happening. There’s no hidden agenda. You can call it spirit, connecting to God, yourself—I don’t try to direct that in any way.”

Starting out

When beginning a meditation practice for the first time, Khalsa recommends doing it for eleven minutes a day while following these steps:

1. Find a comfortable space. In the morning, before your day begins, it’s relatively easy to find a quiet, comfortable spot. But during the day, if a stress trigger arises, the bathroom stall can be a great sanctuary.
2. Get comfortable. Sit up straight. Flex the shoulders, roll the neck, and squish the face. Take a deep breath and let everything relax.
3. Put feet on the floor, sitting solid and straight, then close the eyes. Take a long, deep breath in through the nose, then let it out. More importantly, sigh it out (remember, the babies do it for a reason). Do this three times.
4. Take a long, deep breath through the mouth and let it out. Do this three times. Then, breathe long, slow, deep breaths for three minutes.

“At this point, after six or seven minutes the noise in your mind will be quieted and you will feel a real shift,” Khalsa says. “Once you hit eleven minutes of daily practice, you may start to feel so good that you may want to do it later in the day, too, or go longer.”

By Jesika Fleming CPT
Photography by Lauren Avila

When we are in our twenties, we feel invincible, as if we were somehow immortal. But by the time our thirties and forties roll around, we start to feel a slight stiffness in the joints, detect some unsightly bulges, are not as nimble on our feet as we used to be. When did all this start to happen, we ask ourselves as we peer into the mirror. As we age, humans experience a muscle tissue loss as great as 30 percent between the ages of 30 and 80. And that’s not all: significant bone loss and weakening of our ligaments and tendons occur. It’s important to understand, however, that this is mostly from atrophy, and not the result of “getting old.” When it comes to maintaining a healthy and fit body, it’s a simple matter of use it or lose it. Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that the human body can still maintain and build lean muscle tissue at any age through resistance training. The payoff: higher bone density, stronger ligaments and tendons to protect and strengthen joints, and a faster, more efficient metabolism. You know the phrase fat-burning machine ? That’s what a faster metabolism is. Is there anyone out there who doesn’t want it?

So, let’s get started with seven very simple resistance-training exercises that you can do anywhere. To begin, all you need are a couple of pairs of dumbbells that suit your current strength level. You can up the weight in your dumbbells when they start feeling too light and the exercises take less effort to do. For each exercise, make sure your abdominals are tightened to protect your spine, do twelve repetitions for each exercise, and hold the muscle contraction for four seconds on each rep.

Warm up Take ten minutes, doing an easy walk or jog in place. This prepares your cardiorespiratory system, muscles, and connective tissue for resistance training.

1.    Lunging Back Row Place right leg forward, lean your back forward. With left hand, row the dumbbell in a controlled upward motion, and slowly relax down. Tip: make sure the knee on the forward-positioned leg is in line with the ankle; keep your spine straight and neck elongated. Focus on using back muscle, and not the arms, to lift the weight.
2.    Push-ups for the beginner Place hands and knees on flat surface. Lower your upper body downward, push back up. Tip: keep spine straight, abs tucked in, neck in line with your spine. Arms should be at roughly 90-degree angles.
3.    Push-ups for the advanced Place hands on flat surface. Instead of having both feet on floor, slightly raise one leg up. Lower body, push back up. Tip: keep spine straight, abs tucked in, buttocks slightly raised and neck in line with spine. Arms at roughly 90-degree angles.
4.    Split squat with overhead shoulder press Get into a lunge position with right leg, grip dumbbells with arms extended at 90-degree angles. Squat down and push up with legs, at the same time pressing the dumbbells straight overhead. Lower your trunk and arms to beginning position again. Repeat the set on the left leg. Tip: keep knee in line with ankle on the forward leg and focus on pushing your body weight up with the forward leg. Don’t let elbows drop below shoulder line.
5.    Bicep curl with toe raises Place feet shoulder width apart, grip dumbbells with palms facing out, slowly raise your body up until you stand tiptoe, lower yourself down, curl dumbbells up to a 90-degree angle, then slowly lower them. Repeat from the beginning. Tip: keep elbows strictly in place throughout bicep curl, no swinging arms back and forth.
6.    Tricep kickback Lunge forward with right leg, grip dumbbell in left hand. With your arm bent at a 90-degree angle, extend it completely outward, bend back to starting position. Repeat on other side. Tip: keep wrist straight throughout exercise. Keep arm straight and taut, no swinging back and forth. Focus on squeezing the tricep muscle at the extension. Keep knee in line with ankle.
7.    Ab oblique crunches Lie flat with right leg propped on left knee. Cradle neck in hands and point right elbow to the inside of right thigh. Crunch up, come only halfway down, crunch up again. Repeat set on other side. Tip: focus on drawing your abdominals in toward your spine when you crunch up to work the transverse abdominus. Do not let your lower back come off the floor.

Repeat this routine three times a week on nonconsecutive days for maximum benefit, and see and feel the change in your body and health. I hope you had a great workout!

By Keith Jones

Sports are an important part of America’s social fabric. For years, we have looked to sports to uplift us emotionally—and more often than not, sports deliver.

In participating in sports, we are reminded of our youth and vitality. During those hours when we are engaged in our favorite athletic activity, we feel as if we can do anything. And if we do not feel as if we can, we dream about being able to do so. Our strides are longer when we sprint, hand-eye coordination is as sharp as ever when we react, and when we jump, we feel like we can touch the sky. We are totally free.

I find participating in sports to be much more exciting and rewarding than simply watching them, especially team sports. In addition to the fitness and health benefits sports offer, they provide an environment where everyone works together to accomplish an important goal: to win. The people on the team cheer for their teammates. They are hopeful that each individual will perform well enough to secure victory. This atmosphere calls for each person to rise to the occasion.

While the spirit of competition can motivate us to try harder, I invite you to make the experience even more meaningful. The next time you step onto the softball field, take time to help a teammate who is not very confident when it comes to catching pop flies. Teach your teammate how to track the ball with the eyes, to position the body perfectly for the returning sphere, and to extend the arm for the ball as if he or she has made the catch a thousand times. By helping your teammates, you help the team.

Unselfish acts in sports and in life are the things that build true team chemistry. In sports, we have come to believe that there have to be winners and losers. I suggest that there should be only winners. Take it upon yourself to make each practice, each game a win-win for everyone. Do things that make everyone on the team feel valued. Say and do things that heighten everyone’s confidence and self-esteem.

With this new outlook, watch your team’s results grow and spirits soar. And once you master this, I hope that you will inspire other teams to do the same. Teach them what you practice on your team. Make it a win-win for your team and the entire league.

By Heather Vaughan Williams

To get the most gains from your golf game, it is important to understand the fundamental techniques of the golf swing. The golf swing is about feel. It’s how you experience the swing motion through your muscles. Muscles begin the movement; they control the speed and accuracy of the swing. The better the muscles are trained, the more accurate feedback you will receive. Here, we will discuss the role of flexibility, strength, and power, and why endurance in golf is so valuable in perfecting that swing and protecting our muscles.

Flexibility is vital to the game of golf. The prestretch prepares the body for the stress of the game and aids in preventing injuries. The poststretch enhances the golfer’s range of motion for a more efficient shoulder turn. Simple stretching techniques quickly produce dramatic improvements in the range of motion for a player. However, by teaming up with a partner, you can move farther into the stretch position, producing a greater range of motion.

When evaluating your strength and power for golf, machines and free weights are great aids for increasing strength safely and effectively. The keys to safety are having proper form and using the correct speed for each exercise. Studies show that free weights are more versatile, while machines are less risky because the weight is balanced. So, use both types of weights to add variety to your workout.

To maximize your effectiveness of your golf swing, you must use the entire body. Because of this, each muscle group must be equally trained. An efficient golf swing creates less stress on the back, and therefore creates less risk of injury. Overactivity in one particular part of the body can in contrast cause inconsistency, because an unbalanced swing will not be in the same form if done again.

Finally, we will address increasing your endurance for your golf game. Golf is good exercise, especially if you walk and carry your double-strapped bag (this balances the clubs and avoids shoulder and lower-back strain). Not only is it better to walk and keep your muscles warm during a round, but you will also burn 800-plus calories over the four to five hours it takes to play eighteen holes. Sitting in a cart can compress the spine between shots and add to lower-back irritation.

Cardiovascular training can give you the edge to play eighteen consistent holes. Many players experience a decline in endurance by hole 13. Training a minimum of twice a week using an interval format will increase your game and energy levels. There are various pieces of equipment such as the elliptical trainer, treadmill, stairclimber, recumbent bike, and rowing machine to use to challenge your body and prevent boredom. Having a personal trainer or coach can help you track your goals and achieve the results you desire.

Understanding and applying flexibility, strength, power, and endurance to your regimen will give you that consistent swing you have always strived for. This in turn will improve your golf game, making you a more fluid golfer.

Remember to always consult a doctor before you begin any exercise program.