Part of our internship program involves each intern writing a weekly blog about whatever topic they’ve learned or discovered. This week, Andrew Lovall, interning with us this semester from the University of Indianapolis, has tackled the blog:
Here at Nine13sports, we do a good job of teaching kids that exercise is essential to a healthy lifestyle. While exercise is important, I just want to talk about the other areas of physical fitness that I feel get neglected by most adults. The areas that I will be focusing on are proper nutrition, proper sleep/recovery, and flexibility training.
The first concept of nutrition is probably the most important aspect of being healthy. While exercise both aerobic and resistance training can help you lose weight and burn calories, watching what you eat is the most effective way to control or lose weight. An easy way to watch what you eat is to cut out sugared beverages such as sodas or sports drinks. Another useful strategy is if you do go out for a nice meal eat only half of it and take the rest home in a doggy bag. The portions of food at most restaurants are absurd and this is an easy way to help fix that problem. Also, we know the importance of fruits and vegetables so adding more of these to your diet can be beneficial. These are just a few tips to help you watch what you eat and keep your nutrition in check.
The second topic is getting enough sleep. In the hustle and bustle of our lives it is difficult to get that eight hours of sleep we all know that we need. The best way to get those hours is to try and have a fairly regular or routine sleep pattern. Your body will get used to going to bed and waking up at those times, and will even become more efficient at sleeping. Sleep is vital for daily function, memory, and recovery from exercise so do not take it for granted!
Andrew is doing a little bit of everything to get more kids active during his time with Nine13, from getting kids on bikes to jumping rope with them.Â
The third and final area of fitness that people neglect is flexibility. We all know that if we do not stretch our flexibility will decrease as we age. Most people are under the mindset that they do not have time to stretch. I would counteract by saying that if a person does static stretching everyday for as little as ten minutes a day they can drastically improve their flexibility. That is less than 1% of your day so everyone definitely has enough time to stretch. My advice is to add stretching to either your morning or night routine.
These are just a few tips on how to improve your health that overall are not that hard to obtain. We only have one life