On day four of the ISA World Surfing Games in Costa Rica this week our daughter Laura Rishworth became the highest placed Kiwi in the Women’s Division placing 17th overall after finishing third in her fourth round match up. In her second stacked heat of the competition, Laura came up against two Hawaiian surfers who progressed through the heat while she beat the Tahitian surfer who finished fourth.

Using teamwork to their advantage, the Hawaiians had the contest area more or less covered. Laura surfed some fantastic waves when the opportunity presented itself, yet the Hawaiians ensured these were few and far between. Laura has done herself, us and NZ proud with the highest placing of any NZ woman in this event to date.

Five years ago as a fifteen year old Laura set her sights high and created a written goal for her self stating that she wanted to represent her country internationally in surfing. Then she set about creating and periodically revising her exercise and nutritional programme to help her achieve her objective.

Naturally we are very pleased for her and pray she continues to be a role model for other youngsters and oldies too!

Carpe Diem!   Seize the Day!

Proud Mum,

Nancy

Whenever you are training especially when you are targeting your core musculature, ie your abdominal muscles remember to draw your naval into your spine, and zip up your middle so to speak. This protects your lower back as well as your abdominals from separating in the middle, which is very common especially for women who’ve just had a baby, and body builders. This diastis or abdominal separation causes a weakening of the abdominal wall “zipping up your middle” regularly can help to prevent that and often to correct the problem over time.

Cheers, bye, talk soon

Nancy

A lot of activity involves using your shoulder muscles, whether it is digging the garden, playing golf, swimming, or, in my case surfing. And a niggling ongoing pain in the front of your shoulder can severely limit your enjoyment of these types of activities. (The anatomical area that this exercise strengthens is known as the external rotator muscles).
This is where a great little exercise called L-flys comes into its own. Just because this exercise seems so simple, do not ignore this really wonderfully rejuvenating exercise gem. It could make the difference between you enjoying golf, surfing, gardening, and so on for many years, as opposed to your being in too much pain to keep active in an activity that you truly love.
So – take note.
Get a very light weight (about 2 pounds, or 1 kilogram) - this can be a dumbbell, a heavy book, a suitably shaped piece of wood, steel or concrete – in other words whatever is feasible for you to hold in your hand and is around that weight.
Lie on the floor, with your body straight, now roll over so you are now lying on one side, with one shoulder pressed against the floor. You can then rest your head in the palm of your lower hand, with your elbow bent as it rests on the floor. (Just like when you watch TV when you lie on the floor with your head propped up by your lower arm).
Now, with your upper arm, take hold of your light weight and rest your elbow against the side of your body, forming your arm into an L so your hand holding the weight is away and out from your body and resting on the floor.
Lift your weight upwards in an arc, keeping your elbow resting against the side of your body, attempting to slowly raise the weight as high as you can while keeping your elbow bent to maintain the L shape in your arm throughout the movement.
Once at the top position slowly allow your hand holding the weight to return to the floor, remembering to keep the L shape.
Repeat this movement for 10 to 15 repetitions, then roll over and perform the same number of repetitions for the other arm.
Just do this number of repetitions twice for each side.
DO NOT try and lift heavy weights for this exercise. Maybe after training for a year a relatively strong man may have increased the weight to around 10 pounds, while a woman could after a year be lifting about 5 pounds. This exercise is not about lifting heavier and heavier weights. It is about performing a particular movement that will strengthen a vulnerable area of the shoulder allowing you to enjoy pain-free shoulder movement for many years.
This exercise has helped me at various times when I have overdone heavy bench pressing, and will be of enormous benefit for those who find the front area of their shoulders becoming sore and painful.

If you want more useful exercises and training programs, check out our website www.flexibilityplus.com and you will see we make available over a hundred exercises that cover flexibility, strength, resistance, core stability and cardio training, as well as great nutritional information. We don’t think you will get better value on great exercise training and healthy eating, so check us out.
Till the next time.
Jonathan

Did you know that our muscles are comprised of 75% water. Loss of only 3% of water causes a 10% drop in strength and an 8% loss in speed.

This fact is very important to understand because when a person performs vigorous and strenuous exercise his or her body delays the sense of being thirsty, making it very easy for an athlete to become dehydrated. When this happens the internal temperature of the body rises creating a reaction in the body where energy is directed away from the muscles to assist the body cool itself down, which has a negative impact on performance.

This is why drinking during a competition is really important, so the body can sweat and be cooled down without taking energy away from the muscles. It is also very important to drink a glass of water every 15 minutes somewhere between one to four hours before performing sustained vigorous exercise, as this hydrates the body as much as possible ensuring maximum energy is available throughout the strenuous event.

By following these practices and consuming sufficient complex carbohydrates (which also assists the body to store water) an athlete can ensure they maximize their performance.

The above points demonstrate how important it is for athletes and their coaches to have a sound understanding of nutritional knowledge and to implement excellent nutritional practices to maximize performance.

This knowledge is also important for all of us to understand and to implement, not necessarily to perform well in a competition, but to allow us to live healthy, energetic and happy lives.

There have been scientific studies undertaken on what are the necessary daily amounts of B vitamins, Folic acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Zinc, etc to achieve maximum performance. This information is important for athletes, but is also important for everyone to know, so all of us can consume optimal food to achieve a high quality of life.

There is a huge amount of nutritional information available that when correctly applied enhances not only athletic performance, but greatly enhances a person’s quality of life throughout their lifetime.

In future blogs I will continue to explore optimal nutrition..

Enjoy the ride

Nancy Rishworth

In my last post I talked about the need to understand that to perform to your best you cannot ignore what you feed your body. In this post let’s focus on what makes up high octane fuel.

Top athletes have come to realize that careful attention to food choices and supplementation makes an enormous difference to their sporting performance. Because when they eat well they see an increase in their speed, stamina, strength and suppleness. These impressive results in improved performance have now been scientifically proven.

So, what is the best fuel for aerobic exercise performance (jogging, cycling, rowing, swimming and walking)?

When performing aerobic activities complex carbohydrates (whole grains, beans, fruit and vegetables) give twice as much energy as fat, but simple carbohydrates such as honey, refined sugars and refined grains do not provide the body with long-term energy.

And what about the best fuel for strenuous short anaerobic activity such as sprinting?
In performing these types of anaerobic activity it has been shown that complex carbohydrates yield five times more energy than fat.

Endurance athletes (such as marathon runners) load up on complex carbohydrates prior to their races because these carbohydrates can be stored in the muscles as glycogen and released by the body as needed during long races.

Fat cannot be stored in this way and therefore complex carbohydrates are recognized as a key to ensure top performance.

Contrary to popular belief protein is less important than the consumption of complex carbohydrates for increasing sports performance. Body builders who think they need huge quantities of protein to ensure they achieve maximum muscle gain actually require only 15% of their calories from protein, 70% from complex carbohydrates and 10% from fat (vegetable oils, nuts and seeds, flax seed, fish oils, dairy fat and fat from meat consumption).

While fat is not the best fuel for the body, essential fats (fats that cannot be made by the body and therefore need to be taken through food sources) are still important for top athletic performance as these essential fats help transport oxygen by keeping red blood cells healthy which carry oxygen to the muscles preventing fatigue. These essential fats are also vital to the immune system which can be stressed as a result of sustained strenuous exercise. That is why it is important to consume a sufficient amount of nuts, seeds and their oil, as well as fish liver oil.

I hope these facts on what makes up high octane fuel for the human body has helped you get a better idea of the types of food you need to max out your performance. In my next post I will look at the importance of drinking water to ensure your body functions at its best.

See you

Nancy Rishworth