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• March 2008
• Volume 3
• 

Inside this Issue

• Feature Article – Talk Nice to Yourself with Affirmations
• Exercise of the Month – Stability Ball Chest/Core Combo
• Sports Training and Technique – Planning Your Season

Talk Nice To Yourself with Affirmations

Your thoughts and internal dialogue creates your reality and influences your attitude, behavior, and outcomes. Take a moment to notice what is going through your mind right now as you start reading this article.

You might be saying … I really should be working and not reading this … I don’t talk to myself … this sounds interesting, tell me more … where is she going with this and how does it apply to me

Athletes use positive self-talk in the form of affirmations to develop trust in a desired actuality. Repeating self-empowering, confidence building, focusing and guiding statements of what you want and who you want to be will lead to achieving your vision.

This technique proven in sports can also be applied to healthy lifestyle modifications. Whatever change you are undertaking – losing weight, improving nutrition, taking time for yourself, altering your exercise routine, reducing stress – can benefit from devising supportive affirmations. When developing affirmations always use positive words in the present tense that are personal to only you.

In my experience I have seen affirmations successful in modifying snacking behavior. Where once a chocolate was eaten now a confirming declaration is consumed. A bad day can be turned around with an uplifting affirmation. And of course, I am most familiar with the intense energy that positive self-statements can bring to sports, resulting in unthinkable results when used appropriately and devastating disappointments when abandoned.

What you say silently to yourself has a powerful impact – listen closely, take note, and where needed transform negative beliefs into positive words and recite often.

Stability Ball Chest/Core Combo

Putting exercises together can really challenge the body even when the only resistance is body weight. Exercises in this series can be repeated one or more times before moving on to the next. Each of the moves in this combination should be mastered alone before performing in sequence.

Starting Position: It begins easy enough, lay over the ball with your hands and feet supported by the floor.

Plank: Walk out on your hands until your feet are off the floor and your legs are supported by the ball. The farther you walk out the more difficult the exercise. Hands are under and in line with the shoulders, abdominals are contracted, and lower back is flat.

Push-up: Keeping your core tight bend your elbows, either out to the side or keep them close to the body and bring your chest near the floor. Maintain the straight line body position from your head to your feet and push back up into plank. Be careful not to arch the lower back, if you do, move the ball closer to your body.

Roll In: Bend your knees and lift your hips while contracting your abdominals to bring the ball in close to your body. Hold for a couple seconds before straightening your legs back out to plank position.

Leg Lift: In plank position press down on the ball with one leg while lifting the other off the ball. Keep your core straight and tight. Roll back to the starting position after this exercise.

Planning Your Season

It’s spring and another warm weather sports season is emerging with many possibilities and opportunities. With the abundant happenings to choose from in various sports and disciplines how do you decide which to pursue?

As a coach I help athletes develop a realistic season calendar. What I undoubtedly find is that with great enthusiasm and high expectations competitors schedule nearly every weekend from April to August with an organized event. Although racing can be great training constantly being on the road pushing your limits takes a toll and can lead to burnout by June. It is important to plan time for rest and recovery and be selective of the events you choose. Sometimes a good training session at home is the most beneficial.

Tips for planning a winning season:

1. Determine your one or two most important competitions for the year preferably within weeks of each other or months apart.
2. Select lead up races based on the demands of those contests.
3. Plan to stay home at least one weekend every month.
4. Schedule three days to a week away from your sport in the middle of the season to allow full physical and mental recovery.
5. Beware of the race series – know the rules and select events accordingly. Generally, many more races are scheduled than will count for the overall title. It is easy to fall into the cycle of constant racing, which can undermine top performance.