 Don't
leave fitness at work
By
Sgt Rob Orr
The festive season is fast approaching as, once again, the year
has flashed past with the speed of a thousand startled gazelles.
Ironically, the time when most people want to look their physical
best (summer and swimwear), they are consuming too many calories
and doing too little exercise. On leave you finally have time to
train, when you want, as often as you want and for as long as you
want - yet many would rather sit on the couch and watch the same
television shows as last year or exercise their trigger fingers
on the latest computer game. You want to relax, you say, enough
of training and work.
How
about utilising this period as part of what is called a 'transition
phase' in a periodised planning programming. The aim of the transition
phase is to recover from the rigours of training during the training
year in such a way so as to allow repair and recovery of the body
(and mind) whilst ensuring there is a minimal period of de-training
or reversibility. With this in mind there are two areas that can
be manipulated to ensure an effective training transition from one
year to the next, these are maintaining a body focus and maintaining
an active lifestyle.
A
body focus
This involves helping the physical body to relax and recuperate
with activities designed to stimulate the body in one way or other
(eg increasing muscle relaxation, increasing blood flow etc). It
is important to note that this is an 'active' approach as opposed
to one 'passive' in nature (like sitting doing nothing).
Some
suggestions:
- Get
a massage
- lie
in a flotation tank
- try
yoga/meditation
- have
a spa or sauna
- float
in a swimming pool.
An
active lifestyle
Keeping
an active lifestyle involves doing activities that require a degree
of physical performance. Some activities will require only marginal
effort whilst others may be a little more taxing.
Some
suggestions:
- Go
for a trail ride on a horse
- bushwalk
- hike
- hire
a mountain bike
- roller
blade along a promenade
- walk
the dogs
- go
to the park
- kick
a ball or play backyard cricket
- try
waterskiing, para-sailing
or sandcastle building.
In
Summary
You may even be pleasantly surprised that when combining these two
approaches you feel more relaxed and physically regenerated than
you would doing nothing.
|
