 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:
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.
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