There are several types of training that have shown promise in the prevention of ACL injuries.  According to The American Orthopaedic Society of Sports Medicine, it is important to focus on: plyometric training, balance training and single leg training. 

In his excellent book Functional Training for Sports, legendary strength coach, Mike Boyle agrees with the importance of plyometrics (particularly with regard to proper landing and deceleration skills) and single-leg strength.  Coach Boyle also encourages movements that incorporate changeof direction as an effective way of reducing ACL injuries.

Plyometrics are movements done rapidly to train the neuromuscular system and increase muscular power.  They can be dangerous (particularly to the knee) if not the mechanics of each exercise are not coached properly and/or if they aren’t progressed properly.  So these exercises are best done under the supervision of an experienced coach or a trainer who has worked with high level athletes.

Balance training are exercises designed to teach the body how to react to and withstand challenges from shifts in posture or sudden changes in the environment (such as an uneven or slippery surface).  These kinds of workouts can use balance devices like Bosu balls, foam rollers, wobble boards, Airex pads and the like.  However they can also be done with single leg movement (which challenges balance by minimizing your base of support) – or even by closing the eyes (which deprives you of visual feedback which is a key ingredient in balance).   Again it would be advisable to get input from a certified fitness professional on which exercises would be best for your situation…and also to have someone watch your form.

Single leg exercises according to Coach Boyle are “frequently ignored in strength programs but essential to the improvement of speed and balance and the prevention of injury“.   Double leg exercises do not develop single leg strength and stability in the same way that single leg work does.  Single leg exercises recruit muscles differently challenge muscles not activated to that same degree in double leg work.  Many people can squat very heavy weight loads, but can’t do a even one single leg squat with their own body weight. 

When you think of how most of life is done with one leg in one position and one in another (stepping, lunging, running, walking up stairs) so its easy to understand how single leg training might better prepare us for the challenges in our daily lives that can lead to ACL injuries.

The bottom line is there are specific ways that you can workout in ways that not only increase your fitness level but also potentially prevent an ACL injury before it even happens.  The key is having a trained professional design a program for you and at least get you started with good technique. 

If you’re interested in learning much more about prevention of ACL tears in women be sure to check out the upcoming www.SCwebinars.com webinar with celebrated strength coach,  Tim Yuhas entitled, “Reducing the Risk of ACL Tears in Female Athletes” coming up LIVE on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009.  If you miss it just visit www.SCwebinars.com (a great newly-launched education resource for fitness pros, fitness enthusiasts, physical therapists and strength coaches alike) the webinars are archived after their live airing, so you can access them and view them at anytime.
Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer, author of Fit + Female:  The Complete Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women.  It’s a first of its kind program designed to fit into a busy women’s life.  Lose weight and look great — 90 Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee!!

I don’t know if it’s the heat, my allergies or the mass quantities of alcohol I seem to be drinking these days, but I can’t seem to wake up before 6:30 a.m. which doesn’t leave enough time to squeeze in a run before my family wakes up.  After I send Allana off to school, I can run before 9:00 a.m. and avoid most of the heat and swarms of love bugs.  

Chloe from Running with a Bottle of Wine always shares the following fact:

5 miles = 500 calories = 1 bottle of wine

Given the volume of beer I have been consuming lately, I am not running nearly enough miles to burn off my beer belly. 

According to Drinkaware… 

One pint of strong lager = 330 calories.

One pint of average strength lager = 200 calories

One pint of premium lager = 250 calories.

One pint of cider = 200 calories.

But Hefeweizens (wheat ales) are my beer of choice.  According to thedailyplate.com…

Shock Top = 99 calories

Blue Moon = 171

Magic Hat Circus Boy = 146

However, according to FitnessforWeightLoss.com, light beer…

On average, one 12 oz. bottle of light (lite) beer has 100 calories.
This is approximately 8 calories per ounce.

So either, I need to drink less beer or more light beer or drag my ass out of bed earlier to run more than 3 miles.

On Saturday, I ran a slow 6 miles.

1:05:09

Average Pace: 10:59

This morning, I ran a shorter distance today. 

3.17 miles

31:35

Average pace: 9:57

After my run this morning, my BFF Sharon Mann busted my ass and I worked out together.  It’s been awhile since we worked-out together.  I miss her and I need to work-out with her more often.

Next month, several friends and I will be running in the Oldsmar Taphouse 5K.  The first 30 male and female finishers receive a boot of beer, which means I have to train in more ways than one.  I am literally running for beer!  Fortunately, I have the beer drinking part down pretty well.  I just need to work on my speed…I mean my running pace and not the rate of the beers I slam.

Thought for the Day

I tried every diet in the book.  I tried some that weren’t in the book.  I tried eating the book.  It tasted better than most of the diets.  – Dolly Parton

In a recent study, researchers tried to identify predictors of who was likely to gain weight.  The top two reasons were (not surprisingly): 1) people who reported feeling more hungry and 2) people who were less active. 

Now a brand new study just released in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science says that it appears women’s brains generate different activation patterns as part of the hunger mechanism.  More importantly, women’s brains continued to generate that signal even when the women were using a technique called cognitive inhibition to reduce hunger.

Not so far fetched when you consider that women biologically are designed to support and sustain life.  It would make sense that we have an evolutionary mechanism that drives us to eat — even perhaps when we aren’t hungry– because food is available and we have babies to make (and raise).

Today’s Action Challenge:

So what can you do if you are trying to diet and dealing with feelings of hunger?  Here are a few tried and true hunger busters.

• Always eat breakfast.  Studies show that a good breakfast wards off eating too much later and may facilitate weight loss
• Drink enough water.  Try to drink at least one (if possible) two full glasses of water before each meal.  Much of what we feel as hunger is actually thirst.
• Keep “unlimited foods” on hand.  You can have unlimited non-starchy vegetables (carrots, celery, peppers, broccoli, cucumbers, etc) they are very low in calories, high in fiber and packed with nutrition — all upside.  Buy them pre-cut and grab a handful
• Eat smaller combination meals and snacks about every 3 hours.  Be sure to choose close-to-nature foods with healthy carb (whole grains), lean proteins and heart healthy fats (olive and canola oils, nuts, fish oil).  This will keep blood sugar levels stable and prevent feeling excessive hunger which will drive overeating and poor food choices.
• Avoid simple sugars.  Sugary sweets will cause blood sugar to rise and then (once insulin allows sugar into the cells) fall dramatically resulting in energy lows and increased hunger.
• Try to get more sleep.   There is a clear connection between not getting enough sleep, feeling hungry more often — and increased tendency to gain weight (particularly in the midsection). 

  I’m quoted giving estimates of celebrities at play in this week’s US Weekly

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer, author of Fit + Female:  The Complete Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women.  It’s a first of its kind program designed to fit into a busy women’s life.  Lose weight and look great — 90 Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee!!

Working out and staying in shape isn’t something that you do for other people– its something you do just for you! You have to want it just for yourself, you have to feel you truly deserve it — and you have to feel that you are important enough to make it (and YOU) a priority.

Unfortunately, far too many of us don’t feel like we deserve to look and feel in the best shape possible. We under-exercise and overeat for long periods of time — only becoming concerned with the situation when a wedding, a reunion or bathing suit season looms in the distance. Then suddenly we become concerned about what other people might think about our appearance.

What if we wanted to be in the best shape possible all of the time — just for ourselves — because we felt that we truly deserved to feel good about the bodies we inhabit?

I think some of this is just a function of being female. Most of the women the I know are very giving by nature…to our kids, our partners, our friends, our co-workers, our pets, our community…the list goes on and on. But too many times we put taking care of our health and our bodies at the absolute bottom of the to-do list. I can promise you one thing. If you don’t think that taking care of your own body is a priority — no one else will.

I once heard somewhere that it is a good idea to periodically take stock of how you treat yourself on a day-to-day basis. How do you talk to yourself? How do you treat yourself? What do you do for yourself? Do you do things for yourself on a regular basis, because as the famous L’Oreal ad says “you’re worth it”? Or do you grind yourself into the ground taking care of other folks needs without ever thinking of your own. The fact is, most of us treat virtual strangers with more consideration and respect than we show ourselves.

Today’s Action Challenge:

You are entitled to have some time to yourself (even 20 minutes) each and every day. You can’t keep giving and giving to others without replenishing the proverbial “well”. Just a half an hour a day that you designate to do something for your body will pay you huge dividends in how you look and feel about yourself. It doesn’t have to be a 2 hour marathon workout at the gym 15 minutes away. It could be:

• A brisk walk around the neighborhood
• 15-minutes of the sun salutation
• Stopping by a farmer’s market to get some fabulous organic produce Meditating for 10 minutes
• A bubble bath
• Taking advantage of an empty house — to dance around like a lunatic for bit (not that I would know anything about this personally, mind you

The point is to designate some time that is yours alone (ideally, each and every day) to show appreciation for your body. Regardless of your time constraints, resolve to do one small gesture…something kind to your body perhaps something that only you know about. And do it — just for yourself.

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer, author of Fit + Female:  The Complete Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women.  It’s a first of its kind program designed to fit into a busy women’s life.  Lose weight and look great — 90 Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee!!

Several years ago, there was a phenomenally successful book on dating, called “The Rules”. I thought it was kind of a silly book, actually. But I loved the pure simplicity of it. The whole idea of if you do these specific things and you’ll get the results you’re after.

In this age of information overload, with so many so-called experts giving so much advice,it is easy to find ourselves in a situation of paralysis by analysis. Its often hard to know what path to follow or how to put all the information together. Understandably, folks want a recipe to follow that will yield results every time. 

I got to thinking about what some of “The Rules” would be for getting in shape — and staying that way. So here are five tried and true methods to insure that you’ll always look and feel your best.

Rule 1: Only eat when you’re hungry. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is. Don’t eat just because its time to eat. Let your stomach tell you when its time to dig in by reconnecting with your body’s nature hunger mechanism. It’s very easy to eat (or drink) hundreds of extra calories, that you didn’t even want in the first place. Before you eat always ask yourself…”am I actually hungry?”. If not, wait until you are ready…not ravenous, but ready.

Rule 2: Always try to make the healthiest food choice available. Play a mental game with yourself to try and identify the absolute best choice in terms of “nutrient density”. In other words, given the available choices at that moment what will give you the most health benefit in terms of providing: the least amount of saturated fat the least amount of processed white flour the least amount of simple sugars the least amount of artificial colors or flavors the fewest chemical additives the most fiber the most anti-oxidants foods that are closest to their natural form

Rule 3: Try to workout every single day. Yep…that’s what I said…every single day. The reason is that life being what it is, invariably there will be something that will come up and throw your exercise plans out the window. If you plan on working out 3 times a week and your workout gets derailed by some unforeseen circumstance (which it probably will) you’ll be down to just twice a week. Which is not enough to meet your fitness goals. Try to set aside some time (20-60 minutes each day) as your designated workout time. Realistically you’ll probably end up exercising 3-5 times per week, which is the recommended amount.

Rule 4: Find something that you really enjoy doing. I am always amused by people who say that they “hate” such and such time of exercise, but they know they should because someone told them that its “good” for them. Here’s a tip..human beings (even women) are only so masochistic, so if there is an activity that you totally loathe –it is unlikely that you will commit to doing it on a regular basis. Fitness should be fun. You should look forward to your exercise as your private time and your play time. Try to find several things you really like and working out becomes a break from the daily grind, time to clear your head, challenge your body and do something that’s just for you.

Rule 5: When Your Fall “Off The Wagon”, Dust Yourself Off and Climb Right Back On. Always keep in mind that nobody is perfect — and fitness is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Too many people give up on their fitness programs because they have a few weeks where their choices (in diet and/or exercise) are less than stellar. Stuff happens. Stuff is gonna happen. That’s life. The trick is to not beat yourself up over it, or use it as an excuse to abandon your routine entirely. Just resolve to get back on track before a five pound weight gain becomes a 25 pound one or a month-long lapse in working out becomes a year.

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer, author of Fit + Female: The Perfect Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women.  It’s a first of its kind program designed to fit into a busy women’s life.  Lose weight and look great — 90 Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee!!

Thought For The Day:

Success seems to be connected with action.  Successful people keep moving.  They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. -  Conrad Hilton

Most of us don’t give ourselves enough credit for the little accomplishments we make along the way.  We approach life and our goals as all or nothing propositions.  If we fail to do everything absolutely perfectly we feel like we failed.  Too often we don’t celebrate the little victories and acknowledge just how much progress we’ve made.

Anthony Robbins (I swear I’m not on this guy’s payroll, but I really do love his stuff) talks a lot about setting up “the game of life” so that you can win more often than not.   He says that we set up far too many rules about has to happen before we can feel good about what we’ve done.  What if instead we make it as easy as possible to get a win? For example:

• If I exercise for 30 minutes today — that’s a win
• If I drink 2 more glasses of water than I did yesterday — that’s a win
• If I get an extra 30 minutes of shut-eye — that’s a win
• If I substitute one crappy food choice for one better one — that’s a win

You get the idea.  Too often we set the bar of success sooooo high, we’d have to be superhuman to even come close to reaching it.  Perfection is not the goal, consistent improvement is.

Today’s Action Challenge:

What about you?  What small changes have you made in the past 17 days that you can applaud yourself for? 

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer, author of Fit + Female: The Perfect Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women.  It’s a first of its kind program designed to fit into a busy women’s life.  Lose weight and look great — 90 Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee!!

Core training is all the rage these days.  But core training has undergone some fundamental changes in the last few years.  Now more and more experts are recommending that you focus on stabilizing the core when you work the abs and lower back, rather than doing moves such as crunches or sit-ups.  The reason is that the primary job of these muscles is to help keep the lumbar spine in position so that the spine remains intact and pain-free.  These two essential exercises that can be done as part of your core training — or even at the beginning of a workout to help wake up the abs and lower back muscles.  Check them out and consider adding them to your program.

Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer and the creator of The Best Me Ever, a comprehensive weight loss and wellness system just for women

Special thanks to Five Iron Fitness in White Plains, NY

Since September is Menopause Awareness Month, I thought I would share my own menopause memoir to commemorate the month.  I should warm my male readers that this post will contain information about my girlie parts, hormones and my periods menstrual cycles.  If you are squeamish of such topics or simply just not interested, then now would be a good time to click away.  However, if you stick around to read my post, you may learn a little more insight to the baffling female species.

Before children, my cycle was 21 days, but at the age of 34 after the birth of my second daughter, I began to have irregular periods.  For some cycles, my period would arrive 6 weeks later.  As you can imagine, these irregular period patterns would cause me to think I was pregnant, but then my old reliable Aunt Flo would finally arrive. 
About two years ago in the midst of this new pattern of irregular menstrual cycles, I became pregnant.  Unfortunately, the pregnancy was not viable and I lost my baby at 10 weeks, which was my first miscarriage and my first experience with all the awful symptoms that occur as a result, such as severe cramping and weeks of very heavy bleeding. 
Then, almost a year later to the date, I experienced another episode of severe heavy bleeding, which I thought I was another miscarriage.  I took a pregnancy test which read negative, but I doubted the accuracy of the test and tried 2 more tests which also read negative.  I began to think there was something more serious happening with me and I made an appointment with my obstetrician.

When I visited my OB, a number of tests were performed on me: a pregnancy test, blood work and an ultrasound.  As the other pregnancy tests already demonstrated, I was not pregnant.  Thyroid was also ruled out.  Nothing irregular showed up on my ultrasound.  So, what could be wrong with me? 

That’s when the nurse practitioner revealed to me news I was not ready to hear.  “You are experiencing pre-menopause.” 

*Freeze frame for dramatic effect and insert tragic climatic music.*

According to my NP, my heavy and irregular periods could only be explained by perimenopause.  It would not affect my ability to get pregnant, but simply my biological clock ticking and reminding me to get cracking if I want more children.

After I left the doctor’s office, I researched pre-menopause and I even recalled a show that Oprah did years ago about the topic.  When the episode aired, I remembered thinking what an unfortunate situation for these women in their thirties to face.  Who knew I would be one of those women? 

    
As I read the symptoms of perimenopause, it became a checklist for all my bizarre ailments over the past 2 years, particularly an increase in allergies and insomnia.  Even my poor sex-deprived DH would attest to my change in libido. 

Upon my research, I also discovered that perimenopause can occur 5-15 years prior to the onset of menopause.  I recalled my mother’s menopause experience.  My mother went through her change when I was teenager.  When I did the math, I realized my mom could have very well been my age when her symptoms of perimenopause surfaced.

As with everything else, diet and exercise seem to be the key to ward off the symptoms of perimenopause.  At the time of my menopause manifestation, I consumed a lot of Diet Dr. Pepper, so my first course of action was to replace my daily dose of diet soda with green tea.  I began to eat more flax seeds and other foods with Omega-3.  I added soy milk and soy beans to my diet.  I also limited my morning coffee to one cup.  I increased my number of work-out days from 3 days a week to 5 days. 

Within a week of changing my diet and increasing my exercise, I felt remarkably better.  My energy levels rose and my sleeping patterns improved.  My menstrual cycles became more regular and my menstrual flow gradually decreased.

It has been a year since my menopause manifestation.  By simply changing my diet and increasing my exercise routine, I feel I have found my own Fountain of Youth.