Friday, March 21, 2014

Parents, skip weight talk and focus on eating advice, study suggests !

There's a growing list of things that clearly do NOT work in helping someone who's carrying too much weight trim down. Shaming, teasing and hectoring stand a good chance of backfiring, and it remains to be seen whether treating obesity as a disease -- as the American Medical Assn. voted to do last week -- will induce obese patients to lose weight. But a new study finds that when it comes to adolescents, especially those who are overweight or obese, even talking about diets and weight loss is a counterproductive strategy.

The study, published online first on Monday by the journal JAMA Pediatrics, asked parents of 2,348 adolescents, roughly half of whom were overweight, how they talked to their kids about the issue and food, intake and weight. The kids were drawn from high schools and middle schools around St. Paul, Minn., and were roughly equally divided among different races and ethnicities.
Not being overweight was no assurance that a kid would not get "diet and weight" talk from mom or dad: About 1 in 3 such kids heard suggestions to lose weight and how to do it. Among the parents of overweight adolescents, 60% of mothers and 59% of fathers reported having conversations about dieting and weight loss and the child's need to do it. Only 15% of mothers and 16% of fathers with overweight kids, by contrast, kept the focus on healthful eating. About 20% of the parents kept their mouths closed on the subject.

The overweight kids who got a good dose of healthful eating advice from parents were significantly less likely than those who heard diet-and-weight talk to engage in dieting and unhealthful weight-control behaviors such as fasting or laxative use. Among the 15% of those overweight kids whose parents focused on healthful eating, about 4 in 10 reported dieting or unhealthful weight-control behaviors. But that figure rose to 64% among overweight kids whose parents urged them to diet and lose weight.
Binge-eating, at least, did not appear to be more common among adolescents whose parents urged diet and weight loss than among those with parents that focused on healthful eating.

Fathers' voices on the diets versus healthful eating issue carried particular weight. While most of the parents and caregivers who reported conversations with their child were women, researchers were able to survey fathers of roughly half of the kids to see how they spoke to their kids on the subject. Compared with kids whose fathers were silent on the subject or who championed healthful eating, adolescents whose dads talked about weight loss and diets showed an even greater likelihood of engaging in unhealthful weight-loss behaviors.

These findings suggest that parents should avoid conversations that focus on weight or losing weight and instead engage in conversations that focus on healthful eating, without reference to weight issues, the authors write. This approach may be particularly important to parents of overweight or obese adolescents.

And dads? Whether or not their kids are overweight, the researchers suggested, they should probably just shut up.
"It may be important to educate fathers to avoid any form of weight-related conversation with their adolescents," the authors added.

As always be sure to stop by and speak with our highly trained and certified staff of sports nutritionist if you have any questions about healthy eating for you or your little one!
Til next time,
Mikie 

Thursday, March 6, 2014

5 Ways Yoga Can Help Boost Athletic Performance

 This is a great article from Brook Robert of Muscle & Fitness we just had to share! Check it out!
Ahh, yoga. Crunchy, serene, woo-woo yoga. But we've got news for you: It’s not just for hippies or girls in yoga pants anymore – just ask the Seattle Seahawks. If you think yoga is a waste of your precious lifting time, think again. Developing a steady practice can actually help you get stronger.
The dirty truth of the matter is that putting your body through any repetitive movement (even weightlifting) will eventually create muscular imbalances and lead to injury. So hard-chargers take note: Incorporating yoga into your existing routine might be exactly what your body needs in order to improve.

Here are five ways yoga can benefit even the most muscular among us.

1. Increased Power

Flexibility keeps muscles and joints safe. Chances are, if you've just been using the same muscles for repetitive movements, they’re going to be pretty tight. Top-flight bodybuilders and dedicated weekend warriors alike love a good massage for this reason. Maybe you've even noticed a one rep max plateau, or a speed block. If a muscle is so tight that injury is imminent, your body will start to recruit other muscles to help out with certain moves. And if those muscles are under trained, you’re looking at a torn muscle and -gasp- down time. Elastic muscles and supple joints move more efficiently, recover more quickly and continue doing their jobs. Increasing your flexibility will also increase range of motion, which means an increased power output due to greater muscle recruitment, and more efficient movements.

2. Better Muscle Function

Yoga is a lot of things but it is basically all about breath and movement, movement and breath. To fully be present and to full articulate each posture in yoga, a strong, focused breath is essential. Doesn't hurt that it tames busy brain or helps take the edge off your pre-workout drink. Getting in touch with your breath can help establish better breathing patterns and access parts of your respiratory system that you didn't even know you could control. Get ready for more efficient oxygen intake, more complete exhalation, and better muscle function. Hello, gains. Goodbye muscle fatigue, symptoms of asthma, ragged breathing, and side stitches. Just like you wouldn't restrict precious nutrients and protein from your muscles, you should also be feeding your muscles with more delicious blood flow and oxygen. This is also certain to develop positive respiratory habits that you can carry into the rest of your training endeavors.

3. Mental Toughness

One of the biggest benefits of yoga is its emphasis on the connection between body and mind. Whether through meditation, or through the holding a headstand for an extended period of time, your mental toughness and focus are likely to improve. This might be the hardest benefit to achieve but once you begin to get your head in the game the benefits are almost unlimited.

4. Control   

“Pull your belly button to your spine,” “feel your lungs expanding,” “roll down your spine, one vertebrae at a time,” are all common phrases in yoga classes. It’s this constant cuing to pay attention to the smallest of sensations that helps build the neurological connections between our brains and our muscles (See No. 3). Yoga builds body awareness, and this can help you analyze your form during your workout to both optimize your lifting techniques, and help prevent compensation based injury. Again, this carries over into your normal cadre of sets-and-reps: the better you are able to “connect” mind and muscle, the more focused (read: efficient) each rep will be. Tough to think about the burn when you’re laser-focused on the effort.

5. Active Recovery and Muscle Repair

Active recovery typically means a light workout on an off day. These low-key days are a perfect way to slide yoga seamlessly into your schedule. Using specifically yoga as a form of active recovery can actually repair muscle fibers more quickly than other common forms, as the combination of stretching and relaxing muscles encourages blood flow to broken down muscle tissues. Do yoga, lift again sooner.
If you think yoga is just for slim, prissy girls with hot yoga pants on, think again. A great many of you out there likely have at least some familiarity with yoga through your TV-ordered set of P90X DVDs. Through yoga, you learn to control your body and your mind. And when it comes to building a stronger, leaner, more functional physique, that control can truly provide next-level results. 
Along with yoga a good nutritional diet will help keep your body balanced and ready for the next workout. Come see one of our certified nutrition specialist and let them help you balance out your diet!
Til next time,
Mikie