Dealing with One Missed Workout
It’s a common dilemma (图局)for anyone on a training plan: You miss one workout and become awashed with guilt. To make up for it, you add those extra miles to your next workout. But according to the professionals, this isn’t the right way to go about it. “A single workout is not going to make or break a training plan. The key to training is consistency over time,” says John Raglin, PhD, professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Indiana University Bloomington.When you miss a workout, the temptation is to think, “Oh, I’ve got to do more tomorrow”. But when you try to catch up on your workouts, you run a couple of risks: “Certainly an injury, but also becoming over-tired, which could ruin your training after that, ” says Raglin. This is a phenomenon called ‘non-functional overreaching’, “he says. Eventually, this could lead to overtraining syndrome (综合症), which is characterized by a decrease in performance later due to a long-term increase in training load without adequate recovery.
So how do you move forward if you skipped a run or five?Well first, people download generalized training plans without understanding that they are meant to be adapted to life. There is a whole host of life stressors—job, kids, friendships, travel—and exercise is just another type of stress. Actually, when things get chaotic in your life, it may be necessary to just let go. Next, if you missed a workout, you have to ask yourself why: “Was it just because your schedule got out of hand or because you were feeling overly exhausted? ” Understanding why you missed the workout can offer some insights into how to tailor your program to suit your lifestyle.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Competitive Cheerleading
Over the years, cheerleading has taken two primary forms: game-time cheerleading and competitive cheerleading. Game-time cheerleaders’ main goal is to entertain the crowd and lead them with team cheers, which should not be considered a sport. However, competitive cheerleading is more than a form of entertainment. It is really a competitive sport.
Competitive cheerleading includes lots of physical activity. The majority of the teams require a certain level of tumbling (翻腾运动) ability. It’s a very common thing for gymnasts, so it’s easy for them to go into competitive cheerleading. Usually these cheerleaders integrate lots of their gymnastics experience including their jumps, tumbling, and overall energy. They also perform lifts and throws.
Competitive cheerleading is also an activity that is governed by rules under which a winner can be declared. It is awarded points for technique, creativity and sharpness. Usually the more difficult the action is, the better the score is. That’s why cheerleaders are trying to experience great difficulty in their performance. Besides, there is also a strict rule of time. The whole performance has to be completed in less than three minutes and fifteen seconds, during which the cheerleaders are required to stay within a certain area. Any performance beyond the limit of time is invalid.
Another reason for the fact that competitive cheerleading is one of the hardest sports is that it has more reported injuries. According to some research, competitive cheerleading is the number one cause of serious sports injuries to women. Generally, these injuries affect all areas of the body, including wrists, shoulders, ankles, head, and neck.
There can be no doubt that competitive cheerleading is a sport with professional skills. It should be noted that it is a team sport and even the smallest mistake made by one teammate can bring the score of the entire team down. So without working together to achieve the goal, first place is out of reach.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Building up your muscles is an easy part—the hard part is burning those layers of fat that cover your muscles. Here are some tips.
In order to work out harder, make a favorite fitness playlist with music that gets you excited, as it can help you go up to 20% longer and burn more calories, according to a study of Brunel University London. The study’s researcher says that music tends to prevent tiredness, and produces feelings of excitement.
Not only does eating good breakfast speed up your metabolism(新陈代谢), but it also nourishes (为……提供营养) your muscles. After eating breakfast, your best way of keeping fat burning going is to “graze”. Set up an eating schedule where you eat five to eight small meals every few hours throughout the day. It provides your body with a constant flow of nourishment to feed your muscles.
Men’s Health suggests choosing hard exercise that involves total body movements in order to help raise your heart rate and leave you out of breath. By including total body movements into your exercise, you’re going to end up burning a lot more calories while challenging yourself at the same time. As the saying goes: No pain, no gain. So, get moving.
Sounds easy enough, right? It’s as simple as drinking a cup of green tea every day. Adding in green tea will push fat burning to another level. And studies have shown that it can increase fat burning and help you lose weight.
While doing your weight training, try something including short, big bursts of cardio(心脏强化锻炼) throughout your exercise. For example, if you’re doing an hour-long exercise, place cardio into it every 15 minutes to help speed up your metabolism.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It seems that deep, long-lasting happiness comes from intangible things, rather than things like chocolates and smart-phones. One essential factor is human relationships. People who have the support of family members and also have strong friendships are more likely to be happy. Feeling protected and respected and knowing you can trust in the people around you is vital. But happiness means you have to give and take. Performing acts of kindness and generosity on a regular basis, for example, listening to a friend in need or carrying a neighbor’s shopping, will make you feel on top of the world. Even a simple smile can work wonders. In fact, they say that one smile makes a person feel as good as eating 2,000 bars of chocolates(not all at once, of course).
It is not surprising that health is another key contributor to happiness. Poor health will certainly make you feel down in the mouth. But being healthy and staying healthy require some effort. A healthy diet is crucial and so is regular exercise. Laziness will not make you happy. Exercising for 20 to 30 minutes a day helps to reduce stress and anxiety and makes you feel more positive and optimistic because it releases endorphins(feel-good chemicals). So, if you have been feeling blue and worrying too much about your exams, get exercising. You’ll also find that you sleep better.
Talking of sleep, do you often wake up feeling miserable? If so, it’s probably because you haven’t had enough of it. Teenagers tend to go to bed too late and have to get up early, so many suffer from a lack of sleep. Tiredness will certainly affect your happiness levels and put you in a bad mood. It also affects your ability to concentrate and may slow your growth. So if you want to be happy and do well at school, try to get at least eight hours of sleep a night. Now that you know the theory, it’s time to put it all into practice.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Change is needed in youth sports
Everywhere you look, you see kids bouncing a basketball or waving a tennis racket. And these kids are getting younger and younger. Children can even compete on basketball, baseball, and volleyball teams starting at age nine. The youth soccer organization has teams for children as young as five. And swimming and gymnastics classes begin at age four, to prepare children for competition.
It’s true that a few of these kids will develop into highly skilled athletes and may even become members of our national Olympic teams. But what about the others-the average kids? This emphasis on competition in sports is having serious negative effects.
Children who get involved in competitive sports at a young age often grow tired of their sport. Many parents pressure their kids to choose one sport and devote all their time to it. A survey found that 79% of parents of young athletes wanted their children to concentrate on one sport. But 66% of the young athletes wanted to play more than one sport-for fun.
Another problem is the pressure posed by over-competitive parents and coaches. Children are not naturally competitive. In fact, a recent study by Paul David has found that most children don’t even understand the idea of competition until they are seven years old. Very young kids don’t know why their parents are pushing them so hard.
The third, the biggest problem for young athletes is the lack of time to do their homework, have fun, be with friends-in short, time to be kids. When they are forced to spend every afternoon at sports practice, they often start to hate their chosen sport. Researchers have found that 70% of kids who take part in competitive sports before the age of twelve quit before they turn eighteen. Many of them completely lose interest in sports. Excessive competition takes away all the enjoyment.
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Phys ed (physical education) is making a comeback as a part of the school core curriculum, but with a difference. While group sports are still part of the curriculum, the new way is to teach skills that are useful beyond gym class. Instead of learning how to climb a rope, children are taught to lift weights, balance their diets and build physical endurance. In this way, kids are given the tools and skills and experiences so they can lead a physically active life the rest of their life.
Considering that 15 percent of American children aged 6 to 18 are overweight, supporters say more money and thought must be put into phys ed curriculum. In many cases, that may mean not just replacing the old gym-class model with fitness programmes but also starting up phys ed programmes because school boards often “put P. E. on the chopping block, cutting it entirely or decreasing its teachers or the days it is offered”, says Alicia Moag-Stahlberg, the executive director of Action for Health Kids. The difference in phys ed programmes is partly due to the lack of a national standard. “Physical education needs to be part of the core curriculum,” she added. The wisdom of the new approach has some scientific support.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have demonstrated how effective the fit-for-life model of gym class can be. They observed how 50 overweight children lost more weight when they cycled and skied cross-country than when they played sports. The researchers also found that teaching sports like football resulted in less overall movement, partly because reluctant students were able to sit on the bench.
Another problem with simply teaching group sports in gym class is that only a tiny percentage of students continue playing them after graduating from high school. The new method teaches skills that translate to adulthood.
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China Daily正在开展一项国民运动调查，报告显示，健走已成为中国人最常见的运动。请根据图表中的调查结果写一篇短文投稿，内容要点：
1.描述调查结果；
2.分析健走最受欢迎的原因；
3.说明你的看法。
注意：词数150词；短文题目已写好。
Most Popular Types of Exercise Among Chinese
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Want to join the online fitness program?
Online training is one of the fastest growing section of the fitness industry. A 2015 study found that more than half of all smartphone users had downloaded a fitness or health app. If you’re considering joining the online fitness community, consider these benefits and drawbacks.
There are many reasons that online training may work for you. As long as you have access to pre-downloaded videos or a WiFi connection for streaming videos, you can work out wherever you are.
Besides, compared with similar offline programs, most online fitness programs range in cost between $10 and $20 per month. This is due in part to the wider audience and the greater opportunity to sell programs to more people.
All this growth is incredibly positive — it provides health and fitness resources to the general consumer wherever they happen to be, without requiring access to a gym or fitness studio. But it’s not without problems.
The first thing to think about when considering an online fitness program is “know yourself.” If you struggle with self-motivation, you don’t like exercising at home, and you prefer a social workout environment, online fitness may not be for you. Not to mention the fact that very few online fitness programs enable the instructor to see you, check your form, and offer modifications or corrections based on your performance. This means you might perform exercises incorrectly, or even unsafely, without knowing it, which is particularly concerning for beginners and those recovering from injuries, as they’re more likely to perform exercises incorrectly.
Therefore, like any training format, there are pros and cons to consider when deciding if it is right for you. Take time and make the most suitable decision to reap more benefits.
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Since the rise in popularity of MP3 players, working out has been done together with your personal music library. Whether it be running on the street on the treadmill or lifting weights in the gym, it seems every person is wearing a set of headphones when getting up.
We all feel that certain songs help us push that little bit harder but is there any science behind that? And if so, is there a particular type of music that helps you go that extra mile? It turns out, yes. While tiredness is physical during workout, a large part is also about how the brain sees this physical tiredness.
Listening to music while training takes the brain’s concentration away from the tired body. In a sense, it fights for the attention on the fact that the body is “working out”. This leads exercise to be viewed as less tough and makes working out more enjoyable.
The kind of music you listen to can depend on the type of workout you are doing. When running on a treadmill, most people choose a faster pace of 160 beats per minute (bpm).
It also depends on the intensity of the workout and your heartbeat. For example when training starts to get to average intense levels the sweet spot is around the 120-145 bpm mark. For reference, an analysis showed that out of 74000 popular songs produced between the1960s-1990s,120 bpm was the most common. So most songs will do the trick.
What is also worth mentioning is the psychological benefits of music on the individual. You should choose songs that have particular meanings and emotional connections with individuals because they can create encouragement and get people mentally prepared for the challenges This is very important when doing strong workouts or going for personal bests on the big lifts.
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Are Competitive Game Harmful to Children?
There is a cry of rage, and a tennis racket crashes to the ground. Jake, age 7, has just lost another match and is now in tears beside the court. His sister Sally, just one year older, looks at her mother and rolls her eyes: it is hard to enjoy when this keeps happening. It is not an unusual situation, and it is one reason why many people argue that competition is bad for children. However, the truth is that competitive games are a valuable preparation for life.
Games with winners and losers given children the chance to experience life’s ups and downs. Take Jake, for example: even though is unhappy now, he will probably be smiling and laughing with his sister in a few minutes, just like the last time this happened. Gradually, he will learn that the world does not end when you lose a game. Eventually, he may even be able to lose with a smile on his face. This is an important lesson. Not everything in life goes the way you would like, and it is important to know how to handle disappointment when it occurs.
Children who participate in competitive games develop qualities that will allow them to succeed in the complex world of adult life. For example, one of the missions of the Youth Olympic Games is to inspire young people to adopt the Olympic values, which include striving, determination, and optimism. Competition creates the desire to do better. Children have to learn to succeed in a competitive atmosphere in order to take advantage of opportunities in the future. Although it is possible to win by chance occasionally, people who win and keep winning work very hard to achieve their success.
Of course, there are parents who argue that children of Jake’s age are too young to handle the pain of losing. But whether we like it or not, adult life is very competitive, and keeping children away from competition does them more harm than good.
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