Collegiate Coaching: The Importance of Sleep
Here I go again, writing on a plane or in an airport. Despite time off from my full time position at a college counseling center, I have managed to cram in ample travel. Pros: I get to have fun, see…
Athletic Performance and the Ketogenic Diet
A ketogenic diet (KD) refers to any dietary pattern that results in the body being in a ketogenic state of metabolism. Most classically, ketogenic diets are high in fat, moderate in protein, and low in carbohydrate. The idea is that…
Fall Sports Preparations
If you play a fall sport, pre-season is just around the corner and that means it’s time to kick your conditioning program into high gear. Field sports such as soccer, field hockey, and football, utilize movements that vary in speed,…
Executive Coaching Tip: Take That Vacation!
Greetings from AWP’s Executive Coaching team! We hope you are taking advantage of the warm weather by spending time refueling with family and friends outdoors. We know many of you work in highly intensive environments – be sure to use…
Pilates – An Explanation and 3 Pilates Poses/Exercises
“A body free from nervous tension and fatigue is the ideal shelter provided by nature for housing a well balanced mind, fully capable of successfully meeting all the complex problems of modern living.” ~Joseph Pilates Pilates was developed to unify…
Focused Attention, Expanded Awareness: Mindfulness practice to improve attention flexibility in performance
"Focused attention" involves sustaining attention moment by moment on a chosen object or task. This is the most common type of mindfulness practice. This sort of attention can be honed through simple practices. For example, taking 5 minutes to observe the details of an…
Your Mental Muscle: Meditation for High Performance
Meditation is an extremely valuable skill, both for the athlete and the professional business person. Because of this, these days it is used not only by monks and yogis, but also leaders, executives, and professional athletes. Brain chemistry in experienced…
Don’t Let Dehydration Get You Down This Summer
Summer is here which means the weather is (finally) heating up! While hydration is important all year round, warmer weather can add an extra layer of consideration to your hydration practices. Whether you’re having a pool day, strolling around the city, or training, staying adequately hydrated will keep you feeling your best. Hydration needs vary due to many reasons, some including: heat, humidity, level of activity, individual sweat rate, etc.
Coaches’ Corner: Rest and Recovery
I’m not going to lie, I’m tired. I work six days a week well over 60 hours when I factor in commutes and extra time I spend on work or my own professional development when not at work. I am taking a 5 week online course to enhance my competence in exercise physiology. I consider training for upcoming endurance events a part time job due to the requirements to do it well (meal prep, getting to bed early, figuring out when I can fit workouts into my schedule). I’m also writing this following a week long trip for a conference in New Orleans where I presented twice in one day. Coupled with the heat, 12+ miles of walking to sight-see a few days, keeping up with workouts as I am two weeks out from a half marathon, and travel in general…exhausted might be a better descriptor at this present moment.
Eating Disorders And The Athlete
We hear about the prevalence of eating disorders in the fashion industry and Hollywood. What is less well known is its prevalence in professional sports. Athletes operate under enormous pressure to fit a physical ideal and to constantly perform at their best. Because of this, professional athletes are three times more likely to develop an eating disorder than the average person (Bowers, n.d.).
The two most common eating disorders are anorexia and bulimia. People afflicted with anorexia restrict their intake of food in an effort to meet their ideal weight. Many do this to the point of starvation. In bulimia, the afflicted person goes through a cycle of bingeing and purging. The person will binge on a large amount of food in a short period of time, then eradicate what they’ve eaten through self-induced vomiting or other means. This cycle is usually followed by feelings of guilt, shame and remorse.