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2006 NFL Draft: The Reggie Bush Sweepstakes
While it's still quite a few months before the NFL Draft, with the regular season winding down, it's a good time as any to take a glance at the teams who are "competing' for the league's worst record and the right to draft the lone "can't miss"...
Dealing with lack of motivation? Ingredients for success!
Below are the ingredients I've found to be successful at bodybuilding. Although I'm still far from my personal goals, I've came a long way and learned a lot not only about bodybuilding but also about myself. Hopefully, whether you're a begginer or a...
Female, Forty, and Frustrated: Hormones, Cravings, and the Battle of the Bulge
Last year, I went to the annual IDEA Conference for fitness professionals. At that conference, I attended an amazing seminar about women and nutrition by Clinical Certified Nutritionist Carol Simontacchi. If you've read my Q2 2003 newsletter, you...
Home Run Statistics – Going Going Gone.
This was written prior to the 2005 season
The home run. One of sports grandest sights. Whether it is a line drive that barely clears the wall or a pop up that glances off the foul pole. Or if it’s a shot that goes 40 rows back. It is still a home...
To Be Successful, You Have To Be Healthy-Part 1
If you were to stop a noontime crowd on the street and ask them
to name their most valuable asset, most wouldn't hesitate to
identify their homes as the greatest asset they own. Others may
nominate a well-funded 401(k) or a shiny sports car as...
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Physical Fitness - Is Your Workout Missing Something?
Copyright 2005 Mike Adams
Hiking along a rocky trail, two of the three friends carefully picked their way from rock to rock. But one leaped from rock to rock, bounding by the others like a gazelle running and leaping from rock to rock. Never missing his footing, the others wondered at his almost supernatural grace and skill. "How does he do that?" they thought.
When most people think of physical fitness, they think of strength and cardiovascular fitness. If they are really thinking about it, they'll add flexibility to the list.
But there's something few people think about when working out, a missing component of physical fitness. You can't get it just by lifting weights or running on a treadmill.
The missing component is agility.
Agility is what let my friend run rings around us, leaping from rock to rock along the Pedernales River in Texas. Agility is what you see in top athletes who make great skill look effortless. Agility is what helps a ballet dancer make it look effortless. Agility is how Jackie Chan can still do martial arts even while he is rolling over tables, bouncing off walls, leaping between the rungs of ladders.
I didn't understand that until years after the hike along the Pedernales River. Now, after doing martial arts for almost 30 years, I understand. When you watch someone who moves with grace and skill, you're seeing agility.
Have you ever had an experience where you felt clumsy?
Have you ever fumbled the ball, or tripped over your own two feet?
Or have you ever seen someone who is in great shape, but they just can't coordinate, they can't move?
The missing component of physical fitness is agility.
If you just do weights or
cardio, you're not going to develop agility. If you want agility, you have to move, and you have to adapt on the fly to changing (and often intense) situations.
Some sports and fitness activities promote agility more than others. For me, martial arts gave me agility. I've been dong WingTsun Kung Fu(TM) for 25 years, and martial arts in general for almost 30. I have to be able to adapt to what an opponent is doing quickly and perfectly. I have to seize the advantage, gain and maintain dynamic control. I have to stay balanced and graceful even while moving rapidly and adjusting to the changing dynamics of sparring.
Many other sports really develop agility as well. Basketball, tennis, soccer, hockey, skiing, snowboarding... they all develop and require agility.
If you're not doing something to develop agility, today is a good day to start. You'll be amazed at the difference increased agility will make in feeling physically fit. Before long you'll move with the grace of a cat, you'll bound like a gazelle.
Don't just lift weights and do cardio - get out there and do something to increase your agility as well. Get together with some buddies for basketball. Go play some tennis. Take up martial arts. Agility will give you the ability to actually DO something with all of the physical fitness you've been developing. You will feel better and move better, and you will probably have a lot more fun than just running on a treadmill or lifting weights!
About the Author
Mike Adams owns WingTsun Kung Fu schools in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa - Dynamic Martial Arts: http://www.dynamicwingtsun.com/
Mike also runs Fitness.com, an online fitness equipment catalog: http://www.fitness-catalog.com/
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