Brain Food for Athletes!

Why coaching feedback is critical.

Your feedback and communication is brain food to an athlete. To develop correctly and effectively, young athlete's brains need a steady flow of quality nutrients and stimuli. Neural development and conditioning is a process that never really ceases, at least not until brain function does. Since none of us train zombies, let's focus on how we effect brain development, especially synaptic development, through communication, feedback and the impact of both on proprioception with our living clients.

Read the rest here

Getting Enough Fruits and Veggies? This Can Help!

It's recommended that we eat 6-10 fruits and vegetables a day. That's what's been suggested to maximize vitamin, mineral and antioxidant intake to maintain good health, healthy weight and avoid the conditions and diseases associated with poor diet and obesity. Here in the States it is reported the actual average of fruits and veggies eaten each day is just 2.

Yup, just 2.

Now, I don't know where you stand on this, but overall, it really is a sad state of nutritional affairs. We live in a world where we're constantly under time, work, family and other stresses. We often reach for the foods that are most convenient, but not always the ones that are most nutritious.

Unfortunately, potato chips may be made from potatoes (maybe) but they don't count as vegetables. And "drinking" your veggies in the form of some mutated fruit juice is not going to get it done either.

Coffee comes from a plant and beer is made from grains (barley malt, wheat) and "veggies" (hops) but these don't fill the bill, either. It would be nice if they did, but no dice.

But do not despair! It's not that tough to get more fruits and veggies in each day.

Here are some super simple tips to get you started:

1) Buy 'em already chopped

Look, I can be lazy, too;-) There's nothing wrong with not wanting to go through the hassle of having to chop up fruits and veggies. If you want to buy them pre-chopped go ahead. It's much better for you than not eating them. Alternate: Spend an hour a week chopping vegetables and fruits into serving sizes. Then you'll be able to:

2) Carry 'em with you

Load up a plastic baggie with your pre-chopped veggies and bring them to work. Seriously, see how easy this can be! Especially if you've used my suggestion from #1! Bringing the "right number of bags and making sure to eat them all is a great way to ensure maximum fruit and veggie intake, even in a stressful, busy day!

3) Add real fruit to your yogurt

Have some yogurt for breakfast and add some fresh blueberries, raspberries or blackberries. It's that simple! Cherries, bananas, red grapes, chopped plums, chopped nectarines, chopped peaches and chopped pears also work. Whatever fruits you like, use 'em in your yogurt!

You can even crank up the fiber content by adding a few tablespoons of high fiber cereal!

Bonus tip: A great way to provide your body with the nutritional foundation you need each day is a Whole Foods based multi-vitamin. Prograde Nutrition VGF 25+ is one example. It's made from 25 veggies, greens and fruits. There are other great whole-food based multi's on the market and if you know of one, go for it. This one is a great one, however, providing maximum bang for the buck.

Here's another great article on how to be sure you're getting enough fruits and vegetables each day: Getting Enough Fruits and Veggies?

Be sure to use these tips and let me know how they help you out. Or send me some of your own!

Congressional knuckleheads introduce bill to "solve" a problem they helped create

So according to the news, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Representative Ron Kind (D-WI) have introduced a bill to re-establish Physical Education in schools. Read about it here: http://www.mdnews.com/news/2011_03/rep-kind-senator-harkin-reintrod...

These 2 geniuses think that by "mandating" that "all school districts and states to report on students’ physical activity, including the amount of time spent in required physical education in relation to the recommended national standard," somehow that will solve the childhood obesity epidemic.

Silly congressmonkeys, passing bills isn't really "working" on the problem!

Hilarious. Seriously, these 2 guys are supported by educational reformers who have consistently worked to install useless "educational reforms" so our kids have to study everything from "cultural awareness" to "anti-bullying sensitivity" (actual school course/program titles.)

Teachers and administrators have challenging jobs that get tougher every time one of these ridiculous "Advancements" gets shoved down their throats.

The important point here: Congress has been a large part of the problem in the development of childhood obesity and the move towards fatter, unhealthier kids (and adults) in this country.

Senator Harkin has taken well over $5.5 million dollars in reported campaign contributions from organizations and individuals related to the agriculture, pharmaceutical, hospital and "food manufacturing" industries (i.e., companies who make all the fat and sugar laden "food" that makes our kids fat. Harkin has supported corn growers in congress, as well as companies making high-fructose corn syrup, a major factor in the fattening of America's kids!Harkin now blames our educational system for the rise in childhood obesity. Um, yeah...

Mr. Kind is no better. Congressman Kind took well over $1 million from agribusiness and health/hospital related organizations and individuals. Wisconsin is well known for it's dairy products. So while he protects his constituency by representing their interests in congress, he now turns around and blames a lack of P.E. in schools for the epidemic of childhood obesity in America! Okey dokey, Ronnie...

Look, corn is fine. Cheese and dairy have their place in normal nutritional plans.

On the other hand, Congress has no place telling parents and kids how and when they should exercise and then mandating others to pay for it.

Here's a thought: let's encourage these congressmonkeys to stop their constant meddling in education, fitness and nutrition.

Let's try this:

1. Let's return to a scholastic concentration on the basics - math, english, sciences, literature, history...and phys ed.
2. Let's focus on the safety and security of our towns and neighborhoods so kids can get out and play.
3. Let's work together to create and support true "rec" sports programs.
4. Let's encourage kids to turn off the electronics (as I write on my laptop...irony!) and go engage in physical play.

Let them play tag. Let them play kickball. Heck, let them play dodgeball! We do, and they love it!

All-Star Sports Academy is here to support a return to physical play. Ask us how we can help YOUR kids return to a "physical culture" and feel, look and DO better!

We've been helping parents motivate their children to love exercise and fitness since March 2008 and we have no intention of letting up now!

Call us today and come on over and play!

Phil Hueston, NASM-PES, IYCA-YFS
All-Star Sports Academy

http://www.allstarsportsacademynj.com/

"Welcome to the Athlete Underground!"

Coach off the excess weight

Researchers at Duke University Medical School have "discovered" something our clients have known for years.

Their research reinforces our belief that working with a professional to lose body fat, change your body shape and develop healthy habits results in better, well, better results!!

They studied people who lost at least 8.8 lbs over a six month weight-loss phase. Lo and behold, the group that worked with a fitness/diet professional kept off more of the unwanted weight than any other group!

Frankly, we're not surprised! Our clients tell us that it's easier to keep off unwanted pounds when you have someone who cares about your results guiding and helping you to your goals.

THAT is the essence of why our programs work. We care about your results, and the programs are easy to follow and FUN!

Speaking of fun and effective body transformation programs, have you registered for the amazing
Get a Swimsuit Ready Body by July 4th! kickoff session yet?

What are you waiting for?

For a teeny tiny $10 registration fee, you'll walk away with over $75 in bonuses (we just added "A Woman's Fat Loss Strategy", a 10 step eating, diet and lifestyle guide to the body you want. It's a $20 value, and it's included as a bonus for registering for the May 1st, 7:30 PM Kickoff Session!)

May 1st, 7:30 PM at our Strength & Conditioning Center at 1856 Route 9, Toms River

$10 registration for the kickoff, and we promise some awesome stuff that night!

Over $75 worth of bonuses just for registering and taking the first step!

See you there, and then we'll see YOU showing off this summer!

_________________________________________________________________
A quick and very useful recipe today:

Better Butter!
This is the best butter replacement we’ve ever found. It requires you to do a little work, but the rewards in taste and good health are well worth it!

Ingredients
2 cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cups softened organic (salted or unsalted) butter

Preparation
Place the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Using a power beater, slowly blend the olive oil and butter together.

Blend until the mixture is smooth.

Transfer contents of bowl into several table serving-size containers.

Place in refrigerator until firm like butter.

Use it just like butter, as well as for cooking lubrication and as a substitute for olive oil in cooking meats and vegetables, if desired.

Nutrition Info (approx. for 1 Tbsp
Calories ---- 110
Fat Calories ---- 110
Total Fat ---- 12.5 grams
Saturated Fat ---- 4.5 grams
Monounsaturated Fat ----- 5.5 grams
Polyunsaturated Fat ----- .75 grams

It Isn't Every Day..

It's not every day that a truly unique sports opportunity comes around. Today,
however, is one of those days!

Do you play baseball, or have a child who does, at the 11U, 12U or 13U level?

Then you need to know about the Central Jersey Baseball Academy League and the
All-Star Sports Academy teams that will play in it!

This is a very different take on "travel ball." The CJBAL is a developmental league
for young baseball players, put together by the 7 finest baseball academies in Central
Jersey!

Enrollment includes 2 athletic/baseball skills training sessions each week, as well
as all league fees, equipment, umps and uniforms!

We have room for 30-32 players at each of the 11U, 12U and 13U levels.

Learn more, and find out how to enroll your player here: CJBAL Information

Or just call us (732-597-3725) or contact us via email.

Why not learn from the best and play against the best?

Contact us today!

We'll see YOU at All-Star Sports Academy!

Phil, Brian and Sean
All-Star Sports Academy

http://www.allstarsportsacademynj.com - Contact us today for your Free One Week Trial!

Youth Fitness: Beware the Rise of the Machines!

As you can imagine, we’re pummeled with marketing and advertising for the “newest,” “most cutting edge” and “next generation” of equipment for youth fitness.

What's odd about this stuff is that it looks like “Mini-Me” versions of the same crappy, dangerous machines that parents and adults are getting unfit and unhealthy on in their “health clubs!” Fixed position, uni-planar, single movement “fitness” equipment that nearly always creates injury patterns in the people who use them.

Yes! Building muscle will help you lose body fat! Yes! Regularly performing resistance training will help build muscle! Yes! These machines were “engineered” to maximize (isolated) muscular output! (and maybe for use at Gitmo?) Yet a strange thing has happened to American adults, even those who use these machines to “get in shape!”

They’ve become so dependent on them that they're no longer capable of performing strength building exercises without the artificial “intelligence” provided by these contraptions! So when the time comes to apply their newly developed “strength,” they either get injured or realize they aren’t nearly as “strong” as the numbers on their exercise machines would indicate!

Add to this the fact that more back, shoulder, knee, ankle and hip injuries are caused by the use of these torture machines in a year than in the NFL in 10 years, and it makes me wonder. It makes me wonder why we’d shove our children onto this junkyard fodder in the first place!

We know that “free-form” functional exercises, those that mimic real-life and sports movements, not only result in better movement patterns (think injury-resistance), they burn more calories and build more muscle! That’s right, functional integrated training stimulates the development of a far greater number of muscles than isolated, fixed position machine training.

Let’s look at a very popular exercise machine for both youth sports and adult fitness, the leg press. Plate loaded, selectorized (think weight-stack-and-pin) or otherwise resisted, it artificially stabilizes the body as the exerciser tries to perform hip and knee extension. The design creates higher levels of lumbar strain during the eccentric lowering, or negative phase of movement. Extreme hip flexion at the bottom of the leg press prevents proper glute activity and puts a tremendous amount of stress on the knees.

Squatting done correctly increases knee stability. The leg press reduces knee stabilization, increasing the risk of serious injury. Additionally, many exercisers, especially young athletes, load far too much weight on the leg press, in a misguided effort to increase leg strength. This can result in spinal injury and, potentially, permanent damage to knees, back and hips.

Good squat form may be a challenge to master but squatting develops far higher levels of functional strength. Here's a great bonus: squats help athletes develop total body, multi-planar strength and power, compared with the limited strength developed on fixed position, artificially stabilized exercise machines designed to “isolate muscle groups.” (More on this fallacy in the future!)

Speaking more generally, most exercise machines are simply not designed to support the adolescent body, let alone pre-pubescent kids!

Seated overhead press machines are typically designed in a way that places a great deal of stress on the lumbar spine. These forces far outweigh those produced during standing overhead pressing, when the core stabilization system is more readily recruited for spinal stability. Athletes often end up in severe lumbar misalignment in an effort to lift higher weights.

Leg extension and leg curl machines fix the body in the sagittal plane (think straight-ahead) and create hip flexion and shear force at the knee (leg extension) or extreme lumbar extension (lordosis) and hip flexion (leg curl.) Both seriously reduce the body’s ability to stabilize the knee and spine.

How then should children exercise in order to avoid the onslaught of the machines? Ground-based training, with an emphasis on bodyweight stabilization exercises first, with progression to bodyweight/implement based strength training, integrated along with speed, agility, balance, flexibility and power training, is the key to youth fitness and sports training success!

Better fitness levels for everyone? Higher levels of sports performance? And all of this while drastically reducing injury and extending athletic careers? Yes, yes and yes!

The strategy is simple…resist the “rise of the machines!” Your future depends on it!Contact us today to learn how to become part of the "Resistance!!

Visit us here: "I want to be part of the 'Machine Resistance!'"

Gremlins ate our links

I don't know what happened.

Apparently, the grinch, or maybe some gremlins ate
several links from yesterday's newsletter.

Thanks to those of you who emailed to tell us.

The proper parties have been tracked down and flogged
with a wet noodle.

Here are those links again, fixed and de-gremlined:
Prograde Workout - The post-workout shake for athletes
and everyone else

Prograde Cravers - Nutritional snack bars

Prograde Lean - Meal replacement shake for those seeking to
reduce body fat and build lean muscle.

PS...The Holiday Specials for FitKidz! Sports Fitness and Small Group Training
have been extended through the end of 2008!! Take advantage now and give your
kids and athletes the gift of awesome fitness and performance!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Festivus from All-Star Sports Academy!

The Clock is Ticking...

I had the chance to watch some football over the weekend.
I noticed something interesting.

It seems that the youth obesity problem in America is finally
becoming a national issue! The NFL is running spots for its'
program to encourage kids to play at least 60 minutes a day.
Public service spots are showing up. There's even a "nutritional
weight loss" program (you know a d-i-e-t) for kids!

I'm sure the NFL has good intentions, but has Peyton Manning
and company shown up at your kids' school yet? If he does,
what happens when he leaves? What kind of habits will your
kids return to then?

Don't even get me started on "diets" for kids! The ad I saw was for
the same kind of processed, pre-packaged robotic shove-it-in-
and-never-think nonsense that doesn't work for anyone else!

Kids need to play. At least 60 minutes a day, preferably more!
They need to run, jump, crawl, skip, throw, push, pull, hop, move
stuff, cooperate, compete and problem-solve on the fly!

Kids also need to eat. They need to eat real food! The trick is
getting them to make better choices, and to learn to like the real,
healthy, delicious foods that will make them strong and vibrant!

All-Star Sports Academy is dedicated to the health and fitness
of kids! Athletes, bookworms and everyone in between! Our
FitKidz! Fitness and Wellness Program for kids is growing by
the day!

We're working hard to reverse the trend in America that will
have 50% of our kids overweight by 2010, and will result in this
being the first generation of kids who will not outlive their parents!

Right now, we're making it easier to get your kids into the best
functional fitness program for kids available anywhere. Until
December 15th, we're giving you the first month of your child's
enrollment for a measly $39, and the next 2 at only $59!
Just visit: FitKidz! Fitness for Kidz!

You'll find lots of information about the program, and you can
enroll your kids in minutes!

So come on, let's get your kids, and America's kids, moving, having
fun, and on track to a long, healthy life! Together we can turn a
tragic trend into an incredible and exciting future!

Get on over to FitKidz! Fitness for Kidz! and get the party started!

Your kids are counting on you!

Fear and Hope for Our Kids' Future!

This article is reprinted from the USA Today Monday, November 3, 2008.

It will shock and frighten you...but we have to fight back, for our kids! This is a "war" we as a nation SIMPLY MUST WIN!

Read on after the article to see how All-Star Sports Academy intends to help you win!

Number of kids on medication jumps alarmingly

Most of the illnesses related to obesity

By Liz Szabo
USA TODAY

The number of children who take medication for chronic diseases has jumped dramatically, another troubling sign that many of the youngest Americans are struggling with obesity, doctors say.

The number of children who take pills for type 2 diabetes - the kind that's closely linked to obesity - more than doubled from 2002 to 2005, to a rate of six out of 10,000 children. That suggests that at least 23,000 privately insured children in the USA are now taking diabetes medications, according to authors of the new study in today's Pediatrics.

Doctors also saw big increases in prescriptions for high cholesterol, asthma and attention deficit and hyperactivity. There was smaller growth for drugs for depression and high blood pressure.

"We've got a lot of sick children," says author Emily Cox, senior director of research with Express Scripts, which administers drug benefit programs for private insurance plans. "What we've been seeing in adults, we're also now seeing in kids."

Type 2 diabetes was once known as adult-onset. But Cox says her records show kids as young as 5 being treated with prescription diabetes drugs.

Cox based her study on prescription records of nearly 4 million children a year, ages 5 to 19, covered by Express Scripts. She says her findings may not apply to the 40% of children who are uninsured or covered by government health plans.

Unless these children make major changes - such as eating healthier and exercising more - they could be facing a lifetime of illness, Cox says.

"These are not antibiotics that they take for seven to 10 days," Cox says. "These are drugs that many are taking for the rest of their lives."

Cox couldn't explain one surprising finding: Most of the increase in drugs for diabetes, attention deficit/hyperactivity and depression was seen in girls. The gender gap was most striking in diabetes: While the number of boys taking medication grew by 39%, the number of girls using them climbed by 147%, Cox found.

So how are we going to help in the fight against childhood obesity and all the diseases, dangers and risks to our kids that comes with it?

The answer is simple:
All-Star Sports Academy's revolutionary new fitness and wellness program made just for KIDZ!

If you're thinking "My kids hate to 'work out,'" YOU'RE RIGHT! Kids love to play games, be challenged, cooperate and compete, however, and that's what FitKidz is all about!

If you're thinking "My kids are way too athletic for something like this," YOU'RE WRONG! Sports and athletic movement is all about the very things we teach and reinforce at FitKidz sessions.

Do kids run, jump, crawl, hop, race, skip, throw, catch, push, pull, get on the floor or ground and get up again, carry things or any combination of these? OF COURSE!

Do these things happen in sports? OF COURSE!

Will your kids benefit from the FitKidz Fitness and Wellness for Kidz Program?

OF COURSE THEY WILL!!

So what are you waiting for? Did you know that November is FitKidz Preview Month? You can enroll your kids in a trial week of FitKidz Sports Fitness and Wellness FOR FREE!!

Will they like it? How about this...WE GUARANTEE IT!!

Call us today at 732-597-3725 and enroll your kids for their preview month trial...you have absolutely nothing to lose.

Your kids, on the other hand, may have everything to lose...or gain!