Some of the more common signs of overtraining may include:

compulsive need to exercise, increased incidence of injuries, loss of enthusiasm, moodiness/irritability, decreased intensity, insomnia, sudden drop in performance and tired, drained or lack of energy.

If you suspect you might be overtraining, stop or at least decrease the amount of exercise and allow for adequate rest.  Consider working out with a personal trainer (mesa personal training) to monitor progress and possibly avoid the risk of overtraining.  Make sure to drink plenty of water (fluids) and possibly alter your diet if necessary.  Schedule yourself a sports massage to help recharge those overused muscles.  Most importantly, rest than have fun with your training!

2.) Cut out white foods–These foods are high in sugar so your body burns this off instead of fat

3.) Focus on watery veggies and fruit like lettuce, celery, cucumber, melons, oranges and grapes–banishes bloating by flushing out your system

4.) Eat Spicy–A Canadian study found that people who consumed hot red pepper ate less food and burned more calories (pepper increased their metabolism)

5.) Snack–Eat 150 calorie snacks every three hours, don’t let your blood sugar drop or you will overeat

6.) Count Backwards 3,2,1– Eat three meals, two snacks and drink a minimum of 1 liter of water per day.  This trick will keep your metabolism up and avoid feeling hungry throughout each day.

Distance Running Program

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/for-seniors-an-underused-heart-therapy-the-gym/

For the immune system, it helps fight colds and flus, scrapes and bruises, as well as keeping those gums healthy.  Many of our clients at Mesa Personal Training supplement vitamin C not only preventatively, but also to counter the physiological demands placed upon them after their training is completed.  Individuals deficient in vitamin C will often present with swollen gums, wounds that do not heal in a timely manner, easy bruising and in general, sub-optimal immune functioning.  Classic deficiency is related to scurvy, a condition in which the individual has gum disease, pain in the muscles and joints, skin lesions, fatigue and bleeding.  Vitamin C works by stimulating the activity of antibodies and immune system cells.  This is very evident in why some individuals can get over a cold in two days while others it may take seven to eight to restore health.  Vitamin C is easily consumed through oranges, tangerines and grapefruits, while tomatoes, peppers, broccali and even potatoes will provide significant amounts.  For those wishing to protect against disease processes and others who are immunocompromised, a general rule of thumb is to take as many milligrams as possible up to bowel tolerance and then back down by 500 mg.

If you ever need motivation to get up and move I highly recommend ‘Born to Run’ by Christopher McDougall.

Excerpt: ‘Born to Run’

“The human body is not designed for that kind of abuse [running],” Dr. Torg replied.

But why? Antelope don’t get shin splints. Wolves don’t ice-pack their knees. I doubt that 80% of all wild mustangs are annually disabled with impact injuries. It reminded me of a proverb attributed to Roger Bannister, who, while simultaneously studying medicine, working as a clinical researcher and minting pithy parables, became the first man to break the 4-minute mile: “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up,” Bannister said. “It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle — when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

So why should every other mammal on the planet be able to depend on its legs except us? Come to think of it, how could a guy like Bannister charge out of the lab every day, pound around a hard cinder track in thin leather slippers, and not only get faster, but never get hurt? How come some of us can be out there running all lion-like and Bannister-ish every morning when the sun comes up, while the rest of us need a fistful of Ibuprofen before we can put our feet on the floor?

But maybe there was a path back in time, a way to flip the internal switch that changes us all back into the Natural Born Runners we once were. Not just in history, but in our own lifetimes. Remember? Back when you were a kid and you had to be yelled at to slow down? Every game you played, you played at top-speed, sprinting like crazy as you kicked cans, freed-all and attacked jungle outposts in your neighbors’ backyards. Half the fun of doing anything was doing it at record pace, making it probably the last time in your life you’d ever be hassled for going too fast.

That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they’d never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind’s first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle — behold, the Running Man.

Distance running was revered because it was indispensable; it was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldn’t live to love anything else. And like everything else we love — everything we sentimentally call our “passions” and “desires” — it’s really an encoded ancestral necessity. We were born to run; we were born because we run.

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cup whey protein (chocolate is preferred)

½ cup oat flour (or spelt flour, millet flour)

2 cups rolled oats

½ cup oat bran

½ cup coarsely chopped flaxseed

½ cup wheat germ

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

½ cup organic honey

1 cup dark chocolate (finely chopped)

1 ½ to 2 cups yogurt cheese (instructions below)

¼ canola oil, almond oil or olive oil

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp vanilla

Cooking Spray

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat a 9 x 13 inch pan with cooking spray

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine protein, flour, oats, oat bran, flaxseed, wheat germ, sea salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and chocolate.

3. In another bowl mix the yogurt cheese, oils, vanilla, and honey. Mix well.

4. Add bowls together and mix well.

5. Place mixture in prepared pan. Press it down and even it out.

6. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool.

7. Cut into little bars and place separate bars on to a cookie sheet over wax paper

8. Bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool

9. Store in air tight container in fridge.

YOGURT CHEESE:

1. Buy a container of plain, fat free yogurt

2. Pour it into a small holed strainer lined with a paper towel and place a bowl underneath and put in fridge overnight or longer than 4-5 hours

3. The liquid that drips out is whey- throw that out (about 2 cups worth)

4. The stuff that you are draining is now the consistency of cream cheese and tastes AMAZING! It can replace mayo, sour cream, cream cheese and makes great dips for veggies.

Recipe is from Tosca Reid’s book- Eat Clean.

Ingredients:
4 Chicken Breasts
2- 4 oz Goat Cheese
Bunch of Spinach
½ Red Pepper
1 cup of Mushrooms
½ cup of Pecan bits

Instructions:
1. Heat Oven to 400 degrees
2. Beat Chicken down to 3/8 inch (put chicken in wax paper first)
3. In a food processor, chop up the spinach, red pepper, mushrooms and pecan bits
4. Spread ½ to 1oz of goat cheese onto the flattened chicken (a little goat cheese goes a long way!)
5. Spread the mixture of spinach, red pepper, mushrooms and pecans over the goat cheese
6. Roll the chicken up and hold together with toothpicks
7. Place on a baking sheet and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink

Youth football Training Camp

Zenith Football Camps will provide, a non contact, three (3) day camp for high school students entering the 9th grade to the 12th grade. Hosted February 26-28, 2010. Click here for more information on the 2010 High School Z Camp.