The Weekly Word

​What I Have Been Thinking About...
I came across a sign a few days ago that read something like, "You are awesome the way you are!" and I thought " hmm, that is interesting". The reason I had that thought is that I was just coming in from a training session where we were running around, encouraging kids to get a little better, and to work hard at accomplishing something. I thought to myself, if you are awesome the way that you are will you ever work on improving? Is it possible to become more awesome or will you stay satisfied with just being regular awesome? 

This led me to my next thought...

On Teaching...
I had a conversation with a veteran teacher this week about labels. For example, there are a bunch of kids with an ADHD diagnosis that we work with. They have a hard time focusing and sitting still and we understand that. As a teacher, we have a choice: work with them and help them manage certain aspects of their life orlet it be? I always err on the side of helping and I think most things can be changed if work is put in. 

The idea is something like this: Lets say a kid can sit still for 4 seconds and we begin working on ways to manage this. Before you know it, the kid reaches 8 seconds. Then 15, then 30, and so on. They still have a tough time managing those quiet, idle moments in school but they are improving. As this goes on, we help them through it, offer ideas and solutions, watch them succeed (hopefully) and then they learn that they have the ability to change their behaviors if given proper practice and attention. This builds self-efficacy (the belief in your own ability to achieve a specific goal) and encourages the child not to view the way their mind works as a crutch or flaw. 

Fitness Tip of the Week
I was talking with a friend who had an injured leg and we began chatting about working out while injured. In his mind, sitting idle was not an option and he wanted to train as much of his body as possible without further damaging or negatively effecting his injury. I told him this was a great idea as there is something called the cross-education effect that offers up some pretty incredible healing benefits!

This effect is a neuromuscular phenomenon where resistance training on one side of the body (the uninjured side) leads to increased strength in the opposite limb (the injured side). So, if your right leg is hurt and in a cast, training your left side will result in less muscle atrophy and less strength loss. It is pretty cool! This effect is thought to be primarily a neural adaptation, with strength gains transferring from the trained to the untrained side due to changes in the motor cortex.

On School...
I have been subbing a few days per week and I have to say, it is a pretty sedentary profession! There is not a ton of fresh air, little to no movement, and most of the work is done while sitting. It is no bueno! This led me to ask myself, has it always been this way?
 
A few years ago I read a book titled Deskbound: Standing Up to a Sitting World by Kelly Starrett. It is a good one with plenty of eye opening statistics. The main gist of this book explains how excessive sitting leads to pain, increases the risk of heart disease, and causes other orthopedic problems. He then shares ways to combat this and offers four things that we can all implement with very little time commitment...

1. Reduce Optional Sitting in Your Life.
2. For Every 30 Minutes You Are Deskbound, Move for Two Minutes.
3. Optimize Position and Mechanics Whenever You Can
4. Perform 10 to 15 Minutes of Daily Maintenance on Your Body

Quote of the Week
"There is nothing permanent except change" — Heraclitus

I hope you all have an awesome week!Chris Fluck