Developing Good Executive Function in Children

Executive Function Development
Proper executive function development is important to a Childs: positive behaviors, good health, school achievement, and their ability to successfully work with people and groups. Executive function consists of working memory, mental flexibility, task switching, verbal reasoning, and self-control. We are not born with these abilities it is something that must be fostered by parents and adults involved in your Childs life (teachers, family members, coaches). The ability to gather information, while filtering distractions, and switching gears, is paramount to good development.
There are some critical factors in developing a strong foundation. Many of these things you probably already do: good relationship development and activities that engage them where they live, enabling them to learn and play. The development of healthy relationship starts in the home and extends to teachers, friends, medical professionals and others. Engaging your child in activities reduces stress, fosters social connection and creates open ended creative play. The incorporation of vigorous physical exercise into daily activities, such as a martial arts class, has been shown to positively influence stress levels, social skills, and brain development. As a child begins to develop skills the complexity of the skill should be increased in a step by step manner. Each child is different so you have to find the zone where there is challenge without frustration. This has to be followed with repetition of the skills. Look for an activity that your child will enjoy and that allows for development of these skills. Most sports activities cultivate the ideas represented here: baseball, soccer, Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, etc. The key is finding something they enjoy forcing them into the activity will not foster a memorable experience for you and them.

Challenge Workout: Burpee Master

Ahhhh sensei, yes I will achieve the title of
Burpee master and bring honor to my family and my gym. So here is the challenge:

100 burpees in 10 minutes or less. Who can do it.

To make it interesting the gym member with the best time gets 2 free Fox Raw Bars (Flavor of Their Choice) burpees must be observed by Kim or Jake!! We will do one female and one male winner!!

90 Day Challenge workout: Partnered Moves to a Better Sex Life

Working out with your partner can be fun and its great for improving communication. I have done other posts on the benefits of working out with your significant other. I figured now is a good time for an actual workout routine.

Warm-Up

100 Jumping Jacks

30 Body Weight Squats

20 Hip Raises

10 Iron Crosses

10 Scorpions

50 Crunches

20 Super Mans

Push-ups 3x10 (Here's the partner part, your significant other will be laying under you every time you lower yourself, they get a kiss. This ensures you are working through the complete range of motion. They can also assist you in your push-ups by pushing at the hips or shoulders if you are having trouble)






Dips 3x10 (Your partner will position themselves in a bridge. Place your hands on your partners knees with your feet outstretched. This will ensure you arms go to a 90 deg angle when you lower yourself. You can make this move easier by keeping your feet flat on the floor knees at a 90 deg angle.)






Single Leg Squat 3x10 (One person will be in a high plank during this exercise while the other is standing. The standing partner will be positioned at the middle of the other persons body facing away from them. Bend your knee and lift your foot setting it on your partners back. You should now be standing on one foot. Lower yourself until you are in a lunge position. Then drive through the heel straightening your leg.)







Saddle Sit-Ups 3x10 ( This move require strength from both partners. Jump up wrapping your legs around your partners waist. Lower yourself backwards, your partner can assist you in sitting back up if needed by holding your hands. If you are not strong enough to hold your partner up this can also be done seated.)









Squats 3x10 (Face your partner with legs shoulder width apart. You should be an arms length away from them. While holding hands both partners should lower their bodies as a unit, giving resistance as the other person pulls against them. This will allow you to get deep into the squat. Don't let your knees drift over your toes. Though this should be relatively impossible in this position.)








Planks 3x:20 (Perform a plank as usual with the exception that you will be holding your partners outstretched hand. You will change hands every 5 seconds. Essentially you will be doing a one arm plank. Similar to a birddog.)

90 Day Challenge workout: AB-tastic

Yes, yes, I know it's a goofy title but your abs will not be laughing. Although, laughter is a great abdominal exercise!

First a note on proper breathing. Most of us stop breathing with our diaphragm shortly after we stop crawling. Abdominal breathing is very important for core stability when your working out especially when your laying on the ground. It forces you to press your back to the floor. As well as giving you a solid platform from which you can create more power. The ability to pull your pelvic floor and diaphragm together creates a very strong base. Does your lower back hurt when your doing exercises? It may be that you have poor core stabilization causing most of the pressure and exertion to be pushed to the lower curve in your back. Try thinking about breathing from the diaphragm. Check out InMotion they have some great exercises for changing your motor patterns to improve stability, relieve pain, increase power output, and improving developmental movement patterns that will increase your strength.

Plank :20 x3
1x20 Fish out of water
1x20 High Plank Bird Dogs or Bird Dogs
 

1x20 Flutter Kicks
1x20 Mountain Jumps

Rest 1min

1x50 Crunches
1x40 Bicycles
1x30 Punch Crunch
1x20 Leg up rev crunch(harder) or reverse crunch (easier)

1x10 Accordions

Lastly, if you wanna make this way harder and develop those "pretty abs," do these abdominal exercises slowly generally use a 2-second count as rule of thumb. This is a killer workout if the reps are done slow. You may need to break up the workout to morning ab and afternoon ab routines.

Women's Self Defense: Its not a myth!

Let me get one thing out of the way first, I generally hate most women's self defense  programs. I am a woman, a service member, a combatives instructor, a competitor in jiu-jitsu, and I have been practicing Muay Thai for over 7 years. I don't care what your teaching, no single day of training will give you the real possibility of resisting an opponent that is larger and stronger. Don't get me wrong, they are teaching valid techniques but without the repetitive training to engrain the movements and reaction, you will be unsuccessful.

The real key to being able to resist/escape/defeat a larger opponent is having the proper initial reaction when you are attacked. This can only be achieved with repetitive drilling. Being good at self-defense is just like any other sport. Practice. Practice. Practice. You don't go pick up a baseball for the first time, throw it for an hour, and then go tryout for the the Atlanta Braves. If that sounds ridiculous to you, so should a one day self-defense class.

Good self-defense training starts with basic drilling. This includes the correct way to fall and move with someone on top of you. This should then be accompanied by situational drilling and finally 80-90% sparring.
No matter how you train, you will always be scared if you are attacked. But that is good. You should be scared. It gives you drive, helps with alertness, and the adrenalin will give you additional strength you didn't know you had, plus it rids you of the cockiness. You can't defeat everyone but beating the person to a pulp isn't the only way to win. Sometimes not losing is winning. If I am able to hold an attacker in a position where I am not getting hurt and he is having to use energy, this is a win. Most people are not conditioned enough to fight longer than 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Women or men should really look for a self-defense class that is at least once a week and about 1.5 hours. It should incorporate both aggressive defensive and offensive techniques. This is important to developing good posturing. I personally think Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai are the best for self defense but they definitely are not the only ones. Find an instructor you are comfortable with and a facility you like. Stepping on the mat is the first step.
Remember there is no fair fight, elbows and knees are your friend. Give yourself the advantage, be a survivor! Fox Fitness offers a women's self defense class every Saturday 9-10:30.

90 Day Challenge Quickie Leg Workout

Quickie 10 Minute workout:
Need to get in a quickie (workout). Try this on for size. If you need to take a break between exercises make sure you keep moving. Try imaginary jump rope or jogging in place. The whole workout should take about 10 minutes.
1. Body Weight squat holds (lower yourself to a good squatting position hold for 30 seconds) then perform 10 body weight squats rest 10 seconds then repeat.
2. 30 Alternating Lunges
3. 40 Calf raises/40 toe raises (perform the toe raises sitting in a chair with your hands on knees for light resistance- this exercise is great to help prevent shin splints)
4. 100 jumping jacks
5. Sumo squat holds (lower yourself to a good squatting position hold feet slightly farther than shoulder with and pointed slightly outward hold for 20 seconds) then perform 10 sumo squats rest 10 seconds then repeat.
6. 30 leg raises (to start lay on the floor with both legs on the floor, press firmly with your left leg into the floor as if you were trying to do a reverse plank then lift your right leg off the floor till perpendicular then lower back down to the floor repeat 15 times then switch legs)

Aspartame- the forbidden fruit? Or is it?

As per request I have done a short review on aspartame. You are welcome.
Aspartame is an artificial, nonnutrive, non-saccharide sweetener used as a sugar substitute; it has a melting point of 478 deg F (if you were interested but not particularly relevant to the article). It hides behind the names NutraSweet, Equal and others. After being ingested aspartame breaks to phenylalanine, an amino acid.

NOTE: people who have phenylketonuria (PKU) should avoid unofficial sweeteners like the plague to prevent illness. PKU is an inherited disease in which a baby is born without the ability to properly break down the amino acid phenylalanine (phenylalanine is found in NutraSweet).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration say an intake of 50mg per 1kg of body weight of aspartame is acceptable (SAFE?). The average diet pop contains around 180-225mg of aspartame with one packet of Equal provides 35 mg. This means a 170lb male can consume 3,863mg of aspartame or 17 diet sodas (WHAT). Hopefully that is way more than what you would normally consume. Users of aspartame have reported a number of side effects to include headaches, weight gain, fatigue, irritability, heart palpitations, dizziness, insomnia, and seizures.

In 1990 the American Society for Clinical Nutrition found that drinks sweetened with artificial sweeteners (namely aspartame) significantly reduced calorie intake of both males and females as compared to High Fructose Corn Syrup. That sounds awesome right; well another study by the same journal found that high levels of aspartame can generate major neurochemical changes especially when combined with carbohydrates. Now this was seen in rats, so it may not be directly related to humans. Some research has linked certain cancers as well as premature birth with aspartame.

The research that has been done on aspartame has been relatively inconclusive over the years your best bet is to stay away from too many processed foods. They just aren’t good for you. There are some advantages for aspartame though I don’t think they outweigh the possible negatives. Since aspartame does not contain any fat, calories, or sugar it’s good for those on a diet (but so is just eating healthier foods). Diabetics can safely consume aspartame, and it doesn’t cause tooth decay (this does not mean that it prevents it rather that the decay causing bacteria do not consume aspartame-jeeze if bacteria don’t even want it why would you?)

New News On High Fructose Corn Syrup

As most people know, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a cheap sweetener used in everything from pop to ketchup to snack bars. It has long been shamed as being the ingredient in the epidemic of obesity. After the most recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association led by Kathleen Page, those initial findings may be right.

The study looked at the effects of fructose on the hypothalamus using fMRIs (functional magnetic resonance imaging). The hypothalamus regulates many hunger related signals. Participants received 300 ml of a cherry flavored drink sweetened with equivalent amounts of either glucose or HFCS. The subjects showed substantial differences in hypothalamic activity. Glucose lowered the amount of activity where as fructose prompted a spike. The subjects were also given a survey on the feeling of fullness/hunger following the drinks. Partipants who consumed the glucose flavored drink said they were much more satiated following the glucose drink.

Though glucose and fructose look similar, fructose requires less insulin than glucose. The release of insulin into the blood stream is another signal to the body. Fructose also decreases the amount of ghrelin (a hunger signaling hormone) circulating in the blood stream.

The take home message--- check the labels of the food you put in your body. As a general rule of thumb you can say that foods with HFCS are highly processed and generally junk. Stay away from them. The best bet is to shop on the outside of the grocery isle. Fruits, veggies, meat, grains. The only thing you may have to venture to the center for is the grains. Good luck and happy foraging. If you have questions or need help reaching your weight loss goals, please check us out at www.foxfitnessbjj.com. We are more than willing to have one our fitness experts to help you on your path to healthy living.