Thursday, April 25, 2024

Guide to Strength Training

Regular aerobic exercise, such as running or using a stationary bike, makes your muscles use oxygen more efficiently and strengthens your heart and lungs. When you strength train with weights, you’re using your muscles to work against the extra pounds (this concept is called resistance). This strengthens and increases the amount of muscle mass in your body by making your …

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Staying Focused on Homework

Learning how to focus and get something done is about more than just good grades — it’s the foundation for success in life. Mastering the skills of getting organized, staying focused and seeing work through to the end will help in just about everything you do. You probably know the basics by now, but here’s a helpful refresher. Get Organized …

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Dealing with Peer Pressure

When you were a little kid, your parents usually chose your friends, putting you in playgroups or arranging playdates with certain children they knew and liked. Now that you’re older, you decide who your friends are and what groups you spend time with. Your friends — your peers — are people your age or close to it who have experiences …

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Five Ways to Ace Your Next Job Interview

You’ve probably heard your parents talk about the importance of making a good first impression on a job interview. Their “dress for success” talk may sound like a lecture, but they;re are right. Here are some additional tips to help you do your best at your next job interview. Dress the part. Even if the job you’re applying for involves …

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Heat Illness in High School Athletics

The Centers for Disease Control reported that heat illness was a leading cause of death and disability of high school athletes from 2005-2009.  Fortunately, heat illness is 100 percent preventable with the appropriate knowledge and procedures in place. While about 70 percent of high school athletes who suffer from heat illness are football players, girls volleyball and girls soccer are …

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Body Image and Teenagers

Do you ever notice how the person on the cover of your favorite fashion, teen or celebrity magazine doesn’t even vaguely resemble what most people around you look like?  Retouching techniques, which include airbrushing, create an image of someone that is unrealistic.  Their features become too perfect — unachievable by most human standards.  In fact, it isn’t uncommon for the …

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Leg Exercise — Single Leg Strengthening to Improve Performance

For ages, the squat was the most widely used exercise to improve lower body strength. As the strength and conditioning profession has evolved, the emphasis on many programs has switched to single-leg exercises to improve strength, power, stability and performance. This is not to say that the squat should no longer be a part of your strength program, but that …

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Understanding the Different Types of Ankle Sprains

A sprained ankle is a very common injury for teens — athletes and non-athletes alike. It happens when the ligaments that support the ankle get overly stretched or torn. Sprained ankles can happen when you step in a hole, slip walking downhill or just put your weight down on your foot awkwardly. Some sprained ankles are minor injuries that heal …

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Recruiting 101

Each year, high school student-athletes have dreams of being recruited and offered scholarships. For many families, the entire recruiting process is completely overwhelming, misleading and frustrating, because families may not understand what is involved in college recruiting. College recruiting is a game, like any other sport athletes have ever played. An athlete must practice in order to play, and he …

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Online Identity

Ashley is a high-school junior and she and her friends use MySpace to communicate, but she’s very careful about the information, pictures and comments she sends and posts — even though her profile is set to private. She knows that nothing is ever really private online. “I know teens who have gotten kicked off their sports teams because of pictures …

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The Buzz on Energy Drinks

  Energy drinks and nutrition bars often make big promises. Some say they’ll increase energy and alertness, others offer extra nutrition and some even claim to boost your athletic performance or powers of concentration. But once you cut through the hype and look past the flashy packaging on energy products, chances are what you’re mostly getting is a stiff dose …

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How to make homework less work

Do algebra problems 15 through 25. Conjugate the verbs on page 50 of your French workbook. Read pages 12 through 20 of the Shakespeare play, and when you’re finished with that, don’t forget to fill in the missing chemical symbols on the Periodic Table of Elements worksheet. Sound like a roster of your homework for the next few nights — …

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Money for College

Most parents and students at this time of year are in the final decision making process of college selection and resultant funding.  Years ago, colleges looked at financial aid as a charitable operation run within their institutions.  With college costs now higher than ever, this has changed dramatically.  Financial aid has now become a strategic tool that is commonly used …

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How to Deal With Stress

Do you feel like there are too many pressures and demands on you? Do you lose sleep worrying about tests and schoolwork? Do you eat on the run because your schedule is just too busy? You’re not alone. Everyone experiences stress at times — adults, teens and kids. But, there are ways to minimize stress and manage the stress that’s …

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How to Avoid Dehydration

Dehydration is a condition that occurs when someone loses more fluids than he or she takes in. Although dehydration isn’t as serious a problem for teens as it can be for babies or young children, it can slow you down. Our bodies are about two-thirds water. When someone gets dehydrated, it means the amount of water in his or her …

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