SWIMMING TUTORIAL VIDEOS.

Basic swimming fitness plan.

Getting the best from your local pool with Katie Houlbrook

Rebecca Adlington's Top Training Tips.

WALKING AND HEALTH. FROM THE BUPA WEBSITE.

Walking and health

Published by Bupa's health information team, healthinfo@bupa.com, April 2008

This article looks at the benefits of walking, outlining the practical as well as health advantages.

Walking can help you to reach the recommended minimum of at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise, five days a week. Regular walking protects you against a range of illnesses and can also be an efficient way to travel. You can easily build walks into a busy lifestyle without having to set aside time for exercise.

A great way to travel

Walking is a good means of transport because it's:

• convenient - it's handy for getting you from one place to another
• free - walk to your destination and you can stop worrying about the price of petrol, parking and fares
• predictable - you know how fast you can walk so you are in control of your journey times
• stress-free - if you can walk some or all of the way to work, you can forget about late buses and trains, and other unwelcome journey interruptions
• good for the environment - getting out of your car and onto your feet will reduce pollution and road congestion
• sociable - you can stop and chat to your friends and neighbours, which you can't do when you are in your car
• safe - as long as you don't walk alone at night and take care crossing roads

A good form of exercise

Walking is a great way to meet the recommended target of at least 30 minutes moderate exercise, five times a week. Get into the habit of walking and you will reap the health rewards now and in the future.

Boost your fitness

Exercise that raises your heart rate is aerobic exercise and helps you to get fitter. This means your body gets better at using oxygen so you can be more active without getting tired. Brisk walking that raises your heart rate and makes you warm and a bit breathless is a great example of aerobic exercise.

Stay in shape

If you want to lose excess weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat. You need to lose about 3,500 calories in order to lose 0.5kg of fat. In the average 60kg person, brisk walking - this is about 6.4km per hour (4 miles per hour) - for half an hour uses up around 150 calories.

For most people, a healthy aim is to achieve a calorie deficit of 500 per day (3,500 a week) for a weight loss of around 0.5kg a week, by reducing food intake and exercising. But even without changing your diet, if you start walking just over 3km (2 miles) a day, you will achieve a calorie deficit of 150 a day and could lose around 0.5kg every three weeks.

Feel happier

Getting enough exercise improves your mood, reduces stress and anxiety and builds self-esteem. So walking to work could help you start the day feeling calmer and happier.

Improve your brain power

As you get older, the risk of developing confusion, dementia and Alzheimer's disease increases. Regular exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of this.

It's not just older people whose brains are boosted - walking to school might also improve academic performance in children.

Feel full of energy

You might worry that walking every day will leave you exhausted. Although you may feel a bit more tired in the first week or two, people who exercise regularly generally feel they have more energy than inactive people.

Sleep well

Regular physical activity promotes better sleep. An after-dinner stroll might help you wind down for bed. However, try to avoid strenuous exercise within four hours of going to bed if you suffer from insomnia, because this could actually make you more alert.

Experience better back health

Walking can help prevent back pain and alleviate it if it's already a problem for you.

Reduce joint pain

For your joints to work at their best, you need to use them regularly. Regular walking gives your knee joints a good work-out and prevents your thigh muscles from becoming weak. This can also help to keep your bones strong. Leading a generally active lifestyle, including walking, can help protect against osteoarthritis - painful inflammation of joints.

Walking is an excellent choice of exercise if you already suffer from arthritis problems or if you have osteoporosis (weak bones), because it doesn't put a lot of impact on your joints.

Walking and your future health

As well as keeping you fit and in good shape, staying active will help you prevent a whole range of health problems in the future. Meeting recommended physical activity targets by walking reduces your risk of:

• high blood pressure
• high cholesterol
• coronary heart disease (which can lead to angina, heart attack or stroke)
• type 2 diabetes
• certain types of cancer, especially colon, breast and lung cancer
• osteoporosis (weight-bearing exercise, such as walking, strengthens bones)

Key points

• Walking can be a free, easy and practical way to travel.
• Almost anyone can walk.
• Regular walking can improve your current health.
• Regular walking can help safeguard your health in the future.

Further information

• British Heart Foundation
  08450 70 80 70
  www.bhf.org.uk

BASIC PRESS-UPS.

How to do Pushups

Teaching kids to swim correctly.

How to Teach Kids to Swim the Right Way

Author: Kelly Chin

This is all down to the learning environment that they are exposed to. The reason that many children are not able to learn as effectively as they should is all down to both the learning environment and the very practitioner that is available in teaching the kids to swim in the first place. Many parents when they do choose the swimming lessons for their child only very often look for things like the credentials of the swimming instructor and of course, the track record of the school for producing the best swimmers out there.



These figures and data often do not reflect the actual learning environment that the child will be exposed to and unless you actually go down to the school and observe the swimming lessons as they take place, will you be able to figure out whether or not it is right for your child. But in the light that some parents might not have an insight to the sort of learning conditions that might be suitable. One of the most important things you should look out for is the make up of the class that your child will be exposed. Child psychologists often cite that children always perform better in a class that is filled with children within the same age ranges, children that can be considered their peers. In this way, there would be a less likely chance for class separation, shyness and a feeling that they do not look forward to the classes.



This is a dangerous combination for regressive learning, where the child will not only not want to go for the swimming lessons in general, but they view anything to do with swimming with a sort of emotional fear, which might develop later on into a sporadic fear or even a full fledged phobia. When they are placed in an environment where they can be with their peers, where they can have fun while learning at the same time; then the entire instructional process would become less so and more of an enjoyable activity. This of course promotes learning. Also, be sure to look our for things like class sizes. It should never be too big where the child gets lost in and too small that they feel too much in the focus of the teacher, where their faults and weaknesses will be viewed as much more than just something 'everyone' else has.



Also, the quality of the teacher is also very important. This is not so much an appraisal of their ability to teach, but their ability to connect with children at a very young age. The teacher must be able to understand children, their interactions with them and the class at pertinent to ensuring that the learning process is at an optimum. These are just some of the things to teach kids to swim the right way, a very experiential factor in ensuring that they come out both as winners and swimmers in their own right.

About the Author:

Article Source: www.linkroll.com -
How to Teach Kids to Swim the Right Way

Diving.

How to Dive off a Starting Block

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

In competitive swimming, a good dive off the starting block is essential to winning races and improving your times. If you watch any swimming star, such as Michael Phelps, you will notice that they all have a great dive that gets them far out into the pool in very little time. That of course is the goal of your dive. With some practice, you will have a better dive in no time.

Steps

1. Learn how to dive without a starting block. If you can't dive from flat ground into a pool, you definitely should not be diving off a starting block yet.
   
2. Step onto the starting block, only once you have learned the basics of diving. Start by placing one of your feet on front so the toes of that foot are over the edge. Place your other foot about shoulder-width behind you. It doesn't matter which foot is in front, you can experiment with both to see which you can dive better with. You should be facing toward the pool, remembering to breathe until the starter or your coach says, "take your mark."
   
3. Crouch down with your feet where they were and grab the front of the starting block with one hand at a time, once you hear, "take your mark." Bend down far enough so your chest is touching the top of your thighs. When you become better, you should be leaning enough forward so you feel like you could fall in at any time. Remember to remain still though until you hear the signal to go.
   
4. Jump off the block by pushing forward off it with your arms and legs simultaneously once you are given the signal to go. In the air, your arms should quickly move into the streamline position above your head. As you hit the water, make sure your head is tucked in and that you straighten your body out after you enter the water to avoid going to deep. Begin kicking immediately if you are doing freestyle, otherwise streamline until you slow down.
   

Tips

• Ask your coach to help you with your dive. They can tell you what you are doing wrong. If you are not on a swim team, ask someone at the pool if they know someone that can help you.
  
• Make sure your goggles are on securely. It is very easy for them to fall off or fill with water when you hit the surface.
  
• Practice, but not too much. It is more important to improve your stroke and turns. You only dive in once after all.
  
• Perfect this: it is the fastest part of your race.
  
• A swim cap can help your goggles stay on.
  

Warnings

• Never dive in water that is less than 12 feet deep.
  
• Never dive without proper knowledge and instruction. Also, never dive alone.
  
• Never dive from a starting block with fins on because the wearing of fins makes the diver unable to grip the edge of the pool or starting block with their toes. This creates the potential for the diver to slip, which can result in injury.
  

Things You'll Need

• A swimming pool with starting blocks
  
• Goggles
  
• A coach or companion to watch you
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Do a Dive
  
• How to Back Dive
  
• How to Do a Great Swimming Pullout
  
• How to Swim the Breaststroke
  
• How to Perform a Breaststroke Turn
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Dive off a Starting Block. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.