Five Important Reasons Girls Should Play Sports

Why play sports? You might say "to get exercise" and you’d be right. To have fun? That’s true, too. But there’s more. In fact, there are at least 5 more reasons. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, girls who play sports get a lot more than just fit.

1.Girls who play sports do better in school. You might think that athletics will take up all your study time. But research shows that girls who play sports do better in school than those who don’t. Exercise improves learning, memory, and concentration, which can give active girls an advantage in the classroom.

2.Girls who play sports learn teamwork and goal-setting skills. Sports teaches valuable life skills. When you working with coaches, trainers, and teammates to win games and achieve goals, you’re learning how to be successful. Those skills will serve you well at work and in family life.

3.Sports are good for a girl’s health. In addition to being fit and maintaining a healthy weight, girls who play sports are also less likely to smoke. And later in life, girls who exercise are less likely to get breast cancer or osteoporosis.

4.Playing sports boosts self-confidence. Girls who play sports feel better about themselves. Why? It builds confidence when you know you can practice, improve, and achieve your goals. Sports are also a feel-good activity because they help girls get in shape, maintain a healthy weight, and make new friends.

5.Exercise cuts the pressure. Playing sports can lessen stress and help you feel a little happier. How? The brain chemicals released during exercise improve a person’s mood. Friends are another mood-lifter. And being on a team creates tight bonds between friends. It’s good to know your teammates will support you — both on and off the field!

Five Important Reasons Girls Should Play Sports

Information about anemia

To understand anemia (say: uh-nee-mee-uh), it helps to know a little bit about breathing. Have you ever tried to hold your breath? At first, you feel fine. After a short time, though, you need to take a breath. That’s because when we breathe, our lungs take in oxygen (say: ok-sih-jen) from the air. We need oxygen to live.

We also need a way to get the oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. Blood flows like a river through every part of the body. The blood carries the oxygen, but the oxygen needs something to hang on to. It needs a boat — and the boats that carry oxygen are red blood cells.

Red blood cells (or RBCS, for short) are made inside the bones in the soft, spongy area called the bone marrow (say: mar-o). So every time you take a breath, you breathe in oxygen. And your RBCs carry oxygen to every cell in your body.

What Is Anemia? Anemia occurs when a person doesn’t have the normal amount of red blood cells or if the person is low on hemoglobin (say: hee-muh-glow-bin). Hemoglobin, a protein, is an important part of RBCs because it gives the oxygen something to stick to.

A kid who has anemia may not know it because he or she may not have any symptoms. Looking pale can be a sign of anemia because there is less blood flowing through the blood vessels in the skin. A fast heartbeat can be another sign of anemia, because when you don’t have as many RBCs, the heart has to work harder to get the same amount of blood and oxygen to the body. If anemia worsens, a kid who was once very active may become worn out quickly. He or she may feel weak or tired.

Why Do Kids Get Anemia? The bone marrow in a person’s body makes new red blood cells to replace the old ones that die off after about 120 days.

A person may get anemia if:

•not enough RBCs are made •too many RBCs are destroyed •too many RBCs are lost (bleeding)

Not enough being made: There are several reasons why a person might not make enough red blood cells, but often it’s because the person isn’t getting enough iron. Iron is a nutrient found in meat, dried beans, and green leafy vegetables. Without iron, the body can’t make hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying part of a red blood cell.

Besides iron, your body needs the vitamins B12 and folic acid to make RBCs. You get these vitamins in the foods you eat. Vitamin B12 is found in animal products, so vegetarians who don’t eat meat, eggs, or dairy products have to look for other ways to get enough of this important vitamin. Folic acid is found in a variety of foods, such as citrus fruits, green vegetables, and fortified cereals.

Anemia also can develop if the bone marrow is not working properly. This may be because of an infection or a chronic illness, such as arthritis or kidney disease. In rare cases, someone might be born without the ability to make enough red blood cells. Certain medications like chemotherapy for cancer can keep the bone marrow from being able to make enough RBCs.

Too many being destroyed: If the life of a red blood cell is cut short for any reason, the bone marrow may not be able to keep up with the increased demand for new ones. One reason RBCs get destroyed is because their shape changes. If you looked at them through a microscope, you would see that they are round and flattened. That’s a good shape for moving through tight spaces as blood circulates around the body.

If the shape changes, as is the case in sickle cell anemia, the red blood cells get stuck and break. Sickle cells are curved like crescent moons. This shape makes it hard for them to move throughout the body. Sickle cell anemia is one of several genetic conditions that can shorten the life span of RBCs. Certain medications, infections, and chronic diseases also may cause this type of anemia.

Too much lost: When you lose a little blood, like when you cut yourself or have a nosebleed, your bone marrow is able to make more blood so you don’t develop anemia. But if you lose a lot of blood, which may happen in a serious accident, your bone marrow may not be able to replace the red blood cells quickly enough.

If someone loses a little blood over a long period of time, it can also lead to anemia by losing more iron in the lost blood than is taken into the body by food you eat. Without enough iron in the body, the bone marrow can’t make enough RBCs. This can happen in girls who have heavy menstrual periods, especially if they don’t get enough iron in their diets, or in people who have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

What Do Doctors Do? When you see the doctor, he or she will examine you and ask questions about how you have been feeling, what you eat, and if you are taking any medicines. If a doctor thinks a kid has anemia, he or she can order a simple blood test called a hematocrit (say: hih-mah-tuh-krit).

The blood sample then can be studied in the laboratory where the number of RBCs can be counted, the amount of hemoglobin can be measured, and the size and shape of the cells can be examined. A doctor may order additional tests, depending on what he or she suspects is the problem.

How Is Anemia Treated? The treatment of anemia depends on the cause. In kids, the most common cause of anemia is not getting enough iron in their diets. Some kids may need to take medicine containing iron to help their bodies make more red blood cells. It is also important to eat more foods that are rich in iron, like meat, enriched grains and cereals, dried beans, and tofu.

If the anemia is caused by an infection, usually the anemia will go away when the infection is treated and the body gets healthy again. For some other types of anemia, the kid may need to see a specialist and have additional tests before treatment can start.

Whatever the cause, someone with severe anemia may need a blood transfusion. A transfusion means that donated blood, which is stored at a place called a blood bank, is given through tube in a vein. This may sound a little scary, but millions of kids and adults have blood transfusions every year. Except for inserting the tube, they don’t hurt. And getting a blood transfusion is the fastest way to get blood to deliver oxygen to all the cells in the body.

Kids who have anemia may have to take it easy for a while. But once their bodies start making enough red blood cells, oxygen can reach all their tissues again, and they’ll get some of that kid energy back!

Information about anemia

How to Burn Fat Faster

Exercise to lose weight fast. Here’s how to push your body into the ultimate workout zone.

For almost two decades, we’ve been hearing the seductive call of the "fat-burning zone," in which you burn a greater percentage of fat calories. And, we’ve been told, you get there by doing moderate—not hard—exercise.

Turns out, it’s not that simple. The catch? When you exercise at 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate, in that so-called "zone," you burn fewer calories per minute during and after your workout. To crank your metabolism, you need to push your body harder—a lot harder.

The Exertion Scale Picture your activity level on a spectrum. On one end is the effortless kind, like sitting at your desk or walking to a meeting. "When you’re not exerting yourself, your body actually burns a higher percentage of calories from fat than it does when you’re active," says Alex Koch, Ph.D., an associate professor of health and exercise sciences at Truman State University in Missouri. That’s partly why the "fat-burning zone" was so appealing—it sounds awesome. But of course that doesn’t mean sitting at your desk or wandering the halls at work will shrink your hips faster than doing jumping jacks or running a sprint will. "You’re maybe burning one to two calories a minute," Koch explains, "which doesn’t add up to a lot of fat."

Toward the other end of the activity spectrum is a superintense workout that sends your heart rate way beyond the classic fat-burning zone. At this point, your body needs quick energy, so it starts burning less flab and turns instead to carbohydrates, which enter the bloodstream faster than fat does. The upside: The harder you work, the more calories you burn. "At your max effort, you could be burning 20 to 30 calories a minute," Koch says. And more calories burned, of course, equals more pounds lost.

In fact, research shows that the harder you go, the better. "Besides burning more calories per minute, high-intensity exercise—such as intervals, in which you alternate between short, hard efforts and easy periods or complete rest—unleashes a flood of hormones, including epinephrine, which helps your body burn calories even when you’re not working out," Koch says. For example, people who cycled at a high intensity for 20 minutes torched more calories for hours after their workouts than they did after cycling at a low intensity for 30 to 60 minutes, according to a study reported in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. "Exercising in the classic fat-burning zone doesn’t offer these benefits," he says.

The New Fat-Burning Zone That doesn’t mean light-to moderate-intensity exercise is out of the picture. Mellow efforts can still be part of your workout: As a warmup or cooldown, they ease your body into and out of an intense session. They also reduce stress, amp up your cardiovascular health, increase bone density, and, of course, burn off some calories.

However, to fry flab faster, follow the principles of interval training. You’ll know you’re in the zone when you combine short bursts of activity that require you to breathe so hard you can’t utter a word, followed by easier efforts that let you catch your breath. This new fat-burning zone isn’t really a single zone at all. It’s more like a cocktail of efforts that, when mixed together the right way, delivers a mega calorie crush to reveal a slimmer physique.

Try this workout two or three times a week for maximum results:

1. Pick your cardio of choice (bike, elliptical, treadmill, pool, rowing machine, or running outdoors at a park or track), and then estimate your maximum heart rate using this easy formula: 220 - your age = max heart rate. (So if you’re 28, your max heart rate would be roughly 192 beats per minute.)

2. Warm up for 10 minutes at a low intensity. Like we said, the old-school "fat-burning zone" can still fit into your workout.

3. Speed up until you’re sprinting at 90 percent of your max heart rate; continue at that pace for 20 to 30 seconds.

4. Return to a low intensity until your heart rate drops to about 120 beats per minute, usually about two to four minutes, depending on your fitness level.

5. Do another 20-to 30-second sprint, followed by another round of active recovery. Continue until you have done a total of six to eight intervals.

6. Cool down at a very low intensity (such as walking on the treadmill) for at least five to 10 minutes before stopping exercise completely.

How to Burn Fat Faster

Strength Training Guide For Women Fitness

Tackle daunting machines and dumbbells with this guide—and burn more fat

Lifting weights has some seriously cool benefits: It increases lean muscle mass, which boosts metabolism and helps torch calories and shed stubborn fat. It also improves the quality of your sleep, wards off back pain, and protects you from disease.

Despite all this, many women dodge the dumbbells at the gym—in fact, only 21 percent strength-train two or three times a week. It may be that the rest are misguided, feel intimidated, or are just plain avoiding it!

Well, the excuses end here. We enlisted top trainers to create this easy-to-follow weight-room cheat sheet. The payoff of pumping more iron will be a leaner, sexier you.

1. Have a Plan When you enter an unfamiliar situation (say, the free-weight zone), your body will naturally freeze for a moment and only your eyes will move, says body-language expert Patti Wood, author of Success Signals: Body Language in Business. It’s an obvious physical sign that you’re confused. Decide beforehand what you’ll do as soon as you go into the room. For example, make a beeline for the dumbbells. But which ones? Lifting too much too soon can hurt your form and put you at risk for injury, but grabbing two-pounders won’t get you results. New York City personal trainer Dan Ownes gives a head-to-toe exercise barometer of just-right weights for beginners:

If you’re doing...lateral raises Start with...2.5 to 5 pounds in each hand

If you’re doing...biceps curls Start with...5 to 8 pounds in each hand

If you’re doing...flat-bench dumbbell rows Start with...12 to 20 pounds

If you’re doing...chest presses Start with...12 pounds (body bar) to 45 pounds

If you’re doing...squats Start with...zero (body weight) to 45 pounds

2. Stay Steady The occasional slam of a weight stack is par for the course when you’re using resistance equipment like the cable machine or seated leg press, but causing a storm of noise is a classic newbie doh! And it’s more than just bad manners. "Lowering the weight without control can result in injury," says Brad Schoenfeld, owner of the Personal Training Center for Women in Scarsdale, New York, and author of Women’s Home Workout Bible. "It can also prevent you from getting the tone you’re after, because you don’t work through the full range of motion." Lower the weights slowly enough that you can perform every rep of the exercise with good form (and less clanking!).

3. Breathe Easy Even seasoned lifters sometimes forget to breathe during a tough move. But it’s counterproductive. "You starve the body of oxygen, which forces your heart to work a lot harder," says certified strength and conditioning specialist Josh Kernen, owner of Bridgetown Physical Therapy & Training Studio in Portland, Oregon. Exhale during the major exertion in each move, and inhale while returning to the starting position.

4. Break a Sweat Go full-steam, or you might as well go home. A good way to gauge your effort: Monitor how hard you feel like your body is working. It’s called your rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and it’s usually measured on a scale of one to 10, with one being very little exertion (like lounging in bed) and 10 being the max (running away from an angry dog). To build and tone muscle, aim for an RPE of at least seven or eight during workouts, says Kernen. "Even if you’re happy with your tone, you still have to hit six or seven to maintain muscle mass."

5. Think Total Body Your muffin top may be the only thing that’s motivating you to hit the gym, but it’s a mistake to attack just your least-favorite assets. "Spot-reducing exercises simply don’t work," says Schoenfeld. Full-body workouts torch fat more efficiently because they build more lean muscle mass, which in turn burns more calories per day. And think about it: Wouldn’t you rather eradicate all your jiggle?

The Lingo Common need-to-know gym terms...defined

Circuit A workout format that incorporates strength exercises, performed with little or no rest between each exercise. One entire round of each move is considered one circuit.

Collar The safety mechanism, usually round, that you put next to the last weight on a barbell to keep the weight from falling off during a workout.

Contraction The activation of functioning muscle or muscle fiber.

Types of contractions: • Concentric: The shortening of muscle fibers during the lifting portion of the exercise (e.g., lifting a dumbbell during a biceps curl). • Eccentric: The lengthening of muscle fibers during the lowering portion of an exercise (e.g., lowering a dumbbell during a biceps curl).

Grip A grasp, hold, or control. Usually refers to the placement of your hands on a bar or dumbbell.

Types of grips: • Neutral grip: Palms facing each other • Pronated grip: Palms facing down or back. Also called an overhand grip. • Supinated grip: Palms facing up or forward. Also called a reverse grip or underhand grip.

Superset Completing an exercise with one main muscle group, followed by another exercise with the opposing muscle group, with little or no rest in between.

Work in To share gym equipment. Complete a set, let them do a set, and continue alternating until you’re finished.

 Strength Training Guide For Women Fitness