Health tips

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 05 Dec 2004 18:51

I dunno if many people will find this that interesting - but I've found myself starting to be pretty hardcore on how I look after my body for footbag.

The problem is that I've always been a really healthy fit person - and so have never worried about looking after my body too much before.

Still I'm noticing lots of improvements and I thought maybe we could share advice on health. This isn't about injuries - it has nothing to do with injuries please don't mention injuries.

First I only try and eat healthy food. I'm not too concerned about fat or energy contents - since I need a lot - but mainly I eat lots of fruit and veges. Bananas are meant to be especially good so I eat maybe one a day. I also drink lots of juice and water. The juice is really good - it makes me feel more energetic. Also it's juiced in a shred juicer rather than a centrafugal juicer (not sure what the technical names are) so I don't lose any of the vitamins etc.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 05 Dec 2004 19:00

1. Don`t wear socks which are too small for you.
2. Play flipsided as much as possible (by using both legs equally, you are less likely to injure yourself).
3. Stretch and warm-up, even when you aren`t injured. I sometimes stretch or do shin exercises on days when I don`t play footbag.
4. Stay hydrated when you play. Water is best, sports drinks like gatorade are also good, carbonated drinks are bad.

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 05 Dec 2004 19:15

I stretch every morning before I got to school no matter what. It helps for leg flexibility which can come in handy. I also have a lot of friends that play Football so they're always in the weight room, so usually I go in about once of week and work my legs. I've noticed this helps A LOT for balance and setting, I can set clipper extremely high now to about anywhere I want. If your school has an open weight room, or you belong to a gym, try to get in their semi-consistently to work out your legs.

Edit: Lifting also protects you from tears or pulls.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 05 Dec 2004 19:19

Yeah with what Ken said about water.

I try and drink both water and then later in the session - a sports drink. Water is good - but it washes out a lot of electrolytes and stuff like that - and can end up making you dehydrated even though you are drinking lots of water. Sports drinks replace this - so if you are shredding for a long time and drinking water regularly they will do a lot for you. People come up with all this shit about how they have so many electrolytes that they actually dehydrate you and that water is absorbed into the body much faster than a sports drink. This is true - but it's bullshit. You should only drink sports drinks when you are also drinking lots of water - sports drinks work to counteract the effects of drinking "too much" water. Drinking a sports drink for another reason is a waste of time and you shouldn't do it.

brian relly · Post by **brian relly** » 05 Dec 2004 19:30

C-Fan wrote:1. Don`t wear socks which are too small for you.

Why is this?

I generally stay away from Gatorade, as it's pretty much just flavored sugar water these days. I try to eat a fair amount of food and vegetables, and I drink a lot of juice and water (at least a quart a day). I eat a lot of starch, too (bananas (really really good. eat a lot of these), potatos, pasta, bread, etc.).
Sometimes I munch on some chocolate before a session too, for that bit of extra energy.

Edit: Nuts and Beans are really really healthy, too.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 05 Dec 2004 19:41

I think it's actually really bad for your performance if you eat sugary stuff before playing sport. You should do it afterwards to replace your energy levels - but I think if you do it before hand it will make your muscles weaker and less controlled.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 05 Dec 2004 20:06

Wow. This is such a brilliant topic! Thanks Jeremy!!
I, too, have become a lot more concerned with my overall health. I eat REALLY badly. Right now I am concentrating more on the immediate care of my injury. I also am more concerned and aware of my posture and use of my back. I try to be bothsided in everyday things, like climbing the ladder to the second floor at work -- I was leaning to my flipside today as I climbed.

I remember at CSS4 when I went grocery shopping with Sam Colclough and Chris Pinkus they were all talking about all this health stuff that I didn't understand and all. I bought a box of crackers and it's all I ate that weekend. They were arguing about which product had more calories and all of this jazz. So cool!

KronoKicker · Post by **KronoKicker** » 05 Dec 2004 20:36

The "don't wear socks that are too small" comment is probably because this will reduce blood flow to your feet which isn't good. This also why i don't wear my shoes tied really tight.

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » 05 Dec 2004 23:03

Someone told me:

a) Stretching before you shred is good, but it's stretching after you’re done which is imperative.

b) As you build a lot of leg muscles, you lose flexibility. so it's super important to stretch after you do leg lifts or anything that builds a lot of muscles with your legs to prevent that loss.

Can anyone who's informed tell me if these are correct?

_________________
Emily Kulczyk
"If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail."

ShredPirate · Post by **ShredPirate** » 05 Dec 2004 23:27

a doctor told me that gatorade is actually better than water in circumstances that would normally dehydrate you. if you only drink water, eventually you lose alot of your bodies ability to retain water, because your sodium becomes dilluted. so the 2% D/V or whatever sodium that gatorade has is good. it also has potassium which will help you not to feel too sore the next day. i'm not positive, but i think i remember gatorade having almost no sugar whatsoever. i remember powerade had alot more sugar.

Jas · Post by **Jas** » 06 Dec 2004 02:04

yeh ive become a lot more healthy now that ive started playing footbag. i drink shitloads of water, i drink no soda shit wotsoever coz its obviously bad for u if u trick too much. Every mornin i have a sweet potato which is good protein and is one of the healthiest things u can eat (info from one of the best asian docs in the world). I try not to eat to many cheesy stuff and fatty stuff especially foods with a lot of saturated fat. Sugar is alright, as long as u use it.
After comparing my body to ales, ive now bought a small gym set (dumbells barbells) and now starting a gym regime every week, 3 days a week, the rest of the days are for resting muscles, and i take 97%whey protein everyday starting today. Footbag for me now is just a cardio workout but learning some new stuff at the same time. My focus now is gym and footbag, so i wont be playing footbag as often as i used to now.
So yeh, i reckon ive become a health fanatic or somethin like that now...

Jas

LittleBoy footbag · Post by **LittleBoy footbag** » 06 Dec 2004 12:26

I don't know... my metabolism is that of a school girl. But I try to watch out what I eat. It's not like I wake up and have abox of Twinkies then on the way to my bus, I have half a box then at school, thre more boxes but I try to eat what' Necessary and not too much of what isn't. Just use common sense in what you eat. If it's fattening, it probably is not the best. To a certain extent, it is good but not all the time.

For me, I just keep footbag in my life:

When I stand in line, I tend to give myself some space. Then, I just do small leg excercises. I look mental to the people behind me but it works.

I also play air-footbag. When I'm in that line, I visualize a footbag and start "shredding" in thin air.

Anyways, go to hood's site i think it's like,

http://www.hoodshouse.com or something like that.... he has great stuff. This guy is awesome!

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 06 Dec 2004 21:59

Yeah so I'm all healthy for the time being so I'll chime in.

-my diet has consited of: vegtibles, bread, eggs, beans and fruit. and vegitarian subway subs, only $3.50(because I need some fast food).
I never particuarly liked vegtables but if you put lots of different kinds together in a frieing pan and add some lemon juice and put it on bread with mustard, its a awsome lunch.
- not many people advocate this but I lift weights every day. Its because I lift REALY light wieghts. If I feel a burn at all after 15 reps I'll lighten the load. I use this as a non jarring arobic workout.
- streching. I still need to do more of this. It's all about finding a routine and sticking to it. work in progress.

Yeah so being healthy feels great especialy when you've been 20lbs overweight for you're whole life. 20lbs equals a whole lot more spring in one's shred. I'll see if I can keep up this crazy regiment for a few more months.

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 06 Dec 2004 22:26

i'm not a very helthy person at all, but i'm changing that. i used to be healthier in the spring and summer, but alas, i've dropped the ball and am trying to pick it up again. my diet consists of the following: coffee, beer, scotch, cigarettes, and pizza. i don't strech befor or after a session, i don't drink alot of water any more, my coffee intake it up around 10-20 cups daily (which is down from the 30-40 it used to be), i smoke like a house on fire, i eat one meal a day and it's usually pizza and i often drink to the point where when i wake up in the morning i start my day by saying "my liver hurts".
look at me now. i'm injured (and i'm gussing it's from a lack of streching), i can't play footbag, i feel pretty lousy, and i'm sick pretty often. i don't really like that, so i am going to go back to my yoga, get my mind into a place where i want to be healthier (because that's the hardest part), find a routine and stick with it.

comastalker · Post by **comastalker** » 07 Dec 2004 00:08

look about how much fat and sugar you consume (glucose is important also) and learn something about osmosis (it really is good to understand your cellular mechanics and why gatorade may be good and why a lot of water without something else is bad; e.g. it may be good to mix your water with salt; learn about mixing isotonic salt-saccharine-water with a bit of glucose; it's perfect for training)

lightningbolt · Post by **lightningbolt** » 07 Dec 2004 00:29

I'm not that healthy either. If it wasn't for my fast metabolism (sic) I be fat. I don't drink alot of water. I have about one rockstar engery drink a day. That can't ba good for me. At home I eat very healthy since my parents are health freak but at school I lose everything they taught me. Today for lunch I had a bags of fritos, 2 oreos, and a rockstar. Ah, that was good stuff. I also drink. Not that much but I do and that isn't good for you since a light beer has like 200 calories.

I'm trying to do better because my metabolism is going to slow down here soon.

ptaku · Post by **ptaku** » 07 Dec 2004 01:35

I live helthy, but I'm still sick... I'm sick (on average) one time in month for 1,5 week. Between may and december I'm not sick, but when it comes to november i'm still sick to late spring... Maybe it's because of my allergy on almost everything?

Oh... and my injury... I sprained my ankle in may I tored ligaments and damaged cartilage on one of the bones in ankle... I can play when i do very solid warm-up, almost without any pain, but I can't do any hard trick's (ex. symposium) with landing on this leg...

Now, beside this one, I hadn't any injury since september...

I had problems with knees but cycle riding and some strenght training helped me...

I stretch at every session, and at school on sport lessons. I make some strenght training at my house, but without any weight lifting. I train with my body weight.
After each strenght training and shred-session I eat products with lots of carbohydrates and proteins to make my muscles recovery faster. It's important to eat somehing about 90 g of carbohydrates in first 45 minutes after training.

Maybe in another post in this topic I will write something else.

Oh... and I know what i write... I'm only 17 year and few months old, but I' 'in sport' for almost 12 years. I was training soccer, basketball, Aikido, Karate Shotokan, Volleyball and now I train footbag freestyle. And I know what is good for me.