RSS Link: Core Performance

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Q: I'm planning to run up the Sears Tower. What's the best way to train? – Joe P, Santa Fe, New Mexico

A: For any stair climbing race, it's important to train in a real stairway, as opposed to just hopping on the stair climber at the gym. You can mix up your training with an occasional machine-based workout, but seek out stairs for the majority of your training so you're prepared and feel comfortable on race day.

Two or three times a week, perform intervals in which you run up several flights of stairs, walk down, and repeat. Each trip up and down is a repetition. Depending on your fitness level, start with a minute ascent, repeated for 4-6 repetitions. Add 30 seconds to your ascents every week to keep improving, and build up your total time based on the length of your race.

Running stairs will help you build leg strength, but you also need to work on endurance for a long race. Go for a longer run at an incline of 5-8%, or ride hills a couple times a week. You'll boost endurance for the race while giving your mind and body a break from the stairs.

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If you’re trying to be a more consistent free-throw shooter, putter, pitcher, field-goal kicker, tennis server or you name it, then you probably believe that you need to practice that skill repeatedly. Turns out you’re half right, according to Douglas Newburg, Ph.D. Although he’s a sports psychologist, he isn’t afraid to challenge the dictums of his profession. One of the biggest is that routine enhances performance. While it’s important to establish a mental and muscle memory of a key repetitive skill, he argues that it’s only beneficial to a point.

“When a routine becomes a matter of just going through the motions, it’s no longer doing what it was designed to do,” he notes. “If you shoot 500 free throws but don’t pay attention to how each one feels, you’ll stop improving and even develop bad habits.” So how do you know when diligent practice begins to have diminishing returns? Two things to watch for: First is a lack of motivation or an ongoing dread of doing the routine. When you’re bored and not paying attention, blips in the mechanics of the skill can arise without your noticing. The second sign is feeling you have to do the routine in order to be successful. In this respect, it becomes superstition. It’s effort for effort’s sake without any feedback.

“A routine is a shortcut that works for a time,” says Newburg. “But predictability, in anything, eventually keeps you from improving.” The antidote to all this is increased awareness. Practice is only practice if it’s done mindfully. One of the greatest golfers of all time, Ben Hogan, would hone his drive by hitting 50 balls in 2 hours. He’d think about each shot. He’d have a purpose for every ball. That’s practice.

This is life advice as well. Newburg contends that most people’s lives are 99 percent habit and routine. The commute, the job, the relationship, the workouts…have all become the mindless lobbing of endless free throws. In our striving for a better standard of living, our living has become standard. Rather than continuing to grow, our quality of life plateaus.

Newburg contends that leading a habitual life—what he calls “living on a checklist”—manifests itself as stress, chronic pain, insomnia, and even depression. Because we’re basically unchallenged 24/7, the energy we constantly produce has no outlet and turns into anxiety, restlessness, eating disorders, addiction, and even illness. Even if you’re constantly tired and are skeptical that you actually have excess energy, Newburg swears it’s there. For proof, he suggests doing 25 biceps curls with a pair of dumbbells or a set of push-ups. “Suddenly, all that energy you didn’t think you had shows up,” he points out.

The good news is you don’t have to quit your job, divorce your spouse or change your sport entirely to break out of this rut. Newburg says the habitual life is a fearful life, and you merely have to practice getting a little more courageous in everything you do, which is precisely the premise of this month’s One Small Change experiment. (Click here to start from the beginning of this month’s series.)

“Believe it or not, the best place to start is brushing your teeth,” he says. “If you pay attention to how it feels, you’ll realize it feels really good, and you’ll do a better job of it.”

Now apply this same principle of awareness to everything else you do. Feel it. Whether you’re running on a treadmill after work (or on the treadmill of work itself), monitoring how you feel will enable you to make adjustments that will result in more satisfaction and better performance.

“Feeling is the data of life,” says Newburg. “A routine that constantly utilizes it will open you up and allow you to see what’s possible."

Warren Richey insists anyone can travel 1,200 miles around Florida by kayak, including a 40-mile portage between bodies of water. The challenge, says the author of the new book Without a Paddle, which chronicles the Ultimate Florida Challenge race, is completing the race within the allotted 30 days.

Richey, a writer for the Christian Science Monitor who has spent much of his career as a foreign correspondent, embarked on the trip in 2006, not long after a divorce. One of 10 athletes to depart from St. Petersburg, he won the race in 19 days.

Competitors face numerous challenges, including potential encounters with bull sharks, alligators, and Burmese pythons. There’s the possibility of storms, capsizing, drifting out to sea, colliding with powerboats and barges, and dealing with cool March temperatures. There’s the exhaustion that comes with sleep deprivation; competitors typically stop on islands and parks and string hammocks for rest.

But the biggest obstacle is the isolation and mental exhaustion that can produce hallucinations and leave kayakers mumbling to themselves. Richey talked with CorePerformance.com about dealing with such an extreme mental and physical challenge.

CorePerformance:  What kind of training did you do prior to this race?

Warren Richey: I was in reasonably good shape but I injured my shoulder a month before the race, right before I was going to do some tough training. I arrived at the start of the race injured and filled with all kinds of doubts and fears. The idea of 1,200 miles I couldn’t get my head around. What I found is that you don’t want to get your head around it. You want to break it down into doable sections, thinking in terms of five, 10, or 20 miles down the course. If you keep setting goals like that—keep the goal in front of you—you won’t worry about the 1200 miles. Otherwise you’ll lose your focus.

CP: You spent up to 18 hours straight in a kayak, which literally is a pain in the butt. How did you stretch and keep your hips and back from tightening up?

WR: There’s a saying that you paddle a canoe, but you wear a kayak. They’re designed to be snug, but in long distance kayaking, you don’t want a tight fit. You want one you sit in like a canoe so you don’t have many contact points. I had room to cross and uncross my legs and I would paddle with my legs up on the deck for some distances. It looks kind of silly, but it extends your time in the boat.

CP: One of the big risks is falling asleep and drifting off. But you barely used caffeine. Why not?

WR: My plan was that I wanted to sleep every night; I just didn’t want to sleep a lot. You need some sleep to reset your inner clock and when I made my plan, it didn’t involve caffeine. When I found a place to stop, I wanted to eat a meal and go right to sleep and not have to deal with anything else that might keep me up. It worked. I had a watch with an alarm clock and didn’t use it, nor did I plan to. I would tell myself I’d want to leave early and sometimes I’d wake up in 10 minutes and feel great and look at the clock and realize I had not slept. Other times I figured I’d slept long enough.

CP: You’re burning an incredible number of calories in an event like this. What was your nutrition strategy?

WR: The key thing is to think of food as shoveling coal into a furnace of a ship. You want to keep stoking that fire. You’re shoveling carbs into your body to keep going so it’s better to have six or eight or 10 small meals than one big one. So my strategy was to have small meals during the day in the boat—nothing that required cooking. At night when I stopped to eat I’d have a big backpacker noodle meal like turkey tetrazzini or beef stroganoff. Drink as much water as you can hold.

CP: How long did it take you to recover from this and are you thinking of doing the next Ultimate Florida Challenge (in 2012)?

WR: I stayed out of the boat for several months. My butt recovered; it didn’t take very long. It took a while for my metabolism to slow down. For a while I could eat anything. As far as 2012, I’m thinking about it. My head says no, but my heart says absolutely.

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My baseball team is heading into the playoffs in a few weeks, and our manager suggested we get new caps—blue ones instead of the red ones we’ve been wearing all season. Look sharp, play sharp, was his reasoning.

Well, you would’ve thought he’d suggested banning Aleve (hey, this is a 45-and-over league). The response was swift and negative: You don’t mess with what’s working.

You probably see examples of this Hamster Wheel all the time: Guys on the same machine at the gym every morning, or women who defend the same spot in yoga or Zumba as if it's their personal Alamo. While habits are great if they get you exercising regularly, your muscles and mind are quick adaptors and all routines, over time, stop working and often become counterproductive.

“It takes a lot less effort to fire wired neurons,” explains Roy Sugarman, Ph.D., the director of applied neuroscience for Athletes’ Performance, “so the brain naturally tries to create automatic skills that require no further thought. We need to constantly challenge that process so we don’t get complacent. In fact, it’s during routine activity that mistakes creep in, like hooking or slicing a golf ball, or getting the ‘yips’ while putting. The lower, automatic brain systems can’t correct for that.”

“But a new behavior, even if it’s just training in a different location in the gym [or wearing a new ballcap], switches on more of the frontal and executive brain regions,” adds Sugarman. “It’s called effortful processing. Hence, change of any kind is good for the brain and for the body.”

Here are 6 easy ways to subtly shake up your routine in ways that will boost awareness and foster improvement:

• Reverse your normal running, walking or cycling route. It’ll feel like you’re in an entirely new neighborhood.
• Instead of counting up when doing repetitions, start at your target number and count down. As you near the end of the set, you’ll be thinking about how many you have left instead of how many you’ve done, which makes a big psychological difference.
• Shower before working out. You’ll be more energized, and feel refreshed, especially if you're training after a long day at the office. 
• Instead of using one cardio machine for your entire workout, switch between machines every 10 to 15 minutes, or between sets of intervals.
• Turn onto one new road every time you ride your bike.
• With shorter days and inclement weather approaching, don’t stress out about squeezing in your regular workout. If you’ve been running or cycling, switch to weight training, swimming, or a martial art. The change will renew your commitment to exercise and boost overall fitness.

Got a small change that you use to beat routine? Let us know about it in the comments section below.

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Nearly four years ago I left a job that I had worked at for more than two decades. I grew tired of the routine and wanted to travel and pursue other creative opportunities. So I became a freelance writer/editor and took to working out of my home. But last week I was invited back to the company where I’d spent nearly half my life to fill in during summer-vacation season. It was the first time I’d been back fulltime in an office environment since December 31, 2006. I was returning to my long-established routine of waking up, shaving, showering, getting dressed, commuting, sitting in a cubicle, eating in the cafeteria, etc. And two things happened that both amazed and frightened me:

1. Many of my old friends were no longer there. And I don’t mean they had left or been laid off. They were still in the same offices, doing the same jobs, but they had these vacant expressions and a mechanical way of coming and going that suggested they weren’t really there. They reminded me of robots.
2. By the end of each day I was exhausted. Even though I was working 8 hours instead of my usual 10 to 12. And even though I wasn’t getting a chance to exercise like I usually do, by the time 6 o’clock arrived I was completely blasted (and it wasn’t because they were working me so hard). In fact, while driving home, I had to will myself to wake up and break out of the office-induced funk. I felt downright stupid.

Don’t get me wrong. This is no slight against my employer or its loyal and hard-working employees. Rather, it’s evidence of how debilitating sustained routine can be. Roy Sugarman, Ph.D., is an Australian neuropsychologist and the director of applied neuroscience for Athletes’ Performance. He explained to me that—metabolically speaking—the brain is a very expensive organ to operate. So it will try to automate as much behavior as possible. “It’ll try to run on empty if it can,” says Sugarman, “which is why we often have no memory of driving a familiar route after we get there.”

Indeed, a habit is sort of like a neural footpath—worn and requiring minimal effort to traverse. Unfortunately, the older we get the more our daily existence becomes a collection of habits, which results in a dumbed-down, autopilot existence. This is what I was seeing in my friends and experiencing in myself. Even though we were still doing our jobs, since we were so familiar with them our brains had essentially switched off. They were walking that footpath.

But it was never meant to be this way. “Enrichment of our bodies, minds and lives requires that we take on new and increasingly difficult challenges,” says Sugarman. In fact, that’s the very definition of evolution, and it’s one of the most important keys to healthy aging.

And that’s why I’m making it a point this month to break as many of my habits as I can. I’m brushing my teeth with my left hand, sleeping on the opposite side of the bed, driving different routes to familiar places, and generally trying to shake off the funk of life itself. Is living more vibrantly really just a simple matter of living differently?

“I have a friend who is 94 years old,” Sugarman says. “He is a doctor, an orchestra conductor, an architect, an archaeologist, plus he volunteers in a museum and speaks a host of languages. His motto is ‘never stop’. The reason he does so well is that breaking habits breeds resiliency through vitality.”

In fact, Sugarman gave me a test that measured five different aspects of mental performance (verbal memory, processing speed, executive functioning, social acuity and dual tasking). I’ll take it again at the end of this month to seeing if breaking habits has indeed raised my vitality.

The idea of barefoot running has been around for years but came to the forefront with the best-selling book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, which explained the phenomenon. Specifically, we’re born to run as our ancestors did thousands of years ago when they went barefoot. This promotes a natural spring-like stride on the balls of our feet that dissipates force and allows us to run longer and without injury.

These days, many runners have tight hips and a lack of mobility and flexibility. They strike with their heels, which causes the body to absorb the force of the ground into the joints. Many running shoes, with their thick heels, tend to exacerbate the problem.

Most barefoot running experts suggest using barefoot running as a tool only—perhaps just twice a week for 20 to 30 minutes on a lush grass surface such as a soccer field or the infield of a track.

Hank Campbell, who conducts barefoot running clinics in St. Petersburg, Florida, has runners keep their shoes on initially.“I get them to focus in regular shoes on mechanical things that they’ll notice when they’re barefoot and then transition into drills and easy strides, he says. “From there they can work up to 20 or 30 minutes a day, maybe twice a week, and that will provide huge dividends in terms of form.”

Michael Sandler, author of the new book Barefoot Running and creator of RunBare.com, says barefoot running saved his athletic career. A former speed skater and pro-level cyclist, he suffered a broken hip and shattered femur during an inline skating accident three years ago. Doctors said he would never run again and he needed custom orthotics just to walk. After discovering barefoot running, he now can run up to 50 miles at a time. He spoke to CorePerformance.com about barefoot running.

CorePerformance:  What are the benefits of barefoot running?

Michael Sandler: Barefoot running helps in two ways. First, when you’re running barefoot you’re running “aware foot.” You have more nerve endings on the bottom of your feet than anywhere else on your body. It’s why we’re ticklish and why we’re able to run incredibly light. It’s like being a cookie thief, stealing into the kitchen at night barefoot on tiptoes as quietly as we can. When we feel the ground, we can run incredibly light. We hit the ground up to three times lighter out of a shoe than in one and with far less toque to the hips and knees. Second, we change our gait and stride to something of a forefoot stride. We use our metatarsals as a spring-like mechanism, the arch and Achilles tendon, along with the calf, quad, glute, and hamstring as a two to three foot long spring rather than relying on the heel of the shoe. That forces us to extend the leg out and drives force up through the body which attenuates shock rather than dissipates it.

CP: Do you run barefoot all the time?

MS: I’m a moderate voice. While I’m barefoot 90 percent of the time, whenever I can be, I believe it’s something people have to do lightly—baby stepping your way in. Some may make it all the way to barefoot running. Some may go to a Vibram Five Fingers shoe. There is no right or wrong answer, but I advocate that everyone spend some time barefoot to feel the ground, to learn how to run light, to work on that new stride and work on strengthening your feet, which is something some people say cannot be done, but you can. If you’re a lighter stronger runner, you’ll benefit regardless of footwear. Chances are you’ll go to less and less footwear.

CP: How do you feel about Five Fingers and the other barefoot shoes?

MS: I like the products. I did a long run recently on some wet, chewed up trails and another where there was some broken glass. So I wore some of the barefoot shoes. You have different tools in your quiver, different ones for different purposes and that gives you even more freedom. If you’ve done too much in one shoe, pull out something else and it gives you more freedom and variety that way. I do clinics at running stores. Some stores were hesitant initially. Why invite people to talk barefoot running in a running store that sells shoes? But they’ve come around to understand that we’re not talking about throwing shoes away. We’re talking about running with a more natural form and using footwear that helps. Even diehard old-school people who say this will never work are coming to clinics and trying it and saying, “This makes sense.”

CP: What about people who have knee, ankle, or foot issues?

MS: The majority of people who come to our talks have bad knees, hip, backs. I was called Mr. Flat Foot. I wore a hard plastic orthotic just to go across the living room floor otherwise my plantar fasciitis got upset right away. For people like ourselves, barefoot running helps by strengthening the body from the roots up, like a tree. We build strong feet and work our way up from there. The shoe is driving the force up through the body. By using proper form, you’re using your legs like a giant spring mechanism so you can dissipate force and run again.

It’s hard to strike the ground the same way once you’ve discovered how to run light. You run as if on springs and it’s so much more liberating. Once you’ve experienced that lightness, that freedom and your joints no longer hurting, you might not go back to a shoe. You realize that pain is good because it helps you figure out what’s working and what’s not. Once you learn that, it can be a tremendous guide in whatever footwear you choose.

CP: What’s the best piece of advice you give runners?

adidas has just released a free miCoach app to ramp up your cardio training. The app uses GPS and real-time audio coaching to guide you through your workouts.

With new training plans for soccer, football, tennis, and basketball, as well as general fitness and running, miCoach is the most innovative and impressive in an ever-expanding market of personal training gadgets.

miCoach is currently being used by athletes of all levels, including elite athletes at Athletes’ Performance. Core Performance works with adidas to develop the training plans, content, and coaching for miCoach.

• Learn more about the app at miCoach.com.
• Download the app from iTunes.
• Download the app for Blackberry.
• Buy miCoach Pacer in our store.

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Beneath your skin is a web of interconnected tissue called fascia. This three-dimensional sheath encompasses your entire body. But with age and disuse it tightens and dries out, producing aches, injuries and the classic, hunched-over, old-person look. I suspect a similar thing happens in our brains, if only metaphorically speaking. With age and disuse, its once-vibrant web of interconnectivity becomes tired and slow to spark, producing dullness, distance, and even depression. Just as inactivity and routine kills the body, habit dooms the brain.

Since you’re on this site, you likely understand how important it is to vary your workouts and keep progressing to keep your muscles challenged and your body fit. But what would happen if we became just as diligent about pulling our minds off the plateaus they settle upon by regularly changing their experience?

I’m not talking about jumping out of airplanes or vacationing in Bora Bora. Although it’s good to have bucket lists that include things like that, such adventures usually happen too infrequently to have a lasting effect. I’m talking about shaking up life within everyday life—doing a regular mind-stretching workout that involves one small new “exercise” per day. It could be as simple as taking a different route to work, or sleeping on the other side of the bed, or brushing your teeth with the opposite hand. Like your muscles, the brain feeds and grows off new experience. With a conditioning plan like this, how ripped could it get?

If you’re like me, there are probably instances throughout each day when you can’t remember how you got somewhere, what you ate for dinner the previous night, or something that other people insist you said. Don’t worry; this isn’t early-onset dementia. Rather, for most busy men and women, it's normal.

This foggy state of mind doesn’t so much frighten me, as it makes me angry. Life is too short and wonderful to sleepwalk through it. I want to be as mindful as I possibly can be of it. But I’ve accumulated so many habits over the decades—many that I’m not even aware of—that I live on autopilot.

But this month is going to be different. For the next 31 days, I’m going to do at least one little new thing each day. Not parking in my usual spot, shopping at a different supermarket, getting up at a different time of day, listening to a new radio station, ordering something different at my favorite restaurant…in other words, trying to break all the comfortable habits that are constricting my brain fascia, so to speak, and turning me into a robot.

Along the way, I’ll also be consulting with neurologists and other brain experts to understand more fully how the mind operates and, most important, how to keep it in shape. I'll even provide a test you can take to measure your brain fitness. If you’d like to join me, simply break one little habit today, then another one tomorrow and then another the day after that.

We'll see where it takes us....

Scott Wachter

Q: I don’t have access to a wall for medicine ball throws. What should I do?

A: First, if you’re not familiar with medicine ball training, check out this primer. Done properly, medicine ball throws will help you improve your ability to transfer forces efficiently through your body, boosting total-body power. Medicine ball training is a key component in many of the training programs in myCP, so try finding a wall where you can perform the moves. No access to a wall at your gym? Here are a few alternatives:

Throw with a partner. Do your rotational perpendicular and parallel throws with a training partner. Start by throwing for a set while your partner catches, and then switch it up. As both of you become proficient at your throws and are able to maintain accuracy, you can try doing a set at the same time so you’re tossing it back and forth to each other.

Don’t release the ball. Try "shadow throwing" in which you go through the exercise holding a ball and stop yourself just short of where you would release the ball. Move at a tempo that allows you to control your speed. Although you won’t be as explosive as you would be throwing against a wall, you’ll still reap benefits by learning the movements and gaining stability by decelerating your body at the point of release.

Train outdoors. If you don’t have a medicine ball wall at your gym, find a concrete or brick wall outside, for example, at a sports field or school. Treat it like a separate training session. Start with movement prep, then go through your medicine ball routine. Keep it short and you can do this on any training day. Or, if you play a sport, try doing it before or after practice.

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Medicine balls are versatile, effective, and available in a wide range of weights. Visit our store for details.

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If athletes wonder what sports was like in the 1970s and 80s, when AstroTurf fields were common in the NFL and Major League Baseball and nobody had yet heard of core conditioning, they should consider the career of Andre Dawson.

The outfielder known as “The Hawk,” who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame over the weekend, nearly retired early in his career because of knee injuries suffered while patrolling the AstroTurf outfield of Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.

A member of the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) from 1976-86, Dawson played 81 home games a year on AstroTurf. Many of his road games took place on artificial turf surfaces in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Houston, St. Louis, and Cincinnati.

The AstroTurf surface was little more than a hard green felt pad laid over concrete. It took a toll on all players in the field, none more so than outfielders required to patrol huge stretches of ballparks much bigger than those of today.

A knee injury suffered playing high school football caused Dawson to favor the other knee, which eventually wore out, too. All told, he had eight knee surgeries by the time he left Montreal for the soft grass of Chicago’s Wrigley Field to play for the Cubs.

“I got to the point where I was more or less bone on bone,” said Dawson, now 56. “A lot of degenerative, arthritic conditions had manifested itself and my preparation was basically to stay off of my feet as much as possible when I was away from the ballpark.”

Few baseball players lifted weights in the early 1980s and it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that players such as Roberto Alomar and Jason Varitek were introduced to Mark Verstegen’s program now known as Core Performance.

Dawson embarked on a mostly self-taught program of stretching and strengthening his core region to take the pressure off his knees and back. Because of his conditioning, he never endured back problems, a common ailment of players who spent a lot of time on artificial turf. The 6-foot-3 outfielder also kept his weight down to reduce the pressure, never playing above 196 pounds.

“A lot of players that I talked to about it complain about back issues and I’m surprised that I never really had back problems playing on the turf,” Dawson said. “I was told that the problems are going to go from your knees to your back next and if you have knee replacements then all of that pounding over the years is going to surface somewhere else sooner or later. But I never really had any back issues. It was always just the knees.”

The Hawk, a childhood nickname that stuck in the Majors because of Dawson’s intense gaze in the batter’s box, nearly quit during his fourth season because of a knee fracture that wasn’t diagnosed until two months into the season.

Still, he did not go on the disabled list until 1986, his tenth season and last in Montreal, when he suffered a hamstring pull.

“Those years of playing on that turf really did a number as far as the wear and tear is concerned,” Dawson said. “It just made playing on the grass feel like a difference of night and day.”

Dawson had the misfortune of becoming a free agent in the winter of 1986-87, when baseball owners lowballed players and later were found guilty of collusion. Instead of enjoying a big payday, he received little interest and handed the Chicago Cubs literally a blank contract, offering to let them fill in the number.

The Cubs wrote in $500,000, a small salary by baseball standards even then, and Dawson responded in 1987 by winning the National League Most Valuable Player Award, hitting 49 home runs and driving in 137 runs, both career highs.

A true five-tool talent, Dawson won eight Gold Glove Awards for his defense and stole 314 bases, mostly before the knee problems worsened. He finished his career in 1996 with 438 home runs and 1,591 RBIs.

Those are impressive numbers for any era, but they were overshadowed by the inflated numbers of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some players of that era have been exposed as users of performance-enhancing drugs.

In 2002, Dawson’s first year of Hall of Fame eligibility, just 45.3 percent of voters cast their ballot for him, well shy of the 75 percent needed for induction. That number gradually crept upward as voters came to appreciate the numbers produced by a clean player who often played in pain.

“Longevity always was the key,” said Dawson, who managed to play 21 seasons. “If you’re consistent over a long career and you’re consistent enough to put the numbers up, then at the end of those 20 years you see what exactly have you compiled and how it ranks and compares with individuals who are already in.

“I felt that I had kind of gotten the best of what I was going to get out of my ability and the knees were starting to take a toll and I could see myself starting to really slow down. So at that I just felt that and I hoped that I had done enough.”

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"Couples who eat at home and cook together tend to be leaner, more energetic, and healthier overall," says Amanda Carlson-Phillips, director of nutrition at Athletes' Performance. In fact, people who dine out often eat 40 percent more calories than they would if they ate at home, she says. Besides saving on calories, you'll save money—and have a blast cooking together. So where do you start? We've made it easy with the seven tips below.

To create balanced meals, start with a lean protein source, add veggies for high-fiber carbs, and include healthy fats. This combination will help you build lean muscle, regulate your blood sugar levels, and keep you energized. Check out our recipe library for perfectly balanced, healthy meal ideas.

Once the menu is set, head to your local grocer to stock up on ingredients. By shopping with a list, you’ll spend less time in the grocery store and be less likely to grab unhealthy snacks off the shelves. Use these four tips to avoid nutrition land mines and choose healthier foods.

An hour of cooking during the weekend can yield enough healthy lunches and dinners for the entire week. Make a week’s worth of meals for only $50 with our Prep Once, Eat for a Week guide.

Start your day off right—with your partner and a healthy breakfast. A protein-packed breakfast jumpstarts your metabolism, boosts energy, and helps you eat less throughout the day. Try these six tasty breakfast recipes.

Instead of frantically throwing a meal together when you get home, slow cook your meals while you’re at work. Prep the ingredients the night before, and then plug in the slow cooker in the morning. Added bonus: Slow cookers often make enough food for several meals. For ideas, check out these healthy Crock-Pot creations.

It’s easy to overindulge when your partner is putting heaps of food on his or her plate. While your spouse may need a bigger portion, it doesn’t mean you have to indulge too. Click here for tips on controlling your portions.

At the end of a long workday, it can be challenging to muster up the energy to prepare a delicious, healthy meal. Alternate cooking nights so that you’re splitting the responsibility. You’ll be more likely to eat at home if you’re only responsible for cooking three or four nights a week.

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Basketball players often say, "I am a one foot jumper" or "I am a two foot jumper." But which is better? To be a complete player, you must be able to perform both, because different situations dictate a different take-off style.

Besides, running is a single-leg activity. Each propulsive stride in filling the lane on a fast break requires a powerful push, while landing from a jump can be unstable onto one leg. For this reason, single-leg strength and power is important not just for performance, but also for staying safe on the court.

Many players overlook single-leg strength because it must be developed off the court to be integrated on the court, and most weight room exercises, such as leg extensions, leg curls, leg presses, and squats, are typically performed with two legs.

To improve single-leg strength, jump higher, and become a more complete player, begin by performing single-leg exercises like the ones demonstrated below, as well as plyometrics.

Squat - Single-leg Balance

Romanian Deadlift - Single leg

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Watch Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal ply his trade for a couple of hours, and it’s easy to consider taking up tennis. You can hit a public court with a buddy and whack balls around, but, if proficiency is your goal, and you’d like it to come in the near future, there’s a more structured and efficient way to start experiencing the same joy and eternal frustration that the game gives to every player, regardless of world ranking.

Gauge what you want. If it’s a hobby, a group lesson through a club or park department would suffice. If it’s a serious pursuit, consider going private. You’ll spend more up front, but you’ll hit four to five times as many balls and receive non-stop attention. “Learning is about repetition of the correct stroke,” says Art Coleman, head pro at Oakley Country Club in Belmont, Mass.

Call your local club. After you ask the tennis director who’s the best pro, ask if he works with juniors or adults. Go with the former. If you’re competitive, that guy teaches kids who want to win, and he’ll have to push them, have the flexibility to change styles and match their energy levels. With any relationship, try out a few prospects to find the one who’s most compatible. The first lesson might not be maximum action—you’ll focus on the beginning and ending segments of forehands and backhands—but you should walk away enjoying it and feeling optimistic. “A pro needs to set and build your expectations. Just because it’s not exciting, it should still be fulfilling,” Coleman says.

Scour the grounds. While private lessons aren’t free, in the warmer months, they can be cheaper. Many club pros work outside and away from the overhead. Visit the public courts and look for the guy with the basket of balls. You can also call a club and they might put you in touch with a pro. After some private lessons building a solid foundation, shifting into a group setup can further improve your game with drills that hone consistency and by handling balls from people at your own level—the ones that you’d see in an actual match, Coleman says.

Raise your temperature. You want to break a sweat, work your overall balance, and prepare your hips, torso and shoulders. The World’s Greatest Stretch will achieve those goals, while increasing your flexibility. “It activates so many muscles at the same time,” says Nick Anthony, a performance specialist at Athletes’ Performance. It’s also good post-lesson to maintain flexibility. Do 3 reps on each side.

Work to the side. Tennis is all about east-west movement. Lateral lunges, using just your bodyweight, will help prepare your body for the constant changes of direction, Anthony says. Do 5 on each side.

Open up the chest. Prepare your upper body with floor slides, which will force you to use the smaller muscles that provide stability for your shoulder joints, while bolstering flexibility. Do 6-8 reps as part of your warm-up. Click here for detailed exercise instructions.

Do detail work. Along with accelerating through the ball, you have to slow down your swing. That brake work is done by the rotator cuffs, small muscles that can easily become tight and weak when not stretched and conditioned properly. For starters, do 6-8 reps of side-lying shoulder internal rotations.

Click here to purchase a Core Performance Tennis DVD of the above videos and more.

Dr. Robert Butler knows a thing or two about aging and enjoying a high quality of life well into your senior years. The 80-something professor of geriatrics and aging-research pioneer at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City is the CEO and founder of the International Longevity Center and the author of the 1976 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Why Survive?: Being Old in America.

In his new book, The Longevity Prescription: The 8 Proven Keys to a Long, Healthy Life, he explains how anyone can follow the same formula that many have used to achieve longevity. The eight strategies, each a chapter in the book, are: Maintain mental vitality; nurture your relationships; seek essential sleep; set stress aside; connect with your community; live the active life; eat your way to heath; and practice prevention. Dr. Butler recently spoke with CorePerformance.com.

Core Performance: A lot of people as they age worry more about losing their mental faculties than their physical abilities. What can be done?

Robert Butler: Three things. One is to learn knew things, intellectual pursuits. Learn a new language or how to play a musical instrument. Second is social interaction, constantly making new connections. The third is physical fitness. The idea of a sound mind and a sound body goes back to the Romans. Blood flow to the brain increases with physical exercise. Those three things can assure mental vitality.

CP: The decade of the 70s seems like it can go either way for people. Some enjoy a high quality of life while others are on the slippery slope. What makes the difference?

RB: We did studies way back in the 1960s at the National Institute of Health that found people who had some purpose, some reason to get up in the morning lived longer and better. We need to be productive when we’re older. We can work with children, volunteer, launch a second career or stay with the job we’ve already had. I still put in 60 hours a week and I love every minute of it. Staying in the workforce even a few extra months or a year has a huge impact on Social Security solvency.

CP: In your book you write about the importance of nurturing relationships. For some seniors, one of the struggles is seeing many of their friends die off. What can they do?

RB: You should have young friends, not just people your age and that’s true of people of all ages. One of the reasons women live longer than men is that they have much more emotional resources. They’re closer and more intimate to each other, they talk more frankly. Guys, we talk a good game and have a stiff upper lip but we don’t have that emotional component and that’s why women live five years longer.

CP: Sleep is such a challenge for many people. What’s the issue for seniors?

RB: We have great genetic differences and that might account for why some people can get by with four hours a night and most of us need about eight. As you get older you need more sleep rather than less. You might have a little illness or injury and sleep is restorative. Some people can get by with four hours but it’s good to aim for eight. Even people who get less sleep at night have a way of relaxing. They sit for a half hour quietly each day, for instance.

CP: In your book you bring up dental hygiene and how that’s changed a great deal since you began your work.

RB: In 1955, when I began my studies on aging, half of people over 65 had no teeth at all. Now it’s a lot better. We’ve made great improvements there but we can do better still. One of the points worth making is that 50 percent of people over 85 are still independent and have good health. You can maintain a vigorous healthy lifestyle at any age.

CP: How important are genetics in determining longevity?

RB: Not as much as people think. One of the key points of the book is that we think we live as long as our parents. Genetics are only responsible for 25 percent of our length of life. The rest is lifestyle and environment. We can blame our parents but we have only ourselves to blame if we’re not behaving with some wisdom.

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A month ago when I committed to eating every meal from 10-inch plates or 6-inch bowls, I was skeptical. Although there’s a significant body of research showing that downsizing dinnerware promotes portion control and weight loss, it seemed gimmicky.

But I stuck with it and, before long, the experiment gained momentum. My smaller dinnerware led to smaller silverware, which led to smaller glassware, which ultimately culminated in trying to eat drive-thru fast food in a SmartCar. In the end, I weighed in 4 pounds lighter for the month without having changed any other aspect of my diet. That’s right, I didn’t reduce fat, cut carbs, or swear off sweets. I simply used smaller implements to eat.

In the 25 years I’ve been reporting on health, this is one of the easiest, most effective small changes I’ve ever encountered for weight loss. In fact, I’m not going back. Everybody else in my house is doing it, and our big plates and bowls have now been relegated to the same cabinet as the Ginsu knife, Slap Chop, Fry Daddy, and other long-discarded kitchen items.

If you’re considering giving it a try, here are some things to keep in mind:

It’ll make you a more mindful eater. This was actually my top goal for the month—to slow down my shoveling and be satisfied with less. And although I still have a way to go to achieve this, it’s a great start. The more mindful you become of what you put in your mouth, the less you’ll struggle with weight control.

It’s easy to get carried away with the concept. You can take this strategy in all sorts of directions. Use smaller serving spoons in casserole dishes. Reach for smaller knives to spread cream cheese and butter. Grate your cheeses. Slice steaks and other meats into smaller pieces. Buy kids’ sizes of packaged food. A downsizing mindset is contagious.

Beware of tapas restaurants. At first glance, these trendy establishments where you share a variety of appetizer-size dishes seem to perfectly mesh with the small-plate strategy. But I found it’s actually worse than dining at a conventional restaurant. You’re with friends, you’re having cocktails, everything looks so good, and before you know it you’ve ordered even more than you normally would.

Unfortunately, a lot of stuff doesn’t come on plates. This is especially true of fast food, which comes in wrappers, boxes and cartons, as if intentionally trying to confuse our sense of proportion. If you absolutely must indulge, bring the sack home and eat only what fits on a 10-inch plate or, if that’s not possible, rip the wrapper into a similar-sized circle and do the same.

Correction: My Ford F150 has 8 cup holders, not 6. Since my last blog, I found two more in the door panels. Where else might they lurk? Under the hood for the mechanic?

I’m downsizing my dogs’ bowls next. I just read some advice that pets live longer and stay healthier if fed 30% less. So my fat Jacks (Jack Russells, that is) are next. I’ll be putting less food in smaller bowls from now on. If they’re anything like me, I suspect there won’t be any stomach growling.

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We’re halfway through 2010. Are you on track to meet your health and performance goals for the year? To help, we’ve rounded up the latest tips from the month of June, plus our best fitness and nutrition advice from the first half of the year...in case you missed it.

Disregard Age, Get Motivated
Read the incredible story of a man in his 70s who bounced back from a broken neck to win masters cycling races. Once you're feeling inspired, turn that inspiration into action.

Start an Exercise Streak
Writer Joe Kita exercised every day for a month. 30 days, 30 workouts, no excuses. Use the eight lessons he learned to help you stick to your workout.

Fuel Up: 20 Simple Workout Snacks
Tasty ideas to power your workout and help you feel great afterwards.

Ask Yourself: What Will You Achieve Next?
Reassess your goals and how you're working towards them. A positive attitude lifted one man to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. What can it do for you?

Know How Much Weight to Lift 
Everything you need to know about how much weight to lift when learning new exercises, training for power, progressing in your fitness plan, and activating sleepy muscles.

World Cup Training Secrets from Athletes’ Performance
Athletes’ Performance coaches helped elite soccer players prepare for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Find out how you can improve your endurance, speed, strength, and agility using the same techniques.

Find Your Ideal Racing Weight
Author Matt Fitzgerald shares his tips for finding the right bodyweight to maximize your performance.

Shore Up the Most Overlooked Area for Women
Mark Verstegen explains how training your hips can help reduce injuries and improve your performance.

Take the Fiber-Fueled Weight Loss Challenge
Find out what happens when you increase your fiber intake for 28 days.

Is Your Car Making You Fat?
If smaller plates and spoons can encourage weight loss, maybe we should all be driving Smart Cars.

Trade Spoons for a Slimmer Body
Butter pecan? Vanilla fudge? Go ahead. Indulge. Just remember to use this simple stay-slim trick. 

Download the 10 Best iPhone Nutrition Apps
Your iPhone can help you eat healthier, lose fat, and perform better than ever. Here’s how.

Learn the Secrets of Eating Sensibly
One hungry man. One room of unlimited food. One paltry 9-inch plate. Find out what happens and what you can learn from his experience.
 

West Virginia's Men's Basketball forward Da'Sean Butler had just helped the Mountaineers win the Big East Tournament and was a projected first-round draft pick when he suddenly went down with a torn ACL and MCL during the Final Four. In the video below, ESPN chronicles his comeback from the operating table to his rehab at Athletes' Performance in Florida.

Da'Sean Butler: Operation Comeback [ESPN]

This month began innocently enough with me downsizing my dinnerware from 12- to 10-inch plates. I had so much success with that one small change, I tried shrinking my silverware next, which also worked great. I was eating less without noticing it, and I had lost 3 pounds without any other dietary adjustments.

So last week I bought a Ford F-150 Super Crew pickup and while rolling through a fast-food drive-thru noticed I have enough room in the thing to host Thanksgiving. It has six enormous cup-holders, a large center console that can double as a table, and enough dashboard space to lay out an entire buffet. The truck is actually bigger than my dining room, and it provides more eating space than trendy New York restaurants.

All of which got me thinking about whether our cars might be making us fat. Everyone assumes that vehicle size has increased over the years in response to the increasing size of Americans, but what if big cars are the cause rather than the result of the tires around our guts? What if big cars subconsciously encourage drive-thru dining and super-sizing?

Amanda Carlson-Phillips, MS, RD, CSSD, the director of performance nutrition and research for Athletes’ Performance, thinks I may be on to something. “My mom has an older BMW, and there aren’t even any cup holders in there,” she says. “I suppose if you’re in a smaller car and there isn’t a lot of space, you’d have to think before eating in it. And that gets to the heart of the obesity issue: People forget to think about the food they’re putting in their bodies. Whether it’s a small plate or a small car or the lack of a cup holder, if it causes you to think before you eat that’s a positive thing.”

To test my theory, I called Bill Bessman, a retired New York City firefighter who, despite his 6-foot 5-inch frame, drives the smallest vehicle on America’s roadways: the Smart Car. I promised him a free lunch if he’d agree to ferry me through some fast-food drive-thrus and let me eat in his morsel of a vehicle.

Bill owns a flashbulb yellow, 2008 Smart ForTwo Cabriolet, which takes up just slightly more space in his garage than a refrigerator. He’s also president of the local Smart Alecs Car Club, which convoys to restaurants and events on weekends. “It was between this and a Porsche Boxster,” he says, “but this has turned out to be far more fun.” Indeed, I now know what the Rose Bowl Queen feels like on New Year’s Day. Everyone was pointing and waving at us as we motored by, and we had no choice but to smile and wave back. Never having been in a Smart Car before, I was instantly impressed by how roomy it was. This felt nothing like United coach.

The Smart Car also rides surprisingly high, so when we pulled up to the drive-thru at Wendy’s, we didn’t have to speak up or reach up for our order. Naturally, I got the biggest item on the menu—the Baconator Triple (3 hamburgers, 3 cheese slices, 9 bacon strips). It has more grams of fat (91) than the Smart Car has horsepower (70) and is nearly as large as its headlight.

Next we went to McDonalds and ordered a Big ’N Tasty Extra Value Meal, super-sized to include a large fry and cola. Then Bill and I parked in half a shady space and proceeded to feast. Or at least we tried to.

The Smart Car’s dual cup holders, mounted on the floor between the seats, are awkward to reach and can only really accommodate one large drink. Since the glove-compartment door is too paltry and there’s no center console, we used the dash and our laps as tables. Although we were able to make it work, it certainly wasn’t as conducive to chowing as my F-150, and it would have been even more challenging (and dangerous) if we were driving in traffic.

Although Bill says he hasn’t lost any weight during the 2 years and 5,000 miles he’s owned the car, he drives it only occasionally. If it was my regular commuter, I wonder if the daily experience would not only reduce my drive-thru dining but also gradually downshift my broader thinking. Big is the American way, in cars, in food, and in just about everything. Perhaps downsizing one might be the catalyst we need for downsizing all the others.

Remember, you read about it here first: The Smart Car Diet…

Five years ago, Sandy Scott broke his C-1 vertebra in a cycling competition at the age of 65. Most people who suffer such a broken neck die instantly or shortly thereafter. Scott not only survived, he refused to undergo a recommended surgical procedure that would have killed him or severely restricted his mobility. Instead, he underwent physical therapy and got back on his bike. He has not lost any masters cycling race he has entered since 2007, winning not just his age group but routinely finishing ahead of all competitors within 20 years of his age (70).

Scott, a former commercial airline pilot who lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., chronicles his remarkable comeback in his new book From Broken Neck to Broken Records and recently spoke with CorePerformance.com.

Core Performance: Most people can’t begin to comprehend how painful your recovery was. Can you put it into words?

Sandy Scott: It was pretty grim. A C-1 fracture is immediately fatal in 50 percent of cases. It’s not the thing you want to fracture because it’s near the breathing apparatus. That’s what I had to deal with and I went through an excruciating period of healing. This process went on four or five months in a neck brace and wearing an itchy thing on my neck that supposedly was going to help me grow bone. It was just a long, excruciating process.

CP: You write about how you refused to accept the diagnosis that you needed this risky surgery. How did you know there were other options?

SS: The lesson there is you have to be your own medical advocate. My board-certified surgeon said I was in grave danger and that any fall would render me dead. His recommendation was to have the C-1 fused to C-2 or the C-1 fused to the base of the skull. That renders you with guaranteed 50 percent minimum loss of mobility, perhaps more. You’re out of sports for starters and a lot of people don’t even make it through the surgery. He said he couldn’t even do it, but he’d send me to a neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon hadn’t done it either but he at least had experience in that part of the anatomy. So I set out to find other answers.

CP: Remarkably you didn’t take up cycling until your mid-60s. What’s the key to getting up to speed, no pun intended, so quickly?

SS: Genetics is part of it and hard work is the most important part of it. As a runner back in my late 30s and early 40s, I won three national running championships in three different events so I had genetics for aerobic sports. The difference is I love to ride. When I was a runner, I hated it. I found it painful but I did it because I was good at it; it was a means to an end. With cycling, I love every stroke of the pedal and I’m able to train harder. I love to win and put in 27 hours a week, which is like a full-time job.

CP: Do you have lingering pain from the injury?

SS: There are considerable issues: scar tissue, arthritis from being in a stiff neck brace for five months. I train with a younger guy who is my guide dog. I can’t readily look back since I have a difficult time turning my neck, which I have to ice down after rides. My neck hurts every day but that’s just part of life.

CP: You continue to win state racing titles. What are your goals now?

SS: I want to win at nationals in Houston in 2011. I competed in 2007 and had what I thought was a sure-win in the time trial. I closed in on two former national champions, was holding over 30 MPH, just kicking butt when I went off course. I got into la-la land when I’m on a time trial and just went off course. It cost me 30 seconds, but I still wounded up seventh out of 59 competitors. That day I made a pact with myself that I will not lose another race, and I haven’t in the last three years. I want to get redemption in 2011 and I’m going to do it.

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I just got back from a four-day retreat in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It was held on an idyllic organic farm, where each day for lunch we were served food so fresh and plentiful that I’m going to have to back away from the keyboard right now because I don’t want to risk drooling on it.

But in the face of this tempting harvest, I stood strong. In keeping with my One Small Change vow, I ate only from 10-inch plates and 6-inch bowls. I explained to the hostess that I was trying to determine if a month of downsizing my dinnerware, while making no other dietary changes, could help me slow my eating and control my weight. And although it pained me to take so little from the daily buffet, the strategy worked: I ate less. And my scale attests: So far this month, I’m down 3 pounds.

So why, I got to thinking, should I stop here? If smaller dinnerware can produce such noteworthy results, why not switch to smaller utensils and glasses as well? Brian Wansink, Ph.D., a Cornell University professor and the author of Mindless Eating, has researched both.

In a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and cited on his website, Wansink measured how much ice cream individuals took and consumed when arbitrarily given different-size bowls and spoons. Those given small bowls ate 31 percent less ice cream than those with large bowls. Likewise, those given 2-ounce spoons ate 14.5 percent less than those with 3-ounce spoons. Those who used small bowls and small spoons ate a remarkable percent less ice cream overall.

Wansink’s glassware findings were similar. In a separate set of studies, he determined that adults poured and drank 19 percent more juice in short, wide glasses than in tall, skinny ones. Similarly, bartenders dispensed 31 percent more liquor in tumbler glasses than in slender highball types.

The most interesting part of all this science is that the individuals who ate and drank less actually believed they had more. The smaller size of their bowls, spoons and glasses created an illusion of plenty that led to feelings of satisfaction rather than deprivation. It was dieting without that demoralizing dieting feeling.

Personally, I’ve found that eating with a tiny fork and spoon is a lot like using chopsticks, only without the fumbling. It dramatically slows your shoveling, which enables your brain to more accurately read stomach fullness and also helps you be more mindful of your food. Sure I may look ridiculous using them, but no more so than I will in 52-inch jeans if I continue eating like I have been. While smaller plates, bowls and glasses reduce portion-size, smaller utensils change the way we eat, which in many respects is even more fundamental and important.

Indeed, I’ve found that using a tasting spoon or one you’d use to stir espresso is a particularly effective weapon against over-indulging in ice cream. Whether it’s a dish from your local creamery or a carton from the refrigerator, try using the smallest spoon available and see if you aren’t satisfied with less. In fact, it’s probably yet another reason why Europeans are so slim; they eat their gelato with spoons the size of their pinkies. Try it the next time there’s a Rocky Road ahead.