ISSUE 7

Do you have questions about exercise or nutrition? Let grrlAthlete help you find the answer you’ve been looking for. Feel free contact us at grrl@grrlAthlete.com (or just hit reply to one of our newsletters), if we don’t have the answer, we’ll find someone who does.

CONTENTS:

How to Stay Motivated

Play Soccer like a Pro! and Exlusive Interview with US Women's National Team Member Heather Mitts

The Facts About Fat

How to Find the Motivation to Continue Training

Finding the motivation to train can sometimes be hard even for the most dedicated athletes. Here are some things you can do to keep your training consistent and effective.

1) Get a training partner: And a serious training partner at that. While we will get into the specifics of how to choose a training partner in another article, a good training partner is probably the single best motivational tool.

2) Set short-term goals: Set daily or weekly goals. This allows you to focus on the next couple of workouts and removes the sometimes daunting thought of where you expect to be 6 months from now. Short-term goals create a less cluttered road map that you need to be concerned with.

3) One week at a time: Even if you have a program that is outlined for the next 6 weeks, only read and pay attention to the next week’s worth of workouts.

4) Reward yourself: Give yourself some sort of reward for achieving your weekly goals. You’ll know when you have put some serious work in and when you truly deserve a reward.

5) Mission statement: Have a mission statement and refer back to it when you are having trouble getting the ambition to do your next set of push-ups or sprints. Your mission statement should represent what your training philosophy is, and why you are putting yourself through all your workouts in the first place, such as athletic competition, self-confidence, or health benefits. Anything that training means to you.

6) Talk to someone: Thinking too much might sometimes make things tougher than they are. A simple call to a friend can clear your head and reset your mind for the task at hand.

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An Interview with All-Star Soccer Player Heather Mitts!

Heather Mitts is a professional soccer player in the WUSA and is a team member of the United States National Team. She is currently playing the 2003 season for the Philadelphia Charge in WUSA while preparing for the 2003 Women’s World Cup. www.grrlathlete.com had a chance to catch up with Heather during her preparations for a World Cup tune-up match against England.

grrlAthlete.com: Heather, can you tell the readers a little bit about your playing experience and the road that you traveled to the pros and National Team level?

Heather Mitts: I have been playing soccer since I was 6. I began playing organized soccer around 8 and have been in love with the sport ever since. I played a lot of sports growing up and soccer just stole my heart.

After my freshman year of high school I decided to become more serious about soccer and concentrate on a college scholarship. I received numerous honors in high school and received a scholarship to attend the University of Florida. After winning the national championship my junior year and becoming an All-American, I was invited to be a member of the under 21 national team.

Following my senior year, I had heard there was going to be a women professional league so I crossed my fingers and continued training. Next thing I knew I was being drafted to Philly and being paid to play a sport I loved! After my first season I was given an opportunity at my ultimate dream, an invite to a national team camp.

Today I am writing from national camp in Birmingham, AL. We are preparing to play England tomorrow, and the countdown for the Women's World Cup begins!

GA: Have you always been involved in off-season fitness?

HM: I had always done off-season training, but it wasn't until the summer after my freshman year of college that I really became dedicated. My freshman season found me for the first time in a long time unsatisfied with my season’s performance. So that summer I decided I would work extra hard to improve in the off-season. It made a huge difference because it changed my attitude. I don't think I would be where I am today if it weren’t for my yearly dedication.

HM: Off-season training is the time to hit the weights, work on your weaknesses and become a better athlete. I try to stay in shape in the off-season, so when I arrive to preseason I can work on my soccer rather then getting into shape.

HM: In the off-season I usually do sprint work 2 days and distance 3 days a week. I lift weights 3 days on top of that, and try to play as many times as possible. I try to play other sports when I can to vary it up a little bit for my cardio workouts. Taking a soccer ball to a racquetball or squash court and hitting it against the wall for 30 minutes is a great way to get touches on the ball.

HM: Well this off-season I hired a sports trainer to kick my butt! I knew this next season would be very important for me, so I wanted to be in the best shape possible. I would come in 3 times each week and lift. The routine would involve a very intense upper and lower body workout.

Some of the upper body exercises would be dumbbell chest press, incline chest press, pull-ups, biceps and triceps exercises and each would be about 3 or 4 sets times 10-12 reps of heavy weights. We would do a lot of crunches and abs with the medicine ball. Legs would be lunges 4x20 with weighted vest and box step ups.

The most beneficial and most dreadful exercise was the shuttle. It was a squat machine that you lay down on with your legs slightly bent and feet against a board. The machine had resistance and we would do slow squats with heavy weight or jumping with lighter weight. We would do 2 sets starting with 60 reps down to 50 and 40.

Usually a day in between weights we would go to the track and work on speed drills. We would warm up with striders. Then we would run 5x300m under a certain time, finishing the final faster then the preceding time. To finish it off we would hook on the bungee cords and do a series of sprints with resistance, sideways shuffling and backwards running.

The further along in the program we got the heavier the weights and more reps! I never left without breaking a sweat. Then we would have to do at least 45 minutes of cardio on top of that!

HM: I think my favorite drills were bungees, the speed ladder and intervals that involved the ball. The speed ladder is nice because you have a few options that you can vary it up and you can never master the ladder.

HM: I do some backwards running and weight training for the quads and hamstrings to prevent ACL injuries.

HM: Jenny Benson is one of my favorite players just because not only is she an amazing person, but I think she is the best left fullback in the league. Benny as we call her is a great attacker from the back and can serve a perfect ball! Defenders don't get much hype, so she is my hero!

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The Facts About Fat

Fat – the nutrient that occupies the minds of far too many women. The truth is, it can be good, bad, and ugly! According to the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine recommendations for healthy eating, adults should consume between 20-35% of their daily calories from fat to meet daily calorie requirements and minimize risk for chronic disease. But for such a complex nutrient, this generic recommendation doesn’t really help.

Typical sources of fat in the North American diet include butter, margarine, vegetable oils, visible fat on meat and poultry, whole milk, egg yolks, and nuts. It is best to minimize the amount of saturated and trans fats in your diet. On the other hand, you want to consume monounsaturated fat and essential polyunsaturated fats. Great sources of these “healthy” fats include flax oil, olive oil, almonds and other nuts, and fish.

In the last decade, the food industry has developed a greater awareness of the benefits of essential polyunsaturated fats. Thanks to manufacturers, there are many products on the market that provide a source of healthy fats that we could not get even 5 years ago. For example, there are essential fatty acid fortified eggs, juices, milk, soy milk, breads, and bagels.

A simple way of identifying these products is the inclusion of the prefix “omega” somewhere on the label, as omega fatty acids are the class of unsaturated fat that they are fortified with, however not all of these products have this prefix.

The next time you go shopping check around the store and see how many different products you can find that are fortified with essential fats. Labels on most foods should have the fat content broken down into categories including “total fat”, “saturated fat”, “mono-unsaturated fat” “poly-unsaturated fat”. Total fat shouldn’t be as much of a concern as the saturated and trans fat portion.

Trans fats can be difficult to spot, as manufacturers do not yet have to label them on their products. Look for the term “partially hydrogenated” in the ingredients lists, if its there, then the product contains trans fats.

To shop smart for the fat content, pay attention to the breakdown of what kinds of fats are in your foods, try to keep saturated and trans fats low, and go for the foods that have some essential fats added to them. We will go into more depth about the advantages of essential fatty acids in the grrlathlete Training Room.

The information on grrlAthlete.com is for education purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to replace the advice or attention of health-care professionals. Consult your physician before beginning or making changes in your diet or exercise program, for diagnosis and treatment of illness and injuries.