[SAMPLE] The following are responses to questions from a father about training his son …

Do you include children (my son is 12) in the scope of your services?
Yes, any age that is involved sports.

How does the evaluation process work?
Evaluation depends on the sports and any conditioning or medical history. Evalution can be sports specific, biomechanically oriented (posture, gait, technique), general athleticism-oriented (e.g., SPARQ) and endurance-oriented.

What are the options for ongoing engagement?
The training rate is $60 per session. The number of sessions per week or month is pretty much set by your budget, and then follows with a design of our meetings based on the amount of time you can meet. Concurrently, the program includes online personal training and an online journal with Exercisereports.com. The website is designed for individuals to collect their Internet tools for fitness, conditioning and sports performance; keep a record of their goals, competitive performance and training; and hold important media documents, such as videos, body size and fitness records; and sportmedicine record summaries. You would have private access with a user name and a password. Since your son is a minor, you would also have access to the private area so that you can monitor progress and monitor Internet safety. There is also a large amount of free information on fitness, wellness and human performance for the general public.

Where does the training occur?
Training can occur in open fields near your house, at your house, or I have a location available for weight training and cardiovascular training on the east side of Prospect Heights, Illinois, but the minimum age is 13. When we speak on the phone I can give you other options.

Are you able to help with the speed and power development?
Yes. I have been training since 1984 and I have managed these type of categories of training before. Training has changed quite a bit over the years, especially with what is available on the Internet for individuals to find information, to find programs and find equipment. My role in this era is to be a general contractor to help you with tools that you, your son and I would agree on selecting for optimal performance improvement.

The important factors in training for speed involve step frequency; stride length; core stabilization; joint function, stabilization and safety; and muscle power and safety

Here is an example of an online site that shows training techniques and more:
sparqtraining.com/features/category/training

My expertise manages, interacts and helps with proper selection for training (program design) and manages, interacts and helps with specific techniques and operations of the training program.

Benjamin Horne, a heart disease researcher from Intermountain Medical Center and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City led a study that found that among behavioral patterns of 515 people surveyed, only fasting made a significant difference in heart disease risks. Fifty-nine percent of periodic meal skippers were diagnosed with heart disease compared to sixty-seven percent heart disease among people who did not periodically fast. Fasting was defined as skipping two consecutive meals.

The factors that were examined included body weight, blood cholesterol levels, blood pressure, diabetes, family history of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), monthly fasting, avoiding tea, avoiding coffee, avoiding alcohol, religious persuasion, taking a weekly day of rest, going to church, social support metrics and donating time, goods or money to charity. Many of the behaviors were due to subjects being Mormons, but 8 percent of subjects surveyed were not Mormons and were consistent with study results.

Horne declared that this one study does not prove that one day fasting per month reduces heart disease, but it does bring the conclusion that a further look into one-day fasting is worthy of more research. Horne also reminded people that fasting slows down the metabolic rate, which stores more calories when eating resumes [Exercise Reports note: that means people trying to lose weight should be ready to increase exercise immediately after the fast to burn off the extra calories or burn the extra nutrients before they are even stored].

Horne postulated that one day fasting might:

Reports in the 1970’s suggest that Latter-day Saints (LDS, or Mormons) in Utah have lower cardiac mortality compared to other Utahns and the US population.

SOURCE:
Brian S McClure, Heidi T May, Joseph B Muhlestein, Jeffrey L Anderson, Dale G Renlund, Beau M Bailey, and Benjamin D Horne
Abstract 3642: Fasting, a Novel Indicator of Religiosity, may Reduce the Risk of Coronary Artery Disease Circulation, Oct 2007; 116: II_826 – II_827.

The ability to hold and use information in the mind for immediate access is known as “working memory.” Examples are remembering numbers for math calculations or for dialing a telephone number. Working memory also involves holding information while other relevant tasks are performed. Working memory capacity varies from person to person. A recent study by Dr Torkel Klingberg and Fiona McNab at the Stockholm Brain Institut, Karolinska Institutet found that a good working memory capacity may not be attributed to having larger memory storage, but to having a better filter that keeps out irrelevant information.

The study involved functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of 25 healthy volunteers that performed a computer-based task that focused on visual images with or without irrelevant distractions. A noise alerted test subjects that irrelevant information was about to be presented.

The subject’s brains (specifically the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia) responded to the sound ahead of the distractions. The fMRI showed greater activity in the globus pallidus located in the basal ganglia that correlated with less unnecessary storage in the posterior parietal cortex— an area of the brain related to the amount of information held in memory. The preceding frontal and basal ganglia activity was correlated with inter-individual differences in working memory capacity of the test subjects.

The scientists had the intent of investigating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.

SOURCE:
McNab F, Klingberg T. Prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia control access to working memory. Nat Neurosci. 2007 Dec 9; [Epub ahead of print]

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Search results: working memory from PubMed.gov