The use of heart rate monitor became a very useful tool. It kept me from working too hard or too easy. The monitor I was using, Polar 610, also came with software. I was able to download all of my exercise sessions into a computer. Then I was able to objectively document my exercise sessions. The software was able to track my calories burned during exercise, my average heart rate, hours spent exercising per week, and much more. After every exercise session actually looked forward to downloading my session to see how I did.

It also allowed me to exercise at different heart rates. One day I would run at 70% of my maximum heart rate for 10 minutes, then bike at 80% of my maximum heart rate for 10 minutes, then go back to running at 70% for another 10 minutes. The next day I would just bike for 40 min. But I would again exercise at different heart rates, 10 min at 70%, and 5 minutes at 80%, and 10 minutes at 75 %, and 5 minutes at 80%, and then 10 minutes at 70%. This was a fun way to exercise and I actually began to look forward to exercising, whole process was less boring.

I kept up with this type of training for five months. On day of my first triathlon, I was forty pounds lighter.

Some how, some way, I did it. I finished my first triathlon, and as crazy as it sounds I really enjoyed myself. I was feeling good about my accomplishment, but I still had some serious weight to lose. So I found another triathlon race six months later, signed up for it and continued training. The weight just kept coming off and coming off.

At time of my second race, eleven months after learning about triathlons, I had lost sixty pounds.

It seemed like every week one of my patients, whom I had not seen for months, would come in for a treatment. The reactions were always same, doc what heck happened to you, you look like a totally different person!

I felt like a different person too, I was running without knee pain, I was happier at work, my relationship with my family was better, I was no longer embarrassed to go to a pool party or water park, in fact I looked forward to them.

My patients and members of health club where my office was located were constantly asking me about my weight loss. I remember one of gym members walking up to my desk and looking at my before and after pictures. He pointed to my fat picture and said, “That is me” then he pointed to my fit picture and said, “That is way I want to look”. Wow, what a great feeling, I could not believe it.

As I am sitting here writing this article, it has been a year since my first triathlon. Just a few weeks ago, I raced in my third race and I actually managed to finish second in my age group.

As a result of getting into triathlons, not only do I have a new body, I have a new life.

Dr. Jeffrey Banas is a Chiropractic Sports Physician practicing in Mesa, AZ. He continues to compete in triathlons and has kept his weight off for over a year now. If you would like to contact Dr. Banas, he can be reached at his office at 480-633-6837, or by visiting his web site at www.personal-weight-loss-help.com

How I Developed My Understanding Of Basic Body Movement

I taught physical education from Grades 1 to 9. In one short span of time I could see development of movement in all stages of growth. I could also see physical and mental effort carried out by these children as they learned skills and games which I taught.

I used to teach various Grades a level of a game which they could handle. I taught positional play in slow motion and then introduced body movements which enabled students to move fluently up and down playing surface. They quickly learned this and asked for more. That is when I taught various skills. The game was taught first; and then came skills.

In golf, there are a number of games played during a round. * We try to get a better score than someone else. * We try to get a personal best score during a round. * We try to play against golf course to get a par round or better. * We try to get a better score than par on each hole.

BUT, usually forgotten is game of playing each golf shot as good as we possibly can. It is this last "game" which I teach in my golf lessons.

The free articles combined with instruction modules will teach you how to win "the game" of playing each hit during your round of golf.

Relating this to teaching golf swing skills I emphasize basic posture, alignment, control, and body movement. Arm and hand activity do not get taught until my students learn basic movements. Because of this, beginners and students who had never hit ball in air soon hit draws with even their short irons when they hit ball over a fence.

You, The Ground, And The Golf Ball

We stand on ground. The golf ball rests on ground (er, usually). Before we try to dislodge that golf ball from its place on ground we should learn a good method of relating what we do from our "perch" on ground.

Between our connection to ground and ball's position on ground we have a lot of body mass and joints along with that "stick" thing. We need movement to make golf ball move. Therefore, we swing back and forth to make golf club move ball. But, those joints want to do all sorts of contortions during our golf swing efforts.

We need to develop an understanding of how to move at fewest possible joints and how to control or prevent movements of rest of our joints. This is basic to anything we do. It is very important to this "confusing" skill called golf swing.