Using a heart rate monitor

I've put a new article on using a heart rate monitopr for training on http://www.sportandme.com

I found that buying a heart rate monitor really helped my training - stopped the fooling myself that I was training hard when I wasn't. Here's the link to the article:

http://www.sportandme.com/docs/sports/running/guide/heart_rate_monitor.html

I love staying at the Veggie Barn in the UK New Forest (http://www.veggiebarn.net/)whenever I go to visit my son and his family, so I've been adding some of their wonderful recipes to htp://www.healthandgoodness.com. The latest one is Vegan star anise custard:

http://healthandgoodness.com/nutritiondiet/recipe_vegan_star_anise_custards.htm

makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

Back Pain

back pain is the second most common form of pain to head pain. Here's some great advice from the Duke University Health Center on how to avoid it:

Exercise regularly. A program that includes 30 minutes of low-impact aerobic activity such as walking, cycling and water aerobics several times a week will help tone back muscles.

Build muscle strength. Conditioning exercises that focus on your back, abdomen, hips, and legs can help support your spinal region.

Read the rest at:

http://healthandgoodness.com/health/preventing_back_pain.htm

cheers Jane

Tennis - the mind game

Well summer seems to have finally arrived in Cornwall, so I've put an article on tennis - the mental part on http://www.sportandme.com.


Here's the beginning of it:

Learning how to play tennis can be either a wonderful or a very frustrating experience. It depends on whether your approach and expectations to the game are realistic and whether your coach and his way of teaching the game of tennis are the best for your starting level of play.

When you start learning how to play tennis you probably don't know much about it. You've seen how good players play and they seem so effortless and the game seems easy. You decide that you want to try it too and enroll in one of the lessons at your local club.

There are 2 main areas when you are still learning how to play tennis:

Technique (footwork, body, arm action)
Tactics

And here are the main mental points for these two areas of your beginning lessons:

1. Be aware - when you learn how to play tennis you are soon overwhelmed with lots of information.


You can read the full article here:

http://www.sportandme.com/docs/sports/tennis/guide/tennis_mental_game.html