This site is the website of motivational speaker Craig Harper. A constantly updated, one-stop information, inspiration, education and motivation station. Unlike many similar sites, it is a totally free resource for anyone who is serious about moving from mediocre to amazing in any area of their personal or professional life. With hundreds of articles covering a wide range of subject matter, great interviews with cool people and inspirational video posts, there's more than enough brain-food to keep you busy for hours. Okay, days!! Enjoy.
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Fattitude
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Craig Harper is Australia's leading
motivational speaker
and educator (according to Google Australia). He is a highly
sought-after corporate coach and is considered to be
a leader and pioneer in the areas of personal and
professional development.
Working with hundreds of
teams, companies and a wide variety of organisations
on numerous continents over the last twenty years
has given Craig a unique insight into, and
understanding of, human performance and all its
variables. Craig has an ability to educate, inspire,
challenge and make people laugh all at the same
time!
So it seems that Friday's article pushed a few buttons. As expected. It's good that we all have an opinion on theHeart Attack in a Box. Let me know if you eat one; I'd love some feedback. Having said that, I'm not suggesting you make a trip to HJ's just for me. Please! Well, the Motivator Dude and the Social Commentator are nowhere to be seen at the moment, so the Exercise Bloke has shown up to fill in for the day. On with the show....
A few years ago I trained a couple of sixty(ish) year-old blokes twice a week. They were both businessmen and their exercise objectives were pretty straight forward; lose a few pounds, get a little stronger and fitter, don't break anything and don't die in the process. After working with them for about a year and seeing some great results, one night I decided to do something totally different with their training; get them out of the gym and have a complete change of environment and workout. We walked out the front door of the centre and jogged to a local park.
Kids at heart
Instead of making them jog laps and do mind-numbing body-weight exercises and fitness drills, I did something which put a smile on their faces; produced a football (Aussie Rules), a soccer ball and a Frisbee from my bag of tricks. When they saw the football they were like kids at Christmas. Instead of the normal well-structured, age-appropriate (whatever that means), sensible outdoor training session, what ensued was an hour of laughing, kicking, catching, throwing, wrestling (boys will be boys) and plenty of laughs.
Can we do that again?
Without doubt, they expended more energy, ran further and worked harder than they had in any workout they'd ever done with me. Something else happened; they enjoyed it more. They didn't talk about business for an hour, they didn't complain about how hard I was working them, they didn't discuss their problems and they weren't aware of the time. They just had sixty minutes of fun. When we got back to the gym, they asked me if they could do that type of session at least once a week. All my study, all my knowledge, all the science behind my previous workouts with them, all that strategic planning... and what session did they enjoy the most? The unstructured 'freestyle' session chasing balls and Frisbees!
It wasn't pretty, but it was fun
Watching the old(ish) codgers running around like teenagers (mildly arthritic teenagers) was not only hilarious and fun but it was the easiest session (for me) I'd ever done with them. I didn't need to motivate or coerce them (in fact, I needed to hold them back a little) and I didn't need to constantly re-focus them to the task at hand. Watching them kick, catch, turn, twist, run (forward, backwards and sideways), jump, tackle and wrestle, it dawned on me how effective games are on so many levels; physiologically, mentally, emotionally and sociologically. Apart from the enjoyment factor, the physical benefits from something as simple as two old blokes kicking, catching and chasing a ball are numerous; improved aerobic endurance, muscular endurance, balance, hand-eye co-ordination, agility and physical dexterity. Isn't it amazing to know that while some people are just gettingold (by choice), others of the same age are making their bodies, fitter, leaner, stronger and more functional by choice. Who said ageing isn't optional? Isn't it also cool to know that bodies can and will adapt even into their eighties if we stimulate them the right way?
Climbing trees
On many levels, playing games is a much more effective, enjoyable and productive means of changing a body and maintaining focus than the majority of traditional (some might say boring and repetitious) workouts we subject ourselves to at the gym. Most of us get to a certain age where we stop doing the cool things we did when we were young. Ever consider what a great training session climbing a tree is? It's almost the complete workout; upper and lower body strength, flexibility, aerobic fitness, balance and co-ordination. Okay, it's slightly more dangerous than walking on a stupid treadmill... but a crap-load more fun. It's a pity that we grown-ups get to a point where we stop running, throwing, catching, kicking, lifting, balancing and climbing. Apparently we're too busy, too mature, too responsible and too old to do such things.
Cognitive Dissociation
In the worlds of exercise science and exercise psychology we use a technique called cognitive dissociation (CD) as a tool to help people exercise more productively, more consistently, more enthusiastically and with a greater level of enjoyment. In relation to exercise, CD is a fancy schmancy term for taking your mind off what you're doing to your body. For example, compare running around (and around, and around) a sports ground non-stop for ten kilometres (six miles) to running the same distance along a beautiful beach with a gorgeous view of the ocean while listening to your favourite music pumping through some light-weight headphones. Even though you're doing the same thing (as far as your body knows) - running ten kilometres - you will have two very different experiences because of what's going on above your shoulders. The ocean view and the music will provide you with a level of mental disconnection (relief, distraction) from the physical process. The beach run will be quite a different experience to the sports ground run. When we play active games we are doing the same thing. That's why many people would prefer to run five miles while playing tennis, soccer, football or Frisbee than they would to run laps of an oval or to die of boredom running on a revolving rubber belt at a gym.
A playground for grown-ups
Some of the best physical results I've seen with people over forty have come from game-based exercise sessions. I've taught sixty year-old women (yes, women) how to kick and mark (catch) and handball (an Australian thing) a football and seen amazing improvements in not only their fitness and strength but also in their balance, co-ordination, agility and even, reaction time. I've worked with seventy plus year-olds doing climbing, balance and co-ordination sessions on kid's playground equipment and they absolutely loved every session. I've watched people in their sixties take up surfing (successfully) and I've umpired volleyball games where the youngest person on the court was fifty five. Given the opportunity, most people love to play. Our bodies love it too.
And as someone much smarter than me once said:
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."
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