In most sports, zero is not a good score. In football or hockey, zero is at best a tie. In gymnastics, zero means absolutely awful. In basketball, zero means the team really needs to find something else to do. A score close to zero is great in golf, but an actual zero is impossible. However, San Diego based Sharp Health Care has a fitness testing program for which zero is a great score -- and a great way to achieve good scores at the sports you like. The program is called “Sharp Cardiovascular Screening.”
There is more good news. My own score from last month’s “Sharp Cardiovascular Screening” is zero on a scale of 500. It is very unusual, but it is not a coincidence. The expert advice that Sports Business Examiners get on the job helps us stay fit and healthy off duty, too. You can benefit from this experience by following these time tested tips:
1. Learn from experts. A gold medal does not depend on luck. Sports achievements are the result of hard work, dedication and a fair amount of “trial and error.” Top athletes have already learned from their own errors so if you follow their examples, you can focus on excellence.
2. Attend sports and fitness expositions and see what is new and might work for you. There have been extraordinary advances in sports science and exercise equipment design in the last few decades. That is a key reason why world records continue to be broken. Look at a few yearbook photographs from USC athletics in the 1920’s & 1930’s, or even 1999. From precision weight pneumatic resistance equipment to NASA designed devices for exercise in outer space, today’s fitness devotees have many times more choices than the top athletes of the last century.
3. Include gym routines and aerobic training as part of your athletic regimen. Divers use very different muscles for triple summersaults than baseball outfielders. (When was the last time you saw an outfielder do a triple summersault?) But all work out alongside other athletes and fitness devotees in well equipped gyms. This approach is similar to building a strong foundation for a new building. The form and function of the buildings are different, but they all benefit from a strong foundation. And they get out of shape like the Leaning Tower of Pisa if they do not have a strong foundation.
4. Watch sports you like. You do not burn a lot of calories as a spectator, but you get to adopt and internalize the best practices of the athletes you observe.
5. Keep a fitness diary. Writing down details about your gym routines and recreational sports schedule reminds you that fitness is serious business. And if your sports results or your “Sharp Cardiovascular Screening” show that some changes could be beneficial, you can go back over your fitness diary and look at what components need to be fine tuned. Your fitness diary can also become a way to make more money for your recreational sports budget and a premium gym membership. Examiner.com is adding more sports experts all the time. Writing about fitness for yourself is good for your athletic health, but writing and getting feedback from others is even better! Just look at these test results.
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