Cycling : The perfect 30-minute post-ride regime

The perfect 30-minute post-ride regime.
by Marilu Matthee – http://www.bicycling.co.za
What you do in the 30 minutes after a training session is crucial to getting fitter faster. Follow these eight steps, in this order.
Recovery, in simple terms, is the time needed for the body to repair itself in order to be at an optimal level again. This includes restoring energy-producing enzymes inside muscle fibres, carbohydrate stores in muscle cells, and the restoration of endocrine and immune systems. During recovery, muscles should increase the proteins in their overall structure to improve strength.
Replenishment is done purposefully in order to get the best recovery results. It’s best to start your replenish phase with the substance that would be most easily absorbed. If you start with a heavy substance, all other foods need to ‘wait’ in the digestion chain and all nutritional value is lost.

1. Drink a glass of water
2. Stretch obliques, glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves. Don’t pulse the stretch, but hold it for 30 counts and breathe deep into the diaphragm to release tension.
3. Eat a selection of fruit or have your homemade power smoothie. (Fruit is a source of good carbohydrates with natural sugars that don’t spike your blood sugar like refined sugars in carbonated drinks. Dark fruits contain antioxidants that speed recovery.)
4. Have a warm shower and get into compression gear if available.
5. Start preparing a healthy, hearty meal, as raw, organic and fresh as possible. (Free-range chicken, grass-fed beef or lentils, soya or quinoa is great for protein. A glass of organic milk is also recommended after training since it contains L-carnitine, an amino acid that aids metabolism.
6. While you prepare your meal, take stock of any niggles in the body. Should you heat it? Or RICE it
7. Make sure that you enjoy your meal sitting down at a table. Squeeze a fresh juice to accompany the meal. Apple, carrot, ginger and beetroot is always a goodchoice.
8. Use the last few minutes to get comfortable. Put your feet up higher than the rest of your body and relax. A power nap is also recommended.

Inventor's 10 points

• Avoid adopting other's negative attitudes
• Slow down and enjoy what you have worked so hard for
• Plan less
• Let go of resentment
• Life is short; there is no time to waste
• Surround yourself with inspiration
• Read about famous discoverers, creators and inventors
• Listen to your dreams
• Sing to your favorite music
• Keep in mind that you are connected to every other person

The Shepherd's 10 points

• Remember that an ending is a beginning in disguise
• Let kindness, generosity, love and wisdom motivate your intentions and happiness will follow 
• Send a thank you note to your child's teacher
• Be  a shepherd - lead from behind
• Concentrate on health and light
• Get excited about another person's ideas
• You become what you think about all day long
• Be mindful of your own actions, not those of others
• Learn to wait; once you can wait; you can do almost anything
• Nothing can make your life more beautiful than perpetual kindness  

Baby got back

Check out these great tips for strengthening your back, for cycling and many other activities......

courtesy of Bicycling Magazine

Becoming an email Ninja!

1. Filter or remove Junk. 
2. Switch off Notifications. 
3. Batch your work. 
4. Stupid joke emails - don't need em. 
5. Publish policies. 
6. Have an external to-do system. 
7. Process quickly. 
8. Be liberal with the delete key. 
9. Short but powerful replies. 
10. Process to done. 






I have been using this "system" for just on 3 weeks now, and it's AWESOME!!!! I use only around 30-45 minutes per day on emails, and have been ending each day with an empty inbox!!!


What a feeling!!!!


Found it on Tim Ferris' blog - go there to read the details, and join the email ninja movement....

TEN POINTS to unlock your energy

Desktop Energy Seed Lamp

• Be easily pleased
• Direct your energies positively
• Make plans you can look forward to
• Watch your thoughts: they become your words
• Don't mistake pleasure for happiness
• Relax about money
• Nothing can ever erase your good deeds
• Act as though it were impossible to fail
• Stop giving energy to things you don't believe in
• You already possess all the material from which to create your ideal self

10 points borrowed from Life and Style magazine....

17 Productivity Tips to double your productivity in 14 days

From our friend, and my guru, Robin S, comes these 17 Tips To Double Your Productivity In 14 Days


1. Turn off all technology for 60 minutes a day and focus on doing your most important work.
2. Work in 90 minute cycles (tons of science is now confirming that this is the optimal work to rest ratio).
3. Start your day with at least 30 minutes of exercise.
4. Don’t check your email first thing in the morning.
5. Turn all your electronic notifications off.
6. Take one day a week as a complete recovery day, to refuel and regenerate (that means no email, no phone calls and zero work). You need full recovery one day a week otherwise you’ll start depleting your capabilities.
7. The data says workers are interrupted every 11 minutes. Distractions destroy productivity. Learn to protect your time and say no to interruptions.
8. Schedule every day of your week every Sunday morning. A plan relieves you of the torment of choice (said novelist Saul Bellow). It restores focus and provides energy.
9. Work in blocks of time. Creative geniuses all had 2 things in common: when they worked they were fully engaged and when they worked, they worked with this deep concentration for long periods of time. Rare in this world of entrepreneurs who can’t sit still.
10. Drink a liter of water early every morning. We wake up dehydrated. The most precious asset of an entrepreneur isn’t time – it’s energy. Water restores it.
11. Don’t answer your phone every time it rings.
12. Invest in your professional development so you bring more value to the hours you work.
13. Avoid gossip and time vampires.
14. Touch paper just once.
15. Keep a “Stop Doing List”.
16. Get up at 5 am.
17. Have meetings standing up.