Dad's Birthday and the Weather's "Trick"

Last Saturday was my dad's 50th birthday! Colleen and Mom planned a mini surprise party for him (it was a surprise for everyone, because we didn't know who was coming and who wasn't)! The first person to show up was our pastor: Per. He heard that Dad liked chocolate, so he wanted to get him something unique. He sure did. It was chocolate wine. I never heard of it, but Dad let me take a sip of it, and it actually wasn't that bad! That's saying a lot because I really don't like the flavor of wine, and chocolate wine just sounded weird. In a little while our neighbors (the Belangers) showed up and brought in this awesome chocolate cake. We all talked for a bit and then the Kidds showed up and after a little bit more talked everyone but the Kidd kids left and the girls and Darby started raking our yard while Dad, Kevin and I got dirt to fill in the end of our driveway.

After we got a few loads of dirt we spread it out and then Dad let me 'pack down' the dirt with the van. By this time the girls and Darby were about 2/3s done their raking and Kevin and I joined in.

It was becoming dusk when we finished all of our raking. It was getting quite chilly so we all went in and had some hot chocolate. We decided that all the girls would be going to the Richards for this dinner thing with a huge family. All of us guys (Darby, Kevin, Dad and I) went to Longhorn Steakhouse for supper. We had to wait a bit because it was full so we went to Best Buy and looked at different things there.

It was a little over 15 minutes when we headed back to Longhorn and were seated. I was super pumped because I was going to get some ribs. I love ribs! They're so yummy! Ah. I'm getting hungry just thinking about them.....

After some laughs and great food we went outside to leave and go play some pool at a local pool place. That's when the weather played it's 'trick' on us. It was snowing. I mean really, snowing in October! I guess that's the weathers Halloween trick!

Anyway, we played some pool, Dad and Darby vs. Kevin and I. The first game Kevin had an unlucky bounce which barely let the 8 ball roll in a pocket too early, thus making Dad and Darby win. The next game was much closer. I felt bad for Darby though, he hadn't sunk a single ball yet. As the game went in Kevin and I only had one or two balls left while Darby and Dad had the 8 ball left. It was Darby's turn to go, and the Que ball was on the opposite side of the table of the 8 ball. Darby hits the Que ball, making it slowly roll across the table, and actually hit the 8 ball, which rolled even slower into the corner pocket! That made Darby's day, and I'm pretty sure made everyone else's day!

When we finished with pool, we brought Kevin and Darby home, and waited for the rest of the Kidd family to show up and unlock their door. When they did show up, I decided to start my first snowball fight of the season! It was me vs. the Kidd kids. Let's just say years of baseball and dodging random objects for years gave me the upper hand... and I was only hit twice, while I had at least 10 hits. It was a short fight, but was an awesome fight. I love snowball fights!!!

Energy and a Short Visit

I haven't worked out since soccer ended. I never realized how much energy I've been spending with sports, until now. I've been energetic most of everyday, I've been taking awhile to fall asleep, and I've been waking up around 4 or 5 am for the past 3 days. That's too early for me, so I just go back to bed. So I'm thinking I should start working out again, that way I spend my energy and I'll become stronger! Sounds like a plan!

Yesterday afternoon we had Jenna over! It was a pretty short visit (2:30-6:45), but a fun visit! For awhile we just talked and Colleen made chocolate cover things (raisins, Oreos, and pretzels)! Once Shannon finished her work, Colleen, Shannon, Jenna and I played a game of Catan. It was a slow game that went back and forth, but I ended up winning in the end. When we finished we ate supper and then Jenna left and us Clarkes went off to Bible study!

Running, Part 3

In this post I'll won't be writing how "how to run well" or anything like that. I'm going to be writing about why overall body strength helps you run.

To start it off, I'll be obvious: leg strength is important! Calves push your foot off the ground and help prevent you from running on your heels. Shin muscles counter the calf and help you not run on your toes.

The quad pulls up your leg (not the only muscle group that does, mind you), and extend your leg. Very import while sprinting because extending your leg is part of the explosion that pushes you while sprinting, or just running.

The hamstring counters the quad. It pulls your lower leg up by contracting. This makes it so you won't be running straight legged and so when you kick something you don't hit your face.

Your hips and glutes are big muscles that are the primary muscles for pulling your entire leg up. This is important for obvious reasons such as bringing your knee up while you run.

Now that all was pretty obvious, but did you know that your core and arm strength play a big role in running? Especially sprinting. Arm and core strength are not too big a deal if you're a distance runner, but it's still helpful to have some.

Now, how do your abs help you run? I'll tell you what I know! Your abs (mainly lower abs) help lift up your legs. Do some leg lifts and you'll see that they do, and they can get tired pretty fast if not strengthened and toned.

Your back is the counter for your abs. It does a ton of stuff, but I don't want to write about all of it, and I'm kind if ignorant on back strength. Just assume it's a good thing to keep strong!

Your abs and your back (your core) are also stabilizer. They keep your upper body from being thrown around, which prevents injuries and makes helps with speed by making your legs only have to do one thing: go forward.

Your core can't stabilize everything. Your body would still twist and turn just because the shear weight of your legs. Your arms, chest, and shoulders can counter this weight-unbalance! Your chest pulls your arm forward, so to balance you when the leg on that side is in back of you. The shoulder is the counter for your chest, and pulls your arm back, which balances you when the leg on that side is in front of you. Your biceps and triceps keep your arms in good form, and your forearm and wrist keep your hand upright and lined up with your forearm so that you don't injure your wrist while running.

Guess what? Your neck help too! It keep ls your head in a neutral position, keeping your spine healthy and your body a little more balanced!

Now, to end this post I'll say that all this should prove to you that building muscle helps you run, and that running is a great fully body workout! That doesn't mean you should make running your only workout! Strength all these muscles by lifting weights, or doing body weight workouts. You will probably notice a difference in your running capabilities if you strengthen these muscles! I did.

Richards Game Night

This past Sunday, after church us Clarke kids went over to the Kidd's to hangout and play games until we went to the Richards' game night. While we were at the Kidd's we ate lunch, I played Risk (I ended up winning), and then we talked and played President (a card game) until we left.

Once we got to the Richards we all just talked and watched or played some ping-pong until more people showed up. Eventually we had a bunch of SMASHers and friends there, which made things much more fun. We played Round Robin, President, Spoons, and we eventually started played Ninja! Round Robin was pretty epic, but my hamstring started getting irritated, so I ended up playing Spoons until it started feeling better and Ninja started. All the while eating brownies, cookies and drinking apple cider.

When we were about to leave we had a little meeting led by Pastor Sam about how the Lord has helped us and how we are to help others. Once we finished we headed home.

Another thing that was kind if exciting was that last night we went to Portland to briefly visit my Aunt and look at new phones! I'll probably be getting my dad's old iPhone 3GS, but have it jail-broken and go on to TMobile's service plan!

End of the Season

Last week I mentioned how my team made playoffs. It was the first time Leavitt did in 4 years. We ended up playing Lincoln Academy. We had pretty much the same record, except they had a few more wins.

The game was at their field. I must say, they probably have the worst field in the entire league. They almost have an entire baseball field on the soccer field. No joke. They had a "flattened" pitchers mound on the field, the corner of the field had the home base area. To top it off, it was rainy and muddy. It was all alright, because both teams were playing on the horrible field.

The game started out pretty good. It was going back and forth the whole half, yet no one scored. The second half was nearly the same. Both teams were getting tired, so that was making it easier to score. In the last 5 minutes of the game, Lincoln scores. Our team becomes quite... mad, no one gave up. We still tried our hardest. I got drilled in the face with 4 minutes left which left my face numb and my vision slightly blurred. I call for a sub, got one and then watched the timer count down as Lincoln stalled the game as much as they could. My vision went back to normal after a few minutes of sitting, but there was only 2 minutes left on the game and subbing me in would just stall time which is not what we wanted.

We ended up losing the game, 0-1. It was one of best games, and our last game. Great season boys!

Running, Part 2

Have you ever gone running and your arms just felt weird, awkward, or out of place? Some people hold them up too high, some people claw with one arm, others just run plain out weirdly.

This is all about distance running, sprint is more intense and arms are even more important.

I'm not going to try and explain all the things you could be doing wrong with your arms, I'm just going to explain what you should be doing with your arms.

Your elbows should be bent at 90 degrees, but don't stress it too much. Also don't hold it at 90 degrees, relax a little and let them swing a little (not a ton, or you'll run slower and look like an awkward ninja).

Another important thing is to have your arms "in sync" with your legs. Make sure your when your right leg is in back, your right arm is forward, vice versa, and the same with the left. A fun and funny thing to do is to try and sprint full out and move your arms at a jogging pace. It feels so weird, and shows why you need your arms "in sync" with your legs.

I just told you to move your arms back and forth opposite to your legs, but what if you don't know how move your arms the right way? Well don't feel like a fool if you swing your arms wrong, I always did until last year! The right way to swing your arms is to move them at the shoulder (not your elbow), how much you move them depends on your speed and turnover.

A good thing to remember is to keep your forearms pretty parallel. What I mean by this is when you run your arms shouldn't be angled in. Your arms and hands should be at your sides, not in front of your chest or flailing out to your sides.

Now why do you need to keep good form with your arms? Well if you don't use your arms your legs will make your torso twist back and forth and your body would be hard to control. You wouldn't run straight, you'll be slower, and all that twisting could hurt your back, your abs, or maybe your shoulders. Doing the above paragraphs will help you run faster, but it's not super important to have perfect arm form (unless you're sprinting), so don't stress it.

Playoffs

Yesterday I had a game that was supposed to decide if we made playoffs. The odds were quite against us if we lost. The game was against MCI. They are an ok team, but had a few really good foreign exchange students. One of them was extremely good, so I was to guard him most of the game. He was faster, stronger, and more skilled than me, so it was tough and if he got the ball it often took 2-3 players to take the ball back. That player scored two goals during the game, once while I not supposed to guard him, the other when I was. Overall our team totally out worked them, but just couldn't get the ball in the back of the net. I'm sure we had at least double their shots and triple their time controlling the ball. They beat us 2-0 in the end... That one player that scored their two goals was pretty much the only reason they won. So most of the varsity team were quite mad and bummed that they probably weren't going to playoffs. A strange thing happened on the way home from the game: coach got a few calls about the games that really mattered for us to make playoffs. All the teams we needed to win were winning, and all the teams we needed to lose were losing! It was extremely unlikely, but it happened! So now my team is off to playoffs! First game is this Saturday! I'm pumped!!! Leavitt boys soccer hasn't gone to playoffs in like 4 years! :D

Running, Part 1

Alrighty. I decided to finally write about running. Now take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm not the best runner in the world, nor do I have the best form, but I might have some tips that could help you.

First off: the balls of your feet. Did you know you aren't supposed to run your heels or on your toes? You're supposed to run on the balls of your feet. If you don't know where that is, it's right behind your toes and in front of your arch.

When I say run on the balls of your feet, I don't mean never let your toes touch the ground. You want to land on the balls of your feet, and then you can push off the the balls of your feet and then the your toes. Also, running on the balls of your feet doesn't mean keeping your calf flexed the whole time so that your heel never gets close to the ground. You should land on the balls of your feet and then let your heel go down to about one centimeter off the ground, then you should flex your calf and launch forward.

The heel you always want to avoid because when you land on your heel you're pounding your shin and sometimes even your lower back. Both or those are bad things to pound. Shin splints and lower back problems are not things you want to have. Another reason not to run on your heels is that it's like tapping the brakes.

Now, if you were a heel runner in your distance running (I was), you'll find this habit extremely hard to break. You'll also notice it's hard to land your foot in front of you without landing on your heel or having your calf fully flexed to land on the balls of your feet. This is because landing your foot in front of you is wrong. I didn't know this until last year during track, and I'm still trying to break the habit. Apparently landing in front of your body is once again, like tapping the breaks. You might think it's better because you have longer strides, but long slow strides aren't much of a match against medium-long fast strides. Now, where on earth should my foot go if my foot can't land in front of me? Well, you still want to take long strides and keep your knees up, but when you bring your foot down, don't just put it down in front of you but bring it right behind you. Only an inch or two behind your center of gravity. Your foot should hit just behind your body, your momentum will carry you through. This way you're pushing your body forward instead of pulling it over your leg and then pushing it. Now to make this works you have to pound a little into the ground (not a ton for distance, but very hard for sprinting), then launch yourself forward with your calf. Now you'll have to do your own timing with your strides, I'm not quite sure what the 'perfect timing' is, or if there is one. I just run.

There is a ton more about running, but I could write for hours about the stuff I learned about running through coaches, personal experience, and reading stuff online. I'll write more about this later!

Not-So-Exciting Post

This is another post about my weekend. I'm sure many of you probably don't really care what I did on my weekend, but I'll write about it anyway.

This past Friday was going to be senior night for Leavitt boys soccer... thanks to rain, it turned into senior Saturday morning. That didn't go over well with the seniors. They played, but weren't the happiest players in the world, and o don't blame them. Anyway, our game didn't go so well. We were playing pretty much the worst team in class B, and we were tied at half time. We played better the second half (not our best though), and turned it into a win. It was a victory, and that's all we really needed, even if the score was 1-2.

After my game my team went out to Denny's and just hung out, talked and ate pancakes. Three of us guys had a pancake eating challenge, I ended up winning with 7 plate-size pancakes.

After eating some of us guys were talking with our coach about training for next year and such. We got to the topic of the weight room. That was something I wanted to do. It sounded like next year we might be hitting the weight room next summer! I'm pumped. Another thing we got talking about was other sports to do on our off season. We agreed track was good, and then someone mentioned skiing. Coach then decided it would be awesome if all his juniors (seniors next year) would do skiing and track. Most of them probably are, that includes me.

Now on to Sunday. On Sunday we had the older Kidd kids over and Calvin. We then went to church with them. After church we just hung out and had a talk about a sermon. After we were finished with all that we went over to the Donahues for a little campfire party! Some other great friends came, such as Tucker, Rebecca, Jenna, the older Este kids, and Amanda! Over all it was a great evening of fellowship, jokes, frisbee, soccer, ping-pong, games and food! Thank you Donahues for hosting it!

On a side note I just got this blogger app on my iPhone. It's pretty sweet so far, I'm just hoping this will post!

Shorter Posts

Lately I've been doing these long posts about working out, or something I could write about for awhile. This would be ok if I was a faster writer, but I'm not. Because those posts took me awhile to write they drained my time to do other school. Sometimes I had to do extra school throughout the week, and then do some more on Saturday. This was pretty annoying because usually my weekends were quite full, soccer was filling my afternoons, and my nights are becoming full with Bible studies, Doctor Who or line memorization. So this post is just about me saying I'll be writing shorter posts. Well, at least until soccer is done, I'll have more time then, but SMASH will start to pick up and I'll be working out on my own.

Camden Hills

Yesterday afternoon my soccer team played against the best Maine class B soccer team: Camden Hills. My team doesn't have the best record, but has improved immensely over this season. We lost most of our games before we played Camden Hills, so they were probably expecting an easy win with a high score. We didn't let that happen. We probably played the best we've ever played. We made Camden Hills work. They were obviously more skilled and some of them more fit than us, but we still fought hard and were getting on their nerves. At half time the score was 0-1, Camden Hills. That was pretty good for a team with our record against a team who hasn't even lost yet. Over all my team played very well and held them at 0-1 for awhile, then then eventually scored again. After that goal we took out our starting goalie because he was also extremely good at offense. When he was subbed out they scored again. Once he was put back in as forward, we generated a bunch of offense. We actually had more offense in the end than Camden Hills! But we couldn't finish, so the game ended with a score of 0-3.

I heard my coach talking to someone about how the Camden Hill coach said that we made them work harder than a lot of the teams they played against. Which says alot with our record.

During the game I did something I never did before: a bike save. Our goalie challenged a played and prevented him from scoring, but he did not get control of the ball and it bounced out to another on the Camden team and he took a weak shot because it had a weird spin on it. Ben (our best defender and sweeper) and I ran after the ball. I got there first, but was too late to turn and clear it. I could have tried heading it, but chances were I would head it into our own goal. So I attempted a bike (a bike is kind of like a back flip while kicking the ball, except you usually don't land it, which I didn't.). Luckily, it worked! I didn't hit the ball hard, but it went to Ben who turn and cleared it!

On another note, a not so good note, my hamstring was killing me with 30 minutes left in the game. I knew the feeling. I pulled it last year, and hamstrings never quite heal... so it being a cold day and me playing almost the entire game made my hamstring act up again. I was barely able to run by the end of the game it hurt so bad. I still played because coach needed me to, but it sure didn't feel good. Right now my hamstring is feeling a bit better (I can walk without a limp) and I'm hoping it stays that way (or gets better) for tomorrow's senior night!

Stretching

Do you know you the difference between of dynamic and static stretching? Well, if you're a runner or an athlete, then you probably do, if not, then you probably don't know. For you who don't know I'll write about the difference and give a few examples. First off I'll describe dynamic stretching because that's what you should do first.

Dynamic stretching you do right after (or part of) a warm up. Warm ups and dynamic stretching are very important for injury prevention. Warm ups are things such as high knees, jumping jacks, rope skippers (like rope skipping without a rope), and jogging. Once you spend 3-10 minutes of warming up you should do some dynamic stretching. To do dynamic stretching you have to do reps and not hold the stretch for long. You usually only do these on your leg muscles. Your arms don't go through as much strain so they don't really need them.

My first example of a dynamic stretch is leg swings. For these all you have to do is find a solid object like a wall or fence and brace yourself on it, then with one foot planted on the floor and swing your other foot back and forth parallel to the wall or fence. You can do this two ways. I recommend both. One way you can face the wall is with your face to the wall, swinging your leg in front of you you. When you do this you should feel a brief stretch in your hip and groin muscle areas. The other way is when you have your side to the fence or wall and you're swinging your leg in front of you then in back of you. This should stretch your hamstring, glute, quad and maybe even some back).

My next example is the lunge/spiderman. This one you start standing, then lunge forward, knees at 90 degree angles. Once you're there lean back for a second or two. This stretches the quad. Then try and bring your elbow that is on the same side as your front leg to your heel or ankle on the front foot. Hold for a second or two. This stretches the groin and a little bit of your hip flexers. When you're done with that bring your torso back up from there and straighten your front leg and pull your toes up and push on your thigh while leaning slightly forward. This should stretch your hamstring, and if you're not very flexible (like me) this should stretch your calf as well. Once you completed this repeat the entire thing on the other side. Do this about 10 times (5 on each side).

There are many, many other dynamic stretches... if you want get more, then comment. I know a few more, which is all I really need.

Now, static stretching. This is something you do after working out or competing in a sport. Only do this if you muscles are warm. If you're muscles are cold, then do a quick warm up so that they are warm and then stretch. Static stretching is to get help get rid of some lactic acid and will increase flexibility. In case you didn't know lactic acid makes you sore. So stretching afterward is good. To do a static stretch you can just hold the position that stretches for about 30 seconds. I don't really know alot of the names for static stretches, but I can tell you what muscle groups they stretch.

To stretch the calf muscle you can pretty much just pull on your toes and the balls of your feet. To do a more intense stretch find a wall and place your ball of your foot on it and then lean forward with your knee straight. To stretch more of the lower part of the calf bend your knee and bring it towards the wall.

The shin muscle doesn't always need stretching, but if you feel tightness there, then you should stretch it. To do so, with one leg's shin to the ground, then sit down on it. Don't put all your weight on it because you could pull it, or strain tendons in your ankle. Slow put more weight on it, until you can just sit on it. If you have had ankle injuries before then this might not work that well because your ankle isn't flexible enough.

Now for the quad. This one is easy. To start stand up and bring a leg up behind you and grab it's ankle with your hand. Don't grab the toe. That's a good way to hurt your ankle. Once you have that pull your leg back (parallel to your other leg) and pull forward at the same time with your leg. Try and hold for 30 seconds. This could be hard if you don't have the best balance.

The hamstring! This muscle is easy to pull, but needs to be flexible. So to stretch it do the basic touch your toes. Yup. That's it. You can do this standing or siting. Just make sure you keep your legs straight. If you can't touch your toes, then slowly work on it. A good way to get farther is to reach as far as you can, hold when you inhale, and reach a little farther when you exhale. When you inhale again try your best to keep your hand where it is, and then go farther then you exhale again.

Now for the weirder muscles (by the way, there is no red line under the word "weirder"). One is the groin. To stretch this your need to do a butterfly. The way you do one of those is to sit or squat down with your feet together or right next to each other, your knees should be bent in as far as they can go. Now place your hand on your right next to your feet and with your elbows push your knees apart. You should feel the stretch easily, unless you're very flexible.

Ok, the glute. To stretch this all you have to do is sit down and hug your knee/bent leg. Pull it pretty hard if you're flexible enough. Your other leg should be between your ankle and your hamstring, pretty relaxed.

Last, but not least! The hip flexer. Lay down, bend your right knee so that your foot is flat on the ground and relaxed. Then place your left ankle on your knee. Once you have that set up, pull your right leg towards your chest. Do this on both sides.

Now, once again there are many other ways to stretch most if not all your muscle groups. Comment if you want to know how to stretch one I didn't list.

Odd Weather and an Awesome Weekend

You know, it's October. Frost is coming out. warm pies, bonfires and camp fires, and soccer will come to an end in a few weeks... but Maine has a mind of it's own. Friday's temperature was around 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Saturday was around 75 degrees Fahrenheit, so was Sunday, and Monday was only slightly cooler. That was weird, but awesome. I'm hoping the temperature will stay around 60 and 70 for the rest of soccer season.

Now for my awesome weekend. To start it off, my team won our game we had to win on Friday. It was tied 0-0 for most of the game, but in the last 20 minutes we scored 3 goals. That gave us victory. I also played a lot of my team and one of my coaches in chess on the bus rides. I won all the games I played (which was about 7 games). Guess I am kind of nerd. :)

On Saturday Abbey my oldest sister came home for the weekend. I barely get to see her because she lives in New York City for school and during the summer for her job. So I was happy she was home. That day we actually ended up going to Erik Simmler and Hannah (Field) Simmler's wedding! It was great to see them, and some other people I knew from Teenpact and other events!

On Sunday we just went to church, hung out with Abbey and played games. It was nice to relax...

On Monday, we had the a full day. The morning was full of cleaning and eating, and in the late morning Calvin came over. We hung out with him for a bit and then went apple picking. After apple picking we came home and I helped my neighbor put up some stairs. That took an hour, and when I came back the some of the Donahues, the older Este kids, and Jenna were at our house!

After hugs and hellos we all went over to Recreation Drive so we could play a game of Ultimate. Joel (an Este) and I were captains. The teams seem pretty even to me once they were picked. I believe my team threw the Frisbee first, and so it began. The game went well, going back and forth, my team ended up winning. I think the score was 5-3. I love Ultimate, and what makes it even better is when you have a really good throwing day. I had one of these. So I had a grand time.

When we were done Ultimate the Estes had to leave. After another round of hugging, the rest of us walked back to our house through the woods. When we got home we had a campfire and had some interesting conversations and food cooked over the fire. I also pulled out my hot peppers. The few people that dared try them felt the fire of Habaneros. It was awesome, and funny. Only problem was I learned to cut them with safety glasses... the hard way. Another wise, it was just yummy, funny, and really spicy!

Once in the middle of some of our random conversations a car pulled down our driveway. We were a bit confused at first, but then realized it was Jenny and her family! A friend of ours who lives in Massachusetts that we met at Deerwander! It was pretty awesome to see and talk to her for a bit!

Once the fire died down we came inside and Jenny and her family had to leave. When we were insides we played ping-pong, drew random things on peoples arms, talked and joked around until the Donahues and Jenna had to leave.

Over all, it was a grand weekend.

I'm guessing this was probably a boring post to the people that don't really know the people I talked about so next time I'll try and write about something more interesting than my weekend!

40 Seconds

Yesterday evening I had a soccer game at Morse Highschool. My team has a tendency to not do well at far away games. That's how we started. Within the first 3 minutes they scored. That sure woke us up. We held them there and took a few shots. No one scored for the rest of the half. In the second half we played a little better and scored about 20 minutes into the game. Our team kept going back and forth for awhile, and I thought for sure we were going to win. We had shots that bounced off cross bar, the side post, and some that forced the goalie to make diving saves. With less than a minute left, the other team had one of there best players run the ball with two other good players help him. Don't ask me how, but that guy got through two of our best players and a weaker defender. He then took a shot which our goalie (an extremely good goalie) barely missed. The ball was then buried in the corner of the goal. There were 40 seconds left in the game. We had the ball, Brandon (probably the best ball handler on our team) took the ball down, out moved three defenders and then was stopped by two defenders doubling up on him. All they did was clear it, so my team sent it down the corner and tried that, but we just didn't have enough time. We crossed it in right as the buzzer went off and the game ended.

We needed to win that game or we need to win today's game to make the playoffs. After this game we have three more games, two of which are easy games. If we win those, all we can do is hope the right times win so that we can make it to playoffs, or beat the best team in the league, and maybe even the state.

Vanity? Selfish? Maybe.

Is working out vanity or selfish? It could be. If you're working out just to impress people with your massive and defined muscles, then yes, it probably is. If you're working out to keep a healthy life style, and to stay fit, then I don't believe you're being selfish and vain. But what if you're an athlete? You're probably trying to do more than just stay fit, you're probably trying to get stronger. Is that only for your personal gain? That could depend. If you're trying to become the star track runner on your team and don't care about your team, then that's obviously selfish. Let's say you're trying to become the best at your sport as possible. Not for only for your gain, but to help your team as much as possible. That's a good thing, and not selfish.

Another point would be to imagine an entire team that thought working out was selfish. So they didn't workout at all. Would that team do well at their sport? I doubt it, unless they played it all the time, which could be considered a form of working out.

So working out can help you with sports and staying fit. That's true, but what about after you're done sports? Should you workout? I think you should. Probably not as hardcore, but yes you should. Strength and fitness are good things to have. Somethings can't be done efficiently with out strength. I've noticed this already with working with friends, neighbors and my family. Some of my more fit friends and I are always volunteer for doing some physical labor that some ladies or older gentlemen can't handle, or just something that requires a bunch of strong guys. If I was a nerdy guy and never worked out I would have been less of a help to my neighbors, family and friends in that way. Also staying fit and strong could help your with your work if you landscape or have other jobs like that. If you live in Maine, then you know you need to be able shovel tons of snow. Working out can make that easier as well.

In Proverbs 10:4 it says: "Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth."
So if you're lazy in your work your "hands make for poverty". What if you are forced to be "lazy" because you just can't do the work. You aren't actually being lazy, but you if you can't do your work, you're in trouble. Working out could help you with your work if your work requires physical strength. If your job keeps you active enough, then you may not need to workout.

Working out could be a hobby for some people. I'd say that's a pretty good hobby. It's better than video games or watching TV. But lets say you enjoy working out and don't need to. Is it selfish? Maybe, think of it like pie: I enjoy eating pie. If I eat a slice of pie while making sure everyone else can get some, that's not selfish. Now lets say I eat most of or the entire pie and leave none for anybody else. That is selfish. If you let working out take up most or all of your life, then it sure could become selfish, vain and an idol.

So to sum it up, I'd say working out isn't selfish and vain if you keep it in check. Don't let it take control of your life. It can change your eating habits, but that probably is a good thing. Eating healthier makes working out feel better and you get more out of your workout and time. There are many other things that working out could help, such as posture, thinking clearer (not super sure about this one, but I read a tad about it), and maybe even chasing your dog down after they chase a car or getting your cat out of a tree. I don't want to write about all the things working out can do, but I'll just say working out is a good way to stay healthy and can help you in your life.

Abs

Have you ever wanted a six pack? Or maybe even an eight pack? Or just to lose some stomach? Well, there is no guarantee these will give you these, but they could help! What you really need to do is stay dedicated to working your abs and running. I'm not the best example, because I often get lazy during a sport season and lose my 'abs' during them. The only time I've ever had an eight pack was in the dead of winter. I was happy with it and stopped working out my abs, and went back down to a four pack.

I was not going to describe crunches or sit-ups, but I remembered seeing people on my athletic teams totally doing crunches (the easiest ab workout) wrong.

Crunches. Crunches are super easy. If you have never worked out, you can start with this. First, lay down on your back. You can do pretty much any thing with your legs, as long as they are doing the same thing. Now, if you are disciplined enough you can put your hands behind your head, as long as you DON'T pull your head up with your hands. This is very tempting and very bad, hence why you must be disciplined. It will make your workout almost useless and you can hurt your neck easily. If you can't keep yourself from pulling your head up with your hands, put your index and middle finger on your temples. Now that you are ready to do a crunch, you 'crunch' your abs so that you bring your shoulders off the ground. Don't do just your neck and head. That is way too easy and you could strain your neck. Now let your body down. Repeat. Slow is a little better.

Sit-ups. This one is a little harder, but still very simple. Get ready like a crunch, but put your legs down in front of you, bent at the knee. Your hand should be on your chest or by your temples. Behind your head is a bad idea. You'll probably do something to your neck. Now sit-up. Try and keep your feet on the floor while doing this. If you can't, then have someone or something hold your feet down. Just keep sitting up until you get pretty tired. This will get pretty easy, so you might try and add weight later.

Leg lifts. These are pretty simple as well. All you have to is lay down on your back. Put your hands where they make you the most balanced. Then with your legs straight as possible (without straining to make them straight), pick your legs up until your 90 degrees at the hips. Let you legs down, but don't let them touch the floor. Repeat.

In-and-outs. These are kind of like a mixture of sit-ups and leg lifts, but much harder. You want to start with your legs and shoulders about 6 inches off the ground. Then pull your knees and chest together. Then push them back out. Try and keep balance. This may require you to go slow, but that's good. Repeat.

Pulse-ups. There are like a very hard crunch mixed with a leg lift to me. I like this one. Get your body in leg lift position, bring your legs so your hips are bent at 90 degrees. Keep your heels facing the sky, and your toes pulled back. Now lift your hips a few inches off the ground, and let them back down. Repeat. Try not to push with your arms. After all, this is an ab workout.

V-up. A V-up is like an in and out, but you start with your body and legs on the ground. Put your hands over your head, and keep your legs straight as possible. Now bring your body and your legs together. Let them down and repeat. This one is hard to balance, so don't worry if you can't get it for a while.

Oblique V-up. Your obliques are the sides of your abs. These are not quite as important to work as your core abs, but if you're doing all this stuff for your core abs, you might as well add this to your workout list. To start, lay on your side, place you hand that's on the floor near your waist. Your other hand should be on your head, where ever it is comfortable. Now you may begin. Like in a V-up, bring your body up at the same time as your legs. Your legs can bend, that makes it easier to balance. Repeat. Switch to your other side once you're done with that side.

There are tons (I mean TONS) of other ab workouts, but I'm not going to list them all. Just Google "ab workouts" or something like that...

Legs

Here I go again: Thinking about working out. This time it's about your legs. Your legs should be much stronger than your arms. There are many ways to workout your legs, but not a ton if you don't have a gym. A few things you could do in the gym but not in your average house: heavy weight squats, leg press, leg extensions, leg curls, and dead-lifts. There are a few more that I don't know the name of, but most of them work on stabilizing muscles.

Now, if you're taking advice from me to workout, you're probably not going to a gym. Even if you were going to a gym, usually there is someone or something that can help you with their workout machines. So I'm just going to write about workouts you can do at home.

The wall sit. It's quite easy actually. Anyone should be able to do it. To do a wall sit, find a wall (one you don't mind getting a little sweaty), then "sit down" so that your back is on the wall and your legs are bent 90 degrees at the knees. Make sure your heels are under your knees, no further back than that, or you could hurt your knees and not get a very good workout. Now, make sure you have good posture, this will make your workout better, and it's better for your back. All you have to do now is hold that position for as long as you can. The time should be relatively short, until you get stronger. Once you are stronger, this could get pretty boring very fast. After all, sitting doing nothing for 3-10 minutes isn't that exciting. So here are couple things you could do to make that that time shorter: add weight. Grab some dumbbells and put them on your lap (evenly spaced out) or just hold them. Another thing to do is one leg wall sits. I like these ones because you don't need to do anything weights. To start this one do a wall sit, then straighten one leg while keeping your thighs parallel to one another. Hold that for 10 seconds, then switch legs. Repeat until failure.

Lunges are another workout you can do that's pretty easy. So it will require high repetition. To start get in a standing position and then 'lunge' forward with one leg. When your leg you lunged forward lands, both your knees should be at a 90 degree angle. Your back leg's shin should be facing the floor, while your front leg's hamstring (back of your upper leg) should be facing the floor. Once you're in that position, 'pop' back up. Now repeat, but while switching legs. Your can add weight to this by grabbing dumbbells, but make sure you keep good posture!

Now for the calf raiser! I love this one because it's funny to try and walk after doing tons of these! To do a calf raiser find a stair case (wear shoes if you're worried about slipping), put a little more than your toes on the stairs. You should be facing up the stairs. Now lift your body up until you calf is fully flexed. Then let yourself down so that your heels are even (or slightly below) the balls or your feet. Repeat. A lot of times. Try and go past the burn. Warning: if you go past the burn, you may not be able to walk normally for a few days without calf pain. You will be sore. Eat protein and bananas to help recover form this. Soreness isn't all that bad, so going past the burn isn't a bad idea. It also builds more muscle. If you can do over 50-100, then you could add weight, or do one leg calf raisers.

Have you ever heard of shin splints? You probably have. Your friend or maybe even you had them once. They kind of feel like a bunch of knives being stabbed into your shin and maybe your calf. That hurts. To help prevent shin splints you can do the counter workout for calf raisers which is 'butt and blades' as my coach called it. Find a wall and put your 'butt' and 'blades' (shoulder blades) against the wall. Then put your heel against the wall, and the heel of your other foot at the toes of your foot on the wall. Now bring the foot with the heel to the wall even with your other foot. Once you have that position, raise the balls of your feet up as high as you can, hold for a second, and then relax, letting your foot down. Repeat this 10-20 times. Don't over do (doing it more than 20 times could be over doing it), or you could cause shin splints instead of preventing them.

Running and plyometrics. These both are great workouts, but I'm going to save them for another post because I could write a ton about both. Even if I wrote a ton about running, you still might not get much out of it. So that's more something I'd have to actually help you with in person. I will still write about it, but it may not help you with your running.