Games of all kinds are played by our children from their
earliest days. How many times have you heard your child ask
“Will you play a game with me?” Children, especially young
children, love to play games. They learn colors with Candyland
and how to invest in stocks with Stock Market Tycoon! Board
games teach skills such as math, spelling, memory, history and
geography. But they should also teach teamwork and
sportsmanship. There’s nothing wrong with parents wanting their
kids to be the best, but it’s just as important to teach them
how to lose, gracefully, and without shame. I want my child to
be able to play a game, have fun, learn from it, and not feel
bad because she doesn’t always win.
While games are meant to be entertaining, the one thing that
most of them have in common is ‘winning’. Winning allows us to
‘prove’ ourselves, but usually at the expense of the ‘loser’.
Don’t your kids want to play one more time if they lose? Or,
worse, maybe they want to quit when they realize they are going
to be the loser.
Too much emphasis on winning can result in what happened
recently in Virginia. Many of you may have heard about Virginia
schools banning the post-game handshake that has been the
practice for the past 12 years. Maybe some of you think it’s a
good idea. But I, for one, think it is one more example of how
parents, teachers, and coaches are failing our children. Sports,
or any competitive game, should be fun for kids, but we also
want them to learn sportsmanship. What is sportsmanship? I
thought it was to play your hardest and best, and if you win,
that’s great. But if you lose, you congratulate the other team,
and practice harder so that next time maybe you will be the
winning team. Not everyone can win. Some people are just
smarter, stronger, or faster than others. Maybe one team has
some real advantage over the other team, and it is perceived as
‘unfair’. Well, let me tell you, life is not fair. Who said it
was? So instead of ending a game with a handshake and a ‘Good
Game’, we eliminate it to prevent the bad losers and the bad
winners from kicking or spitting on other players. What is this
teaching our children? I’d say they learn that unacceptable
behavior is acceptable - that they are not expected to behave
respectably or responsibly. And then we wonder why later in
life, they have difficulties on the job, can’t take direction or
constructive criticism. Once again, the schools took the easy
way out. Obviously, the coaches don’t want to do what they
should have done and take a good athlete off the team for
un-sportsman like behavior -that might mean his team looses the
next game.
What are the characteristics of good games that allow everyone
to have fun and feel good even if they are not the ‘winner’?
Cooperative games emphasize having fun in a team effort to solve
a problem or challenge, and not to simply to defeat the
opponent. The focus of cooperative games is on participation and
interaction and not solely on competition. To be a part of a
team requires that the members learn to communicate and build
trust. Team games require input from each team member, and input
to the solution creates ownership of the solution. An example?
The old fashioned game of Charades can be played in teams,
everyone gets to participate and contribute ideas, and no
individual or team feels like a real loser. The skills learned
in cooperative games are those your children will use and
benefit from for a lifetime.
I won’t say turn off the TV and take away the video games,
because those forms of entertainment have their place. Kids
today are smarter than ever from an earlier age, largely due to
exposure to educational programming on television. And video
games also can improve manual dexterity, hand/eye coordination,
and teach kids to think logically. But YOU must get involved
with your children if you want them to have a successful, well
rounded life. Think of all they have learned from TV. There is
much you DON’T want them to learn from TV! To make sure your
kids are learning the values you want them to have, spend some
quality time with them playing games that teach life skills,
build character, and are lots of fun for both children and
adults.
Check out Consequences, Fib or Not, and other fun family games
at the author’s online gift shop,
http://www.barbarasgiftsandthings.com.
The format and difficulty of computer certification exams is constantly changing. When I took my first certification exam (Novell NetWare 3.1x CNA, January 1997), there was no such thing as a simulator question, and my practical skills really were not tested. The exams then were much heavier on memorization.
One factor that helped make up for that was that the Novell exams were adaptive. If you missed a question on a particular topic, you would continue to be asked questions about that topic until you got it right. You couldn’t afford to be weak in any topic, because the exam would most likely find that out and keep hitting you with questions on that topic until you failed.
Adding to the stress, after a certain number of questions your exam could end at any time. You had no idea how many questions you would get, just that you would get at least 15. Every time you hit the “next” button after question 15, you didn’t know if you’d get another question or if the exam would suddenly end and give you a pass or fail response.
Times have changed. Cisco has led the way in introducing simulator questions to their exams, where the candidate is presented with a simulation of a router or network and asked to perform tasks that someone who is ready to earn that certification should be able to perform. This is a much better test of competency than the exams were eight years ago.
What will be the next “big jump” in computer certification exams? To earn the world’s most difficult technical certification, the CCIE, the candidate must first pass a rigorous 100-question qualification exam, and must then pass a practical lab exam. The candidate is presented with an exacting set of network requirements and must build that network on a pod of Cisco routers and switches in less than eight hours.
This is just personal opinion and not “insider information”, but I believe the day will come when the CCNA, CCNP, and other Cisco certifications will require some kind of hands-on practical lab to earn the certification. What better way to test competency than to have to perform tasks on real Cisco equipment? There would be more overhead for Cisco with this kind of testing, since lab equipment and lab proctors would be needed, but the already-prized CCNA and CCNP would become that much more valuable in the workplace if employers knew that to earn that certification, the job candidate had to pass a hands-on exam.
This would benefit the candidates as well, since it would do an even better job in protecting their investment in time and money. This could also be the next step in ferretting out candidates who try to get past the CCNA and CCNP exams via braindumps. As I always tell my students and customers, when you’re standing in front of that router or switch, there is no multiple choice … you either know it or you don’t!
Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.
For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNA exam with The Bryant Advantage!
Five times a week, two hours each visit. You’ve been more faithful to your gym schedule than you’ve ever been to any girlfriend you’ve had. And for a while it paid off: those muscles started rippling and the girls started paying attention.
But then, like a bad dream you wake up from, your muscles suddenly wasn’t growing like what it used to do. Your muscles stop responding to your heavy workout no matter how intensely you’ve been training. So you said to yourself, now I will train harder. So now you put in three hours a session and but even as you upped your gym dosage, horrors of horrors, your muscles are actually shrinking.
Ahhhhh, the Gym Plateau. It afflicts all of us and few of us ever gotten out of it. In fact, most people don’t even know that they have hit the dreaded plateau and thought that their muscles can only grow so much due to inherent genetic factors. Not to worry though, if you read the following fitness tips, and follow these tips to the latter, I can assure you that your muscles will start growing again and grow bigger they will.
Here are your free fitness tips.
Fitness Tip #1
Take A Break
This tip is easy to comply for most of us but very difficult for some gym rats. Simply take a break from your workout. Do not step into the gym or do any workout for 2 weeks. Its time to let your body recover from the punishments you are dishing out to your muscles. Some bodybuilders may find this difficult to do because working out is addictive. You produce endorphin when you workout and endorphin is also known as happy hormone. The same hormone you produce when having sex.
Professional bodybuilders take a break after every 4-5 months of hard training and when they are back in the gym, they shock their well rested but complacent muscles back into massive muscle gain.
Fitness Tip #2
Are you training too often?
If your exercises are intense enough, you need only to train each muscle group once or twice a week. Your training schedule shouldn’t repeat muscle groups in the same week. Every time you train, you do your muscles damage. Muscles need time to repair and it does so in the after your training when you are resting. This means that if you lift weights on consecutive days, there isn’t sufficient time for the body to recover. Try to have one day rest between each weight lifting day.
If your routine requires intensive weight training, remember not to prolong your gym time longer than an hour. This is because your cortisol, a muscle eating hormone level will be elevated and thus will be counter productive to your efforts. It eats your muscles.
Most of all, you must sleep! Eight hours or even better, go for ten hours. Muscles do not grow in the gym; they grow when you sleep. When you sleep, you are secreting growth hormones for many bodily functions and one of those functions is to build muscles. That is why they called it beauty sleep!
Fitness Tip #3
Are you using the correct weight lifting techniques?
If your technique or form is incorrect, not only is your training retarded, you are also inviting injury. Don’t laugh. But when you exercise you must think and focus, instead of mindlessly repeating the motions, do take note of how you perform each exercise and rep. Do so with deliberation and at the beginning and end of every lift, pause and squeeze the muscles you are exercising. Mind and muscle must connect! Never never use momentum of the swing to lift the weights and let gravity pull the weight down. That is why you must lift slowly and lower slowly feeling the tension in your muscles and resisting the load all the time.
In order for muscles to want to grow, you have to stress them to the maximum, and then further. Do enough repetitions until you feel you cannot go any further using good form. You must then either increase the weight or the number of repetitions at the next session. This is called progressive overload, and progressive overload is what forces your muscles to grow. As a general guide, if you can lift more than 12 reps the weight is probably too light and it is too heavy if your muscles fail you in less than 5 reps. You may wish to consult your physical fitness trainer on the correct form and technique for each exercise.
Fitness Tip #4
Are you using free weights?
Most machines do not involve as much of the synergistic muscles (supporting muscles) as free weights do. And, therefore, do not build as much muscle mass. Synergistic muscles are the smaller muscles that aid the main muscles in balance and strength in each lift. Machines has its uses, but for beginners and for smashing plateaus, use free weights.
Fitness Tip#5
Workout with compound exercises
Compound exercises are exercises that involve 2 or more joint movements and thereby employing bigger muscles and more synergistic muscles . Bench presses, dead lifts, squats, and barbell curls amongst others are fantastic compound exercises . For example, when you squat , all the muscles in your lower body get a workout and that alone is about 60 percent of your overall musculature . Squat also works your back and abs too. Using more muscles at one go means that you get a better overall workout. To add icing to the cake, because of the massive utilization of your muscles , you will pant, huff and sweat more. That means your routine also has a cardio effect and you will burn calories even hours after you stepped out of the gym .
Fitness Tip#6
Are you working out your legs?
Your body is programmed to grow proportionately with only slight variations. If you do not train your legs, your upper body mass will stop growing before it becomes large. Surely, you’ve heard of chicken legs! Just because leg training can be brutal, it doesn’t give you reason to hide your legs in your pants. To get that super hero X-frame, pepper your routine with squats . A word of caution though: compound exercises such as dead lifts, squats, and bench presses must be done in excellent form and a spotter is highly recommended. This is where your physical fitness trainer will come in handy as your spotter. If not, injuries are bound to happen and that may put you permanently out of the gym.
Fitness Tip#7
What are you eating?
Muscle building requires protein - the more, the better. Meat, especially red meats and fish, are the best source. It is in your food that your body will draw nutrients from, for strength and necessary fats for joint and organ protection.
To have massive muscle gain and help in muscle preservation , you need about 2-3 grams of good protein per kilogram of your body weight . If you want to get serious about muscles , you may need to supplement them with protein shakes . Eating a meal and having a protein shake immediately after your workout also maximizes the window for rapid absorption of nutrients. This is important as you need to feed the muscles now that you have damaged them. You should also 6 small meals a day so your muscles are constantly fed throughout the day. This will help rev up your metabolism to burn fat too. This will tremendously help you in your build muscle lose weight program. Remember to take your protein shake half an hour before you workout too.
Fitness Tip#8
How about Carbs?
Glycogen is the main energy source for any muscle-building exercise. The body stores whatever carbohydrates you eat as glycogen and muscles use it to give you energy during your workout. After an intense workout, do consume carbohydrates immediately to replace the used glycogen. You can even indulge in high glycemic carbs such as ice creams and white bread as these will turn into insulin and shuttles nutrients such as protein to your muscle cells quickly.
Fitness Tip #9
And Fats?
Yes, your body do need do need fats . But try to avoid saturated fats such as animal fats or worse, trans fats which are artificial fats found in pastries, confectionaries and preserved food. Consume healthy unsaturated fats such as olive oil, canola oil, fish oils, flax seed oil.
Fitness Tip#10
Water Water is essential.
Water is essential. It is the most underrated macronutrient. You need at least eight glasses of water every day but when you exercise , you lose even more water because of the sweating. So drink before, during and after your workout. Weigh yourself before and after the workout, and compensate for the loss by drinking at least 16 ounces of fluid for every pound or half a kg lost.
Fitness Tip#11
Creatine
While meats are the best source for creatine, which is a nutrient that helps speed up muscle gain and power you up during workouts, those who do not get enough from their regular diet must be supplemented. Creatine puts volume into your muscle cells and gives you that muscle pump thus your muscles feels tighter, look bigger and overall illusion of superb muscularity . It also helps to prevent muscle breakdown.
Fitness Tip#12
Glutamine
When supplemented, it may help bodybuilders reduce the amount of muscle wasting away or used up as energy. It also helps in muscle recovery.
Fitness Tip #13
Do you change your routine?
The human body is fantastic at adaptation. So whatever routine you are on, your body will get used to it. So do change your routine every 6-8 weeks. For example, instead of working out your chest muscles at the start of your workout, work your back muscles instead. You can reverse your whole routine or change the variations of your exercises or add new ones and take away some old ones. By changing your routines, you not only shock your muscles to new growth, it will also prevent boredom by doing the same thing all the time.
Chris Chew is an American Muscle and Fitness Institute Singapore based personal trainer. He trains models, pageant winners, actors and other celebrities to look great in their glamorous professions.Presently, he is running a local fitness school at www.sgfitnessonline.com and written an ebook “Burn Fat Build Muscles Fast” at www.sgfitness.com
There are some mistakes commonly committed when manicure is carried out at home. So here are some useful hints.
1. Most people cut the nails back and forth using an emery board and deeply cut the nail from the left and right corner. So the nails are most likely to get split and worn out. Use the board from the left to the center by sawing back and forth a few times. Then move it from the center to the right a few times. To get the right texture and a smooth layer on the nail use a metal file.
2. Do not neglect the cuticular part of the nail as it can cause the problem of hangnails. Penetrate it with oil after taking bath.
3. Gently push the cuticles with a cloth and do not nip away at the cuticles, as it can cause nail infections.
4. Before you apply a polish to your nail you should first lace it with a base coat. If you apply a coat of nail polish on the bare nails they dry away quickly or the darker shades that are applied will turn yellowish.
5. Replace the nail polish after every five days because too many coats will dehydrate the nails and therefore remove the top layer of the nail.
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