I'm a big fan of productivity and efficiency. And that should appeal to all of us. If we can get a similar result with less effort or a better result with the same effort, than we should do this. In the business world we've learned, in some cases the hard way, that multi-tasking doesn't work. We can't carry on a conversation with someone while replying to emails. We may miss part of what is being said to us or we make a typo or grammatical error in our reply. When someone matters we should eliminate distractions and focus on what we're doing. For example, I can remember back in school and studying for exams. Some people would listen to music. This approach never worked for me as part of the brain is paying attention to the lyrics and melody. And I didn't want to give up this fraction of my attention to anything other than preparing for the exam. When what we're doing doesn't really matter we may be able to get away with doing two or more things at once. This might be something like folding laundry and watching a show. You can probably do both at the same time without too much difficulty. So what about training? Where do we draw the line in terms of multitasking or including a distraction in the training process? With moderate intensity exercise listening to music has been known to lessen perceived exertion (1). The music serves as a distraction and helps the exercise feel less hard than it would normally. Usually the type of exercise done in these studies is steady state aerobic exercise like riding a stationary bike. There's not much to think about and you can even your close your eyes and go for it. The same wouldn't apply to...

Back when I was in school there weren't the number of options for classes that there are now. Our schedules included math, science, English, socials, physical education and since this was a Catholic school we also had religion. Later on I taught high school briefly before taking an indefinite leave to focus on being an entrepreneur and growing Okanagan Peak Performance Inc. One thing I noticed that had changed from my days as a student to one as a teacher was the wider selection of courses. As well, there were students diagnosed with learning disabilities and other challenges. There would be CEAs and tutors available to help such students. But what if there was another option available to help students learn? What if there was something that could help the student in the classroom and with their health? Well there is such an option and it's to do exercise before school. A recent review looked at a number of studies to determine the effectiveness of fitness training on memory and learning. The researchers looked at papers over a 10 year period (from 2009 to 2019) that were listed in PubMed. Participants of included studies ranged from 18-35 years. From an initial search of 467 papers, the criteria above reduced this to 13 papers for the review. What they found is that exercise improves memory, learning ability, attention and concentration in young people that exercise for up to an hour. The benefits will last up to two hours and included exercise sessions of two to sixty minutes. The common feature is that the exercise had to be high intensity. With regards to the duration it appears to be more important for cognition and less important for memory. As well, with memory there seems to be some benefit to having a recovery period...

Is there someone in your life that epitomizes health? They always look good. They don't have a weight issue. They always seem to have energy and be in a positive mood. You rarely see them getting sick.Do you know this person?If so, maybe you've noticed that they can make this all look pretty easy.And they also don't seem to get sucked in by the various nutritional and fitness fads. The probably haven't tried intermittent fasting. They didn't eliminate all carbs from their diet. And they didn't give German volume training a go when everyone was going crazy over 10 sets of 10 reps.So what is it that accounts for these people having the best health and fitness? Why do they seem to have it all without having to work for it?Part of this has to do with the fact that these people have established really good health habits. And they practice these health habits all the time. They exercise when on vacation. They get 8 hours a sleep every night. And they have good nutritional practices.Well success leaves clues. And we can model what works and reap some of the rewards ourselves.Really it comes to doing one thing. And doing it really well. What is the one thing? Well it could be one of a number of things. And below are a few examples. Read through the list. And pick the one thing that resonates and sounds like would fit you the best.A. Build New Habits - We are creatures of habit and it can be hard to break patterns. For example, when I wake up in the morning I grab my phone and go to the bathroom. While waking up I'll check my email, business and personal. Then I'll check social media, usually Facebook and Instagram. Next I'll check the...

A number of years ago I remember attending a conference and the presenter asked everyone to imagine two scenarios. The goal was to make your way across a crowded room that you had been in before to the opposite side exit. The first scenario involved staring down at your toes and not lifting your head to see where you were. In the second scenario you could look up and ahead as far as you could see. Obviously the  second scenario would work better. You could plan your route more effectively. You could anticipate bottlenecks. You could side-step groups of people standing around and not moving. You could take larger steps and proceed more quickly. And the whole time you could keep your eyes on the end goal. And you'd have an idea of how you were progressing and how soon you'd arrive at your destination. With the other scenario you wouldn't be able to take as direct a path. You might end up trapped behind a group of people or at a dead end. You would have to walk more slowly and cautiously. You might be surprised if someone stepped into your path forcing you to stop or adopt a new course. In the end getting to your final destination would be more stressful, would take require more resources in the form of time and energy. Not a fun way to travel for sure. Consider using the same analogy to your health and fitness. Do you stare at the ground and have no idea what is coming up on the horizon? Or are you looking ahead to plan and anticipate your strategies? Let's look at a few examples to see how looking ahead can help you get a better result. SleepDo you have a set time to go to bed? Do...