Exercise and Adolescents, 5 Reasons Why It’s So Important
Most of us would agree that exercise is important, whether we put theory into practice or not is another story entirely. Physical activity has special importance and benefits for adolescents, not just for their physical well-being, but for their emotional state as well. Here are five scientific reasons why: 1. Exercise helps to release endorphins, aka the “happy chemicals” that the body produces naturally. While you may feel worn out after an exercise session, there is also a sense of accomplishment and a natural high that you get when you exert yourself
Field and Court Athlete Agility
Knee Injury Prevention So why am I getting hurt? Welcome back, nerds. This blog will focus on the agility field/court athletes with lateral movements that include (but are not limited to) soccer, football, rugby, field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse. These sports are specifically called out because they often have non-contact knee ligament tears that can occur due to either muscular imbalance, muscle fatigue leading to joint instability, or improper/lack of prehab. Muscle imbalance just means to strengthen all the muscles around a joint. SO don’t just focus on your quads - do
Overhead Athlete Injury Prevention
... So why am I getting hurt? Welcome back, nerds. This blog will focus on athletes that do an overhead (throwing) motion, which include (but are not limited to) baseball, softball, soccer goalkeepers, football quarterbacks, and cricket players. These sports were specifically called out because they often “short arm” their throwing motion – which means they don’t use the full range of motion to accomplish the task. When the full range of motion isn’t used, muscles are forced to fire harder and quicker. Mix that with fatigue from overuse, and it’s
Agility Injury Prevention
Basics of Injury Prevention Do you know the caution signs? If you listen well enough, your body typically alerts you when an injury is imminent, giving you a window of time for prevention. The easiest way to listen is to first understand the 3 categories of caution signs. We’ll use the basic rules of a traffic light, meaning that there will be RED signs, YELLOW signs, and GREEN signs. As I hope you understand, RED signs means STOP, YELLOW means proceed with CAUTION, and GREEN means you’re good to GO. Let’s start
Pacific Ridge School Athletes Develop Community and Character
Developing Healthy Student-Athletes at Pacific Ridge School by Macaroni Kid Carlsbad According to non-profit Common Sense Media, teens consume an average of nine hours of entertainment media per day, with tweens averaging six hours. With that kind of online connectivity, it’s important for adolescents and teenagers to develop healthy physical, mental, social and emotional skills. School athletics can help build all of these, and the best environments are those in which students are supported by athletic and academic mentors, along with their peers. The athletic program at Carlsbad’s Pacific Ridge School is
X Games Preparation at NAKOA: A Look inside
Some of NAKOA’s top action sports athletes just wrapped up a bountiful trip to Minnesota, bringing back some serious hardware from another successful run at the Summer X Games. We wanted to give you a little glimpse into how our team prepares these athletes for one of the biggest events of the year. Our BMX SPARTANS @chadkerley Both Dennis Enarson and Chad Kerley are home-grown San Diego products and absolute LEGENDS in the BMX world. That status has only grown since they began training at NAKOA with Coach John Welch. Based on their
NAKOA has innovative approach to train Pacific Ridge athletes
NAKOA coaches are working with Pacific Ridge athletes to incorporate strength, conditioning, speed and agility into the school's PE classes. CARLSBAD – In December, Carlsbad resident and Pacific Ridge School sophomore Kai Kelly was playing for his club lacrosse team when his hip suddenly tightened up during a game. "I could tell right away something wasn't right," he said. Kelly and his family turned to Carlsbad's NAKOA Fitness and Physical Therapy for help and he soon started an extensive rehab program for what turned out to be a labral tear in his hip. After 12 weeks of
What NAKOA Is Thankful for
“I am extremely grateful for the health and happiness of my entire family, especially the lights of my life, Asher and Kieran. I am continually and ALWAYS insanely thankful for our amazing family and community at NAKOA! Bonus thankful shoutouts go to the continued success of all my athletes, the addition of our pup Moose to the family, a successful return to the rugby pitch, and the continued glorious evolution of IPAs
We Love Our NAKOA Warriors!
Shoutout to all the NAKOA Warriors for kicking ass at the NAKOA Games 2017!
4 Refreshing Smoothie Recipes
Sweet Green Detox Smoothie ½ frozen banana ¼ cucumber 1 cup spinach 4 pieces of pineapple-cubed 1 cup spinach 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon fresh ginger 8 ounces coconut water Instructions: Place all ingredients in a blender and enjoy! Strawberry Pineapple Smoothie ½ banana ½ cup strawberries ½ cup fresh pineapple 8 ounces almond milk 3 ice cubes Instructions: Place all ingredients in a blender and enjoy! Peachy Green Coconut Smoothie 2 fresh or ½ cup frozen peaches 1 cup spinach 8 ounces coconut milk 3 ice cubes Instructions: Place all ingredients in a blender and enjoy! Almond Butter Protein Smoothie ½ frozen banana 2 tablespoons almond butter 1 tablespoon hemp or flax seeds 1 scoop
Your Checklist for the rest of Summer
It might feel like summer lasts forever in San Diego, but according to Google the actual last day of summer is September 22nd… and that’s coming up quick! When summer first started did you have all sorts of plans in mind of how you were going to take advantage of the beautiful weather and care-free vibes? But then, suddenly, it’s two months in and maybe you’ve hit the beach twice and grilled a hot dog once? Don’t worry - we’ve got you covered. You can still make the most of
Why 4th of July is the BEST Holiday
Reason #1 DUH! It's the day after my birthday! My birthday is July 3rd, so it ends up being a party weekend. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio and on July 3rd we would have a huge event called Red, White, and Boom. It was always on my birthday in downtown Columbus. The night consisted of food, booze, and fireworks, and my dad said the fireworks were for my birthday. I believed him then and I still do! Reason #2 Who doesn't like to deck out in red, white, and blue? It's a