general well being

Score A Goal This World Cup

June 11th 2010 saw the Soccer World Cup kick off in South Africa for millions of excited fans across the globe. The frenzy of excitement around the event has glued Australians to their TV sets at strange hours of the day and night, just so they can catch their team in action.

The tournament is the culmination of a qualification process that began in August 2007 and involved 204 of the 208 FIFA national teams. As such, it matches the 2008 Summer Olympics as the sports event with the most nations competing.

In addition to being great spectacle, soccer is also great exercise and an excellent way to stay fit. Soccer, more so than any other sport, has a large amount of running with a lot of stopping, starting and varying degrees of acceleration. In many ways an active game of soccer is similar to doing a quality interval training session for your body - which probably explains why the majority of soccer players are so trim.

A good interval workout is achieved by mixing bursts of high intensity work with low intensity periods of recovery. By doing this you are overloading both the aerobic and anaerobic systems at the same time, getting the benefits of both aspects of training simultaneously as well as alleviating the boredom often associated with the use of cardio machines. For more information on how you can include interval training into your gym workout please talk to one of our friendly personal trainers.

Another way of achieving an interval workout is simply to kick the ball around with your kids, or by yourself, during the breaks when you are watching the Soccer World Cup on television. It is great exercise and you get the opportunity to spend some time with friends and family. That way, whatever the outcome of the match, you still come out a winner.