Todd Eastham, of Greenup, coaches both high school and college athletes in Greenup County. Easthams focus is primarily with the throwing team, but he said that the training these young athletes go through, and their other regimens such as diet, can apply to anyone even if they arent an athlete.
Commitment is the main thing, Eastham said. At least the No. 1 thing, especially with younger athletes. That, and they need to work on strength and flexibility, then technique.
You have to develop good habits, Eastham said. And that applies to everything, especially if you want to be successful. And you have to maintain those good habits, like a proper diet, moving forward. Especially here in Appalachia, because we really like our food here.
Younger individuals, he said, typically dont realize the damaging side effects of a poor diet, and how those effects build up over time. Eastham pointed out that to a younger individual, anything that curbs hunger is acceptable; and the hardest part, sometimes, is convincing them that a bag of chips and a soda doesnt qualify as a meal.
For an athlete, or anyone that wants to prevent that first heart attack, it really starts at the age of 18. Even if you have a genetic predisposition to that health issue, proper diet and exercise can help stave that off. You should really begin a healthy lifestyle in your teens. And those health benefits will follow you into later years,Eastham said.
But you will find in a lot of cases with people who were athletes, he added, or who worked hard, manual labor jobs or on the farm when they were younger, tend to stay healthier longer. Or if they do get out of shape, they find it easier to get back into shape quicker than an individual who grew up with a sedentary lifestyle.
Athletes burn more calories than those individuals who dont engage in a regimented athletic lifestyle, but Eastham said it isnt necessary to be athletic in order to enjoy health benefits.
There are a lot of anaerobic exercises a person can do, he said. You can lift weights, get out and walk, or just about anything. But the main thing is just to get out and get moving. Do something, because its for your benefit to do it.
We can still get our Netflix time in, Eastham said. We all like to binge, but we dont want to sit there slamming down cheeseburgers while we are doing it, either. Thats another part of it. Its a trap because we all like snacks and other goodies, and can easily overindulge while watching TV, because we are focused on the show and not paying attention to how much we are consuming.
Eastham said a poor diet can derail any sort of training program, professional or otherwise. The actual exercises, whether they are for strength, endurance or a combination of both, help get the body in a habit of moving and performing certain functions properly without damaging the person doing them. But a diet that is heavy on unhealthy foods such as one based heavily on processed sugars and preservatives can make it harder for the body to reap the benefits of even a good training routine.
Exercise is like tearing the body down to rebuild it, only better, Eastham said. But you have to give your body something to work with. If you follow a good training plan, and at least a moderately healthy diet, then I guarantee you will start to see good results in just a couple of weeks.
Eastham said not everyone has the need or the desire to be an athlete; but everyone has both the need and desire to be healthy. And Eastham should know what he is talking about, because he has lived it. He was a high school athlete, but after graduation he spent decades not living the athletic lifestyle. But over the course of the last several years he has reclaimed his health and went on to win numerous medals in the Masters Olympic Games.
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Training within the training: Eastham preaches commitment | News - The Independent
