July 5, 2007
A review in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine (March 2005) shows that there is no good evidence that stretching prevents sports injuries. Muscles and tendons tear when the force applied to them is greater than their inherent strength, so anything that makes a muscle stronger helps to prevent injuries. Strengthening muscles helps prevent muscle and tendon tears, but stretching does not make muscles stronger. This review showed that stretching does not prevent shin splints, bone stress fractures, sprains, strains or other arm and leg injuries.
However, stretching can make you a better athlete. Competitive athletes need to stretch to makes muscles and tendons longer and more flexible. A longer muscle can exert a greater torque on a joint to help you run faster, lift heavier, throw further and jump higher. Stretching should always be done after your muscles are warmed up. You are likely to injure yourself if you stretch before you have warmed up or when your muscles are tired. Warming up raises muscle temperature to make them more pliable. Stretch no further than you can hold for a few seconds. Bouncing gives you a longer stretch, but can tear muscles. Only competitive athletes need to stretch further than they can hold for a few seconds. If you’re over 50, be extra careful because older muscles are less springy and more likely to tear.
Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com
Free weekly newsletter on fitness, health, and nutrition.
Comments Off
If you know your strengths and weaknesses in personal productivity (also available at ezinearticles) you also know what to do about it.
This is not about choosing to improve your weaknesses rather than your strengths, but about learning how others “manage”.
Lawyers are not born salesmen I assume, yet how do they manage? How do they get there? You can win a case only by stake heavily on sales.
Who could ever image that lawyers are the best salesman in the world, probably without knowing it (?). Bye the way, I’m not a lawyer. I’m just an observer:
First of all they are always dressed well. Fine suits, quality, knowing that it is the form that defines much of the content.
Words matter. Probably in no other area this is a reality. They do not use words as they come by, but have a well prepared plea in which every nuance counts. A simple detail could mean all the difference.
Preparation. You will not win any case by not being totally prepared. You should know all the details. And they do.
Client focus. Ask a lawyer what he or she thinks CRM (Client Relationship Management) is all about. They will tell you as no other. Before even starting to think about filling in a case, they have made a profound profile of the client. They know more about their client any other salesman ever will.
Having said this, what could we learn from this? I think most of all that sales is not about products or services.
© 2005 Hans Bool
Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days.
You can apply for a free demo account
Comments Off
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all just get along? In order to promote goodwill within your company, have you ever given your employees a promotional item with your company name on it. This stimulates moral and advertises the company all at the same time. We have found that custom imprinted t shirts given as a safety award to reduce accidents in the work place actually reduce claims. Promotional products should be part of every advertising budget.
Comments Off
“The Market For Lemons” was an economics paper written by George Akerlof. It is useful today for explaining why individual “bad apples” can decrease profitability for online businesses and how they may ultimately destroy entire markets. To start, let’s find out a little background about “The Market For Lemons.” First off, a “lemon” by definition is a product that looks decent enough, but at its heart is a sour-tasting, piece of junk. They are most commonly referred to in car markets, but lemons can also apply to many other kinds of goods such as web and information products. Now back in the sixties, George Akerlof started thinking about lemons while he was an assistant professor at Berkeley. He wrote the paper and, at the time, no one considered it important. Akerlof even had trouble getting it published at all. Things have changed since, however, as Akerlof received a Nobel Prize in 2001 for his contribution to economics.
The central example Akerlof seizes on in “The Market For Lemons” is the used car market. This is a market where only the seller has true knowledge of the car’s worth (since you only know if a car is good until you’ve driven it a while.) In time, someone may realize they can make more money selling a lemon than a quality used car. In theory, the effect of this devalues the entire used car market. If people are worried about getting lemons, it reasons that they’d be less willing to shell out their hard-earned money. In turn, it can become impossible for sellers of good used vehicles to get back their car’s worth. Even if it’s a good car after all, you can never know until later.
Eventually, the net effect of these falling dominoes is to drive the good vehicles out of the used car market. The repercussions also mean that honest dealers may not be able to survive market conditions. At its worst, the market of lemons completely crashes, as there is no value left in it. At that point, no one buys a used car anymore.
The idea behind “The Market For Lemons” is important today. Take the recent rash of fraud with online camera dealers for example. On the Internet there is no real guarantee of quality. You don’t know if you’re getting a good deal until after the transaction is completed. Since the anonymity of the Net makes it easier for crooks to exist, the consequences often aren’t heartwarming. You can expect people to pay less in general for online goods. Thus, an honest dealer who sells a quality product may not be able to compete in the online world.
Certainly, the law of lemons is not the end all, be all for Internet retail. More people earn a living off the web now than ever. However, it does merit caution as the pricing and standards for Internet commerce tend to be lower than those of traditional business models. That is why it is critically important to have a strategic, professional plan before entering the Internet marketplace.
The author Daniel Crenshaw runs the website http://www.freedommedium.com and works for web design and hosting company, I-C.Net
Comments Off
