ETCETERA: Women of New Generation

When Dee Boys was in Malaysia, I had the privilege of cycling with her on a few occasions. A privilege because she has competed in Australian National Championships in cycling and World Championships in triathlon! As I was always cycling with the boys (who never turn to men!), I was beginning to really enjoy a challenge from another fellow female cyclist when she had to leave the country to follow her husband to Dubai. We decided to stay connected via Facebook.

When she turned 50, she was curious as to what health advice was available for female athletes going through menopause and was shocked to find that most of the materials do not address this segment of the population. Since there is a whole new generation who are still competing, she decided to create an environment where these women can connect with like minded people and share their tips on health, fitness and wellness.

And that was how "Women of New Generation" was born.

https://www.womenofthenewgeneration.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/womenofthenewgeneration

In my short life as a coach, I specialise in coaching kids as they are the future of the country. When I saw what Dee was doing, I spoke to her about my plan to contribute to this platform. My first point of contact was the Associate Professor Clare Monahan from Griffith University, whom I met during the Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast and had the opportunity to sit in some of her lectures in between races. She specialises in the advancement of human performance with a key focus on the determinants of performance in female athletes!

However, instead of focusing on senior female athletes, I decided to contribute to the larger segment of the society and that was how Women of New Generation Malaysian Chapter started.

The target is to build strength and improve the quality of movements.

1. Strength Training

As we age, we lose about 1kg of muscle a year. It is therefore important that we continue to rebuild muscles to maintain a healthy mass.
Metabolism also drops about 3% per decade which adds up to the weight gain very quickly unless we reduce the food consumption (very unlikely!). The best way to overcome this is by building muscles as they keep the metabolism high and are great at burning calories at rest.

2. Quality Movements

These can be achieved through exercises focusing on the following:

Flexibility - to increase the range of motion for the joints
Mobility - to allow a person to perform movements without restrictions
Stability - to maintain control of the joint movement or position

Combined, they can unlock quality human movements.

NOTE: Good flexibility does not always denote good mobility as the person with good flexibility may not have the strength, coordination or balance to execute the same movement. Mobility relates to movement while stability relates to control.

And of course, nothing beats a great stretch to finish off the session!