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The body needs sleep and rest time to build and repair itself.

babies can sleep up to 20 hours a day

children need 10 - 12 hours of sleep every day on average.

importance of sleep is obvious when we look at how it's necessary for physical growth and health!

One thing that definitely affects sleep is a certain hormone that your body produces called melatonin

Sleep (or lack of sleep) has a direct impact on your health and energy levels

The main factors that determine wellness or illness in addition to sleep are: Nutrition Physical Activity and Stress Management

In high school, grades and extracurricular activities become part of that all-important “permanent record.” And if your child wants to get into a good college, she will have to go the extra mile.

If your child doesn’t use her time wisely and puts her schoolwork off to concentrate on her social life or after-school activities–and if her grades are showing this–gently prod her to get back to business

When School is Scary

Besides bullying (a longtime but nonetheless devestating concern), a serious issue facing many schools today is the presence of violence and atmosphere of fear

Many schools have instituted a policy of zero tolerance when it comes to guns (and drugs).

Preventing and Dealing with Burnout

School pressure can come from teachers and parents, and it can also come from the child herself. Some pressure is good—it keeps a teen’s eye on the prize at the end of four years: The college of her choice.

But too much pressure, whether it comes from an adult or the child, is counterproductive and will lead to burnout. Make sure your teen balances her schoolwork and her life outside it, and remind her that these overwhelming years are a transition into adulthood.

Alternative School Programs

If your child is one of the thousands of kids who just doesn’t seem to be able to handle school, it isn’t the end of the world. Talk to your teen about the consequences of dropping out, and if all else fails try to find an alternative program

do a few stretches to help prevent injury and soreness after your workout

do a vigorous period of which ever activity you choose for 30 seconds

really push the limits of what you can do

After the intense spurt take down the intensity level a few notches and exercise for roughly a minute and a half at this level

Continue this rotation for about 15-20 minutes, remembering to take about another 2 minutes to cool down and bring the heart rate back to normal

Finally, depletion of muscle glycogen may lead to muscle loss as there is not enough proper fuel to maintain them.

f you feel weak, nauseous, or light-headed during your exercise, stop and rest. Drink some water. If the feelings persist, see your doctor.

After you hit your ideal weight, you can raise your carb intake slightly to keep your body out of ketosis and to prevent muscle wasting.

Carbohydrate loading may give you more energy during an endurance event. You may feel less fatigued and see an improvement in your performance after carbohydrate loading. But carbohydrate loading isn't effective for everyone. Other factors can influence your athletic performance or interfere with the effectiveness of your carbohydrate-loading strategy, including your fitness level and the intensity level of your exercise.

Carbohydrate loading isn't right for every endurance athlete. It's a good idea to consult your doctor or a registered dietitian before you start carbohydrate loading, especially if you have diabetes.

Record your activities throughout the day as well and use this information to compare how many calories you are consuming to how many you are burning.

Don't add calories to your meals by choosing unhealthy fried foods such as french fries, chicken nuggets and fish sticks. Choose foods that are prepared with cooking methods like baking, poaching, and stir-frying.

. Increased Workout Intensity Translates To More Muscle Mass

One of the first reasons why you need to start taking creatine is because it will help to increase your overall workout intensity, which means you will achieve a higher level of muscle mass.

The creatine will allow you to keep pushing hard in the gym at a time when you would have previously had to decrease the load or stop entirely, so this helps in terms of building muscle faster.

Better Muscular Contraction Means Enhanced Sports Performance:

The second reason to take creatine is for athletic performance. If you're involved in sports that require stop and go type of activity, creatine is going to come in very helpful for you.

To put this into perspective, a player in a game of hockey taking creatine would not only be able to go harder with each shift he's on the ice, but he'll be able to last through more shifts total throughout the game.

Quicker Atp Re-Synthesis Equates To Frequent Training Sessions:

Third, creatine is going to allow you to train at a higher frequency, which also means quicker and more significant muscular gains.

The more frequent you are able to stimulate a muscle, the faster it will grow bigger, provided that it has had the opportunity to fully grow back after the first stress load that was placed upon it.

Since creatine helps increase the recovery rate of the muscle cells, this means you may not require as much total rest time in between each workout you perform.

So if you're someone who commonly takes a few days off between each full body workout, using creatine may allow you to cut this down to just a single day between workouts. Over time this will translate to more workouts and will make a difference on your results from month to month.

Higher Glycogen Levels Generates Huge Muscle Pumps:

Fourth on our list of reasons why you need to use creatine is because of the muscle pumps you'll get. While muscle pumps don't necessarily help you out physiologically in terms of building muscle mass, they will help with motivational levels.

There's nothing like seeing a muscle grow at the end of a workout to motivate you to get back into the gym and do it again a day or two later, and since creatine causes a higher level of water retention in the body, the muscle pumps you'll experience will go up.

Faster Sprint Performance Increases Metabolic Rates And Fat Loss:

Finally, the last reason why you should consider investing in creatine as one of the muscle-building supplements you use is because it'll help you increase your metabolic rate.

If you're currently looking for fat loss, how many calories you burn on a daily basis will have a significant impact on how quickly you see progress.

Since sprint cardio training is one of the best ways to boost your metabolic rate and sprinting relies strictly on ATP as a fuel source, supplementing with creatine allows you to have a better sprint performance during your weight loss phase.

If you do make the decision to utilize creatine with your training program also remember to perform the loading phase first as this will be critical to getting the muscle cells fully saturated right from the start and allowing you to see the biggest benefits from taking the supplement.

The five are: whey protein, egg protein, milk protein also known as calcium cassienate or micellar protein, beef protein in the form of liver tablets, and soy protein.

Weight gainers are a blend of protein, carbohydrates and fats, with a high calorie content designed to help you gain weight. They are particularly useful if you are a hard-gainer with low body-fat and a high metabolic rate. Meal replacement powders are a blend of protein and carbs, but lower in calories than weight gainers. Protein powders typically contain no more than 5 percent carbohydrates. Protein bars contain proteins and sugars. Ready to drink protein shakes, contain low carbs and essential fatty acids. Beef liver tablets, a protein supplement that dates back to the 1960s.

Take a weight-gainer protein supplement or meal replacement supplement within an hour of finishing your work out. These contain simple carbohydrates to replenish muscle stores of glycogen used as energy during your work out, and a blend of quickly assimilated whey protein and sustained release milk protein to accelerate muscle recovery and enhance growth. Hoffman believes the insulin response generated by simple carbs helps the body's uptake of amino acids.

Muscle breakdown occurs during resistance exercise and depletes the muscles stock of the branch chain amino acids, leucine, iso-leucine and valine. Take a quick digesting protein supplement like whey protein before your work out. An article by Jay R Hoffman PHD. in the December 2007 edition of the "National Strength and Conditioning Journal," suggests taking a protein supplement immediately before your workout enhances muscle growth.

Carbohydrates are used to fuel muscle growth

. For this reason, an athlete or bodybuilder should consume 3 to 4.5 g of carbohydrates per pound of body weight. However, the high end is only for ultra-endurance athletes and unnecessary for building muscles.

Based on the findings of this study, exercise early in the morning leads to better sleep.

Wake up at the same time every day (and ban the snooze button)

Don't leave enough time to dilly-dally

Experiment with your pre-workout food. Figure out how little you can eat and still fit in a solid workout.

Find a friend or group to keep you accountable and motivated.

Explore different activities, then alternate your workouts to keep things fresh, but consistent.

Create an exercise plan or fitness goal so that you know what you're working toward.