I’m Ji Min Park, a third-year in the Faculty of Environmental and Information studies.
I would like to, first of all, say that I can not believe that this will be my last year on the team… How time flies so quickly. I laugh at the memory of the first time I came to practice (before officially joining).. during practice I had sudden stomach pain, and I even cried a little, and due to the pain, I ended up leaving practice early, but realizing that it was due to hunger… Let’s just say I learned my lesson and I now know to make sure to have enough energy throughout the practice.
A recent goal I have been trying to focus on is creating “good habits”. Recently, due to the lockdown, exams, reports, and cold weather I have picked up some bad habits such as… staring at the screen for long hours while holding a bad posture, overeating, eating late into the nights, sleeping late, and waking up late. These bad habits have created a “negative flow” to my life and are making my quality of life more unpleasant. So I am determined to bring in “positive flow” to my life, and to achieve this I have created some goals.
I will aim to sleep at 12 pm and wake up between 8 am to 9 am.
I will stop eating from 9 pm and only drink water/tea/decaf coffee.
I will drink 500ml of water/tea as soon as I wake up.
I will stretch for 15min~30min in the morning.
I will drink at least 2L of water/tea every day.
I will stretch/move a little every 30min when sitting and staring at the screen.
Stretching for flexibility and mobility has become a key habit that I wish to focus on. All these years before 2020 I did not see the stretching of great importance even. I was very unflexible and easily prone to injuries, but our trainer at the time told me the great importance stretching can do to improve my volleyball performance. I was convinced by his words and decided to take stretching more seriously during warm downs. Fast forward to now I can do the split, and I’ve had fewer injuries! There are only positive benefits and no negative points for stretching, and after stretching your body and mind always feel better. Keeping the blood flowing throughout your entire body is so important for your physical and mental health. Stretching increases your blood flow and circulation, which boosts oxygen levels and helps deliver nutrients to your muscles. Also, it removes metabolic waste like carbon dioxide (CO2), ammonia, and uric acid, which you don’t want in your body. My stretching oxygen is being sent to not only your muscles but to your brain, and this helps you to have a clearer mind and a more cheerful mood.
I like to recommend some stretching YouTube videos that you can easily follow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_tea8ZNk5A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qULTwquOuT4&t=2s
Our team has started having mental training, and it has helped me to be motivated with the training menus we must complete 5 times a week. I thought it was the perfect time to implement this training since we are in lockdown, and we have to train in isolation by ourselves. I always question my self why does it feel 10 times harder to train by yourself compared to training with my teammates? Without the external pressure, it had become more internal, and coming from within your own will, and this is a challenge. I am trying to see this lockdown as a good opportunity to get stronger and motivated internally because I think this will make me become a stronger athlete, and overall a better person!