Establish a new fall workout routine! This is a fun way to try a new workout regime, new group exercise class or activity and let that be the motivation to keep you going strong! Check out the classes your gym or community center offers and go for it! Incorporate gym/exercise time with family time to keep the whole family active!

Set a fall goal! Start training now for a Holiday 5K or 10K or create a family weight loss challenge to lose weight before the holidays and to maintain weight during the holiday season! Short term goals are essential to our long term success!!

Check-Up Time! It is time for your annual check-ups. Keep the gear and equipment that keeps you in shape in great condition. Check your treadmill, indoor bike, elliptical or home gym for signs of wear. Regular maintenance such as lubricating treadmill belts and home gym guide rods will keep your equipment, and you going strong! Check with your local exercise equipment store to have a service tech do a maintenance check on your equipment to make sure everything is working properly and good to go for fall!

Trade-Ins and Upgrades: Maybe it’s time to replace your old equipment with a new piece that offers you variability and flexibility with your workouts. Exercise equipment, like most technology, has come a long way in the last 5-10 years and there are some truly awesome new, innovative pieces out there! Some specialty equipment retail stores offer trade in credit for old equipment, and the fall is traditionally a great time to get awesome prices as we head into the holiday season and New Year’s models! Often times a new piece of equipment with lots of options is just the motivation you need to get you through the indoor season!

Re-write your favorite fall recipes! Make soups, stews and warming comfort foods more healthy. Aim to incorporate seasonal foods for flavor, freshness and an upgrade to your traditional fall menu!

Hire a Pro! Working with a personal trainer is an excellent way to jump start your fall workouts! Ask about a start-up program or program design offer. Often working with a trainer short term can lead to long term adherence and success! Many trainers offer buddy training, which is a great way to cut costs and train with a friend! Give the gift of training sessions or special programs to others who may need a little help getting a routine established.

Tonja Hadley, MA, CSCS
Personal Trainer
Loveland Store Manager
HealthStyles Exercise Equipment

“This is the best evidence we have that a lot of calories are burned after intense exercise,” says the study’s lead author David Nieman, with Appalachian State University in Kannapolis, N.C.

These findings most likely also can be applied to other high-intensity activities such as running, jogging, rowing and playing high energy games of basketball, soccer and tennis. The workout needs to be intense enough so that “you’re sweating, your body temperature is up and your heart beats fast,” Nieman says. Other researchers have looked at more moderate activities, such as walking, and found no post-activity impact on calories, he says. An activity such as hill climbing or stair climbing, which are low impact but do get your heart rate pumping, most likely have the same increased calorie burn after the activity is finished, as running or jogging.

Researchers conducted the experiment using a hyperbaric chamber. The oxygen consumption of the 10 men, ages 22 to 33, was measured to determine the calorie expenditure of each person. They then spent a day with very little physical activity except stretching for two minutes every two hours and the normal activities of daily living such as brushing their teeth, eating, sitting and sleeping.

The second day spent in the chamber was identical with the exception of vigorous cycling for 45 minutes in the morning. The findings were reported in the September issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, the Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

The men burned an average of 190 more calories during the 14.2 hours after exercising, compared with their rest day in the chamber.

They burned an average of 519 calories during the biking. Therefore they burned an average of 709 more calories on workout days than rest days. This would allow a person to lose 5 pounds after 5 exercise bouts if they resisted the urge to eat more, according to Neiman. “This shows that intense exercise can have a meaningful impact on your body fat stores if you don’t counter it with an extra piece of cake”, say Nieman.

Although this study involved men, Nieman says, “there is every reason to believe that the findings apply to women as well.”

Here is just another example of the positive effects of exercise and hopefully offer a great incentive to those looking to begin a regular exercise program!

For most people who are overweight, there are underlying issues and reasons for their weight gain and overweight maintenance. It is important to recognize that. For many, regardless of how bad they feel about themselves now, change, even positive change, is scary and deviates from the norm, from who they know themselves to be.

This is tough stuff. One ploy I use with my clients is to look at burning calories and the weight loss that will hopefully come with it, as an investment. The greatest investment you will ever make …your health. Let’s say you want to lose 20lbs. Science tells that one pound of fat is equal to about 3500 calories (energy). So, if want to lose 20lbs that equation would look like this: 20 x3500=70,000. That’s right you need to burn 70,000 calories to lose that 20lbs!

There are lots of ways to do this and to do it safely one should aim to lose 1-2lbs per week, using both strength training and cardio, but that is for another article. For now let’s just look at the fact that 70,000 calories can seem daunting when most people struggle to burn a just a few hundred calories per day. But what if we looked at it differently? What if we look at our weight loss as though it was a Piggy bank, and we are trying to put into the bank 70,000 calories?

I don’t know about you but 70, 000 calories makes me feel kinda wealthy. Instead of feeling restricted or limited, we are building something here. We are creating this awesome investment of calories burned. Create for yourself a real or virtual Piggy bank, which symbolizes your “Calorie bank”. This is where you will deposit all of the calories you will burn in pursuit of your weight loss goal. A little mind trickery? Yes, BUT it is important to realize that a restrictive life of any kind is tough to maintain for the long term.

Growing your calorie bank doesn’t take away from our lives, in fact it empowers us to find ways to move our bodies in an effort to start “banking” those calories! Once you reach your Calorie Bank goal, treat yourself to something special like new running shoes or a spa day. And don’t be surprised if those calories you’ve built up in the bank don’t translate to actual dollars!

Healthy on the inside most definitely translates into being healthy in other areas of our lives! You can also invite friends or co-workers to join you with their own investment project. If weight loss is family affair, think about how fun the journey of growing the Calorie Bank can be and plan a special family outing or event for when the goal is achieved! If you are not sure how to track your calories burned, invest in a Heart Rate Monitor that does this for you. I suggest the FT4 or FT7 by Polar to get you started. You will be amazed how fun it is to track calories burned throughout your day and during your workouts! Cha-Ching!

So, what are you waiting for? Create your Calorie Bank and starting investing in the greatest investment of all….YOU!

Tonja Hadley, MA, CSCS
Personal Trainer
HealthStyles Exercise Equipment

Short-Term Solutions

• Take your walking / running routine to a softer surface, which will reduce the shock that travels through the legs. Try exercising on a treadmill, grass or sand.
• Consider purchasing orthotic shoe inserts at a local drugstore. If your shin splits are extreme, it may be helpful to visit a podiatrist for prescribed custom inserts.
• Pace yourself! Increase your mileage gradually. Walking or sprinting an instant 5k after a winter-long hibernation will leave your muscles overworked.
• Alternate your exercise regimen by cross-training, which offers variety and can help relieve overall muscle stress.
• Don’t forget that stretching is one of the most underrated forms of therapy and relief. Make it part of your daily routine, and your shins will thank you.

Long-Term Solutions

• Try walking on your heels. Walk across the room two or three times at first and slowly build up to repetitions.
• While standing or sitting, lift your foot slightly off of the ground and draw the alphabet with your toes. Repeat on the other side.
• Flex and point the toes any time you’re sitting. Try making this a daily routine.
• It’s great to be enthusiastic about starting an intense fitness routine, but respecting your muscles will allow you to suffer less shin splints and meet your goals faster.

Fit Tips are provided by Life Fitness, the leader in designing and manufacturing high-quality exercise equipment for fitness facilities and homes worldwide. For more information on Fit Tips and other fitness advice and expertise visit www.lifefitness.com or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lifefitness or join our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/lifefitness.