Fall is a great time to focus on improving fitness. At this point, you have enough time to establish good fitness habits that will help carry you through the upcoming holiday season and the cold winter months without a negative impact on your health.
Here are some fall fitness tips for your consideration:
- Exercise outdoors: The delightful crunching of leaves and the crisp, cool fall air make for ideal conditions to take your fitness routine into the great outdoors. Jogging, cycling, and walking are all good options.
- Train Safely: During the fall season, it gets darker earlier in the evenings and stays darker later in the morning. Adjust your exercise timings so that you stay safe. Carry a reflective vest or a flashlight if you must go out in the dark.
- Wear multiple layers of clothing: The inner layer should be preferably of moisture-wicking fabric to prevent you from getting cold, if needed the second layer should be a warmth layer(for example made of wool), and the outer layer should be a protective layer like a jacket.
- Set realistic goals: Whether its losing weight or getting stronger, the goals you set should be just within your reach but still outside your grasp providing motivation to get up and move towards your goal every day.
- Don’t forget to warm-up: In colder weather, warming up your muscles thoroughly before your exercise will help prevent injury and allow you to get the most out of your training session or physical activity.
- Learn a new skill or hobby: Take up a sport, dance form, or any type of new physical skill such as jump rope or skiing –anything that inspires or intrigues you. It doesn’t have to feel like exercise to be good for your fitness!
- ActiveTV watching: Here’s a tip to ensure you don’t miss the fall premiers of your favorite TV shows. A one hour TV show typically includes 20 minutes of advertisements. Plan before hand to do a few body weight exercises and even do some light dumbbell training,if possible, during the commercial breaks.
- Include physical activity into your daily routine: Some good examples are: Take the stairs instead of the elevators, park your car further away from your destination, or walk around the playing field when you take your child to soccer practice. The calories lost with these routine activities can result seemingly effortless weight loss when performed consistently.
- Take a Holistic Approach to Fitness: Doing yoga, some type of meditation, breathing exercises, or even getting a massage can help improve emotional, mental, and spiritual health which contributes greatly to overall wellbeing.
- Stick with the fitness program for at least 30 days: Resist the urge to hit the snooze button on your alarm when its workout time,and remind yourself it takes at least 30 days to get acclimatized to new lifestyle changes. In a couple of weeks, the improvements in the way you look and feel will get you hooked on fitness for life!
At North Central Surgical Center, our mission is to care for every patient and their family as if they were our own. Each patient, each family, each and every time.
