10 Tips For Your Fall Fitness

Here are some nice tips to take advantage of Fall to improve your health.

1. Take advantage of the weather. Fall can be a treat for the senses: the crisp air, apple picking, pumpkin carving, a gorgeous canopy of fall foliage, and the crunch of leaves underfoot. These months are a great time to exercise outdoors and enjoy cooler temperatures.
Walking, hiking and cycling are all awesome in the fall.

2. Think outside the box. Always wanted to learn to tap dance? Attempt to box? Master the jump rope? Ask any schoolchild: Fall is a great time to learn something new.

Many classes at gyms and elsewhere get started in the fall, so look around and see if something intrigues you.

3. Be an active TV watcher. Many people get geared up for fall premieres of their favorite television shows. If you’re going to sit down and watch hours of TV, get moving, make a date with exercise and TV.

While you watch, you can walk or run in place, do standing lunges, do tricep dips off the couch, or lift weights. During commercials, do push-ups or sit-ups. In a one-hour show, you probably have close to 20 minutes worth of commercial interruption.

4. Integrate exercise into your life. You already know the obvious suggestions: park farther away from your destination; take stairs instead of elevators; take a walk during your lunch break.

5. Rejuvenate yourself. Fall is the time to rejuvenate body, mind and spirit.

6. Remember the 30-day rule. “‘It takes about four weeks for the body to adapt to lifestyle changes. That’s why people who give up on their fitness programs tend to do so within the first 30 days.

7. Strive for the 3 C's: commitment, convenience, and consistency “the three Cs”. Having all three will lead to a successful fitness program.

8. Deal with darkness. The best way to enjoy fall is to exercise outdoors. But it is getting darker earlier, and staying dark later in the morning, so be smart and safe.

9. Dress in layers. When exercising outside, layer your clothing. Before your body warms up, you may feel chilled, but once the blood gets pumping, you’ll feel overdressed.

These days, there’s no lack of great weather gear. Freytag and Price recommend clothing with wicking, often called “DriFit.”‘ This fabric wicks moisture away from your skin so you’re not exercising with wet fabric hanging on you.

10. Find your motivation. “People are motivated by different things. It’s important to first discover what your individual goals are, whether it’s losing weight, strengthening and toning, or preparing for a race or event.

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Exercise Can Be - GASP - Fun!!!

Wondering what to do on a Saturday afternoon? Looking for an activity that suits the entire family? Get physical!

Physical activity doesn't have to be drudgery. Take a ballroom dancing class. Check out a local climbing wall or hiking trail. Push your kids on the swings or climb with them on the jungle gym. Plan a neighborhood kickball or touch football game. Find a physical activity you enjoy, and go for it. If you get bored, try something new.

If you're moving, it counts!

Dr. Gary Callioni
www.NKYchiropractor.com

Exercise For Kids: 5 Tips For Parents

Cool Fact About Walking

If you walk and talk with someone, eventually you will synchronize your steps with each other.

Interpersonal synchronization of stepping happens when people walk side-by-side. Little is known about this, but it has practical uses in therapy. In 2009, this phenomenon was the subject of a study to help impaired people in rehabilitation. Subjects were paired together to walk on treadmills side-by-side. The result? People started walking faster to keep up with their partners.

Do You Need a Memory Boost?

The results are in: Yoga breathing can significantly improve memory. In particular, yoga breathing can improve spatial memory. This is the part of memory responsible for recording information about your environment. Spatial memory keeps track of where things are that you can see, where things are that you can't see, where you are, and how that all fits together. If you tend to have difficulty remembering where you put your keys or finding your way around large cities, then you may benefit from some intentional breathing.

What exactly is meant by yoga breathing? Several types of yoga breathing were included in the studies that revealed the astounding improvement in spatial memory. These included pranayama (voluntary regulation of breathing), nostril breathing (left, right, or alternating), and simple breathe awareness.

Heavy breathing during aerobic exercise won't cut it. One study of 85 elderly adults found that 16 weeks of aerobic training yielded no improvement in memory retrieval scores. Yet, a study of 108 individuals practicing nostril breathing or breathe awareness, found that they experienced an average 87% improvement in spatial memory scores after only 10 days. Another study had 30 children practice yoga breathing for 10 days. The children experienced a 43% increase in spatial memory scores.

Yoga breathing is easy to do and can be done just about anywhere at any time. There are many other benefits ascribed to breathe awareness besides improved memory, including stress relief and increased attention span. The following is a simple nostril breathing exercise. Try this exercise for at least a week and experience the benefits of intentional breathing:

-Try to sit with your head, neck and spine in a straight line.
-You will inhale through one nostril, hold the breath, then exhale through the other nostril in a ratio of 2:8:4 counts.
-Use the thumb and ring/pinky fingers of your right hand to close the right and left nostrils respectively, and close both nostrils when you hold the breath.
-Once each nostril has had a chance to inhale and exhale, this is called a round. Start with 3 rounds a day and build up slowly to twenty rounds, extending the count within the 2:8:4 ratio (for example, 4:16:8).

References:
Madden DJ, Blumenthal JA, Allen PA, Emery CF. Improving aerobic capacity in healthy older adults does not necessarily lead to improved cognitive performance. Psychol Aging. 1989 Sep;4(3):307-20.
Manjunath NK, Telles S. Spatial and verbal memory test scores following yoga and fine arts camps for school children. Indian J Physiol Pharmacol. 2004 Jul;48(3):353-6.
Naveen KV, Nagarathna R, Nagendra HR, Telles S. Yoga breathing through a particular nostril increases spatial memory scores without lateralized effects. Psychol Rep. 1997 Oct;81(2):555-61.
Research shows yoga breathing can drastically improve memory. Try this simple exercise for a week and experience the benefits of intentional breathing.

Stretching Tip

When stretching don't rush! Stretching is as important as what you're going to do after you stretch. And, if you rush, you might pull a muscle or worse. Be sure to include 10 to 15 minutes of stretching as part of your exercise time.

Daily Exercise Tip - Try the Banana!

Banana

Starting Position
Lie on floor with legs together, arms extended overhead, belly button pulled in toward spine.

Action
Keeping head between arms, slowly raise upper body and legs off floor to form a gentle bananalike curve. Hold for a slow 30 counts.

Special Instructions
Don't hold your breath! Try to keep breathing steady and even. Concentrate on holding abs in.

Muscles Worked: Abs, Shoulders

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Exercise of the Day

Seated Knee Lifts with Chair

Starting Position
Sit on edge of chair, knees bent, feet flat. Grasp sides of chair, lean back slightly.

Action
EXHALE: Pull knees toward chest as you crunch upper body forward using abs, not arms.

INHALE: Lower feet almost to floor, but don't let them touch until the end of the set.

Special Instructions
This movement should be slow and controlled. Don't let the momentum of your legs do the work for you, and don't let gravity snap your legs down as you return to the starting position.

Muscles Worked: Abs

Afternoon Energy Boost

Massage your head and shoulders. Find trigger points of tension in the shoulders and base of the skull. Hold pressure for 6 - 10 seconds. Don't forget your face and jaw.

Exercise of the Day

Actually today is a stretch - The Cat Stretch

Starting Position

Go to the floor - on your hands and knees, with your hands shoulder-width apart, knees hip-width apart, abs engaged, and back flat (spine neutral).

Action

Relax the abs as if dropping your belly towards the floor beneath you, arching your back, tilting your pelvic bone back and lifting your chest. Look towards the ceiling without straining your neck.

Breathe deeply and hold for 10-30 seconds.

Special Instructions

Stretch to the point of "mild discomfort," not to the point of pain. Never bounce. Pull your shoulders away from your ears.

Muscles Stretched: Abs

Exercise of the Day

Lying Abduction with Band

Starting Position

Begin by lying on your back with a resistance band wrapped around your feet. The band should be snug around your feet, but not too tight. Lift your legs off the ground so they are perpendicular to the floor.

Action

Keep your legs straight (but not locked) and spread your legs apart pushing against the resistance band. Go out (wide) about as far as you can without putting too much strain on your lower back. Slowly release to bring your feet back together. Try doing 2 sets of 10-12 repetitions.

Special Instructions

Make sure to push out just as much with your non-dominant leg as your dominant leg - keep it balanced. You can spread your arms out to your side, palms down or near your buttocks to help with balance and lower back strain.

Muscles Worked: Outer Thigh, Hips.

Exercise of the Day

Hip Flexor:

Starting Position

Stand with feet slightly apart, toes forward, hands on hips or one hand on a wall/chair for support. Shift weight to right leg, keeping knee slightly bent and spine straight.

Action

Exhale: Gradually lift the left leg, keeping it bent at 90 degrees. Lift knee as high as possible, trying to get thigh parallel to floor or higher. Hold here for 2 counts.

Inhale: Slowly lower leg to ground without letting foot rest on the floor. Complete all reps and switch sides.

Special Instructions

Make sure you aren't leaning back when lifting leg. Also, try to make the entire movement very slow and controlled.

Muscles Worked: Hips, Upper Thigh, Glute.

Think Like a Winner!

Quote: Learn to think like a winner. Think positive and visualize your strengths. ~ Vik Braden

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