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Compliments of my friend Abby on Associated Content, published by her back on October 15th, she compiled a list of :
10 Calorie-Burning Fall Activities
Here are ten ways to get active before the pie-baking Winter season begins:
1. Apple-picking
Wander through an orchard to savor the bountiful harvest of the season. Tasting apples as you meander is a delicious, healthy way to satisfy your sweet tooth without munching candy.
2. Fairs
Many towns offer county fairs in the fall to show off livestock and hype kids with rides and cotton candy. Skip the greasy fried foods and search for a rock wall and other strength competitions. Make it a goal to see everything the fair has to offer and you’ll burn calories just walking around. Test your throwing arm on any “knock over the bottles” type game. Keep throwing till you win a prize and chisel those biceps.
3. Exercise for Charity
Sign up to run a marathon, or participate in a walk a worthy cause. Signing up to exercise for a cure allows you to help others reach their goals while you reach yours. You’ll also feel more accountable if an organization is counting on you, lessening the chance you’ll back out when you get tired.
4. Concerts
Go see an outdoor concert while the cool weather lasts. Dance around madly to keep yourself warm.
5. Household Chores
When’s the last time you really cleaned at home, scrubbing every surface and eliminating dust from little-used corners? Try a full-out Spring cleaning…errr…Fall cleaning. Shock guests with the unnatural sheen of your kitchen floor.
Don’t have much time? Do more little things around the house—they’ll eventually add up. Unload the dishwasher. Offer to do your roommates’ laundry. Bustle around cooking your family a hot breakfast. Walk the dog.
6. Explore
Fall is a great time to hop on a bike, and ride in directions you’ve never traveled before. Sculpt your thighs while seeing your city. Bring a friend and turn your ride into a race or an endurance test.
7. Shopping
Gear up for Black Friday—practice shopping. Exercise yourself and your credit card as you stroll the mall. Extra points every time you choose the stairs over the escalator. Pack snacks to avoid unhealthy food court fare.
8. Football
What could be more fun than spending Saturdays tackling your friends? Get the gang together for a game of football in a nearby park. You choose whether to play tackle or touch. Whoever’s sneakers are most-mud-caked at the end of the day wins.
9. Babysit
Someone you know has rambunctious young ones who need taming. Offer to babysit. Run wild in the yard with kids. Roll down grassy hills. Offer to play baseball, soccer, or tag. Babysit newborns and you’ll get a workout just running up and down stairs to check whether they’re sleeping or not. Take sugar-mad fourth graders trick-or-treating. The kids’ enthusiasm will make the walk enjoyable. Burn calories while you frantically worry which way the kid dressed as Harry Potter ran.
10. Romance
Tackle your honey in a pile of leaves. Get cozy in front of a fire. Show your sweetie your bedroom moves are hotter than cocoa. Do I have to spell it out? It’s Fall—get busy.
For every girl enrolled in Pilates or guys doing crunches and running until he aches, I have some surprising news for you: Getting that tones, hot body may not even require exercise.
According to this recent New York Times article, Firm Body, No Workout Required?, you can gain a better work out for your muscles with a simple shoe change. Companies, such as Reebok, one of the most successful, are designing shoes that are “…muscle [activators] engineered to create a sense of instability. Design elements like curved soles and Reebok’s “balance pods” are said to force the wearer to engage stabilizing muscles further, resulting in additional toning for calf, hamstring and gluteal muscles.”
Interesting, but is this for real?
To support the claims, the shoemakers each offer company-financed exercise studies suggesting that the shoes produce a higher level of muscle engagement, at least in a controlled research setting.
But the studies don’t show whether more engagement leads to meaningful changes in muscle tone or appearance over time. Nor is it clear whether the high level of engagement continues once the walker becomes accustomed to the shoe.
Reebok’s EasyTone has Still, Reedbok’s Easytone is selling well, and there is even a commercial aimed at women saying, “… the leg and butt-toning effects of EasyTone will “make your boobs jealous.””
A little ridiculous, but most of the advertisements are aimed at young women and are not only on television, but online and in magazines. At the end of the day, as the Times reports, claims are backed by only one five-person study.
In that study, done at the University of Delaware, five women walked on a treadmill for 500 steps wearing either the EasyTone or another Reebok walking shoe, and while barefoot. Using sensors that measure muscle activity, the researchers showed that wearing the EasyTone worked gluteal muscles an average of 28 percent more than regular walking shoes. Hamstring and calf muscles worked 11 percent harder.
A man named Bill McInnis, a former engineer for NASA, design the shoe to mimic stability balls used by gym-goers. Two women in the article, Carol Vanner, 51, said she was skepticle, but she “…tried them and I felt like [she] had worked out.” Shay Gipson, 31, said she could “…definitely feel the muscle groups in my legs working more than I would in regular shoes.”
Like the article says, who knows the effects over time.
The shoes are designed only for walking, and because of the instability design, wearers are discouraged from running, jumping and engaging in other athletic activities while wearing them. So the real effect may come from simple awareness that they are wearing a muscle-activating shoe, causing them to walk more briskly and with purpose.
A Harvard psychologist who studies the connections between “mindfulness, exercise and health” says, either way, these shoes and the increased minfulness are “good for health.”
We’ll talk further about the connection in just “believing” something is increasing your workout, even when it isn’t, and just how much these supplements and other products really work!
Ciao,
Lucia
I kind of wish I’d made the benefits of sleep into a new post, but I’ll do it at least for the benefits of exercise.
Now this information comes from Mayo Clinic‘s website. They are a non-profit organization and internationally renowned group medical practice headquartered in Rochester, Minnesota
We all know exercise is great for a healthy heart, mind, and body, but I just thought I’d throw out these “7 Benefits of Regular Physical Activity,” compliments of Mayo Clinic, in a more summarized version:
1. Exercise improves your mood.
If you’ve had a stressful day, workout at the gym or a brisk 30-minute walk can help you calm down (something Ryan employ all the time, and I do, too.)
Physical activity stimulates various brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier and more relaxed than you were before you worked out. You’ll also look better and feel better when you exercise regularly, which can boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem. Regular physical activity can even help prevent depression.
2. Exercise combats chronic diseases.
Regular physical activity can help you prevent — or manage — high blood pressure, boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good,” cholesterol while decreasing triglycerides. This helps lower the build-up of plaque in your arteries and improves your fight against heart disease. It also helps prevent type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and certain types of cancer.
3. Exercise helps you manage your weight.
Probably the most obvious, but like they said, working out doesn’t have to be a major chunk of time you have to set aside for the day; simply taking the stairs instead of the elevator, opting to take brisk walk somewhere instead of the T helps burn calories
4. Exercise boosts your energy level.
Regular physical activity helps you increase your energy levels, not deplete it.
Physical activity delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues. In fact, regular physical activity helps your entire cardiovascular system — the circulation of blood through your heart and blood vessels — work more efficiently…When your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you’ll have more energy…
5. Exercise promotes better sleep.
Regular physical activity can help you fall asleep and stay asleep. However, the people we see exercising at midnight right before bed, have it all wrong–you’re now probably too energized to fall asleep.
A good night’s sleep can improve your concentration, productivity and mood…Regular physical activity can help you fall asleep faster and deepen your sleep…If you exercise too close to bedtime, you may be too energized to fall asleep. If you’re having trouble sleeping, you might want to exercise earlier in the day.
6. Exercise can put the spark back into your sex life.
So they post these two questions: Are you too tired to have sex? Or feeling too out of shape to enjoy physical intimacy?
Well Mayo Clinic will have you know that besides that obvious that you’ll feel like you look better and thus be more comfortable to engage in intimacy, it can lead to:
….enhanced arousal for women, and men who exercise regularly are less likely to have problems with erectile dysfunction than are men who don’t exercise — especially as they get older.
7. Exercise can be — gasp — fun!
Like they said, physical activity doesn’t have to be the most boring horrible thing in the world. I would rather be playing soccer than be in the gym and with my recently broken mp3 player, I’ve have to shake it up to keep myself entertained, which can be observed in my ” Been Gyming It” post.
Physical activity doesn’t have to be drudgery. Take a ballroom dancing class. Check out a local climbing wall or hiking trail… Plan a neighborhood kickball or touch football game. Find a physical activity you enjoy, and go for it.
Go for it!
Lucia
I tend to come down on myself way more than I congratulate myself (as most people do). I must say, despite being pinched for time, I went to the gym three times the week before Halloween and the two times the week of. I haven’t gone this week, but intend to try to make it tomorrow morning. The bane of my existence as been a paper for History of Journalism, which has left me tired, anxious, and unhappy.
I will try though. I will be posting about the benefits of exercising soon enough. Too tired right now. My time was somewhat wasted tonight. Time to be a little selfish.
Ciao,
Lucia
HealthTimeCrunch 