Fit For Fall: Fitness Tips From Coach G - Active Life DC

Coach G demonstrates one of his favorite warm-up exercises, the Dancer's pose, during his Power Core class at Stroga last month. He regularly teaches the class Saturdays at 9:30 a.m.

Well, as we can see the fall is here and there’s no turn­ing back. We are wak­ing up to less and less sun­light, and the sun seems to go away before we even get to eat din­ner. Not to men­tion the need to keep a thick pullover handy at all times.

Dur­ing this time many peo­ple fall off track from main­tain­ing their fit­ness oblig­a­tions because of these changes with the sea­son. It’s as if the dark­ness pulls us inside to eat, drink, and stay seden­tary. Well I've got a plan to help you beat becom­ing a vic­tim of the “fall fifteen”.

Rev up your Inten­sity. It’s dark ear­lier in the evening so your usual 2 or 3 hour win­dow to go run­ning may be cut down to 45 min­utes these days. Well what’s a girl to do? Press the gas pedal, boo! As your run­ning time or work­out time short­ens then the inten­sity MUST go up. Stud­ies have shown that work­ing out in inter­vals to get your heart rate up to 85–95% of your max heart rate, can not only help you burn more fat calo­ries in a shorter time. But, it trig­gers your body to con­tinue burn­ing well after your train­ing is done. Ulti­mately rais­ing your metab­o­lism, who for some rea­son loves to hate us as we get older. I sug­gest adding in 30–45 sec­ond all out bout of hills, sprints, or ply­o­met­ric jumps dur­ing your work­outs, inter­changed with low level recov­ery. DO NOT STOP, instead drop to a slow jog or fast pace walk between rounds. Start at 5 rounds and work your­self up to 10 by adding one each week.

Car­dio Combo. I still meet peo­ple who train like car­dio train­ing and strength train­ing are an old divorced cou­ple who can not be in the same room together. Well con­sider me Dr. Phil because we are com­bin­ing the two. With less time in the day, a way to get more for less is by com­bin­ing your strength and car­dio work­outs. Train in small cir­cuits and fin­ish each cir­cuit with a high inten­sity car­dio exer­cise. For exam­ple try a cir­cuit of dumb­bell presses, pull ups, lunges, and squats fol­lowed by 45 sec­onds of moun­tain climbers or burpees. Let me know if your heart thinks it did cardio!

Split up your ses­sions. Now if you are like me the more train­ing I can do out­side the bet­ter. I love the energy of the sun. Maybe you can’t do a full hour now since the sun is out a lot less, but no wor­ries, we can always split up your ses­sions. 30 min­utes in the morn­ing and 30 min­utes in the evening still gets you a hour of train­ing for the day. Also, by split­ting it up you avoid los­ing an entire day of fit­ness if some­thing out of the ordi­nary comes up. I chal­lenge you to also get in some type of phys­i­cal activ­ity mid­day at the office. Even if it’s as lit­tle as hold­ing a walk­ing meet­ing or walk­ing lunch, you’ll spark your metab­o­lism dur­ing the mid-day. If thats not enough, mid-day office work­outs have been linked to more pro­duc­tive and hap­pier employ­ees so get out there and get moving.

As we fall into the season’s change, remem­ber our goals, visions, and our health. Not hav­ing enough time is never a valid excuse for miss­ing out on stay­ing active. You only get one body treat it as such!!

Have a fitness-related question? Superstar trainer Coach G will be answering reader questions right here on Active Life DC! Submit^[1] your question using our contact form - it's easy!

Coach G (Gerard Burley) has over 10 years experience in the exercise sports science field. He holds a degree in athletic training and sports medicine from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and has a master's degree in Exercise and Health Promotion from Cal U. He is a certified athletic trainer (National Athletic Trainers Association), certified strength and conditioning specialist (National Strength and Conditioning Association), performance enhancement specialist (National Academy of Sports Medicine), certified specialist in speed and explosion (National Association of Speed and Explosion), and holds an advanced exercise nutrition certificate from Human Kinetics.

Coach G believes in a holistic approach to health and wellness: it's not about the scale, it's about feeling confident in your skin. He currently teaches group fitness classes at Stroga. To learn more, visit his website^[2] , follow him on Twitter^[3] , and like him on Facebook^[4] .

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