Change It Up! Raise the bar with your fitness routine :: Fitness

Change It Up!
by author Joe Rossi, NASM-PES

Are you burned out or bored with your fitness routine? Did you start out eager to make improvements to your strength, conditioning, and healthy lifestyle, but now find yourself sidetracked?

What if I told you that there is light at the end of the bored-with-my-fitness-routine tunnel? With just a few adjustments, you’ll have new energy and enthusiasm.

Train smart

Boredom can sideline even the highest level athlete. When the mind is experiencing boredom with the same old training routine, it may be the body’s way of saying it is time to change things up.

This goes far deeper than just keeping your brain stimulated. One of the first signs of overtraining is an inability to complete the training session. This is usually accompanied by a lack of energy and a decreased sense of purpose. Doing too much of the same thing for too long may backfire, holding you back from completing your ultimate goal.

Just tweaking your training program to suit your needs can wipe away boredom and breathe new life into your workouts. If the ultimate goal is to change your body’s composition through weight loss or increased strength and muscle tone, the end result may not be all that matters.

Set personal records

Setting personal records will give you the motivation to seek improvement by competing against yourself. This means building on each aspect of your program to improve your results from week to week.

If, for example, in week one you completed a total of 10 push-ups (for a personal record of 10), then the following week you could aim for 12 push-ups to set a new personal record. Making progress is very motivating.

This strategy can be utilized with each part of your routine. Every time you hit the gym, new personal records can be set with a few more reps of an exercise or an increased amount of weight. Competing against yourself will keep you focused and determined to improve.

Switch it up

If you are new to workouts at the gym, switch up your training every three to five weeks. This can be accomplished by rotating exercises or by doing the same exercises in a different way.

For example, if you have been performing barbell back squats for three to five weeks, rotate the training movement by switching to barbell front squats. Although you’re still squatting, the body will feel like it’s doing something completely new.

Try something new

In extreme cases of training boredom or fatigue, the very sight of traditional weights can put a knot in your stomach. This is where cross-training comes in. Sometimes doing a completely different workout activity for a week or two will enable your mind to experience something totally different while your body continues to make progress.

“Odd object” training is a form of low-impact exercise that has long been used as a form of cross-training for people whose fitness routines are primarily gym-based. If you’re training at a commercial gym, look out for odd objects such as kettle bells and sandbags.

Anyone at any level can participate. Start out with 14- to 18-metre carries with a weight you can handle. You can adapt this form of exercise to home as well (see sidebar). When finding new excuses not to exercise takes all your creative energy, it’s a good time to re-evaluate. All that creative energy can come in handy to spark new life into your fitness routine. Try something new, set new goals, and you’ll be earning new personal records in no time!

Odd object train at home

Grab a pair of dumbbells that are heavy enough to fatigue your body.
With an upright posture, perform your dumbbell carries with a controlled walk tempo for a 14- to 18-metre distance.
Once you cover that distance, grab a jump rope and skip for 30 to 90 seconds.
Work up to four carry and skipping sessions with a one to two minute rest between each.

Joe Rossi, NASM-PES, operates YESS Training which provides training programs for individual and group athletes at the high school, college, and professional levels. yesstraining.blogspot.com

Source: alive #322. August 2009

Safely Slimming
Nothing can replace proper diet and exercise for achieving and maintaining safe and healthy weight loss. But there are nutrients that may give a little extra help. Most North Americans are chromium deficient..

Lose Weight with Weights
It is a widely-believed myth that training with weights will make you resemble Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallon.

Strong Shoulders and Sexy Arms
It's a month past New Year's-how are you doing with your resolutions? This is the first of a three-part series to help you follow through on your fitness goals.

Exercise Your Heart Safely
The major killer in North America today is heart disease, even though it is preventable with proper nutrition and regular exercise.

Strong Back and Great Legs
Welcome to the second in a three part series designed to help you keep those New Year's fitness resolution.

Strong Abs and a Great Chest
Welcome to the last of a three-part series. This issue covers training for your chest and abdominals. The first section covered arms and shoulders; the second, legs and back.

Women and Weights
Do you want to look and feel better? How about being able to do more? Most of us would respond to those questions with a resounding "yes.

Weight Loss and the Calorie-Counting Myth
The load on Mother Earth is getting heavier. Not only are there more of us to carry, we weigh more, too. Worldwide, the number of overweight people is estimated at 1.2 billion.

The Dangers of Fast Food
When James Dean said, "Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse" in the 1950s, Americans were much thinner and fast food was a new invention. Today Americans are simply too chubby to live as fast as the lean 1950s idol. Instead they eat fast food, die younger than they should and leave increasingly obese corpses..

Herbal Solutions to Safe and Effective Weight Loss
What if there was a safe and effective way to jump-start a weight-loss program that guaranteed results within two to three weeks--and didn't involved starvation diets or rigorous exercise? It's not magic or tricke.

Age-Less Exercise
If there is an anti-aging pill, it has to be exercise--age-less exercise. Proper exercise has been shown to slow aging through reduced cholesterol, high blood pressure, stress levels, insulin levels and osteoporosis risk..

Triathlon
In reality, most people are quite capable of achieving the Ironman distance if they're willing to put in between 12 to 20 hours of training a week and have the discipline to follow the training regimen!

Skip It!
You don't have to join a gym or invest in sophisticated exercise equipment to stay fit. You don't even have to worry about staying fit while you're travelling.

Build Muscle Not Fat
Still haven't gotten rid of that old winter padding? Maybe it has slowly crept up on your unsuspecting physique over years of wrong food choices.

Kick Up Your Heels
Take a turn around the floor with ballroom dancingBallroom dancing is fun for all ages and will keep you fit as a fiddle throughout life. Historically, dance has always been with us.

On Track with Cross-Country Skiing
Gliding into winter is easy with this low-impact sportThe quiet swish swish of skis over snow is one of the supreme joys of winter.

Can My Diet Survive the Shortbread Season?
It's that time of year when all those parties and social gatherings dot the calendar. Everywhere we turn, sweet temptation rears its ugly hea.

Get a New Grip on Weights
You can have the body you want. Free your mind of any doubt and begin thinking in a way that serves you.

Aerobic Exercise for Life
If someone told you that there was a way for you to have more energy, be more productive, sleep better, live longer and maintain emotional well-being, would you be interested? Who wouldn't be, right? It almost sounds too good to be true. You may think, "Okay, what's the catch?" Actually, there is no catch.

Take the Plunge With Water Workouts
The benefits of drinking eight glasses of water a day are indisputable. So are the health benefits of jumping in a pool full of water for some exercise.

Get Fit not Fat
The human body is designed to mov.

Don't Weight
January is diet month, when many people search for motivation to get active and lose weight. And now, more than ever, the scales tell us it's time to make this serious commitment to our health and well-being.

Heart Happy
Your heart must be challenged on a regular basis. It is a muscle and, like any other muscle in the body, the more it is used, the stronger it becomes. And, also like other muscles, a stronger heart will also be more efficient at doing its job.

Fire Up Your Metabolism
How many of us have declared that we are going to "lose weight and get in shape"? To make healthy changes in our lives, we take out a new membership at the local gym, only to fall back on old habits once the novelty wears off.

Get Straight A's in Exercise
Anaerobic activities will increase your lean muscle mass, bone structure, strength, endurance and balance. Aerobic activities will decrease coronary disease, blood pressure, risk of diabetes, osteoporosis and some forms of cancer.

Debunking Fitness Myths
The next time you see a new theory on fitness or some new gimmick, consider this...if it seems too good to be true, it probably is! Let's face it: most of us have been confused at one time or another about what we need to do to live a healthy, activ.

Lift Weight to Lose Weight!
The human body is designed to store fat-a great deal of it, in fact. But if we continue to subject it to extra calories, highly processed carbohydrates, little rest, high stress and chronic inactivity, we will continue to expand our fat cells at unprecedented rates.

Mastering Mind Over Muscle
With the continued rise in obesity in North America, many people are racing to the gym and buying exercise equipment in an attempt to lose weight, get fit, and stay healthy. A fit body and big muscles, however, do not equal good health..

Managing the Battle of the Bulge
More than one-third of Canadian adults are overweight and 15 percent are clinically obese, reports Health Canada. A 2001 study of nearly 10,000 people found that obesity, a greater risk to health than smoking, is linked to our most common killers-heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Realistic Resolutions for Real Results
You wake up one morning in January and take a good look in the mirror. Are you happy with the person staring back at you?

Moving Through a Frozen February
The dull days of frozen February provide little motivation to be active in a country where inactivity is already an issue year round. A survey conducted by the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute in 1999 shows that 64 percent of Canadians are still not active enough to reap the health benefits of a physically active lifestyle.

Muscle Mass Mastery
If we're not careful, by retirement, we could lose one-third to one-half of our muscle tissue. This debilitating condition, called sarcopenia, is now considered one of the top biomarkers of aging: its specific physical traits are used to measure the progress of aging.

Get With The Program
This was the year we were going to start working out, eating right, looking good, and feeling better, right? What happened? Often we begin an exercise program with the best intentions but then find we lack the tools to stay dedicated.

Gaining the Right Weight
If only it were true for all of us: some people have trouble gaining weight. Their metabolism runs high because of an enhanced biochemical process called thermogenesis, the body's ability to burn calories at an accelerated rate.

The Right Advice for Effective Fat Loss
Many of us would agree we are bombarded with an abundance of information-much of it conflicting-especially surrounding the issue of weight loss. The truth is that once we come to terms with the fact we are carrying too much fat on our frames, we panic and want it gone!

Key to Weight Loss
Losing weight can be challenging. Keeping it off can be even more difficult. The key is your metabolism and the higher your lean body mass, the higher your metabolism will be.

Ten Minutes a Day Keeps the Fat at Bay
Less than 25 percent of Canadian adults exercise on a regular basis, thus, children - and adults - are spending more time performing sedentary tasks, such as surfing the Internet, playing video games, and watching television..

Hoodia Who?
Hoodia gordonii is a cactus-like plant native to the Kalahari Desert of South Africa, Namibia, and Botswan.

Tip the Scales in Your Favour
'Tis the season for dieting. January awakens our resolve to lose spare tires, saddlebags, and other jiggly bits. For every plump little pound we want to lose, we must eliminate or burn 3,500 calories.

The French Paradox Explained
Many jealous North Americans have wondered how the French can consume foods that are known contributors to weight gain - white bread, cheese, rich sauces, and red wine - yet never seem to gain a pound. Scientists have coined it the French paradox.

Detox and Weight Loss
What do food additives, caffeine and alcohol, medications, herbicides and pesticides, and household chemicals all have in common? Each must be rendered harmless by your body's detoxification system in order for you to stay lean and healthy.

Bands of Resistance
Want to stretch out your workout this fall? Rubber exercise bands are a simple piece of equipment that can enhance your workout at home, at the gym, or on the road. Exercise makes you look better and, of course, it makes you feel better, too.

Forever Young
All of us want to have longer and healthier lives, and while some of us are dealt a better hand than others in life's genetic lottery, there are many ways we can maximize the potential we are born with.

Just Lose It!
Over half of all North Americans are considered overweight, so it's not surprising that there is great interest in weight loss supplement.

Outdoor Biking
Many people tire of spending countless hours peddling on the same old stationary bike. Bring excitement back into your exercising by stepping off the stationary bicycle and moving outdoors.

Sweat It Out
My best friend, Kim, never sweats. Instead, a light film of glistening moisture begins to cover her skin as her workout progresses from the warm-up to a more intense stage.

Reduce Cellulite Naturally
I have always been jealous of my friend, who is naturally petite, eats all she wants, and never seems to gain a pound. But despite how skinny she is, she still complains of cellulite.

Mesotherapy
When dimples start appearing in the wrong set of cheeks, a new alternative therapy called mesotherapy might be the perfect answer. Mesotherapy is the newest cellulite solution in cosmetic and aesthetic medical circles. But what's it all about?

Exercise to Entertain
Most often people do not stick to exercise programs because they lack motivation due to stress, time management issues or simply a boring workout. The key to sticking with your resolutions comes from making your workouts fun.

Free Weights or Machines?
When beginning a strength training program, it isn't always necessary to begin working with machines before "graduating to free weights. In fact, this is just a common myth that tends to deter people from trying free weights-especially beginners.

Cardio vs. Strength Training
Cardiovascular training provides a good foundation when it comes to exercise, offering benefits in weight control, endurance, and overall cardiovascular health. Unfortunately, as we age cardio exercises alone can't help us preserve muscle mass. Combining strength and cardio training is the ideal way to keep your heart, muscles, and bones toned and healthy.

Weighty Issues
The holiday season is full of wonderful tastes and traditions, but come January we feel pressured by forces everywhere, including the media, to try the latest fad diet in an effort to lose extra pounds. Should we succumb to the pressure or should we consider our body weight from a different perspective?

Are You a Skinny, Fat Person?
Everyone admires the supermodel who "never works out" and "eats everything" yet still manages to look fabulous. Some of us even strive for her looks by following a diet of lattes and lettuce. What's surprising is that this beautiful, slim woman may actually have high body fat and the foundation for chronic disease.

Move Over Has-Bean
Recently, while my friends and I were sharing a laugh over a cuppa java, I looked across the table at Amanda's cup and realized there was no ebony liquid in it. Instead, she was delicately sipping green tea. One of Amanda's jokes?

Education Helps Healing
Last month I detailed the symptoms and nutritional assessment of alive case study client Jacqueline. After many attempts to lose weight, she has agreed, with my help, to focus on gaining health.

Take It Outside
Successfully enjoying winter sports requires specific preparation and training. Even active adults involved in sports like cycling and jogging haven't trained for shifts in balance, setting them up for possible injuries when participating in winter sports.

Take It Outside
In the first part of this series, we explored the roles of linked strength and performance balance. Developing core strength will also help set you up to enjoy the outdoors.

Pump It Up
My best friend Kim works out several times a week. Recently, after a few months of commitment and determination, Kim shyly approached me for some help. While she was feeling better-more energetic, less stressed, and more confident-she wasn't seeing all of the physical changes she had hoped for.

Fibre Helps Curb Appetite
Appetite reflects a very complex system that has evolved to help humans deal with food shortages. As a result, it is extremely biased toward weight gain. The solution to combat the tendency to eat more than we require is to accentuate the normal physiological processes that curb the appetite.

Fight Night at the Gym
Fitness boxing is a fun and exciting way to stay in shape. It's an easy-to-learn workout that demands full physical and mental commitment. The results are incredible. Fitness boxing can help you find yourself in the best physical and mental shape of your life.

A Natural Approach
"If things are real, they can be proven. With this motivating philosophy, Dr. Michael Lyon embarked, at the age of 16, on a medical quest that would feed his desire to prove the relationship between good nutrition and good health.

Move It or Lose It
Aging is inevitable. It is possible, however, to curb many of the effects of aging with regular physical activity. We all want to maintain quality of life and good health as we age, and exercise is essential to maintaining good health. The less we move, the more susceptible we are to various conditions and diseases, and thus the vicious cycle of inactivity begins.

Heavy Evidence on Getting Lean
These days the phrase "the latest research carries little weight. In comprehensive research, best practices combine primary, anecdotal, and dialogue-focused data with secondary, online, and published work from clinical trials.

Healthy Weight Loss
Lose four to six pounds a month-painlessly. Many studies show that the key to true long-term weight control is a diet based on a high intake of colourful fruits and vegetables, reasonable portion sizes, and healthy fats, along with a moderate exercise program and modest expectations. Here are four tips for lifetime weight maintenance.

Pick Up the Pace
A fitness program needs some forethought. There needs to be the time, inclination, and patience to be able to stick with it. The program has to evoke participant passion and commitment to endure-because it's much easier to sit on the couch than get off it! Here are six tips to help you (or a friend) develop a successful fitness program.

Winning at Losing
Even without looking at the numbers on the bathroom scale, you know the score. Your weight's up, your energy's down. Natural weight loss support products can help you get the results you want more quickly and with less stress.

Activity Each Day Keeps Runny Noses Away

Help for Your Hands

Tips for Tummy Fat

Sweat = Healthy Skin

A Little Is Better Than Nothing

Posture Perfect With Pilates

Pumping Iron Pumps the Heart

Job Pressure Hinders Exercise Plans

Over 50? Run for Your Life!

Your Brain Needs Exercise, Too

Hip is In

Herbal Self-Help for Herpes

Be a tea-totaller: Green Tea Fights Colon Cancer

What is white tea?

Creatine Increases Strength, Endurance

Pump for positivity

Start exercising now to cut risk of breast cancer

Does your workout feel tough?

Active Lifestyle Lowers Risk of Gallstones

A Simple Weight to Strong Arms

Flexible Benefits

Exercise Trains Your Brain, Too

Old Dogs, New Tricks

Hit the Road, Jack and Joan

Pain in the Neck?

A little means a lot

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Team work for your muscles

Forever strong

Add longer walks to your exercise routine

Hydration for digestion

Breathe your way to better abs

Kick it up a notch

For better balance, try Tai Chi

Spirit of Fitness

School Kids and Exercise

Relieve PMS with a Vegetarian Diet

Eat Early; Eat Less

High Fibre for Healthy Colons

Row, Row, Row Your Way to Fitness

Peak Performance

No More Excuses
To help you find the time, energy, and room within your budget, I've designed a workout that uses minimal equipment, can be performed at home, and takes only 35 to 45 minutes to do. A perfect workout solution for our not-so-perfect, hectic lives...happy training!

Desk Set
Like many of us, I spend a lot of my time sitting at a desk, typing. Health professionals recommend various tactics to help make desk time less detrimental to your health. These suggestions include getting up and moving frequently, as well as carefully arranging your workstation.

ROLL'N
Inline skating is a great aerobic workout that the entire family can use to help stay in shape. Some people enjoy taking long leisurely skates, while others use inline skating for intense cardiovascular training or as a mode of transportation on city streets.

Reached a Plateau?
"I don't get it. I was doing so well, and all of a sudden, I stopped improving. This is a familiar refrain from exercisers who believe their program has failed them. In reality, they have maximized what their workout was designed to achieve.

A chance to Change
The time has passed too quickly. I entered into this life makeover hoping for quick and significant results. But I now see that such expectations require more commitment than I've been able to devote. With school, work, the makeover, and life's complications, I bit off more than I could chew.

Self Defence
Would you like to get over the fear of attack or learn to act on your own behalf? These are just a couple of considerations that might motivate you to take up a self-defence program. Let's face it-violence happens; therefore, self-defence is a life skill, not a luxury.

Bliss on the Water
The turquoise blush of the Pacific sparkled in the afternoon sun as my wife and I eased our sea kayaks onto a beach of white, talcum-powder sand. A jumble of bleached driftwood fringed the lush coastal rainforest, home to a pair of bald eagles cruising the cloudless sky.

Stop Resisting and Start Lifting
When you think of weight training, you may think of energetic young men pumping iron at the gym. But these exercises can be done at home by people of all ages. All you need is a set of free weights and the will to use them.

10 Common Workout Mistakes
Through the years, I have seen many interesting and creative exercises performed in the gym. I've also observed some wacky ones...

Preserving the Gift of Health
The holiday season can test even the strongest willpower. You may have the best of intentions to avoid holiday overindulgences, ruining the health and fitness gains you've worked so hard for all year. But there are only so many times you can say no to Mom's butter tarts!

It's as Easy as One, Two...Eight
The lesson of today is we can improve upon yesterday while getting ready for the days to come. The New Year is an excellent time to reflect and motivate ourselves to make small yet significant changes to our health.

Abs of Steel
The other night, while suffering through one of my occasional bouts of insomnia, I was channel surfing at an hour when there is only one type of television program playing-infomercials.

Take It Off
'Tis the season for vowing to strip off those extra pounds you've been accumulating. A natural approach to weight loss that combines behaviour modification, healthy, controlled eating, daily exercise, and weight-loss support supplements is your best bet for success.

Strength for Life
You may be a fitness enthusiast or weekend warrior who believes you are doing a good job of looking after your body's fitness and conditioning. What if I told you that you may have overlooked one of the most important components in your active and health-driven lifestyle?

High Rollers
In the depths of winter, your indoor exercise routine may have become repetitive. Both your body and your mind are calling out for variety. Foam roller training offers an alternative exercise option that provides strengthening, balancing, and relaxing benefits.

Wiggle-Free Wave
I once had a client who asked me if I could help her tone her "waving muscle. A bit baffled, I told her I had never come across that particular muscle in any of my anatomy books.

Add Some to Lose Some
Although a nutritious diet and regular exercise are key to losing weight, research shows that there is more you can do to shed pounds. Dietary supplements can play an important complementary role in regulating metabolism, suppressing appetite, and curbing sweet cravings.

Family Album
In her 1957 wedding photos, she is the classic embodiment of the term hourglass figure: generous bust and hips set off by a small waist. Her dress and going-away suit showcase her fashionably abundant figure and nervous smile.

Get a Leg Up
Are sore knees holding you back from making progress in the gym? Exercise selection, technique, and lack of strength in stabilizing muscles can often be the root cause of knee pain.

Hunger Free Forever: The New Science of Appetite Control
by Michael Murray and Michael Lyon Atria Books, 2007; 304 pages; hardcover $29.95,also available as an e-book at simonsays.com ISBN 978-1-4165-4904-8

Capoeira
A group stands in a circle clapping in rhythm along with three musicians. Two people from the circle jump into the centre. What follows is a beautiful display of kicks and flips, with each of them executing movements in close proximity but just missing each other. This is Capoeira.

Put Some Sting In Your Swing
Tiger Woods was onto something when he publicly credited his strength-training routine for his recent success in the sport of golf. Tiger improved his golf swing by preparing for the physical demands that the golf swing places on the human body.

The Last 15
Dr. Joey Shulman's new book, The last 15: a weight loss breakthrough, addresses controlled and permanent weight loss beyond an individual's plateau point-those hard-to-lose extra pounds that prevent 98 percent of the overweight population from achieving complete, healthy success.

No Butt About It
Our butt (or, in technical terms, our gluteal area) is comprised of three muscles. The first and outermost layer is our gluteus maximus muscle. This muscle is the largest of the gluteal area (some peoples' being much larger than others, much to their chagrin).

Say "Wii" to Weight Loss
At five years old, Tsubasa Miyahara is already a video game expert who's capable of kicking adult butts at Wii games. He's mastered boxing, golf, and tennis, and has the best electronic backhand on the block. Can playing these exergames be a healthy substitute for real activity?

Target Your Thighs
Our thighs are a muscle group that we frequently target in the gym, but do we really know why we are training them?

Flamenco
Flamenco-dance, music, and song-is a living art form originating in Southern Spain. Celebrating the amalgamation of people from diverse cultures, creeds, and stages of life, flamenco is an art form that nurtures the mind, body, and soul. One needs merely the courage and the desire to explore.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry
Many of us come home from vacations packing a few extra pounds, but it doesn't have to be that way. On your next vacation plan to indulge yourself with healthy gourmet food and a variety of activities.

Playing in a Winter Wonderland
Now that the holidays are under way, it can be a challenge to stay in shape. Instead of being jealous of the two preteens boxing on the interactive video game you bought them for Christmas to thwart childhood obesity, resolve to commandeer the controls of the first one who sits on the couch.

Losing Weight
The New Year kicks off with parties presenting irresistible desserts, delicious eggnog, and those tasty little appetizers that are so hard to refuse! With the alcohol flowing and office or family gatherings happening all around you, temptation is at an all-time high.

Build a New You
Our bodies are in a continual state of renewal and repair. In one year the over 100 trillion cells that make up the body will all be new.

Weight-loss Aids
If you're like the majority of Canadians whose Day-Timers include notations such as "exercise every day, "drink more water, and "eat more salads, don't forget to add "research health supplements, because there are some great products that may help in shedding those extra post-holiday pounds.

Play Well With Others
When you think about exercise, do you picture boring jogs on the treadmill, cut off from the rest of the world by those treadmill rails and your iPod? If so, perhaps you should revise your definition. It's time to discover the joys of working out with others, including your valentine.

Work Your Butt Off
You're careful to eat the right foods and you take a daily vitamin supplement. But you know that something valuable is missing from your daily regimen. If finding the time and motivation to exercise is a burden, then why not give yourself the boot?

Squeeze some sunshine
Have you ever wondered why an apple turns brown after you cut it in half? But cut any citrus fruit in half and it remains virtually unchanged. The difference is the high level of ascorbic acid and other antioxidants in the citrus; they protect it from oxidation-like natural rustproofing.

Open Gym
I serve as the first-aid attendant at my place of work, where we help disabled people find employment. The other day I attended a young man with a nosebleed. He was sitting in his wheelchair at the back of the classroom with his head between his knees.

Nordic Walking
My wife and I love to take a walk after dinner every evening, usually along the shores of Vancouver's False Creek inlet with mugs of tea in hand. Perhaps tonight we'll set down our tea and instead pick up a pair of lightweight Nordic walking poles for our stroll.

Stress Less
Many Canadians suffer from stress. It’s the root cause of numerous health challenges we experience. Finding ways to reduce stress is essential to improve our health and our quality of life.

Maintain your muscle
We should be aiming to somersault and perform back flips over the ground that we are above, no matter what age we are.