Here are a few tips to get back on track with eating healthy:

• Pick up where you left off before your relapse. Everyone falls off the mark when it comes to eating healthy; accept it and get back on track. After a long vacation of calorie-rich dinners and drinks, go back to eating small, nutrient-rich meals every few hours.
• Stock up on fruits and vegetables. After a diet relapse, focusing your meals on whole fruits and vegetables will help your body flush out toxins and replenish your system with antioxidants and other nutrients it may be lacking because of your relapse. I recommend snacks with fresh fruit and low-sugar yogurt as antioxidant-rich fruit provides vitamins and fiber while yogurt contains good bacterial cultures to promote digestive health.
• Re-hydrate. If you have had more than your share of drinks and barbecued meat during your relapse, be sure to drink plenty of water to hydrate and assist in flushing out your system.

1. Single Leg Deadlifts – 16 total (8 each leg)
2. Lunges – 24 total (12 each leg)
3. Planks with Knee-to-Elbow Tucks – 12 total (6 each leg)
4. Push Ups with Rotations – 10 total
5. Squat Jumps – 12
6. Body Rows – 10
7. Rest 45 seconds

One circuit should take you 5-6 minutes. For an added challenge, complete a set of 10 burpees after body rows. Be sure to keep moving from one exercise to the next with no rest to make sure you keep your heart rate elevated for a quick, efficient cardio and endurance workout!

Here are a few tips on how to stay cool and focused on on staying fit:

* Exercise in the early morning or evening. If you like to take your workout outdoors, be sure to do it early before work or later on around sunset. Temperatures usually reach their peak between 11 am and 3 pm.
* Exercise indoors when temperatures are at their peak. If you like to exercise during your lunch break, consider hitting the gym. Unless you’ve hydrated well beforehand, exercising in the heat may affect your performance and leave you feeling more drained than energized afterwards.
* Drink plenty of water. As a rule of thumb, you should drink 4-8 ounces of water every 15-30 minutes of exercise. Don’t be surprised if you may need twice that amount on a hot, muggy day. Be sure to keep a cold water bottle on hand if you decide to take your workout outdoors.
* Get customized guidance and support. Summer distractions and record-high heat can make staying fit especially challenging. Sometimes knowing when to exercise and to hydrate may not be enough. Consider hiring a coach to help you with accountability along with a new, customized program to keep you focused on your fitness while you enjoy the summer.

* Evaluate your company’s needs and goals. Now that you are familiar with some of the employer benefits to having a corporate wellness program, articulate the target benefits that are most relevant to your organization. Are you seeking to reduce health care costs? Improve employee retention, morale, and productivity? Be sure to express these goals so that they are relevant, attainable, and measurable.

* Assess your employees’ needs and goals. Conducting a short, simple survey related to employees’ health needs and fitness goals can help in the employee buy-in of the program, which is particularly important if you plan to partially subsidize the costs and pass on some of the expenses to staff.

* Establish a budget for investment. Getting a good idea of how many company funds will be allocated into the program is important before contacting businesses specializing in workplace wellness for more information. You may find that you have substantial resources in-house to support your company and employees’ goals. There may be simple initiatives you can implement with the help of a local fitness professional.

* Track progress and return on investment. Establishing a way to measure results for a corporate wellness program may be an involved undertaking, but it’s a worthwhile task to see how good health and fitness adds to your bottom line, which is especially helpful at the end of your fiscal year! The specific metrics you use to track progress and returns will depend on company and employee goals. For example, to determine how much you may have saved in health care costs, you would need to have a record of health care costs before implementing a wellness program as a reference point to compare program investments and savings against. Collaborating with a qualified professional in setting and measuring goals will help you optimize the benefits of a workplace wellness program.

Just as program design varies from exerciser to exerciser, athlete to athlete, the right corporate wellness program will vary from worksite to worksite. Consider your company goals and employees’ health and fitness need as you determine whether or not you have enough resources within your organization to implement an effective program. Chances are you may benefit from contacting a specialist in workplace wellness in order to maximize the returns of a corporate wellness program without breaking the bank! Contact us for more information on how our group training programs may help you get the most out of a corporate wellness program.

* longer life,
* increased energy,
* reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer, and other chronic illnesses,
* decreased stress and anxiety,
* a stronger skeletal and muscular systems, possibly delaying the onset of osteoporosis,
* enhanced mental clarity and creative thought, and
* a healthy weight management aid

Probably of most interest is the health care costs we can decrease by engaging in regular exercise. A majority of Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition. These chronic conditions are estimated to cost an individual over $1,800 per year in health care expenses. Regular exercise is an integral component in prevention and treatment of these diseases. Imagine keeping nearly $2,000 in your pocket each year thanks to exercise. You can use that saved money towards a trip to the beach to show of your stellar health!

*Reduced rates of absenteeism
* Increased productivity
* Decreased health care costs
* A return from $1.49 to $13 for every dollar invested in wellness
* Higher employee attraction and retention
* Heightened employee morale and energy levels
* Lower disability costs and workers’ compensation claims

Many research studies have uncovered findings that highlight the need and benefits of workplace wellness. This information is covered extensively by resources on corporate wellness such as The IHRSA Economic Benefits of Regular Exercise publication and Corporate Wellness Magazine.

* The annual estimated economic burden of prevalent diseases and conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, depression, and cancer range from $144 to $368 per employee.
* Chronic disease accounts for roughly 75% of all health care spending, according to the Center for Disease Control. A healthy lifestyle characterized by regular exercise and proper nutrition can help decrease chronic disease by over 80%.
* Nearly one-third of American adults are obese. Studies have shown that as an employee’s weight increases, so do an employer’s direct and indirect costs.

For years, we have used the benefits of exercise as a reason to get active, join a health club, and participate in recreational activities. However, in the past few years, the number of health club members have remained the same, at about 16% of the total American population over the age of 6. Another 3% utilize their health clubs as non-member patrons. In a recent study conducted by the Physical Activity Council, it was found that over 64 million Americans do not participate in any form of physical activity. Cost and convenience are prevailing barriers that keep Americans from joining gyms and engaging in physical activity.

It’s time to think outside the box–outside the traditional model of a brick and mortar facility. With a new national health care plan incorporating built-in incentives for workplace wellness programs, now is the best time for health & sports clubs, fitness professionals, and human resource specialists to work together for the better health of employees, their families, and in turn, an American public in need of the benefits gained from physical activity and healthy behavior.

The following blog series will discuss the benefits of a corporate health program for employers and employees. I will also cover some of the incentives available at the federal level to businesses and how your company can collaborate with a local club or professional in developing your own workplace wellness program.

If your clients have taken a good chunk of time off during the summer, then chances are they may be looking to invest in training on a budget. Focus on offering affordable training packages. Although discounted private training is a common promotion, partner and group training options will be a lot more wallet-friendly. If you don’t offer partner and group training, consider adding it to your portfolio of services. For pricing partner and group training, a general guideline to follow would be time and a half for partner training and double-time for group training. For example, if you typically charge $50/hour for private training, partner training pricing would be $75/hour split between two clients, while group training would be $100/hour shared among three or more participants.

If you all ready offer these semi-private training services, consider running a themed or goal-oriented workshop series. Fall can be a great time to exercise outdoors. An outdoor boot camp at a local park or as part of a weekend series of short hikes are a couple workshops you can run to attract outdoor-oriented exercisers. Workshops can also be structured around fitness goals shared among group members. Circuit training with bouts of high intensity exercises, free weight instruction, and functional training for winter sports are workshop ideas designed for fat loss, strength, and sports-specific goals.

Deciding what specific workshop series to use will depend on your specific clientele. Review PAR-Q’s and ask your clients to refresh your memory on their goals and activities of interest in order to determine what themed workshop to run. Also consider what training environments or tools are readily available to you—is there a park local to you and/or clients, do you have portable equipment to increase variety for outdoor training sessions? What space constraints at your facility should you keep in mind to determine how many clients you can accommodate for small group training? Try to strike a balance between planning ahead and being creative with workshops, and your clients will be more than happy to work with you in a budget-friendly, but effective exercise setting.

When designing flexibility and exercise programs for pregnant clients, ACOG has one important recommendation to keep in mind. For the pre-natal client, staying healthy during pregnancy is the most important thing–the priority is to continue being healthy, not to increase fitness as strenuous, vigorous challenges can often put the mother and unborn child in danger. For flexibility, avoiding most dynamic flexibility exercises along with deep stretches and extension of joints is not recommended as most of these exercises require the client to take stretches to a maximum, causing stress to the pregnant woman’s body. Stick to seated or supine stretches for safety and to achieve mild stretches in targeting muscle groups. However, keep in mind that after the first trimester, it is often recommended to avoid supine exercises because in a supine position, blood and oxygen flow is reduced to the baby due to a depressed superior vena cava. If you are do include supine exercises after the first trimester, try to have your client lie on their side in between recovery periods of sets.

Once your client has delivered her baby, keep in mind that it can take up to six weeks for biomechanical and hormonal changes due to pregnancy to return to pre-pregnancy states. Be sure to continue with seated/supine flexibility exercises, and gradually work up to active and dynamic flexibility depending on your individual client’s fitness level.

Testing agility agility in clients with chronic pain poses some challenges. Most traditional agility tests like the T Test and Hexagon Test require hops, shuffles, and running, which are often too stressful on all ready aching joints. The Edgren Side Step test is a good alternative to traditional agility tests as it involves stepping quickly while changing direction. Depending on the severity of a client’s symptoms or their cardiovascular fitness level, you may want to adjust the length between each mark. Rather than spacing each mark three feet apart, try 18 inches apart or use individual rungs of an ABC ladder to delineate distances between each mark. Whether or not you use the original evaluation or a modification, the Edgren test will provide a good benchmark for measuring progress in agility.

Similar to agility, coordination, although not a typical fitness component, is an important aspect of everyday physical movement. There is no definitive test for coordination, so completing a simple exercise should give you a good idea of your client’s level of coordination. A simple exercise like tossing a small stability ball while your client is standing is a good way to measure and improve hand-eye coordination–this activity can serve as both a test and exercise. Observe the relative ease or difficulty your client may have in catching the ball, and be sure to record these observations as they will provide a starting point from which to improve. Coordination deteriorates with age and inactivity, so including related drills in an exercise program will help in improving neuromuscular efficiency: the ability of the body’s nervous system to transmit signals to the muscular system to initiate movement (yes, this is just another fancy way of describing coordination!).