5 fall fitness tips

Libby Boerger

Prisma Health Life Center

The days are getting cooler and shorter, and summer vacations are now a sweet memory. Perhaps your return to a familiar autumn routine has you reminiscing on the fitness goals you were so committed to before the summer came along. If you’re feeling overwhelmed at the thought of picking up where you left off, you are not alone.

Fitness instructor Libby Boerger offered a few fall fitness tips to help you rekindle your energy and motivation after a long summer off the workout wagon.

1. Get organized. The work week can be hectic. Set yourself up for exercise success by creating a prep routine. Use Saturday and Sunday afternoons to launder your workout clothes and purchase or prepare healthy eating options for the week. Each evening before you ease into leisure mode, get your workout gear ready for the next day. Lay out your clothes or pack your gym bag. Get your water bottle and your post-workout snack or meal ready. Make a motivating playlist that you can look forward to. Block out time in your calendar for your workout. Write yourself a brief note about your workout goals and set it on top of your clothes or gym bag. Your note could say something like “go to Pilates class at 9:15 a.m.” or “walk for at least 30 minutes.” The act of setting a goal AND writing it down makes you more likely to achieve success.
2. Prioritize. Loads of people, ideas and obligations fight for your attention at any given moment. If you don’t take the time to intentionally decide what is most important, you may arrive at the end of your day feeling as if you’ve been spinning your wheels and going nowhere. At the start of each day, sit down with your coffee or breakfast and make a list of the things you would like to accomplish before you lay your head down at night. Avoid putting things on the list you know you won’t get to, and don’t write something down just because you think you should. If it isn’t important to you for one reason or another, it doesn’t make the list.
3. Optimize breaks. Exercise can happen at any time of day, not just first thing in the morning or right after work. Take advantage of the cooler weather by adding a walk during your lunch break. Not only do you benefit from the extra steps, but it also gives you a chance to refocus and recharge for the second half of the workday.
4. Invest and commit. If you’re having trouble making the leap from wanting to exercise regularly to actually doing it, commit to a personal trainer or invest in a gym membership. Sometimes all it takes to generate a little follow-through is the knowledge that someone is waiting on you to show up or the investment of some of your disposable income.
5. Be realistic about time management. It’s easy to decide we’re way too busy for exercise. In fact, not having enough time is the number one reason people list for not exercising. But if we take a close look at how we manage our time, most of us can find 30–60 minutes each day. Assuming you get eight hours of sleep every night, one hour makes up 6% of your day. Thirty minutes makes up 3% of your day. Three percent! Most of us devote more than that to social media or watching television each day. See if you can trade in some of your screen time for sweat time, and chances are you won’t regret it.