Summer's Over, Time to Fall Into Fitness

Don’t despair that summer is winding down – embrace the fall season and the opportunity to review and revitalize your fitness.  

Whether you indulged in the lazy days of summer and took a much-needed break from the routines and schedules of pre-summer life, or your days were fully scheduled with training, racing and athletic events, the fall is all about new beginnings and fresh starts. 

September is naturally a month of planning. For many people it, not January, is when the year truly begins and whether it’s back to school for you or your kids or back to a ramped up post-holiday work environment, the fall season is time to plan and get organized. Make sure the months start out right and set yourself up for success. When it comes to meeting the demands of life, work, school and making time for family, plan your fitness to ensure you keep healthy and active.

Once you have got work and school schedules set as well as any other regular meetings and appointments, you can look at scheduling time for fitness and activity. Start by giving some thought to what you and your body need from this next phase of your training and workouts. 

Have you been racing or playing hard all summer? If so, then maybe you need to spend some time on an active recovery program. Off-season training generally includes addressing areas of overuse, giving attention to injuries, aches and pains. You can use the time to work on technique training for your specific sport, review your muscular balance and reintroduce base strength training exercises. For the body that has been used hard all summer, a solid stretching program or yoga is always a good thing.

Now if your body has had a decent amount of rest this summer, your fall fitness options are wide open. Are you keen to continue enjoying the outdoors with some hiking, biking or walking? Take in the beautiful fall colours, the not-too-hot temps and spend time on the less busy trails and streets with peak visitor season winding down. If you want your fall fitness plans to include both motivation and structure, maybe it’s back to the fitness centre for you. Re-connect with your fitness trainer and schedule some regular sessions, or sign up for your favourite group fitness class. It’s not so much what you do that’s important – just that you don’t delay getting back to doing something! 

Whether your body has been used hard this summer, or hardly used, the fall is the perfect season to re-visit your training needs or get a fresh start on your fitness. Seize the natural planning season, and don’t let the fall months slip away thinking about fitness. Plan it now and schedule to make it happen. Don’t risk letting your fall goals roll over into becoming New Year’s resolutions!