Today's Fitness Tip

Head For The Hills.  If you run or walk as your physical activity, a great way to increase your intensity is to add hills to your workout once or twice a week.  Adding hills will challenge your body, increase your heart rate and cause the body to use your muscles differently.  This can help improve endurance for longer walks/runs, will make your body stronger, and may challenge your body out of a plateau.

No hills in your area??  Use the stairs, or try the local high school football stadium.

Treadmill user??  Either manually change the incline on your treadmill or use one of the pre-programmed interval workouts.  NOTE:  If changing the incline manually, monitor your breathing as you may need to decrease the speed.  If I am doing hill work on a treadmill, I normally increase the incline by 1% and the speed by 2% until I max at 7% incline and 3.2 - 3.5 speed.

___________________________________________________________________________ As always, before beginning any fitness activity, see your doctor for clearance.  This for your own safety.  The above information is my personal opinions and is based on my own personal research in this area.  © 2008, Jill Krekel, Certified Personal Trainer. All rights reserved