It's the beginning of January again and everyone is obsessed with New Year resolutions. I cannot tell you how many press stories I've already seen this year about resolutions and how many people break them (usually by January 2nd).
If you're part of the group of people who are serious about wanting change in your life then you should really think about goal setting rather than setting resolutions.
So what's the difference?
Goal setting is a specific process to define what you want to achieve and then defining a road map of how you're going to get there. The problem with resolutions is that you define the ultimate goal without checking if it's realistic or attainable and when you face a setback you tend to feel like you failed which results in quitting.
Goals have specific elements. They must be realistic, they must have a timeline and they must be specific.
People usually resolve to 'Eat Better' and the reason they want to do that is to lose weight. A much better goal would be to lose 10lbs by April. This goal is realistic (you can lose 10lbs in the next 3 months), it has a timeline (by April, even better set a date) and it's specific ('10lbs by April' and not 'some weight').
Once you have this goal, it's easy to break it down into smaller chunks like losing a pound each week for example. Also by having smaller interim goals you can adjust your program more often as you face setbacks or have success but you don't need to give up.
Probably the most effective way to succeed with your goals is to become more accountable. Tell everyone you know that you are aiming for your goals which will give you an added incentive not to give up and get their support to help you achieve your goals.
Hit The Road Running offers coaching services which can greatly increase your chances of achieving your goals, help you to set them and also provides the accountability and motivation most people need.
Good Luck and Happy New Year.
About The Author
Tony Denford is a certified personal trainer and owner or Hit the Road Running. He has been training primarily runners since 2002 and has worked with beginners all the way to Boston Qualifier Marathon runners.
Tony emphasizes balance and variety in his training methods and always tries to make sure his client’s fitness routines are fun as well as beneficial.
Visit www.hittheroadrunning.com for more details on Hit The Road’s programs and services.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Extending your Corporate Wellness program
More and more often our corporate wellness clients are asking us how they can extend the benefits of their employee wellness programs to their employee's dependants.
If you understand the great return on investment employers get from wellness programs, it makes perfect sense to extend these benefits to others who are covered by the companies insurance program and are therefore affecting the cost.
There are some challenges to extending the wellness program beyond the employees. Firstly wellness programs offered at work are often utilized due to their convenience. Family members are typically not physically at the workplace to participate in on-site initiatives. This can be overcome by offering wellness education with take-away items that could be passed on to family members. Also, offer a number of off-site events outside of business hours such as a company sports/games day where employees can bring their families along to participate.
The key thing though is to get the employees engaged in the programs and then lead by example. Inactive parents almost always lead to inactive kids. If your employees are adopting healthy habits, the children often follow.
Incentives almost always work too. Reward the employees and their families for participation and do not focus on results like weight loss. If they participate, they will get healthier. The key is to reward them for activity and healthy habits, not just for signing up.
The single biggest success factor is promotion of the program. If everyone else is doing it, there is a huge incentive for those less likely to take part and these are often the people in the more at-risk group.
If you have any questions about setting up a wellness program at your site, email them to info@hittheroadrunning.com
If you understand the great return on investment employers get from wellness programs, it makes perfect sense to extend these benefits to others who are covered by the companies insurance program and are therefore affecting the cost.
There are some challenges to extending the wellness program beyond the employees. Firstly wellness programs offered at work are often utilized due to their convenience. Family members are typically not physically at the workplace to participate in on-site initiatives. This can be overcome by offering wellness education with take-away items that could be passed on to family members. Also, offer a number of off-site events outside of business hours such as a company sports/games day where employees can bring their families along to participate.
The key thing though is to get the employees engaged in the programs and then lead by example. Inactive parents almost always lead to inactive kids. If your employees are adopting healthy habits, the children often follow.
Incentives almost always work too. Reward the employees and their families for participation and do not focus on results like weight loss. If they participate, they will get healthier. The key is to reward them for activity and healthy habits, not just for signing up.
The single biggest success factor is promotion of the program. If everyone else is doing it, there is a huge incentive for those less likely to take part and these are often the people in the more at-risk group.
If you have any questions about setting up a wellness program at your site, email them to info@hittheroadrunning.com
Thursday, October 30, 2008
What makes a corporate wellness program successful?
In the general population you have approximately 20% of people who believe in exercise enough to do it on a regular basis. There are about 20% more who, even though they know the risks, are committed to avoiding exercise and probably never will.
There is a target of opportunity for fitness professionals of the remaining 60% so the question then becomes; what can we do to motivate this 60%?
The reality is that many of them have not yet found a convenient or enjoyable way to get their exercise. This is where employers come in. Employers who have conducted health risk assessments find that 40% of employees are in the medium and high risk groups which directly affects their productivity, creativity and sick time usage. Those in the low risk group, without change, tend to move into the medium and high risk groups over time.
Many wellness professionals want to change the world and move all their employees to the low risk group and are therefore doomed to fail. The rule here is to not let the things you cannot control, control the things you can. Even a small change in employee behaviour can have significant impact to your organizations competitiveness. Multiply the small change by the number of employees and then by time and the impact can be significant. The impact may be to slow the progress of those in the low risk group today from moving into the medium risk group.
Return on investment for corporate wellness initiatives can be staggering. Coors Brewing reported a return of $6.15 for every $1 spent and Citibank reported $4.52. The average of all companies surveyed was $4.30. That's a significant return.
So what kind of wellness initiative brings such large returns. Firstly, you cannot change everyone or everything. Programs should focus on the factors that can be easily affected. Programs should be activity based, simple, fun, private and rewarding. Add community involvement and you add another aspect to your program and your company's image.
In employee surveys 52% said they would participate in a program for a reward worth $150. The participation rate without incentives is 13%.
Often wellness programs try to measure the outcome of a program which is difficult and many employees view it as intrusive. What is more easily measured is adherence and through adherence will come results. We all know that the healthier the habits of a person, the better the results. If people exercise they will get healthier.
If your organization can provide opportunities to it's employees to live healthier and encourage them to grab the opportunities, you will see results like those mentioned above.
....
For more information about how your organization can realize the benefits of a Trail Running program, please contact tony@hittheroadrunning.com or visit corporatewellness.hittheroadrunning.com.
....
About The Author
Tony Denford is a certified personal trainer and owner or Hit the Road. He has been training primarily runners since 2002 and has worked with beginners all the way to Boston Qualifier Marathon runners.
Tony emphasizes balance and variety in his training methods and always tries to make sure his client’s fitness routines are fun as well as beneficial.
Visit www.hittheroadrunning.com for more details on Hit The Road’s programs and services.
There is a target of opportunity for fitness professionals of the remaining 60% so the question then becomes; what can we do to motivate this 60%?
The reality is that many of them have not yet found a convenient or enjoyable way to get their exercise. This is where employers come in. Employers who have conducted health risk assessments find that 40% of employees are in the medium and high risk groups which directly affects their productivity, creativity and sick time usage. Those in the low risk group, without change, tend to move into the medium and high risk groups over time.
Many wellness professionals want to change the world and move all their employees to the low risk group and are therefore doomed to fail. The rule here is to not let the things you cannot control, control the things you can. Even a small change in employee behaviour can have significant impact to your organizations competitiveness. Multiply the small change by the number of employees and then by time and the impact can be significant. The impact may be to slow the progress of those in the low risk group today from moving into the medium risk group.
Return on investment for corporate wellness initiatives can be staggering. Coors Brewing reported a return of $6.15 for every $1 spent and Citibank reported $4.52. The average of all companies surveyed was $4.30. That's a significant return.
So what kind of wellness initiative brings such large returns. Firstly, you cannot change everyone or everything. Programs should focus on the factors that can be easily affected. Programs should be activity based, simple, fun, private and rewarding. Add community involvement and you add another aspect to your program and your company's image.
In employee surveys 52% said they would participate in a program for a reward worth $150. The participation rate without incentives is 13%.
Often wellness programs try to measure the outcome of a program which is difficult and many employees view it as intrusive. What is more easily measured is adherence and through adherence will come results. We all know that the healthier the habits of a person, the better the results. If people exercise they will get healthier.
If your organization can provide opportunities to it's employees to live healthier and encourage them to grab the opportunities, you will see results like those mentioned above.
....
For more information about how your organization can realize the benefits of a Trail Running program, please contact tony@hittheroadrunning.com or visit corporatewellness.hittheroadrunning.com.
....
About The Author
Tony Denford is a certified personal trainer and owner or Hit the Road. He has been training primarily runners since 2002 and has worked with beginners all the way to Boston Qualifier Marathon runners.
Tony emphasizes balance and variety in his training methods and always tries to make sure his client’s fitness routines are fun as well as beneficial.
Visit www.hittheroadrunning.com for more details on Hit The Road’s programs and services.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
TIPS - Invest in technique, not in shoes
Once again a study is released which concludes that there is no correlation between the price of running shoes and their effectiveness at preventing injury. Many of you may have already heard me quoting earlier studies which came to the same conclusion.
So what is the secret to staying injury free?
There are several factors to this question including mileage, training intensity, rest intervals and training habits but nothing is more important than the actual technique of the runner. There are far too many programs out there that focus on covering a certain distance or running at a certain pace but not enough trainers are focusing on limiting the impact of running which we all know is the cause of almost all running related injuries.
If you've ever taken those expensive running shoes off and tried to run, you'll immediately find that you run very differently. No longer will you heel strike or step out in front of your centre of gravity, both would be too painful. What you will do is land in a more protective stance with your foot directly beneath you and much more on the ball of the foot.
There are a couple of major benefits to running this way when you put the shoes back on. Firstly it's your body's natural response to protect yourself from impact injuries. Secondly, as you are no longer landing on your heals, you are neutralizing the affect of pronation or supination (rolling of the foot throughout the motion of running). The benefit of having a neutral foot strike is that you are not putting additional stresses on your ankle, knee and hip joints by twisting to compensate for the jarring effect of a heal strike and again reducing your risk of injury.
At first it may seem like an unnatural way to run but once you work on increasing your cadence to compensate for the shorter stride, it will soon train your nervous system and become second nature.
The last concern is that by shortening your stride you will run slower but next time you're at a big race, watch the guys at the front. Most world class runners run at a cadence of 160-180 steps per minute. Their secret to running faster is to spend more time in the air and no-one has ever had an impact injury from being in the air.
Like my skydiving buddy once said, it's not the falling that will kill you, it's hitting the ground.
Run smooth.
About The Author
Tony Denford is a certified personal trainer and owner or Hit the Road. He has been training primarily runners since 2002 and has worked with beginners all the way to Boston Qualifier Marathon runners.
Tony emphasizes balance and variety in his training methods and always tries to make sure his client’s fitness routines are fun as well as beneficial.
Visit www.hittheroadrunning.com for more details on Hit The Road’s programs and services.
So what is the secret to staying injury free?
There are several factors to this question including mileage, training intensity, rest intervals and training habits but nothing is more important than the actual technique of the runner. There are far too many programs out there that focus on covering a certain distance or running at a certain pace but not enough trainers are focusing on limiting the impact of running which we all know is the cause of almost all running related injuries.
If you've ever taken those expensive running shoes off and tried to run, you'll immediately find that you run very differently. No longer will you heel strike or step out in front of your centre of gravity, both would be too painful. What you will do is land in a more protective stance with your foot directly beneath you and much more on the ball of the foot.
There are a couple of major benefits to running this way when you put the shoes back on. Firstly it's your body's natural response to protect yourself from impact injuries. Secondly, as you are no longer landing on your heals, you are neutralizing the affect of pronation or supination (rolling of the foot throughout the motion of running). The benefit of having a neutral foot strike is that you are not putting additional stresses on your ankle, knee and hip joints by twisting to compensate for the jarring effect of a heal strike and again reducing your risk of injury.
At first it may seem like an unnatural way to run but once you work on increasing your cadence to compensate for the shorter stride, it will soon train your nervous system and become second nature.
The last concern is that by shortening your stride you will run slower but next time you're at a big race, watch the guys at the front. Most world class runners run at a cadence of 160-180 steps per minute. Their secret to running faster is to spend more time in the air and no-one has ever had an impact injury from being in the air.
Like my skydiving buddy once said, it's not the falling that will kill you, it's hitting the ground.
Run smooth.
About The Author
Tony Denford is a certified personal trainer and owner or Hit the Road. He has been training primarily runners since 2002 and has worked with beginners all the way to Boston Qualifier Marathon runners.
Tony emphasizes balance and variety in his training methods and always tries to make sure his client’s fitness routines are fun as well as beneficial.
Visit www.hittheroadrunning.com for more details on Hit The Road’s programs and services.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Canada Food Guide
A lot of my clients have been asking about the new Canada's Food Guide and what changes have been made to it. It's been over 14 years since the guide was reviewed and the new guide, published by Health Canada, has made changes to be more specific for different areas of the population. The old guide had listed the number of servings for each food group but was not specific to the sex or age of those following the recommendations.
The guide now splits the population into children, teens and adults with further breakdown by age and sex. This allows a differentiation for the number of servings for a male teen versus a female over 51 for example.
As we age our dietary needs change and so our eating habits should also reflect the needs of the body to remain healthy. The new guide recommends adults over 51 consume more milk products to help combat the growing risk of osteoporosis.
As well as updating the number of servings, the new guide also has an easier to follow guide to serving sizes. In North America, we often have a skewed view of serving sizes so it's here that most people need to review the guidelines. I often hear people say "I can't possibly eat 10 servings of fruit or vegetables per day" but when you look at the amount in a serving, it's not usually that hard.
The new guide also has guidelines for being active, eating well, how to read nutrition labels and information about limiting trans and saturated fats.
For more information on the Canada food guide, visit http://healthcanada.gc.ca/foodguide or click here to view the guide in PDF format.
About The Author
Tony Denford is a certified personal trainer and owner or Hit the Road. He has been training primarily runners since 2002 and has worked with beginners all the way to Boston Qualifier Marathon runners.
Tony emphasizes balance and variety in his training methods and always tries to make sure his client’s fitness routines are fun as well as beneficial.
Visit www.hittheroadrunning.com for more details on Hit The Road’s programs and services.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Train for Overall Fitness
Training your muscles is easy. Just perform some exercises and they will get stronger. If you want to do some sport specific training then you tend to train the muscles associated with that sport. This part of training is easy and well know by almost everyone but have you ever considered what other things you could do to improve your performance as well as your general quality of life?
There are four primary components of fitness:
- Cardiovascular Ability - How efficient your heart and Lungs are,
- Muscular Ability - How strong your muscles are,
- Flexibility - How much range of motion your joints can perform,
- Body Composition - How much body fat you have.
There are also a number of secondary components that not only affect your health but the quality of life that you possess. These components include:
- Balance
- Coordination
- Agility
- Reaction time
- Speed
- Power and
- Mental Capacity.
Just like the primary components, the secondary components can also be trained and the principals are not that different. The SAID principal, which stands for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands, means that if you put any of these components beyond their normal range your body will adapt to the new demands in a very specific way.
So how do you train your balance? Put your body in out-of-balance situations like standing on one leg or try trail running on uneven surfaces. This will help your body's proprioception which is your brains method of understanding where your body is in space and your nervous systems ability to get your body back into balance. The more outside stimuli you can remove from your perception of your position, the more trained your nervous system becomes and increases it's ability to be able to react to falls or slips.
One additional thing you need to be aware of is the fact that the nervous system fatigues more quickly than your muscular system and takes longer to recover. So if you would usually take a days rest between muscular workouts, you should allow at least two days between balance, coordination, agility and reaction time workouts.
About The Author
Tony Denford is a certified personal trainer and owner or Hit the Road. He has been training primarily runners since 2002 and has worked with beginners all the way to Boston Qualifier Marathon runners.
Tony emphasizes balance and variety in his training methods and always tries to make sure his client’s fitness routines are fun as well as beneficial.
Visit www.hittheroadrunning.com for more details on Hit The Road’s programs and services.
There are four primary components of fitness:
- Cardiovascular Ability - How efficient your heart and Lungs are,
- Muscular Ability - How strong your muscles are,
- Flexibility - How much range of motion your joints can perform,
- Body Composition - How much body fat you have.
There are also a number of secondary components that not only affect your health but the quality of life that you possess. These components include:
- Balance
- Coordination
- Agility
- Reaction time
- Speed
- Power and
- Mental Capacity.
Just like the primary components, the secondary components can also be trained and the principals are not that different. The SAID principal, which stands for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands, means that if you put any of these components beyond their normal range your body will adapt to the new demands in a very specific way.
So how do you train your balance? Put your body in out-of-balance situations like standing on one leg or try trail running on uneven surfaces. This will help your body's proprioception which is your brains method of understanding where your body is in space and your nervous systems ability to get your body back into balance. The more outside stimuli you can remove from your perception of your position, the more trained your nervous system becomes and increases it's ability to be able to react to falls or slips.
One additional thing you need to be aware of is the fact that the nervous system fatigues more quickly than your muscular system and takes longer to recover. So if you would usually take a days rest between muscular workouts, you should allow at least two days between balance, coordination, agility and reaction time workouts.
About The Author
Tony Denford is a certified personal trainer and owner or Hit the Road. He has been training primarily runners since 2002 and has worked with beginners all the way to Boston Qualifier Marathon runners.
Tony emphasizes balance and variety in his training methods and always tries to make sure his client’s fitness routines are fun as well as beneficial.
Visit www.hittheroadrunning.com for more details on Hit The Road’s programs and services.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Get the most from your employees
North American society is getting sick. Every few days we hear reports of rising obesity rates, rising rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and stress. Walk into any office and you'll hear employees complaining about rising workloads or their employer taking advantage of them.
We all know that we need to eat better, exercise more and look after our health but the question is why so few people make it a priority.
Corporations have a legal responsibility to provide a safe workplace but also a social responsibility to provide a healthy workplace. If the only food available is chips and chocolate, I can guaranty that the employees will be eating it. If no opportunity is provided for employees to improve their health and fitness, chances
are they wont.
Employees feel they are working too hard, for too many hours and then spending too much time commuting. No wonder when they get home they don't think of making their fitness a priority. They are getting burned out and that's not good for them, their family, their employer, their community or society as a whole.
The cost of health care is also on the rise and our average age is rising so it's not going to get any better in the short term. Along with the rising cost of health care is the cost of insurance for employers.
The primary reason most employers do not provide any health programs to their employees is the perception that it will cost too much. Yes there may be an investment up front but money spent on corporate wellness pays dividends. Less sick time, more productive employees, lower health care premiums all easily pay for any up-front investment.
If employers want to get the most out of their employees they need to get creative with ways to encourage healthy lifestyles in their employees. Encourage your employees to take a walk at lunch by providing maps of walking routes for instance is an easy and cheep way to help your employees help themselves. Instead of offering donuts for meetings, offer something healthy.
Also employers should think beyond the easy little fixes as the benefits of a larger program would also be greater. Hit The Road...Running offers corporate running programs for beginners all the way to marathon runners. The programs run out of the companies office right after close of business and allows employees to take part before heading home. By building a corporate running team, employers can also get a lot of positive exposure at local races and events as well as around the neighbourhood where the business is located. Outfit your employees with t-shirts with your companies logo and you have an instant running billboard. Others will soon start to recognise that the employer values it's employees. The employees will have better communication and teamwork as well as a social aspect to their jobs which leads to better job satisfaction.
So how much will a program like this cost an employer? Very little; Most employers will just act as a host and allow the employees who are interested to pay for their own training. Just providing a meeting location will provide huge benefits to the employer. Other employers will opt to pay for the training as a benefit to employees but studies have found that when the employee pays for the training themselves, they tend to stick to it longer and get more out of it.
Want to add another major benefit? Try adding a charity component. Challenge your employees to run for your corporations favourite cause. The added commitment of fund raising often keeps people in the programs longer and gives them a sense of accomplishment. It also allows employers to benefit a good cause and meet their social responsibility.
Most people say that they would do more physical activity if it was more convenient so if your company can give people a program they want, when they want it the employees will jump at the opportunity and there's nothing for the employer to do but reap the benefits.
About The Author
Tony Denford is a certified personal trainer and owner or Hit the Road. He has been training primarily runners since 2002 and has worked with beginners all the way to Boston Qualifier Marathon runners.
Tony emphasizes balance and variety in his training methods and always tries to make sure his client’s fitness routines are fun as well as beneficial.
Visit www.hittheroadrunning.com for more details on Hit The Road’s programs and services.
We all know that we need to eat better, exercise more and look after our health but the question is why so few people make it a priority.
Corporations have a legal responsibility to provide a safe workplace but also a social responsibility to provide a healthy workplace. If the only food available is chips and chocolate, I can guaranty that the employees will be eating it. If no opportunity is provided for employees to improve their health and fitness, chances
are they wont.
Employees feel they are working too hard, for too many hours and then spending too much time commuting. No wonder when they get home they don't think of making their fitness a priority. They are getting burned out and that's not good for them, their family, their employer, their community or society as a whole.
The cost of health care is also on the rise and our average age is rising so it's not going to get any better in the short term. Along with the rising cost of health care is the cost of insurance for employers.
The primary reason most employers do not provide any health programs to their employees is the perception that it will cost too much. Yes there may be an investment up front but money spent on corporate wellness pays dividends. Less sick time, more productive employees, lower health care premiums all easily pay for any up-front investment.
If employers want to get the most out of their employees they need to get creative with ways to encourage healthy lifestyles in their employees. Encourage your employees to take a walk at lunch by providing maps of walking routes for instance is an easy and cheep way to help your employees help themselves. Instead of offering donuts for meetings, offer something healthy.
Also employers should think beyond the easy little fixes as the benefits of a larger program would also be greater. Hit The Road...Running offers corporate running programs for beginners all the way to marathon runners. The programs run out of the companies office right after close of business and allows employees to take part before heading home. By building a corporate running team, employers can also get a lot of positive exposure at local races and events as well as around the neighbourhood where the business is located. Outfit your employees with t-shirts with your companies logo and you have an instant running billboard. Others will soon start to recognise that the employer values it's employees. The employees will have better communication and teamwork as well as a social aspect to their jobs which leads to better job satisfaction.
So how much will a program like this cost an employer? Very little; Most employers will just act as a host and allow the employees who are interested to pay for their own training. Just providing a meeting location will provide huge benefits to the employer. Other employers will opt to pay for the training as a benefit to employees but studies have found that when the employee pays for the training themselves, they tend to stick to it longer and get more out of it.
Want to add another major benefit? Try adding a charity component. Challenge your employees to run for your corporations favourite cause. The added commitment of fund raising often keeps people in the programs longer and gives them a sense of accomplishment. It also allows employers to benefit a good cause and meet their social responsibility.
Most people say that they would do more physical activity if it was more convenient so if your company can give people a program they want, when they want it the employees will jump at the opportunity and there's nothing for the employer to do but reap the benefits.
About The Author
Tony Denford is a certified personal trainer and owner or Hit the Road. He has been training primarily runners since 2002 and has worked with beginners all the way to Boston Qualifier Marathon runners.
Tony emphasizes balance and variety in his training methods and always tries to make sure his client’s fitness routines are fun as well as beneficial.
Visit www.hittheroadrunning.com for more details on Hit The Road’s programs and services.
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