The District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) has been declared the fittest of the 50 largest cities in the  United States. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) using their American Fitness Index (TM)  AFI  has found that the overall health and fitness of Washington, D.C. ranks first nationally. The index is a composite which includes personal health information such as eating 5 fruits or vegetables daily, exercise regularly, non-smokers, and a variety of community level rankings. Available parkland, primary care providers, number of those insured all went into the community ranking. If the mayors of the U.S. were ranked for fitness it would be noted that Mayor Fenty would be among the fittest mayors in the country and D.C. would deserve bonus points for his efforts. He regularly participates in triathlons and marathons demonstrating to those in the city the significance and value of regular exercise. By swimming, running, and biking, Mayor Fenty shows that there is more than one way to get your workout in.

DC is previously held the number one position for the American Podiatric Medical Association and Prevention Magazine’s “Best Walking Cities”.

With the current epidemic of obesity and the resulting increase in chronic diseases, disability, and mortality, it is important for everyone who can to get the recommended amount of exercise and have healthy lifestyle habits. It is likely that one day many primary care providers will have multiple health consultants within their offices including perhaps a fitness consultant such as a certified trainer, nutritionist, and a motivator perhaps a psychologist to help with dietary and fitness lifestyle changes.

For more information on the ranking of cities and the programs supporting this undertaking visit: http://www.americanfitnessindex.org/

The ACSM is undertaking a push to have fitness and encouragement for lifestyle changes that dramatically lower the risk of chronic disease. The message is being delivered to the U.S. Congress, the President, and Health and Human Services. In addition to organizational messages, it is important that individuals contact their representatives to indicate how important they feel this is to decreasing healthcare costs and improving overall health.

In the upcoming days and weeks I will try to detail some of these issues and should have brief discussions of “sitting disease”, place a 5K beginners schedule online, a guide for beginning runner’s long run schedule for marathon training, and rationale for a program I call “Think, Stop, Think”. Think, Stop, Think is what we all should do. It is important to take a break from our daily work, particularly those with sitting down jobs and do something else. That something else is ideally exercise and movement. 30-50 minutes of moderate exercise 5 days per week will meet your requirements for aerobic exercise and is great for a mental break which refreshes in many ways. My fellow running friends and many exercise walkers already understand this.

The top 15 cities ranked by the AFI are:

1. Washington, DC
2. Minneapolis-St. Paul
3. Denver
4. Boston
5. San Francisco
6. Seattle, WA
7. Portland, OR
8. San Diego, CA
9. Austin, TX
10. Virginia Beach, VA
11. Hartford, CN
12. Sacramento, CA
13. San Jose, CA
14. Cincinnati, OH
15. Atlanta, GA

Each year the calendar starts afresh, but hangovers linger from the last year. What you are right now, you’ve been building to, or fallen to by virtue of what you’ve done over the last year. This holds for you as an individual, and for bigger things like the economy.

Many say it is not good to make resolutions at the start of the year. And it is true that most resolutions are broken. In fact, many may be broken before the sun sets at the end of the day, or within a week at best. But, this is a fine time for re-evaluation, for setting a plan, and for determining your goals. So off we go, we’ll set goals and not make any resolutions.

Goal Setting

This year then, rather than resolutions, we will be setting goals. Then we’ll go for those goals. If you don’t achieve them, re-evaluate and reset your goals. Evaluate your goals regularly and set up weekly and monthly reviews.

Goal setting is an excellent concept. Set near term, intermediate term and long term goals. You now have something to measure and chart and can observe your progress. Make certain to set short term, achievable goals also.  If you only set long term goals, you are likely to get discouraged and give up. Start now and set up achievable short term goals, so that when you accomplish them within the next 4 weeks you’ll be encouraged to continue.

In sports and fitness, this holds for both the experienced, well conditioned athlete, and for the lapsed out of shape, determined to come back one. It is important for both, but definitely more important for the out of condition athlete. The experienced athlete likely already has goals. The experienced, well conditioned athlete must be prepared to modify their goals based on daily and weekly changes that they need to carefully monitor. They must guard against injury, as in reality we all must do.

The beginning athlete, or those of you starting up, determined to whip yourselves into shape need to exercise caution and realistic goal setting. Your ideal, dream fitness accomplishments and body weight and composition can be a long term goal. Realistic improvement, changes in activity level by increasing 5-10% per week with drop backs every third week  can be a short term goal. Setting up a plan with a trainer, or following suggestions from the many helpful websites, books, and plans available can help you get started. Of course the usual caveat applies, if you have or have had a serious medical condition or if you are over 40 years old, have a physical before starting a vigorous physical fitness program. But realize that sitting on a couch watching tv, or sitting on a comfy chair surfing the web can also be dangerous activity.

As you start off the year, make plans to improve in all of what I call the 3 Pillars of Fitness: Cardiovascular (CV), Musculoskeletal (MS), and Physiological (PY).   There is overlap within these categories.

Goals 2009:

Cardiovascular Exercise:

Walking: Increase amount to ___________ steps per day. (Goal – minimum of 10,000)
Running: Weekly range _____ to ______ miles per week
Other: Elliptical

Racing: Event 5K, 10K, 10 mile, Half-marathon, Marathon, Ultra

Musculoskeletal (MS)

Setup a strength (resistance) training , conditioning, and a gentle stretching program to do at a gym or at home. You can use body resistance, dumbbells, combination free weight, or machines.

A certified trainer can help you get started. But don’t be ignorant of what they are doing. Learn the exercises, learn good form, learn how to modify your program. Check your budget, but at least get started and have a form check with a certified trainer. Make sure your trainer understands your medical conditions. Discuss your goals. If you have osteoporosis, osteopenia, and a history of stress fractures, you don’t want your trainer starting you off with jumps onto and off of high objects. If the trainer is aware of this and leads you down a dangerous and high impact path, for your medical condition, your best exercise will certainly be running. Running away. There are many good certified trainers around. Seek them out.

Physiological

Physical examination for evaluation of blood pressure, blood chemistry, lipid measurements, etc.

Make certain your blood pressure and cholesterol and lipids are at good levels. Make certain everything else that needs to be controlled, corrected also is acted upon.

Improve your diet.  Evaluate it thorougly and realistically. Determine to eat healthy 95%, if not 100% of the time. Follow a rationale and balanced plan. Avoid fads. Understand that caloric balance is the key to successful weight loss.

Set your goals for body weight and composition changes (fat loss, muscle gain, etc.) if needed. Short term, intermediate, and long term. Most authorities recommend losing 1 pound per week, with some allowing more than that for a limited time period. Start working on it immediately. You should have been working on this one already, but yes, most people do put weight on over the holidays. In fact, most put weight on, and more than the need over their lifetimes. All of these areas of fitness complement each other. By improving your cardiovascular fitness, getting aerobic exercise, and improving your muscular strength and fitness you’ll also be assisting your diet. In fact they are all connected. Eating properly will improve your workouts also.

Get Going Now

In short, now (and always) is a time to set goals, evaluate progress, and move ahead. Have hope and a plan for the future. Reach for it, run for it, train for it. Get there, where you should be!

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