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Check me out at the FitcomXpo

I have some very exciting news to announce.  I'm going to be a featured fitness presenter at the 2008 FitcomXpo.  The event runs from March 25-27, and I'll be presenting on Thursday, March 27th, at 9AM est.  The topic of my presentation will be about what it takes to be successful in reaching your fitness goals.  The really neat thing about this event is that it's all done online.  You can attend a fitness conference in your pajamas! 

Besides me, there are all kinds of other top-notch fitness professional presenting at this conference; one of my mentors, Todd Durkin (the trainer for LaDainian Tomlinson and other NFL and MLB athletes), will be presenting on some very cool topics,  so be sure to check it out. 

When pregnant, is there an exercise line that shouldn’t be crossed?

Listen up guys; this isn’t just for the ladies.  People are always more successful at exercise if they have someone to help them stay on track, and as a husband, your wife is going to need your support through these rough nine months.  I’ve always told my wife that when we decide to become pregnant … I mean when she becomes pregnant, I want to make sure that she stays active before, during, and after her pregnancy.

I almost feel obligated to talk about this topic with so many of my friends being pregnant right now.  It seems that every other day, my wife and I are learning of a new couple that is pregnant.  I’m always leery of talking to them about exercise because there are areas you need to be careful with when exercising while pregnant, but if you follow the right game plan, exercising while pregnant can be very beneficial.

Having trained clients through all stages of before pregnancy, during pregnancy (prenatal), and after pregnancy (postnatal), it can be a chore to keep adapting a fitness program to meet the needs of the expectant mother, and sometimes, just being able to ride a stationary bike is a successful workout.

As an expectant mother, or a couple who is getting ready to try for a baby, it’s essential that you consult with your doctor before beginning an exercise program.  There are all kinds of changes that will happen in nine months.  In fact, during those nine months, a woman will go through more changes than a man will most likely go through in a lifetime. ⁴  Your doctor will know the right steps to take in managing your pregnancy with exercise.

Ok, before I go too in depth with this topic, I want to let you know how I’m going to set it up.  I’ll start out talking about the precautions to take when exercising while pregnant, and then I’ll finish up with the benefits of exercise.

So here we go.

Exercising while pregnant can definitely be very beneficial, but there are also precautions that should be taken.  A big precaution is if you haven’t exercised in the past, then it’s not very wise to start exercising heavily right before or during pregnancy.  Your body already has enough new stresses on it, and to throw another new stress at it is not the best thing.

As a pregnant exerciser, you should avoid exercises that require you to exercise on your back for an extended period of time; the weight of the baby can press wrong and cut off the flow of oxygen and blood to the fetus. ²  Pregnant exercisers should also avoid exercising in hot and humid conditions because a body temperature above 100° F can be harmful to the baby.

A few other things to watch out for are to avoid any twisting movements, jumping movements, exercises that require balance, or exercises, such as basketball, that include flying objects; these types of exercises present the risk of trauma to the baby.  Always be careful with balance movements; pregnancy changes a woman’s center of gravity, so although you may have had good balance before pregnancy, chances are your balance will be off during pregnancy. ⁵

During pregnancy, the hormone relaxin is released; this hormone causes the joints to become looser, so it’s also smart to be cautious when stretching.  You don’t want to overstretch, and you also don’t want to participate in activities that require a lot of changes in direction.  Not only will quick changes in directions make you dizzy (due to lack of blood flow to the brain), there’s also a risk of muscle tears or other similar injury due to the joints being looser. ⁶

Ok, so now that we’ve gotten the depressing part out of the way, let’s talk about why exercise can be great during pregnancy.

According to the American Council on Exercise, the average woman gains 30 lbs. while pregnant (1-2 lbs. per week during the second trimester ²), and of those 30 lbs., 18-20 lbs. of it can be lost within the first month after giving birth. ³  This leads me to my first point.  Exercising while pregnant can be great for maintaining a healthy weight during pregnancy, as well as aiding in the weight coming off faster after pregnancy.

Another huge area with weight control and pregnancy is nutrition.  Pregnant exercisers only need an additional 300 calories per day to support their own body, as well as the baby’s. ²  This just goes to show that blaming pregnancy for needing to constantly eat is not true.  I know I’m walking a fine line right now, but hear me out.  Since the body only needs an extra 300 calories per day, eating more than that can lead to abnormal amounts of excess weight gain, and as a result, a woman may never recover back to her prenatal weight.  For a pregnant mom, if weight control is a priority during and after pregnancy, a workout plan that includes proper nutrition and exercise will be the best approach.  Keep in mind though, it’s normal to gain 30 lbs. while pregnant.

Other benefits of exercising are it helps prevent swelling of the hands and feet, leg cramps, varicose veins, insomnia, fatigue, constipation, gestational diabetes, and bloating.  It also leads to a better mood, improved posture, improved circulation, reduced backaches, reduced pelvic and rectal pressure, improved muscle tone, and more energy. ¹

A big plus to exercising is that it can improve your strength and endurance, which will help make labor and delivery that much easier. ⁵

When starting an exercise program, it’s always smart to eat a little carbohydrate snack before your workout, as well as to drink water before, during, and after exercise.  When I have a client that becomes sick during a workout, the first thing I ask is if he/she ate or drank anything prior to working out; most of the time, the answer is no.

Three to four times per week is the perfect amount of days to exercise because anything above or below that can lead to babies with low birth weight. ²  Remember, if you didn’t exercise before pregnancy, you’ll want to start out slow and progress gradually.

For those who have been exercising for a while, be prepared to cut back the intensity of your workouts.  You may be able to run before pregnancy, but as you progress in trimesters, you may need to cut your mileage back to an eventual walk.  The most important thing to remember is not to push yourself to exhaustion.  Since a baby is growing inside you, this means that different areas of your body are being pushed together.  The result is the lungs can’t expand as much, so you’ll become fatigued a lot more quickly.  Be prepared for this, and don’t try to work through the feeling of exhaustion.

Rather than measuring heart rate, the best way to determine the intensity of exercise is to rate how hard it is.  Try to stay around a 4-5 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being extremely hard. ²  A good indicator of intensity is if you can’t talk while exercising, you’re going too hard.

As I said earlier, you want to stop exercising before becoming fatigued.  Generally, 30-40 minutes is plenty of time to exercise, but for some, you may be in pretty good shape and able to go longer. ²  Listen to your body; if you feel weird while exercising, stop and check with your doctor.  Any unusual symptom such as contractions, abnormal fatigue, dizziness, bleeding, leaking, numbness, swelling, abnormal pain, etc. is a sign to stop immediately and contact your doctor; pregnancy is not the time to be an exercise warrior.  Though exercise is beneficial, the safety of yourself and your baby is much more important than pushing through the pain to burn off a few more calories.

When designing a workout program, always include a proper warm-up and cool-down that includes mild cardiovascular exercise, as well as some light stretching.  If you remember my article on foam rolling, you remember that foam rolling can be a great addition to a stretching program.  I had one client that during her third trimester, foam rolling was one of the only things she could do.  It really paid off for her and helped reduce her calf cramps.  Some stretches to focus on are stretches for your hip, low back, shoulder, and neck areas. ¹ If you want some different stretches, either contact me, or your doctor would probably have some handouts with different stretches on them.

A few more things to think about when designing a workout program, don’t be afraid to walk or swim.  For some, walking may be the only thing you’re able to do; that’s fine.  Walking is a great cardio exercise while pregnant.  Make sure you walk on a flat, even surface and wear comfortable shoes. ⁷  Swimming, on the other hand, is a great exercise because it’s non-weight bearing; it’ll provide you with a great cardio workout while relieving the different stresses and pressures on your body. ¹

With strength training, remember to breathe out when contracting your muscles to move the weight.  Also, during the third trimester, machines will most likely be the best option for resistance training. ²  Strength training is great during pregnancy, but don’t overdo it.  Some days may be harder than others to exercise, so make sure you pace yourself; you may need to take longer-than-normal breaks in between exercises.  That’s ok!  Also, focus on quality over quantity.  Shoot for about 2-3 sets of 15 repetitions, but if your form starts to break down, don’t continue.  This can be said for anybody, but continuing with bad form can actually do more harm than good.
 
Finally, keeping you core strong is essential for pregnancy. ⁵  Having a strong inner core will help with labor and delivery, and after pregnancy, to put it bluntly, your core will be shot, so it’s important to strengthen it back up.  All those inner core exercises I've been demonstrating lately, they’re perfect for this area.  (Always remember to keep breathing through your exercises too.)

There are different pelvic floor muscle exercises you’ll need to do too; talk with your doctor to obtain these exercises, or ask me, and I can provide them for you.  These exercises are especially important to prepare the body for giving birth, as well as helping with the recovery process.  (It’s important to allow for about 6 weeks, after giving birth, before returning to exercise. As always, your doctor will help you determine when it’s ok to exercise again.)

As you can see, exercising while pregnant can be great for you, as well as your baby, but like I said before, always talk with your doctor first before starting an exercise program during pregnancy.  Also, if you have a personal trainer or other fitness professional, make sure he/she is in constant communication with your doctor.  Keeping the lines of communication open will not only keep you and the baby safe, it’ll also help build a level of trust between your doctor and your trainer.

Note: Foam rolling the inside of the calf muscle can cause premature contractions, while foam rolling the outside of the calf muscle is fine.

References:

¹ American Council on Exercise (2001). Exercise and pregnancy. Fit Facts.
² Drake, S. (2003). Exercise training to prevent excess weight gain during pregnancy. ACSM’s Certified News, 13(1), 1-3.
³ American Council on Exercise (2001). Postpartum health. Fit Facts.
⁴ Druxman, L. & Petersen, C. (2006). Postpartum exercise. Idea Fitness Journal, Nov-Dec.
⁵ Logan, C. (2006). Pregnancy and postpartum exercise. Idea Fitness Journal, Feb.
⁶ American Council on Exercise (2003). ACE personal trainer manual: The ultimate resource for fitness professionals, (3^rd ed). San Diego, Ca.: American Council on Exercise.

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Ab Bridge on a Stability Ball

Boston's a no go

It just wasn't my day on Sunday.  I don't know what it was, but my legs just decided to not work on that day.  From the start of the marathon, I didn't feel right.  The most frustrating part was I trained better in my workouts than I did in the actual race. 

At about the half-marathon point, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to maintain the right pace to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  The good thing was the marathon was a mile loop, so I stopped and talked with my family, and even walked some with them.  I was going to just drop out, but I decided that I needed to finish what I started.  That last half was a nightmare.  Pretty much every muscle from the waist down was cramping up on me; my left calf even cramped up completely.  I don't know how many of you have ever had a muscle cramp, but it's not fun at all.  I had to stop and stretch it out, and after that, I couldn't run normally anymore because if I put too much pressure on that muscle, it would cramp again. 

Here's a picture of me.

Though I was very frustrated (frustrated because I just trained 5 months for this stinkin' race) that I didn't perform how I should have, the one thing that kept me going was having watched the TV coverage of the Ironman the day before.  There was one guy who had finished 3rd or 4th the year before, but this past year, his legs just wouldn't work for him.  Even though he had to stop and walk, he still finished.  (Those TV races are so motivating to me.)  That's how I felt; I owed it to myself and my family, who came to watch, to finish.

I was pretty upset after finishing, and I asked myself why I even run marathons.  I said I was done running for a while and would never try to qualify for Boston again, but for some odd reason, I couldn't sleep last night because I kept thinking about trying to qualify again ... I'm so messed up; it's Tuesday now, and I can still barely walk. 

I don't think it was a good day for a lot of runners.  I heard of one guy who has been trying to qualify for Boston for something like 8 times now; he ended up dropping out.  It seemed like not qualifying for Boston was what a lot were saying after the race.

The one positive that came out of not qualifying was at least I don't need to spend the money to go to Boston anymore.

I have to thank my family for being there though.  It was great to have their support and to have someone there to walk and run beside me when I needed it. 

Give your abs a fighting chance

Have you ever noticed how so many people doing crunches never get the abs they want?  Why is that?  There’s really a lot that determines how easy it is for your abs to be defined, everything from genetics to proper nutrition, but there’s one thing that a lot of people don’t think of.  It’s called optimal length-tension relationship.

Length-tension relationship deals with the force a muscle can produce at a certain length.  Try this exercise.  Bring your right knee to your chest and try to squeeze your right butt check.  What happens?  You can’t.  Now try this.  After bringing your knee to your chest and squeezing, straighten that same leg out so that you’re back to standing on both feet.  Try and squeeze the right side again.  Now you’re able to tighten the muscle just fine.  Why is that?  It’s because when you bring your right knee to your chest, your right butt muscle is stretched out.  When you bring your foot back down to the ground, the muscle is shortened again, meaning it’s at a better length to provide force and squeeze.

This same principle applies to all the muscles throughout your body, so when looking at the abs, there’s an optimal length that will allow your abdominal muscles to contract or tighten properly, giving you the “six-pack” definition you want.  Now keep in mind, as I said earlier, there are multiple factors that determine abdominal definition; this is just one of those factors.

So how do you know if your abs are at the optimal length to provide the right amount of tension during your ab workouts?  Remember, the right amount of tension in your workouts will lead to the muscles developing faster and becoming more defined.

There are a few muscles that can contribute to a length-tension problem in your abs.  The two most common are your low back muscles and your hip flexors.  To make this a little simpler, I want to look at the core area.  Your abdominal muscles, hip flexors, and low back muscle all connect relatively in the same area.  The hip flexors and abs connect to the front of your pelvis, and the low back muscles connect to the back of your pelvis.  If your hip flexors or low back muscles are extra tight, your whole pelvis can shift forward, causing a lot of posture problems.  For example, a person with their pelvis tilted forward walks with their butt sticking out, and a person with their pelvis tilted back walks as if they’re sore from riding a horse.

If you sit down, squeeze your groin area, and lift your leg off the chair; you’ll feel your hip flexors.  Like I said, they run from your spine and the front of your pelvis to your leg, and when tight, they tilt the pelvis forward.  The low back muscles, if you remember, connect to the back of the pelvis, and when tight, they also tilt the pelvis forward.  So what does this have to do with a six-pack?  As you know, the abs also connect to the pelvis, so if the pelvis is tilted forward, the abs are stretched out too much.  This means they aren’t at an optimal length to contract.

Going back to the knee to chest example, a lengthened butt muscle means the butt can’t be squeezed together properly, just as lengthened abs can’t.  This means when doing abdominal exercises, if you have a tight low back or hip flexors, your abs won’t have enough tension in them to properly develop.  A great indicator of tight hip flexors or a low back is when you do crunches, do you feel it in your hip flexors or low back?  If you do, then that means your abs aren’t strong enough to handle the work, so they’re calling on these other muscles to assist.  If these other muscles are doing most of the work, then they’re being overworked, and this’ll lead to tight hip flexors and low back muscles.

If you have this problem, my suggestion is to ease up on the amount of abdominal exercises you’re doing.  Three sets of 15-20 reps is plenty for an abdominal exercise; anything over that can lead to overtraining your abs, which in turn can lead to a tight low back and hip flexors.  Another thing to do is stretch and foam roll your low back and hip flexors.  Here’s how you do that.  By doing all this, you can help prevent your posture from being out of whack, and your abs will be at a better length to develop properly.

Like I said at the start, this concept applies to all muscles.  If you want to develop your chest more, make sure your upper back and shoulders aren’t too weak.  A weak upper back and shoulder area leads to slouching (common with people who are always bent over a desk), and slouching leads to the shoulders being drawn in and the chest becoming too tight.  If the chest is too tight, you won’t be able to develop it properly.

So like I said, this applies to all areas of the body.  Whatever muscle group you’re trying to improve, stop and think before you continue working on it.  Make sure that your posture supports the development of it.  If not, then correct it.  As you’ve probably figured out, this can be very complicated; that’s why it’s not a bad idea to consult with a personal trainer or other fitness professional.  Hopefully though, you can apply these simple tips and have better success with your fitness program as a result.

Valentine's Day and stress

I know you're probably sick of hearing it by now, but Happy Valentine's Day!  I just got back from my wife's classroom where a gave her a bouquet of red roses.  It was really cute to see how excited she was, not to mention her little students.  I know Valentine's Day comes with mixed emotions for some; for me, Valentine's Day, as well as our anniversary, is a great day to celebrate our years together, but I try to not just let these two days be the only days I show my affection and love to my wife.  You wanna know why?  

As much as I appreciate Valentine's Day, I feel there's more to showing love than just one or two days out of the year.  Love and affection can be showed in all kinds of ways.  In fact, for those of you that are single, you don't even need Valentine's Day.  For me, doing the dishes or rubbing my wife's feet after a long day of work is perfect for showing her that I love her.  Although Valentine's Day has become so commercialized with diamond necklaces, flowers, and chocolates, don't let this be the only day you show affection to someone.  In fact, I'd dare to say that even though my wife loved my surprise in her classroom, she loves even more the little things I do for her throughout the entire year.

Tonight my wife Amber and I are going to my brother's college basketball game.  All kinds of my family are going to be there, and even though I already have a lovely wife, I can still show how much I care for my brother, sister, parents, grandparents, and other family and friends.  Did you know that showing affection is actually good for your health?  I'm not just talking about the affection I would show to my wife, if you know what I mean, I'm talking about the affection I can show friends and family to let them know that I value them in my life.

Showing signs of affection has actually been shown to reduce stress.

Now I'm not saying go out and hug everyone you see (use common sense), but by showing some people you really care about them not only can be good for them, but it can also be good for you.

Here's to good health on Valentine's Day!

Something different: Crunches on an exercise step

When too much is too much: Recognizing the signs of overtraining

This is a topic that I really need to be careful with.  Why’s that?  I can just see people reading this article, blaming their exercise struggles on overtraining, and deciding to take a break from working out when they weren’t overtraining in the first place!

I want to start off by saying that I’ve only dealt with cases of overtraining on a few instances; one was actually with me.  Last year I started training for a marathon way too intensely, and I had to take a break because of the result; I’ll get into that later.

I also had a client who was working out nearly every day, and I could tell that it was starting to affect him negatively.  So what did I do?  I blocked his card access to the gym.  It really was a pretty funny story because he had become so accustomed to exercise being a part of his every day routine that he didn’t know what to do with himself on the few days off.  I had to block his access because I knew he’d try and sneak in when I wasn’t there.

Why’d I choose to write this article?  Someone asked me about it; it’s that simple.  See I told you; if you ever want me to write about a certain topic, let me know, and I’ll do it.

What is overtraining, and how can you recognize the signs of it?  Well first off, overtraining is not leaving a workout drenched in sweat.  That’s called good training.  I wish more people would take working out seriously and not turn it into a social hour.  (That’s beside the point though.)  Well done you serious workout people!  Well done!

Overtraining is actually when we workout so hard and for so long that our bodies actually start to breakdown at a faster rate than they can recover and build back up.  You may have also heard it called burnout.  How can you recognize overtraining?  Overtraining can cause a list of problems.¹

1.    Change in appetite (You either don’t ever feel like eating or you’re always hungry.)
2.    Poor sleep
3.    Injury
4.    Constant feeling of aching muscles
5.    Can’t get over being sick
6.    Quality of workouts is poor

And the three big ones …

1.    Irritable mood
2.    Lack of motivation to work out
3.    Constant fatigue

Another, more technical sign is an increase in resting heart rate, but this is hard for a lot of people to realize since they didn’t know their resting heart rate when they first started their workout program.

Now we know the signs, but how do we know what causes overtraining/burnout?  One of the big causes is lack of program variation.  Your body is just like anything else, it gets tired of doing the same old thing.  By changing up your workout routine, you’re constantly throwing new things at your body and causing it to have to adapt to the new change.

Now this next one kind of goes hand in hand with program variation; it’s intensity.  As I said earlier, overtraining is when we’re working so hard for such a long period of time that our bodies are unable to keep up.  Program variation doesn’t just mean doing a few weeks of endurance weight training followed by a few weeks of strength weight training.  (See my article on program structure.)  No, program variation also deals with the overall pace of your exercise program.  There has to be a week or so in your program that’s dedicated to recovery; that means you have to have a week where you take it easy and allow your body to reenergize itself.  You also can’t start a program coming out of the gate with tunnel vision.  You have to see the big picture of your program.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “weekend warrior”.  The “weekend warrior” is the person who doesn’t exercise much during the week, but when the weekend rolls around, he exercises as if he were still on his college football team.  The same applies to your overall program.  Maybe you’re not a weekend warrior; instead, maybe you exercise throughout the week, but you’ve been going so hard from the start that you’re starting to get worn down.

With the example with me, when I started training for my first marathon, I got started with my training a little late.  Normally, I’d like to have about 18 weeks to properly train.  Well, it wasn’t until I was motivated by Floyd Landis in the Tour de France (before we knew about the whole doping incident) that I decided to train for this marathon.  The problem was, Floyd didn’t have that unbelievable day of biking until the end of July, and that left me with only 12 weeks to train.  I started really late, but to compensate, I tried to speed up my training to get on pace with where I should’ve been with 12 weeks of training left.  What happened was I started to hate running.  I didn’t want to go outside on a beautiful summer day and get my training in.  I had to hit myself upside the head and tell myself I was overtraining.  What’d I do?  I stopped.  I completely took off a half a week of running, and you know what?  When I came back, I felt so refreshed and was fine from then on.

If you feel this way, please do your body, your mind, your soul, your family, and your friends a favor.  Take some time off!  With that client of mine, he was in a rut with weight loss.  I had him completely take a few days off, and he was fine after that.

Hopefully you don’t get to the point where you have to completely stop.  If you structure your program to allow for a week here and there of lighter exercise, along with varying the different phases of your program (again, it’s in the program structure article), you shouldn’t ever have to get to the point of having to take some time off.  The key is gradual increases in intensity.  Don’t do what I did.  Gradually work your body into a workout program; don’t come into your program going all out.  Take some time for your body to adapt to your new exercise routine.

Here’s another big thing … 45 minutes to an hour is plenty of time for exercise.  If you stay completely focused throughout your entire workout, 45 minutes of cardio and resistance training combined is plenty.  If you’re one of those social people, an hour is fine.

Now don’t take this the wrong way.  Don’t go into your workout saying, “Well Dan said 45 minutes, so I’ll go get a drink, then I’ll go see how Gary’s doing, then I’ll workout, then I’ll ask Christy about her job, and that should be about 45 minutes.”  Also, don’t use overtraining as an excuse to not work hard.  Don’t get me wrong, you should still be working hard, just don’t kill yourself day in and day out.  Give your body a day to recover.  If you workout 3 days a week, try and do it every other day.  If you workout 5 days a week, try and alternate between hard and easier days and upper body and lower body days.

If you’re working out for over an hour, you’re most likely doing too much.  There’s a point where your body will start to break down if it’s worked too hard in a workout.  In other words, exercise over an hour will most likely lead to too much muscle being burnt off for energy (especially if you haven’t eaten anything before your workout), which means that it’s actually counterproductive to work out that long.

Remember the big indicators of overtraining.  If you’re starting to experience any of them, it doesn’t have to be all of them, I’d suggest taking a break.  Also, pace yourself; don’t try and set any records the first day, and keep your workouts short but effective.  With this game plan, you’ll give your body a better chance of staying fit and injury-free.

¹American Council on Exercise (2003). ACE personal trainer manual: The ultimate resource for fitness professionals, (3^rd ed). San Diego, Ca.: American Council on Exercise.

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Steps to take in overcoming the "winter blues"

Winter is a great time of year to hit the slopes and ice rinks, but it's also a contributing factor to that feeling of laziness or hopelessness we can feel from time to time.  A study done Gavin Lambert of the Baker Research Institute shows that sunny days indeed play a role in our mood and energy levels. 

The study found that sunny days lead to more serotonin, the brain's natural antidepressant, being released; increased levels of serotonin lead to increases in our mood.  With winter being such a cloudy season in most parts of the country, my great state of Ohio being one of the worst year-round, it's no wonder "winter blues" is such a common used phrase around this time of year.

Well, good news head hangers!  Exercise is a great way to rev our spirits up and get out the door while whistling our favorite tune.  Don't believe me?  Exercise can give us a great confidence because we're out there doing something to make ourselves look and feel better.  It's a great way to meet new faces, relieve the stresses of the day, improve sleep, and help us forget the things that bring us down.  Why?  Well guess what?  Remember that little hormone called serotonin?  Exercise also helps increase it! 

So why not give exercise a shot.  The effects of an exercise session not only last throughout the next few days, but they can also last a lifetime.  Now's a great time to pick up a new winter hobby, or maybe you already know how to do some of these:

1. Skiing
2. Snowboarding
3. Ice skating
4. Sledding
5. Cross country skiing
6. Winter races
7. Ice hockey
8. Walking the mall (Many malls allow walkers to use the center part, even when the stores are closed.)
9. Building a snowman or snow fort (If you've ever done it, you know how hard it is to build a serious one!)
10. Tackle football in the snow (This is one of my favorites.)
11. Going on a hike (My wife and I just did this when it snowed; it was so pretty to see everything snow-covered.)

These are just some ideas, Active.com is a great site for other ideas and events going on in your area, and if you don't like any of those, there's always online fitness training with Your LiveTrainers. (You knew I had to throw that in there.)