The school year is right around the corner. Some Illinois students start next week and a lot of them start the following week. College students are making their preparations to go back to school and NFL training camps are in full operation. What does this all mean, The loose schedules for the summer are coming to an end. The routine that comes with getting the kids off to school, doing homework, and driving the kids to their after school activities will be starting. The word here is routine.

Leading a healthy and productive lifestyle requires a lot of  routine. With fall coming it is time to put your routines together. This should include at least one hour of exercise a day. If you can do something routinely for 6-8 weeks it becomes a habit. Start your healthy habits now, and get rid of the bad habits that come with summer i.e. eating too much at picnics, drinking too much, not getting enough sleep.

With fall coming, we will be starting our weekend workouts at Grass Lake School. Officially we start the weekend after Labor Day, on Saturday morning and Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. Many people have inquired about the workouts for their student athletes. If you have any questions, check our website kcconditioning.com, or contact us by e-mail at info@kcconditioning.com. We are holding adult classes on Monday and Wednsday nights at 7 p.m. at Colletti Physical Therapy, 543 Orchard St., Antioch, I. 60002, and on Friday mornings at 5:30 a.m. Be prepared for the fall and in great shape by the holidays.

The dog days of summer are here. The temperature and humidity is rising, the baseball races are starting to mean something, and football training camps are just around the corner. What does it all mean, fall sports are coming soon. Hopefully all of those who participated in summer sports and speed and agility camps will be able to showcase their new found skills. Our summer camps come to a close on Tuesday. This will give our athletes just enough time to recover from the strenuous rigors of their training. Just a few thoughts on recovery. It is an important phase of any workout program and should be part of any training program. Highly driven athletes often overlook the recovery phase of their workouts. Constant increases in workloads without any type of recovery can lead to overtraining syndrome. The symptoms are hard to recognize at first. People first feel they are out of shape and end up working harder only to find they are getting slower and weaker. Things to look out for: tired legs, difficulty sleeping, increased resting heart rate, irritability and anxiety. The cure is rest. Overtraining can be reversed quickly if caught early. It can take 6 months or greater to reverse if proper steps are not followed early. The lesson here is listen to your body and rest it when indicated. The end result, your performance will benefit from the proper work rest ratio. Rest is part of working out. Have a good week.

Persistence is the word for the week. We caught up with Carley, our figure contestant, this week. We performed her fourth assessment and the results were tremendous. Carley has lost 11 pounds since mid-January and close to 5% body fat. She is sporting six pack abs. and well defined arms and legs. Carley’s training has been tedious and the results have been slow to come. She has experienced doubt, disappointment, and the desire to give up. She doubted her workout program was right for her because the results weren’t immediate. She was disappointed in the slow results which made her want to give up at times. Fortunately, Carley didn’t give up and her persistence has paid off. The results have taken 7 months to appear. The lesson here is to believe in what you are doing, follow through and your persistence will pay off. Keep on working out. It will pay off in the long run.

Have a good week

We’re back on track. We finally caught up with Carley  earlier this week and performed a reassessment. The results were fantastic. Carley’s transformation is nearing completion and she knows it. She has lost 11 pounds overall and toned herself up completely from head to toe. Her body fat has dropped from over 19% to 15%. She is close to symmetrical throughout in her legs and arms. Carley shows confidence in herself by how she carries herself and her attitude. She is eager to hit the stage in a competition. The search for a competition continues.

Our goals for phase IV are pretty simple: improve posture, lose a little more weight, and finish off the legs. Her next workout for phase IV is being formulated at this time. The results for phase III were better than expected. Hopefully we’ll have some pictures up in the near future. Carley promises to keep in better touch with us. Check back with us next week to track Carley’s progress.