• Featured Article - Five Ways to Spring into a Great Shape
• New Idea - Is it time to change your exercise routine?
• Employee Spotlight - Mandy Williams

A Note From Fran
Wow....is it really spring already. The winter has truly flown by this year (or I'm just getting to old to keep up with the time). Either way, I'm glad warmer weather is on its way.

We've been so busy over here at Aerobodies, you may not have noticed but we actually missed sending out our February edition of Healthy Reflections. Our apologies to our avid readers. So let us tell you what's been going on and why we've been so busy.

We have kicked off a new and fantastic new program called WalkitOffice. Walk it OFFice is the first city-wide health and fitness event dedicated to improving the health and well-being of countless employees within the legal profession. Aerobodies is actually launching this event with local media sponsors and will be giving a portion of the proceeds to charity! We're so excited and to read about it go visit the walkitoffice page and look for our blog in weeks to come.

Next on the list of new and exciting events is the featuring of yours truly (who me) as a featured columnist of the Washington Business Journal. Check out my latest column Equilibrium At Work - As long as it's under your roof. As I uncover the best secrets for creating your own inhome gym.

It's been a wild a crazy winter for the Aerobodies team and we've even added some new staff (read later in the Healthy Reflections news) so thanks for your readership and support. Let's all have a great season and spring into fitness action!!!

In love and good health,



Fran Dean Bishop, Award winning Coach and Trainer 
franb@aerobodiesfitness.com

• Set measurable, effective goals such as exercising every day for 15 to 30 minutes. As you get stronger increase your time and vary your training.
• Start with exercise that you enjoy. Instead of dreading the treadmill or recumbent bike, try something new. Take a hike. Take a rowing or dance class a few times a week. Go to a rock climbing center. Play a few rounds of tennis with a friend. Exercising with a friend can make it more fun for you.
• Add strength training to your exercise days. Choose 5 upper and 5 lower body exercises and do them diligently 3 times per week.
• Reduce calories. Skip dessert, your sweets or salty snacks for 2 days a week. Next increase the skip to 4 days then 5, until you reach your weight/size goals.
• Last but not least, enlist support! Having a coach, trainer or exercise buddy is a great way to stay motivated and accountable and keep you on your toes!

If you're just beginning an exercise program consult with your doctor and even if you've been exercising for a while, stop in for a check up to confirm your overall health and new lifestyle objectives you may want to reach. Exercise is a simple, healthy tool that you can use to stay healthy, look better and live longer.

Is it time to change your exercise routine?

Are you exercising without seeing real results? It may be due to one of three reasons: frequency, intensity and/or duration. One of these may need to be altered to reap real gains in strength, endurance, flexibility or to make your body more atheistically pleasing, i.e tightening and toning the unwanted sagging areas.

Changes must be made mindfully and safely. How? For instance, someone new to fitness and exercise should not make drastic changes to a program unless they are certain that they can physically handle the changes being made with no negative risks involved.

Sedentary and even moderate exercisers, depending on capabilities should adjust the fitness variables one at a time, so that the body can better adapt physically and handle the new training loads it encounters. So here are a few examples to help you better understand.

If you have been training for a few weeks by walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes three times a week, maybe try walking five times a week, or perhaps 45 minutes a couple of times per week, even adding a light jog if you're up to it. The more conditioned you are the safer it is to make more drastic changes to each variable or to change all variables at the same time. Elite athletes, in the weight room or on the field, need to make drastic changes often in order to continue making gains with their fitness and health levels.

Sticking with the same fitness routine for an extended period of time causes the body to plateau; therefore training the muscles is as simple for the body as walking. By not changing the workout every so often the body is not giving the energy systems a work out and this called a "plateau" in a person's work out.

When this happens, you stop seeing gains and that sometimes leads to ending exercise all together. All exercise routines, aerobic and anaerobic should be changed at least once every 90 days or when you feel your routine is no longer challenging. Don't be frustrated if these changes are hard to make at first, it's supposed to be challenging. If it weren't, everyone would do it.

So keep moving, have fun and go for it!

Mandy is a new member of the Aerobodies Fitness Team and will be heading up Program Management for the NASD on-site fitness center in Rockville, Maryland. Mandy is a graduate of Frostburg State University and is a former fitness site supervisor for Apple Computers in Austin, Texas. Mandy brings a passion for health, fitness and wellness to her new role as program manager. "I like to look for opportunities to teach people how to value their health and their lives. Fitness isn't a choice anymore, everyone needs to be healthy and committed towards improving their health."

Welcome aboard Mandy...we're pleased to have you as part of the Aerobodies Team!!!