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VISITING THE PUMPKIN PATCH
As HuffPost.com puts it, “Pumpkin picking is the new kettlebells!” Jack-o’-lantern hunting in- cludes both walking and hefting weighty fruit, which means you’ll burn about 270 calories per hour tromping through the pumpkin patch.
LEAF PEEPING
It’s no secret that a brisk walk in the fresh air does a body good. If you can bring a friend along and make a point to search out beautiful fall leaves as you stroll, all the better! Increase your pace a bit to get your heart pumping and amp up the health benefits.
RAKING LEAVES
If you want to turn your activity up a notch to reach your fitness goals, look for Halloween or Thanksgiving fun runs planned in your area. These 5–10K dashes often pop up in the fall when the risk of heatstroke drops, and the themes guarantee a good time. If you’re lucky enough to have a run near you, grab a team, dress up, and sprint (or jog, or walk) your heart out. Who knows — fall might be your fittest season yet.
CORN MAZES
The fitness app MyFitnessPal calls raking leaves exercise, and who are we to argue with the ex- perts? According to its calculator, a 150-pound person who rakes for an hour will burn 272 calories, and that doesn’t count the calories you’ll burn while stuffing the leaves into bags and hauling them to the curb.
Wending your way through a corn maze or haunted house often means a lot of time on your feet, and there’s a good chance some- thing spooky will spur you to a sprint every once in a while. If you choose to explore the stalks, HuffPost.com claims you’ll burn more than 200 calories per hour.
Can Yoga Improve Your Basketball Game?
NBA Players Say Yes
really,” Love’s yoga instructor, Kent Katich, told STACK. As a former basketball player himself, Katich is intimately familiar with the sport and claims that even a couple of minutes of yoga can help in a pinch.
We all know that ballet is the secret behind many NFL players’ footwork skills, but did you know that yoga can offer similar game upgrades to basketball players? Fitness experts agree that if you’re trying to get better at shooting hoops, then you can benefit from regular yoga sessions. According to yoga instructor Karla Tafra, there are multiple payoffs to adding stretches like Crescent Lung, Tree Pose, Bridge Pose, and Warrior 2 to your exercise arsenal. “Basketball is extremely fast-paced, with lots of jumps, twists, turns, coordination, and sprints that take a huge toll on the joints and tendons,” Tafra told BodyBuilding.com. “Keeping them flexible and strong prevents injuries and aids recovery.” According to STACK, many of today’s top players are already well aware of the protective powers of yoga. NBA stars like Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, and LeBron James all regularly bend themselves into pretzels to improve their game. Love integrates an hour of yoga into his workouts two or three times each week.
“It’s not about doing an hour of yoga every day,” he said. “It’s about how you feel and what you need right now.”
Some yoga poses are known for building strength, while others can improve flexibility, ease sore muscles, elongate the spine, and even reduce stress. Combined into an hourlong practice over weeks, months, or years, these yoga poses can make a player lighter on their feet, quicker to duck or dive, more graceful with their reach, and more relaxed. If you’re still in doubt, take it straight from All-Star LeBron James, who has broken dozens of records on the court and is considered by many to be this generation’s greatest player.
James told The Plain Dealer, “Yoga isn’t just about the body; it’s also about the mind, and it’s a technique that has really helped me.”
“Yoga teaches stretching, strengthening, and breathing, and it helps you get in tune with your body. That helps in basketball, or in any sport,
2 • www.ThomasPhysicalTherapy.com
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