Of course you know that regular exercise is good for you. That it lowers your risk of diseases such as heart disease, some kinds of cancer, type 2 diabetes (noninsulin-dependent diabetes) and osteoporosis. That it tones your muscles, improves your posture and makes it easier to maintain a healthy weight. You might even know that good exercise habits can help school-age kids get better grades and help seniors stay more mobile, and that they can brighten your mood, reduce anxiety and increase energy levels.

In spite of all that, though, you might not be exercising regularly because the promise of future health benefits just isn’t enough to motivate you to action now.

But what if fitness was a fun, social outing as well? Or if there was an intriguing goal to achieve or even the possibility of financial gain? Now those can all make fitness worth getting up and out for, right?

These three unique fitness programs prove that, regardless of your age or fitness level, there’s a great reason to exercise – apart from the health benefits that you’ll get as a bonus. So read on, and make working out work for you. (Remember to consult a physician before undertaking any new exercise program.)

Run, Swim or
Ride Across Canada

In the hallway of Reynolds Central School in Melfort, Sask., a big map of Canada charts the progress of a runner who’s on a virtual trek across Canada. In fact, the runner represents the students of the school (kindergarten through Grade 6), who are on one big team, attempting to run the distance from St. John’s, Nfld., to Vancouver as part of an online program called the Canadian Cross Country Fitness Challenge.

How does it work? Each student runs five laps before gym class every day. Those laps are recorded and added together, then calculated into kilometres for a weekly grand total. Then students log on to the Web site www.c2cfit.com and input the school’s most-recent mileage (if everyone’s at school and running, that adds up to 44 kilometres a day!). The online map shows the school’s progress, and students put the same information on the map displayed in the hallway of the school to keep everyone involved. By April the 200 students had virtually run across Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia and were partway through Quebec.

Lee Downer, a YMCA fitness counsellor in Toronto, developed the Canadian Cross Country Fitness Challenge as a personal challenge – he wanted to virtually walk, bike or run the 10,529 kilometres across Canada. When friends and other people showed interest and started signing up, Downer decided to invite all Canadians to take part for a small fee. Here’s why the Canadian Cross Country Fitness Challenge works for adults and kids.

• It’s a form of techno-entertainment. The program weaves computers and the Internet together with physical education, math and social studies, says Mariette Baker-McDermid, the principal of Reynolds Central School.
  
• It’s affordable. Generally, elementary-school students are charged $1 each. High-school students are encouraged to form teams of up to five for an annual fee of $32.10 per team. Adults pay $37.45 each, while a family pays $75. Membership provides participants with private online maps that chart their progress and links to areas of interest. Certificates and winners are included in the soon-to-be-published Canadian Cross Country Fitness Challenge Achievers Book.
  
• Participants get to discover Canada. The Canadian Cross Country Fitness Challenge Web site links to provincial tourist sites as well as virtual tours of cities along the route. For example, at the 1,240-kilometre mark, you can link to Halifax and learn about its history, commerce and places of interest. “It’s a great way to learn about new places,” says Jamie Ferguson, a Grade 5 student.
  
• It’s about doing – not winning or losing. For some kids, this could be the only team they get on, says Baker-McDermid.
  
• The regular activity helps develop skills for other activities. Student Hannah Stevenson says, “You get better at long-distance running and sprinting.” Another student says that it gets him in shape for hockey.
  
• Anything goes. While students from the school decided to run laps, participants can do any type of fitness activity – such as walking, biking, swimming or rowing – to get across Canada.
  
• It provides a link to fabulous role models. The Canadian Cross Country Fitness Challenge participants can post questions on the Web site to Olympic athletes, including swimmer Alex Baumann and cyclist and speed skater Clara Hughes.
  
• It provides a feeling of ownership. The challenge is hands-on, especially for the Grade 5 students at Reynolds, who are learning about Canada for social studies and who do all the math and upload weekly distances onto the Web site.

Get Fit – and Go for
the Jackpot

Less than two years ago, Marg Unger was so out of shape she could hardly make it up a flight of stairs. The 49-year-old wife and mother, who lives just outside Grande Prairie, Alta., was very overweight and had bad knees, high blood pressure, low energy and a poor self-image. Fed up with fad diets, Marg signed up with a friend for the Fit ’N Firm Challenge www.fitnfirm.ca, a program that offers a healthy approach to exercise and eating; as an added incentive, she joined the Grande Prairie Challenge, which had an entry fee of $135 and featured thousands of dollars in prize money. To date, Marg hasn’t won any money, but she’s a winner nonetheless: she goes to the gym for two hours every day and has lost 60 pounds.

The Fit ’N Firm Challenge was started by Laura Hancharuk, a fitness consultant at the Be Fit for Life Centre at Grande Prairie Regional College. She saw the need for safe and practical knowledge about fitness and health and, along with creating a supportive group structure for participants, discovered that cash rewards worked a little magic, too.

How does it work? Participants exercise (at home or a fitness centre); some diet on their own and compete with others to see who makes the biggest changes in body measurements. (At the beginning of the program, their weight, fat and muscle content, and resting heart rate are measured.) Participants receive an information package and are invited to seminars designed to support their fitness efforts. The seminars include “How to Get Started with Exercise and Weight Loss,” “How to Design a Home Exercise Program,” and “Nutrition for Health and Fitness.” At the end of the challenge (it currently runs between 14 and 16 weeks), participants have their measurements taken again and are awarded points for positive changes to determine the winners.

The first year, 144 participants competed for $7,200 (split between top male and female competitors in two age categories). This year, the third Grande Prairie Challenge has more people and more than double the prize money. There are also separate challenges in Edmonton; Red Deer, Alta.; Lethbridge, Alta.; Medicine Hat, Alta.; and Calgary. What are the keys to its success for participants?

• It provides sensible information about getting healthy and dieting. In one seminar, for example, participants examine their source of weight gain. First, you have to want to make a change, says Hancharuk. Second, knowing why you gained weight (or can’t lose it) puts you on the road to doing something about it.
  
• Participants choose the type of fitness that works for them. For example, exercising at home didn’t work for Marg, so she joined a fitness club and hired a personal trainer. On the other hand, Marianne Hartman, 48, a third-prize winner in one of the challenges, found that exercising at home on her treadmill worked really well. The aim is to find an activity that you enjoy. It can be social (join a club, organize a neighbourhood walking group), competitive (team sports) or just plain fun (bike rides with the family).
  
• It provides role models. Past winners share strategies on losing weight and getting fit at seminars. Devonne Norman, a 44-year-old lawyer, says the challenge helped her make healthy lifestyle changes in terms of regular fitness and healthy eating habits. “The changes don’t have to be drastic or difficult,” she stresses. “Moderation – not abstinence – is the key to success.”
  
• Participants track their achievements. Some people use the scale; other participants of the Fit ’N Firm Challenge have their measurements checked partway through, says Hancharuk. Both Marg and Marianne checked in with their doctors and were thrilled to discover that their blood pressure had dropped significantly. Marg also noticed that her clothes were getting looser. Devonne was inspired when members of her family joined the challenge and also began exercising and eating better.

Keep a Good Pace – No
Matter What Your Age

Seniors taking classes with fitness professional Gay Elliott, who has a degree in physical education, feel right at home – and that’s the idea. The classes are held in a church hall in Hudson, Que., and are geared to seniors’ fitness needs and stage in life. Some days they might walk for their warm-ups, then perform a step workout to big-band music. “Always go at your own pace,” says Elliott.

During one class, Helen Zajchowski, 81, takes a breather because her artificial hip is giving her trouble. And, whoops, someone steps off to the right instead of the left…and friendly giggles are heard. Participants work on their muscles, then Vera Lynn’s “White Cliffs of Dover” signals the cooldown. When the class ends, everyone’s smiling. It’s not such a long way to Tipperary when you’re with friends. Why are the participants so enthusiastic?

• The class is the right environment. You dont need mirrors or fitness glitz, says Elliott; you do need supportive and inspirational classmates.
  
• The class provides a great way for them to stay mentally fit. Exercise is a great way to avoid mild depression, says 57-year-old Dr. Len Welik, a family physician in Hudson. He has been taking Elliotts classes himself for nearly 20 years and often recommends regular fitness to his patients.
  
• Its affordable. Elliotts classes cost about $2.50 to $3 per class and sometimes less, depending on a persons income. To find a seniors class in your area, check with community centres, your local YMCA or your doctors office.
  
• Its a social event. Helen says that, after losing her husband, The class gradually became my family.
  
• The class empowers participants. One person told Elliott, If I can do this fitness, then I can go and put up my storm windows or rake the lawn.
  
• The exercises are doable by everyone. There are always two or more demonstrators showing various modifications for each exercise. For example, sometimes an exercise done standing is modified so it can be done while sitting in a chair.
  
• The class helps participants feel healthy. I think if it wasnt for the exercise, I wouldnt be here today, says 82-year-old Bernie Graham, who had a heart attack eight years ago and works out with the gang at least five times a week.
  
• The class is fun and motivational. Elliott invited participants from her classes to audition for Spice of Life, a group that performs fitness routines for different communities across Canada. The resulting group (five women aged 80-plus and four men over 75) demonstrates at fitness conferences and elsewhere and makes it clear that seniors can be physically active and have fun at it a great motivation for all ages!

On the net

Want 60 motivational tips to get you out and walking?
Visit www.canadianliving.com starting June 18.

Students from one school are running across Canada – right in their own gym.

Motivating Factors

• Write yourself a contract. Karen E. Chad, a researcher at the college of kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, says that writing down completion dates and desired levels of performance or change is motivational; it gives you something to aim for – and achieve. Chad also works as part of a team for In Motion, a community-based project that aims to motivate people in Saskatoon to get healthy and be more active.
  
• Set achievable goals. Marg Unger, whose first goal was to lose just eight pounds and who has lost 60 pounds so far, says it keeps you trying. It also means that you don’t set yourself up to fail.
  
• Hang in for at least several weeks. After the first little while, the benefits of your new healthy lifestyle will become apparent. “It’s not uncommon,” says fitness consultant Laura Hancharuk, “to hear participants say, ‘I know I probably won’t win the cash, but I’ve lost 20 pounds and I feel great!’”
  
• Be prepared to fall off the fitness wagon periodically. When you expect setbacks, says Hancharuk, you can plan for them and know that you haven’t failed but merely slipped temporarily.