Friday, August 21, 2009

Your dog and you - a way to exercise together

How to elicit your pet into your exercise program


If you have a dog you have an eager and ready at a moments notice partner for your exercise goals. Below I will outline a few ways to utilize your dog into your exercise routines. You both will benefit from your partnership.

1) First, just walk your dog. Strive for a 3 – 5 mile trek (daily if your schedule permits). I suggest taking your dog to parks for the walks since it will be a more pleasant experience for both of you.
2) Take your dog to pet friendly beach or other secluded beach and run on the sand and from time to time run through the water as well. Your dog will go bananas for this one.
3) Play catch with your dog put after you throw that Frisbee or ball run after it as well. Challenge yourself to keep up with your dog.
4) If you have a bigger dog play some tug of war with a large towel and get some incredible core and legwork. But please let the dog pull the towel and do not pull towards you otherwise you may hurt your dogs teeth.

As you hydrate yourself during your exercises please make sure to bring plenty of water for your faithful companion as well and maybe even a few small treats. And if you dog starts panting heavily or looks tired let them rest. Dogs cannot sweat and their only method of cooling themselves off is through panting and in humid air this is very hard for them.

Though these are all simple ideas and you probably have heard of some of the before, don’t forget that a lot of things qualify as exercise and go a long way to improve your health as well as your pets.

As always - I am available for personal training either in person (if in NJ) or over the web. If you feel you have stalled in your pursuit of fitness and need some expert knowledge to get you on track reach out to me.

Regards,

Eddie Camaroto CPT
Perfect You LLC

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