As summer fades, we return to our desks. Longer office hours cut into last season’s exercise routines, college students hit the books, and children trade unlimited play time for less than an hour of recess.

“Sitting Disease,” as some call it, is becoming an epidemic. Recent studies show that sitting in an office or classroom all day could be detrimental to your health. US research shows that sitting less than three hours a day could add up to two years to the average life expectancy. But when your career requires you to be in front of a computer all day, how can you squeeze in more time on your feet? Here are a few ideas to get moving:

Transform Your Commute

Avoid traffic or the crowded train by rethinking your routine. Walking to work or school can reduce your sitting time while serving as a workout. If your office is too far from home, consider taking a bus and hopping off a few stops early. Biking to campus is another alternative with extensive health benefits – and a new route may even save time (and will definitely save gas money!). But if cycling to work seems overwhelming, check out these safety tips and solutions to your cycling concerns. For inspiration, see how a San Francisco family commutes in their “Bicycle Minivan.”

Schedule Breaks

A Mayo Clinic professor of medicine believes that an hour of sitting is too long: “My gut feeling is you should be up for 10 minutes of every hour.” Make time to get up and stretch your legs, even during the most hectic work days. Studies suggest that getting up regularly may even improve productivity. Take a lap around the office after each hour of sitting and stand while catching up with a co-worker. Use part of your lunch break to go for a walk around the block, or pick up lunch from a café further away from work. Just can’t get away? Take a client call on your mobile phone and head outdoors – they’re called mobile phones for a reason!

Work Out at Work

Maybe your employer can’t provide treadmill desks or standing desks, but you can always transform your desk chair into an at-work gym – as long as you can tolerate funny looks from co-workers! These exercises won’t be strenuous enough to substitute an early morning jog or Pilates class, but they provide cumulative benefits. Try these expert-recommended exercises or even some desk yoga to de-stress.

Do you exercise at work or school? Share your tips with us! And don’t forget to track your biking commute routes and lunch-time walks with runtastic!

Kazu, a famous Japanese blogger, who visited runtastic´s Headquarters in July, has just completed his new mission: running 100 km for the first time in his life! He was motivated to run such a long distance because a well-known Japanese TV program 24HOUR TELEVISION “LOVE SAVES THE EARTH” was being broadcasted across Japan on the same day of his challenge. Team runtastic was honored to support him with the use of runtastic PRO app and our Live Tracking system. During Kazu’s 15 hour run, the runtastic app recorded every detail of his performance and shared it in real-time with his fans and supporters from all over the world. His fans provided a constant stream of live comments and 2,991 cheers. Kazu told us that he received all those cheers directly on his smartphone. As soon as he would start-up after every small break for drinking or eating, he received more cheers and he knew that people were “following him”. He appreciated the cheering, especially at 4am (after 9 hours of running) when he started to hit the wall, even though he is a well-trained athlete. There were also people coming to help him on the way: a boy on a bicycle lighting his way at night, a man offering a Red bull, a woman waiting for him with a cold towel…

Kazu during the challenge

His brother also showed up to run with him in the last 7 km, when Kazu barely had enough energy to continue. Finally the end was in sight at; the gate of Fukui Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) building. Kazu saw many people waiting for him and he found added motivation to finish. Cameras were focused on him and he could even see his parents rooting him on, even though he had not informed them of the challenge so they would not worry. Later FBC broadcasted his emotional finish as ‘News of the Day’! Through this challenge Kazu wanted to show teenagers that “if you try hard, you can do anything”. When he was their age, he was the second to last runner in his class, and now he just completed 100 km!

Have a look at the amazing video at Kazu’s blog: http://kazuch.com/463.html

100 km run

Kazu thank you very much for sharing such a motivational experience with us!

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Sabrina after completing a 5K Mud Run in Sonona, CA

Name: Sabrina
Age: 23
Location: San Francisco, CA
Favorite Sport to Play: Volleyball
Favorite Sport to Watch: College football
Most Embarrassing Athletic Moment: In a high school basketball game, I ran out with my shorts on backwards and didn’t realize it until after I had been introduced and the game had started.
Proudest Athletic Moment: Completing my first half marathon!

When I moved to San Francisco from the East Coast last summer, I vowed to make the city my own. I wanted to explore every nook and cranny, every crevice, every block. I wanted to be a local.

I’ve always been active – from intramural volleyball to pick-up tennis matches to playing in an organized kickball league. But it became obvious that fitness is part of the culture in my new city. The Embarcadero is always packed with joggers, and biking the Golden Gate Bridge is at the top of every tourist’s to-do list (which I did, of course!). Since moving here, I’ve taken my first hot yoga class, hiked the trails of the nearby Redwood Forest, and even tried rock-climbing.

When a friend asked if I’d train for a half marathon with her, I was a little skeptical. I wasn’t a regular runner. But, I thought, what better way is there to explore the city and do as the locals do? So, I signed up and worked my way through the rigorous training schedule.

During some runs I felt like I was on top of the world. And breathing in the smell of eucalyptus in Golden Gate Park, touching down at the Pacific Ocean, or exploring new neighborhoods made long runs even better. But other days, the steep inclines of my notoriously hilly city got the best of me.

Nevertheless, I became a runner. Race day solidified that! Since my first half marathon in April, I’ve gone “Race Crazy!” I enlisted my friends to enter a lottery to for a women’s Half Marathon in October. When we were accepted, I promptly signed up for training races along the way, including a Mud Factor 5K, the San Francisco Half Marathon, the Giant Race 10K and Race for the Cure.

I’ve stepped up my training and now use runtastic to keep track of every run on my training schedule. If it’s not in my runtastic activity log, it didn’t happen! I love that I can see an exact map of where I’ve been – if I ran past a restaurant or shop I wanted to come back to later, the map feature makes it easy to remember its general location. Thanks to runtastic for a great app that’s helped me explore my city and become a runner.

Are you stuck in a workout rut? Biking the same route four times a week but not getting any faster? Worried your recurring hip pain will slow you down in that 10K next month?

If you’re like most fitness enthusiasts, your goals include getting stronger and faster, improving your athletic performance and avoiding injuries. And these goals are easy to achieve – if you vary your workout regimen. Here are four major benefits of cross-training to get you in gear:

Recovery

Sprained ankles, pulled hamstrings, shin splints, sore quadriceps – the list goes on. Aches, pains and injuries are a reality when it comes to exercise, and frequently stem from overuse. For many injuries, continuing your normal exercise regimen can make matters worse. So if you’re forced to hang up your running shoes for a few weeks? Try something new! With your doctor’s consent, cross-training can be an ideal way to stay active as you heal. Depending on the type and severity of your injury, biking, swimming and yoga or Pilates are great low-impact options that will keep you in shape throughout your recovery. Cross-training can actually speed up recovery time by increasing blood flow to damaged muscle tissue.

Injury Prevention

The most commonly-cited reason to cross-train is to reduce your risk of getting hurt. Completing the same physical action over and over puts tremendous strain on your joints, ligaments, muscles and tendons, so it’s helpful to give them a break now and then. Runners, for example, put major stress on their legs through repeated motions. Mixing in other forms of exercise can help your body recover between runs, which is especially important when training for a race, or running long distances. Yoga and Pilates are especially complementary to running as they build core strength and improve flexibility – a major benefit as runners often suffer from tight hamstrings, calves, and hips.

Improved All-Around Fitness

If you always work the same muscle groups in the same ways, your body will get used to the routine and your results will reach a plateau. But if you mix in different types of exercise, your body will be kept guessing, and will continue to improve. Changing up your routine is also a chance to activate under-used muscles. Runners and bikers can use swimming, boxing, or weight training to cross-train their upper body muscles, allowing them to catch-up to their more-developed leg muscles. By increasing total-body strength, flexibility and stamina, cross-training can enhance your overall fitness and help you thrive at your primary sport.

More Fun!

Doing the same exercise over and over is not only an easy way to get hurt; it’s also an easy way to get bored. Workouts should be challenging but also enjoyable, so choose cross-training activities that you genuinely like doing, not just those that target your neglected muscle groups. How about Zumba, salsa lessons, geocaching (with runtastic’s Altimeter app!), rock climbing, or playing tennis with a friend?

With runtastic, you can still keep track of workouts that don’t require GPS tracking. Don’t forget to log your cross-training activities upon completion. They’ll be stored in your activity history so you’ll know when you’re due for a break.

What are your favorite cross-training activities and how has cross-training helped you? Let us know on our US Twitter handle @runtasticUS or our international handle @runtastic.

Are you ready for what UC Berkeley calls “The Two Greatest Days on Planet Earth?” We certainly are! Today runtastic announced a partnership with Cal Recreational Sports, just in time for the department’s Caltopia 2012 event. This weekend marks the 10^th anniversary of the largest college lifestyle festival in the United States, and we couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it!

Caltopia, which begins this Sunday (August 19), is expected to draw over 30,000 UC Berkeley students and supporters. With an emphasis on fun and fitness, the event serves as the perfect backdrop to encourage active lifestyles and introduce runtastic to Cal students.

For every app downloaded at the event, a dollar will be donated to support the summer youth camp scholarship program through the Cal Recreational Sports Development Fund. runtastic is proud to not only provide a fitness tool for the university community, but to also help raise money for a program that instills a love for sports at an early age.

runtastic is the only mobile app to join the ranks of 35 highly-respected partners, including fellow healthy lifestyle devotees, Clif Bar and Naked Juice. A senior administrator at the Department of Recreational Sports at UC Berkeley emphasized the importance that partners uphold similar values and are dedicated to enhancing the wellness of the university community. For example, the department found runtastic appealing because of a “non-intimidating platform” for the everyday fitness enthusiast, not just the “super athlete.” We’re so glad we’re a fit.

We’ve had such a great time working with everyone at UC Berkeley and look forward to getting to know the students, staff and university community at the event. If you’re in the Bay Area, visit us at Caltopia to download your own runtastic app and join us in supporting the Cal Recreational Sports Development Fund– Oh, and have some fun!