Want an easy way to up your calorie burn? Head for the hills.

I've got hills -- seven of them in my neighborhood, and I often truck up and down each one for exercise. I've never given much thought to how exactly I move up and down my inclines but apparently, I should.

According to the Family Circle fitness folks, we shouldn't barrel up inclines as fast as possible. Instead, we should shorten our strides and focus on maintaining an easy and constant pace. On the way down, we should elongate our strides, while keeping core and leg muscles engaged. We'll gain energy this way, which will help propel us forward.

Good tips. I'm going to try them next time I hike up and down my hills. And you?

For guidance on how to approach a treadmill incline, read on here.

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Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answers. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose one per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hi Fitz, I'm a woman in my early 40s and have really let myself go over the past decade. I used to have a nice figure, but now I'm stuck with a 'lumpy bumpy butt' that is far too big. The rest of my body needs work too. I joined Weight Watchers two weeks ago, cause I saw that you wrote it was a great program. I'm down three pounds already. So, what do you advise I do to improve my backside. It's awful! Marlene

A. Hello Miss Marlene. I'm glad you sent me your question, and I'm confident I can help. There are a lot of things you can do to tighten up that tush. You've already taken the first step with Weight Watchers -- losing weight will be most important for getting rid of bulging pockets of fat.

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If your workout routine involves a treadmill, consider this: is your routine a bit stale? Are you finding that what once was a challenging workout is now a bit, well, easy? That'll happen as you adjust to your new fitness level. There's only one solution: Make it harder.

When you're working out on the treadmill, there are a number of ways to make it more difficult. You can up your speed, work out for longer periods of time or add some ankle weights. But one of the most effective ways to amp up your workout is to increase the incline. Start small; add just one level of incline, and keep it at that level until you find it easy, then increase again by one level.

Remember: A workout that's easy to do probably isn't doing too much to improve your fitness or your body.

Watching my kids' milestones warms my heart. When they first walked, talked, fed themselves, brushed their own teeth, I was one proud mama. Today, I'm bursting at the seams with pride, all because my six-year-old hopped on his bike -- he's only been riding for few months -- and accompanied me on a six-mile trek.

With aching legs and labored breathing, we rode over flat terrain, and up hill, and down hill, and when we arrived at our half-way destination -- my sister's house -- we took a break. Then it was back on the bike for the return trip home. Joey said mid-way home, and mid-incline too, that he wished his Daddy would arrive -- Daddy has a truck, and Joey thought he needed rescuing. He didn't, though. He muscled his way through our journey and even announced at one point, "Can you believe a little guy is riding all this way?" I could believe it. I was witness to it. And it was grand.

Riding his bike this morning was so good for Joey. It was physically good, and mother-and-son good, and most of all, it was self-esteem good. Joey is proud, amazed even, that he accomplished such a task today. It makes me want to ride with him again, after he recovers from this fitness feat. When I told him, "Joey, I think we should do this every weekend," he replied with pure fatigue, "No! How about every 10 weeks?"

Every weekend, every 10 weeks. It doesn't matter to me. I'm game either way.

The dog days of summer are here -- the days when it's fun to be outside but it's far to hot to actually work out outdoors. The recycled air of the gym, though loathed in winter, is appealing because of those two life-saving words: Air Conditioning. I love the sun as much as anyone but the thought of running in this heat makes me feel ill, so I'll save my running to early morning (yeah right), late evening (yawn) or during the daylight hours, in the comfort of the gym.

So if it's too hot for your mid-day run, don't feel bad about taking it indoors. You can get a great workout indoors too!

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Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Dear Fitz, I need to lose only five pounds and want to rev up my walking program in the hope that I can lose these last few pounds. I wear wrist weights thinking this will boost my metabolism. Do you have any suggestions on how to make a walking program more intense? I have heard about walking poles but I'm not sure this is the answer and I think I would feel silly using them on the city streets -- thinking I would look "strange." So if you have any suggestions as to how to put more OOMPH in my walking to lose these few pounds, I would greatly appreciate hearing about it. Thanks. Judith

A. Hey Judith. Love your ambition, and I'm so glad you asked the question. First of all, I do not ever recommend using wrist weights while walking. Adding weight to your wrists will only adding strain to the elbow and shoulder joints as you swing your arms back and forth. Plus they really serve no great benefit to you anyway. Small weights wouldn't amp up your calorie burn significantly and if you want to build the muscles in your arms you'd be much better off just doing specific strength training exercises for your arms!

In order to challenge yourself while walking you can do several things. Walk faster. Walk at an incline. If you don't have hills in your city, find some stairs or use a treadmill on occasion. Adding weighted resistance can be a great idea, but the wrist or ankle weights are definite no-no's. Instead you can look in to a weighted vest. This type of resistance is well-balanced, and will not strain your joints. Weighted vests can make things more challenging as you can carry significant weight this way. You can use a vest with anywhere from 10-40 pounds, and increase the weight as you progress. The benefit of using an actual fitness vest instead of a backpack full of books is that the weight is distributed evenly across your chest, ribs and back.

As far as looking funny goes,forget about it Judith! I think for the most part, when we see others exercising we're more envious and impressed than anything else. If you're working toward better health, you'll always be cool and that's a fact. Click here to check out the weighted vests. Let me know when your five pounds disappear! Fitz

Q. Hey Fitz. I'm 14 and I weigh around 118 lbs. Sometimes I feel too thin. How can I gain muscle without losing weight and getting smaller? Stacy

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Here's an easy way to rev up your already-established walking routine: take the path of most resistance. What does that mean? Take the hard route, the one with all the hills. You might think the because you walk every day, you're in great shape, but trust me -- taking a steep hill will leave you huffing and puffing. And it will up the amount of calories you're burning, not to mention sculpting your legs.

If you're primarily an indoor walker (read: on the treadmill), this plan also works. Just keep increasing the incline on your treadmill, or if you use a fancy treadmill, use one of the pre-set workouts that constantly adjusts the intensity and incline of your walk to mimic a real outdoor stroll.

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