One of the latest buzz terms in the fitness industry is muscle confusion. That means you mix up your workouts so you never plateau in strength or cardiovascular endurance. You keep working your muscles in different ways to achieve maximum results. Some people might be able to make that happen on their own by alternating types of exercises. Others may need a little help, maybe a training program to follow.

At Costen Floors, if you walk around the outside of the building three times, you’ve walked a mile. Employees are encouraged to put in those laps regularly. That’s part of the reason Costen Floors was added to the list of local companies designated this year as Start! Fit-Friendly Companies by the American Heart Association.

Because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it’s a perfect time to tell you about Gwen Foley, who’s aware of her breast cancer but not at all submissive to it. She was diagnosed less than a year ago. Since then, she has been through chemotherapy (enduring treatments of two kinds of “chemo cocktails,“ she says), surgery and then radiation. All the while, she has worked a full-time job at the General Assembly downtown and taught exercise classes at the Patrick Henry YMCA in Ashland.

MARIA HOWARDFitness Put on your running shoes, kids. Richmond is getting its first timed road race for the young set. The C&F Bank Short Pump Mile will be staged next Sunday starting at 7:45 a.m. behind Short Pump Town Center. The 1-mile event will begin near American Family Fitness and end near the mall’s food court. Children ages 6 through 18 will be divvied up into heats according to age. Awards will be given for the best times.

When: First heat starts next Sunday at 7:45 a.m. behind Short Pump Town Center, 11800 W. Broad St.
  Cost: $15. Participants receive a race T-shirt, a medal and refreshments.
  Registration: Tomorrow is the last day to register. Visit http://www.novaswim.org or go by NOVA at 12207 Gayton Road. Up to 3,000 participants will be accepted.

By now you’ve heard about Zumba. But did you know you can Zumba for a good cause? And you don’t need a gym membership to do it. The second Zumba for a Cause party will be held next Sunday at Gordon Elementary School in Chesterfield County. For $10—all of which goes to charity—you can Zumba for two hours with three local instructors who felt a need to turn the party class into a fundraising opportunity.

We typically think of watching TV as anti-exercise. You sit back, put your feet up and relax. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You could get in your one-hour workout (you know, the hour of exercise that the Surgeon General recommends that every American get every day) during an NFL football game, a sitcom or a soap opera.

MARIA HOWARDFitness When it comes to family fitness, there’s nothing like a parent-child teaming event to get everyone moving. Maybe that explains the growing popularity of the Little-Big Adventure races that are held around the region. If you missed the first two this year, you’ve still got time to sign up, train and compete in the final two.

Fitness Feeling sluggish about exercise? It could be time for some new music. For me, nothing motivates like a good song or two (or 10 or 20, depending on how long the workout lasts). And with today’s iPod and MP3 devices, putting new tunes in your exercise routine is fairly simple and inexpensive. How do you figure out what songs will get you moving? Here are some pointers.

Need some incentive to take a summer bike ride? Look no further than the Anthem Moonlight Ride coming up Aug. 8. A first-time event organized by the Richmond Sports Backers, the nighttime bike ride is designed to draw everyone from experienced cyclists to those who will have to dust off their seats and pump up their tires to participate.

When: Aug. 8 at 8 p.m.
  At: The ride starts and ends at Sports Backers Stadium, 100 Avenue of Champions off the Boulevard near The Diamond.
  Cost: Through tomorrow, registration is $25 for adults and $10 for youths ages 8-14. From Tuesday to Aug. 6, it’s $30 for adults and $10 for youths. Walk-up registration on Aug. 8 is $35 for adults and $15 for youths.

Around here, we think of Gold’s Gym as a fitness center tucked in the corner of a shopping center like Willow Lawn or created to fit in an older building like the one in the Fan. Clearly, we need to think again. The new Gold’s at Westchester Commons in Midlothian is about as shiny and state-of-the-art as any gym in town.

MARIA HOWARDFitness It was the imagery of a bike race that got Harrison Strickler through his battle with cancer. So it’s fitting that his family chose a biking event to raise money for cancer research after Harrison regained his health. Harrison was 6 when he was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in February 2004. Nearly every night throughout his chemotherapy and radiation treatment, his mother, Leslie, would remind him that a bike race is grueling and that winners don’t give up. Harrison, who loved to ride his bike and had long admired cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, was strengthened by that reminder.

Don’t wait for those fateful words this summer. Before they can say, “I’m bored,“ find a fun way to get those kids moving. And don’t think you have to spend a lot of money doing it. Take them to a park they’ve never visited before. (There are dozens of state and local parks throughout central Virginia.) Take them fishing in a local lake or river. Go for a bike ride. Go fly a kite, literally.

William J. Martin walks around downtown Richmond all the time. In addition to conducting historical walking tours, he takes his own strolls regularly, noting the significance of the city’s historic sites from the sidewalks and alleys. So it’s no surprise that Martin is behind a 10K, history-centered walk set up by Sports Backers that will take place for the first time Saturday. The Anthem Stride Through Time has already drawn more than 1,000 participants.