Workout: Two
I have two goals for this week’s workout. One is to get a bunch of cardio work in, so we get a medicine ball set, the dreaded single arm clean and press, and our friends the plyojacks to get our hearts pumping. The other goal is to continue to work on stability and balance, so we have those asymmetric exercises in there to challenge our core while we build muscle. Three rounds.
woodchoppers 30 ball slams 20 rescues 10 1 arm clean and press 30 1 arm rows 20 1 leg squats 10 plyo/reg/mod jacks 30 deadlifts 20 barbell twists 10
Five
Need some motivation to get in your cardio? Here are five good reasons to do it!
Burn calories. Cardio does not mean that we can go out and eat all the cookies, but it does mean that we are burning off our healthy breakfasts. Using up calories is an important component of both weight loss and weight maintenance.
Improve metabolism. Interval work while doing cardio ramps up our metabolisms so that we burn more calories all day long. Who doesn’t want to burn more calories even while slumped in front of the television?
Torch stress. Cardio improves our moods and gets us out of our funks.
Focus. When we need to concentrate on an important project, we can improve our performance by getting our hearts pumping first
Fun. There are so many kinds of cardio that I’m sure we can all find at least one that amuses us. (Yes, sex counts, if you aren’t just lying there thinking of England.) Maybe, in a gym context, that means zumba or a HIIT class or treadmill intervals with our favorite disco tunes. Whatever it is, let’s find it!
Go!
One More Thing…
I will admit to being slightly obsessed with proprioception. However, in my defense, I’m seeing a lot of places lately where improved proprioception would have helped prevent injury or can help with rehabilitation. If we don’t know where we are in space, how can we have a sense of whether we are properly aligned? Or safe?
Think about, for example, that drunk test. Arms out to the sides, eyes closed, can we touch our nose? If not, we don’t know where we are in space. We are not safe to drive. That’s an extreme example, of course. But consider a person with a knee problem. Without a sense of where the knee is in space, that person can’t align the knee over the ankle, putting the knee at risk when stepping off curbs.
A lot of low back pain comes from poor posture. Much of poor posture comes from lack of awareness—we just aren’t thinking about where we are and everything slumps. Getting everything back in line and updating our sense of what is correct and normal can help.
Let’s tune in a little more.