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Going Solo: No Equipment Necessary
By Selena Moffitt
The resolution rush has come and gone. This is a pivotal point in your commitment to be fit. You have been walking your favorite route faithfully, but somehow you’re losing your motivation to get out the door. It could be that the results have slowed and the route seems monotonous. Bust out of your rut with some cross training! By intermixing strength moves with your walk, you can keep the muscle coming, the fat going, and the workout entertaining once again.
Fitness walking generates enough of a cardiovascular response to increase the strength of your heart and burn calories along the way. But be honest, you eventually get bored with the normal walking route. You could walk for miles on the same flat terrain you use day-in and day-out. The challenge is gone. You could drive to find hills to increase your intensity, but is that time efficient? You could join a gym with fancy equipment to shake things up, but is it cost effective?
You don’t need weights or machines to achieve an improved physique and greater strength. You already possess the finest machine around: your body. And lucky for you, that includes arms and legs! That is all you need to own to perform full-body resistance training and get a wicked cardiovascular workout without a monthly gym fee.
Step right out the door and turn your walk into a full-body experience. Reap the benefits of cross training: Recruit your muscles to become the armor for your joints; challenge your bones to increase density; energize yourself by tapping into natural growth hormones to keep your new muscle from fading. The best part: No equipment necessary. Just an internal drive to keep moving and your own two feet.
Outside your front door is a whole world of ways to keep the heart pumping even in the flattest of terrain. Walk anywhere you choose, but along the way add in two exercises from the exercise chart below every three to five minutes of walking. Once a week, choose a “Power Booster” from that chart to keep yourself motivated. Chances are you will find this form of cross training extremely rewarding and far from boring.
Selena M. Moffitt is a personal trainer and group exercise instructor for Cascade Athletic Club. She has been in the fitness industry for 14 years and has provided education for fitness professionals since 2005. For more information on Interval Training visit www.selenamoffitt.com
EXERISES
| Ground |
Intensity moves |
Moves using bench or wall |
Plyometrics* |
High Knees
Jumping Jacks
Skipping
Burpees |
Tuck jumps
Traveling Jacks
Bounding
Burpees with pushups |
Burpees with pushups |
Tuck jumps
Squat jacks
Long jumping
Ski hops |
Lunges
Squats
Push-ups — knees
Tricep Dips
Hovers — forearms/knees |
Traveling lunges
Traveling squats
Push-ups — toes
Tricep pushups — knees
Hovers — forearms/toes |
Step-ups
Hop-up and squat
Push-ups — incline or decline
Tricep dips |
Jump split lunge
Jump squats
Pushups with clap in between |
* Plyometrics is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purposes of improving performance in a specific sport or exercise.
POWER BOOSTERS
| Walk Intervals |
Fast/slow walking with specific times Ex: 30 sec fast/60 sec slow |
| High-end Target Heart Rate |
Push yourself until you reach your high-end target heart rate |
| Quick and Breathless |
See how fast you can move and how breathless you can become in 15-20 min. |
| Plyometrics* |
Add plyometric* moves in place of other exercises |
| Reversal |
Reverse the order that you do your workout Ex: start with the strength moves, then add walking |
| SAMPLE WORKOUT |
TIME SPENT |
| Walk — warm-up pace |
0-5:00 min |
| Squat in place 25 times |
5:01-6:00 min |
| Jumping Jacks 50 times |
6:01-7:00 min |
| Walk — workout pace |
7:01-12:00 min |
| Pushups on knees 10 times |
12:01-12:30 min |
| Tricep dips on ground 10 times |
12:31-13:00 min |
| Walk — Increase pace |
13:01-18:00 min |
| Hover with hands on bench — 30 sec |
18:01-18:31 min |
| Skip — 40 times |
18:32-19:30 min |
| Walk — workout pace |
19:31-24:31 min |
| Step-up on park bench — 10R/10L |
24:32-26:30 min |
| Hover with forearms on ground — 30 sec |
26:31-27:01 min |
| Walk — cool down |
27:02-32:30 min |
| Stretch |
32:30-40:00 min |
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Exercise Descriptions
Below are descriptions of uncommon exercises.
Burpees:
1. Stand tall
2. Bend knees and place hands on the floor outside your feet
3. Step back or jump feet back so that your body is in a plank position
4. Walk or jump feet back into “2” position, and
5. Stand tall
6. Repeat
Tricep dips on ground:
1. Sit on ground with knees bent and hands outside your hips, fingers facing forward
2. Engage core and roll shoulders back as you bend your elbows straight back (keep elbows from “flaring” out to the sides)
3. Bend no further than 45 degrees
4. Straighten elbows without locking joints
5. Repeat
Hovers on knees:
1. Begin on forearms and knees
2. Elbows should be directly under shoulders and shoulders pulled away from ears, while knees should be at an angle behind hips
3. Body should appear to be in diagonal line from crown of head to knees with the core engaged
4. Hold
Hovers on toes:
1. Begin on forearms and knees
2. Elbows should be directly under shoulders and shoulders pulled away from ears, while knees are directly under the hips
3. Tuck toes and lift knees off floor while engaging the core.
4. Body should appear to be in diagonal line from crown of head to heels.
5. Hold
Ski hops:
1. Sit in a squat position with hands tight to body as if you were downhill skiing
2. Hop side to side by tucking knees to chest and landing in tuck position
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