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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Not only is it fun to find innovative ways to shake up your normal routine, but all the body’s systems need to be surprised with diverse patterns of stress in order to continue to improve. When I’m out for a run, I automatically look for inclines to run up, stairs to hop down and places to throw in 20 jumping jacks. One man out for his morning walk said to me in passing recently, “You look like a kid with nothing better to do.” Little did he suspect I was working on building bone, tuning up my cardiovascular system and burning off extra calories.
Be creative about fitting exercise into your day-to-day. If life intervenes and you can’t do your normal weight training session, at least do some exercises using your body weight, like push ups, squats, crunches and planks. I make it a habit to do two sets of push ups after my run, as well as a full-body stretch. I do extra leg stretches at night while I’m brushing my teeth for two minutes. At my desk, I sit on a stability ball to improve my posture and incorporate some core training as the muscles of the trunk work to keep me upright.
If your program is stale and needs rejuvenating, try something new. Intervals of high intensity work can be adapted to resistance training as well as to cardio activity. Try interspersing one minute of heart-pumping cardio into your strength training exercises. You can use exercises like jumping rope, step-ups or running in place to keep your heart rate elevated.
Use compound movements in your strength training. Combine upper and lower body actions to target 8-10 muscle groups for efficient toning and calorie expenditure. For example, try combining a front lunge with a lat row, a squat with a biceps curl and calf raise, a plie with a shoulder raise. You improve your coordination and core stabilization in addition to getting a full-body workout I’ve been doing them myself, and last night when my husband gave me a hug, he said, “You’re redistributing” – music to any woman’s ears!
Joan Pagano is a best-selling author, a speaker on health and fitness topics and the owner of Joan Pagano Fitness in New York City. For more about Joan and her services, please visit Joan Pagano Fitness
(c) Copyright – Joan L. Pagano. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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