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 get a little 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.
The routines in my book, 15 Minute Total Body Workout (+DVD) follow a format of a 3-minute warm up, 10 minutes of standing, weight bearing work combining cardio and weights, and a 2 minute cool-down using full-body stretches similar to Yoga. By using compound movements, combining upper and lower body, the exercises target 8-10 muscle groups for efficient toning and calorie expenditure. 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!
Note from Wendy: Please click on this link to download a PDF of Joan’s five blog posts this week: Joan Pagano on Menopause the Blog Joan will respond to your questions or comments left below. Be sure to visit her website and check out her books too!
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Great advice! Finding a fun exercise or sport that suit yourself is very important in your weight loss process otherwise you will give up very quickly.
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