Workout of The Week (end)

So it has been some time since I have written a Workout Daily Sprout.  But now with the cooler weather setting in, I feel like I need to try to motivate all of you to stay on track with your fitness.  I produce these Daily Sprouts with everyone in mind, so for many of you CrossFit athletes, they might not look exciting, but you will find that I will always make them equipment free.

You can go to this page, if you want to see the archived workouts on this site as well.

One thing you will always notice about my workouts, they are short and intense when compared to 30 minutes on an elliptical machine.  And they are also going to be highly functional, not a lot of  wasted movements.  Functional… what is it?

Running, jumping, pushing, pulling, squatting under load, standing up from the ground, lying down, sitting up, etc.  In the image below, the simple movement of jumping is shown, the movement that is so often left behind out of the lives of aging Americans, yet it is so functional in our lives as kids, and then somewhere we abandon it.  The reason, like most abandoned functional movements, is because we live in a society of ease.

I can however, give you some good reasons why you would not want to simply live into that life of ease.  The major one being that we have to squat, and stand until we die, if we want to take care of ourselves… and the only requirement to be able to squat, then stand from it, is that we never stop doing it.  By far the most functional movement we can do.

So to get all of you back on track with a life of function, I want to push you to do this workout as fast as you possibly can.  Be sure to set up your area first, so that you know exactly where you are going to do these movements, then blast away as fast as you can!

Movement #1 – squat.  Initiate the movement by pushing your butt back, so that your knees do not jut forward significantly, as you drop into the squat your weight should stay on your heels, and your knees should press out over your feet while your chest stays upright with you looking forward, not down.

Movement #2 – sit-up.  A complete sit-up if you can, from your back being on the floor, to your chest being perpendicular with the floor.  If you cannot do the full movement, first try to assist by throwing your arms, or by grabbing the backs of your hamstrings to pull yourself up.

Movement #3 – jumping jack.  An easy way to re-incorporate jumping into your life, is to do the jumping jack.  Just jump with feet together while hands clap over head, and feet go apart whenhands come down to their sides.

The workout:

5 times through:

20 Squats 10 sit-ups 20 Jumping Jacks

Just blast through this thing fast, no stopping.  It will be 100 total squats and jumping jacks, and 50 sit-ups.  You can do it with minimal rests I am sure.

Once you are done, expect to feel bad, that is a big part of what is so good about it!!

Be well and Be blessed – remember the Hopewell Baptist Bethlehem Walk is open this weekend through next weekend, check it out, it is awesome!  – Dr. E