Category: Fitness

Walking Wapping Warm-up: Introduction

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Gary doing side kneesWarming up is an important part of training, especially for over-40 folks and those of us in locations that get cold in the winter. But warm-ups tend to be dull and limited in their effectiveness for a full range of movements. (Or mini-workouts that really need warming up to do.)

Enter the Walking Wapping Warm-up. We've been doing this at StrongFast for many years, starting as a preliminary warm-up for our kickboxing or mixed martial arts training classes (hence, "wapping"). But it crosses over well for all kinds of workouts.

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Holiday Gift Lists

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xmas_tree_snowWith the holiday season kicking in, some of you may be looking to bolster your last-minute list with fitness equipment. This post cannibalizes three newsletters from 2012.

The first two lists are loosely based on cost from low to high. Most items actually have a wide price range, so there can be a lot of overlap.

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To Be Or Not To BMI

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woman pinching waistlineSomeone recently shared an article with me (What Everyone Is Afraid To Say About Obesity) that is mostly about obesity and the Body Mass Index (BMI). It slams the BMI as being clumsy and inaccurate, failing to "differentiate between fat weight and muscle weight". And it's true. (Briefly alluded to here in The Planet way back in 2012.)

But the article uses three specific examples--Shaquille O'Neal, Muhammed Ali, and Sonny Liston--who are hardly "average" people. They're all professional athletes! (And all African American males.) The article does acknowledge this with the phrase "these elite athletes" but what is the context for all of this? It's about how the results of a national program to combat obesity won't be accurately measured by the BMI.

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Warm-ups: Part 1

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winter-at-marinaWith the onset of winter (it's almost here), the importance of a good warm-up before a workout increases. It's also more important for the over-40 crowd who tend to have less joint fluid and muscle elasticity.

Let's start with a one-question quiz: What is the primary purpose of a warm-up?

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