No that's not a typo. We've all heard, "No pain, no gain!" relating to fitness, usually strength training. But grueling workouts aren't necessary to make progress, and can be particularly counterproductive after 40. Moreover, workout "pain" is almost always a bad thing.
Every January, zillons* of people start a new fitness program and the gyms fill up. By February, most of the newbies are missing workouts and by March things are pretty much back to normal (to the relief of the regular gym-goers). It doesn't only happen at the start of each new year, although that's a reliable occurrence. It would be nice to have statistics on the median lifespan of a new fitness routine. I'm confident it would be less than 30 days.
So what goes wrong? Why do so many people quit? Often, it's a case of doing too much too soon.
Last time, we wrapped up the movements of the Walking Wapping Warm-up:
(By the way, the picture above doesn't have anything to do with the warm-up, although it was used in the Knees post. It's just a neat picture.)
Now, just to get some closure, here's a brief wrap-up about putting it all together.
The Walking Wapping Warm-up is getting close to the end. As usual, here's a recap of what we've covered so far.
Our lower body focus continues here, this time out to the side.
The Walking Wapping Warm-up continues. For reference purposes, here's a recap of what we've covered so far.
We now focus on the lower body for the rest of the way.
Starting the second half of the warm-up with the busiest move of the lot: the one-two-knee-knee. So far, we've seen:
This next one is really just the one-two plus the knees, both of which we've already covered. But now we put them together, just to test your coordination! And warm you up, of course.
The Walking Wapping Warm-up series continues. So far, we've done:
Time to switch to some lower-body focus as we complete the first half of the warm-up. Yes, it's time for some knees!
