With Gavin Buehler
Our last couple of F.I.T. Tip installments have aligned with our recent 3-part article series highlighting the long reaching effects of exercise beyond weight management, hopefully inspiring more reasons to exercise on a regular basis.
We began the series with a basic movement flow challenge to promote circulation and tissue pliability, and then followed it up with a basic strength challenge component. This month we’re going to add a low impact cardio challenge that can be scaled for any level of participant.
We’re tearing a page out of the classic German Body Comp method of weight training where a multijointed lower body movement such as a squat is performed back-to-back in a superset with a multijointed upper body movement like a pull-up to shunt the blood demands back and forth from upper and lower body areas creating a high cardiovascular demand.
Keeping the GBC method in mind, the exercises that I’ve chosen with be the slider climber for the lower body, and the push-up for the upper body. Both have the bonus of maintaining a planked position for core work as well. These exercises have been chosen because you can use an elevated surface to scale the movements for any level of participant, and they are low impact and easier on the joints. For the slider climbers it is important to NOT substitute them with regular climbers as the friction creates added resistance and forces more leg muscle engagement to occur.
The Tabata protocol of performing each exercise for 20 seconds and then resting 10 seconds for 8 rounds totalling a time of 4 minutes is an excellent way to perform these exercises to keep your workout short and sweet!
The challenge is 2-3 times a week for 1 month. Remember, you can also stack this with the previous challenges adding to your fitness repertoire.
You can reference the video below and please share this and get your friends and family involved so that you can encourage one another to “Move With Purpose!” As always, this video is for educational purposes only. Please consult a health professional before attempting new exercises or protocols, as the following suggestions may or may not be appropriate for you.