The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Friday, January 14, 2005

Hit The Deck!

Here's a great workout method that adds variety and that elusive quality called "Randomness", which I think is essential to optimal health. Bodybuilders call it the "muscle confusion principle"--to keep your body guessing, never knowing exactly what you're going to throw at it from one day to the next. Seen this way, exercise is a conversation with your body--you're telling it that your survival and reproductive success depends on being lean and healthy--and it will obey!
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You need a deck of cards to do this. Then you need three different exercises. I would suggest one upper body, one lower body, and one abdominal. For instance, this morning I used:
1) Upper: Hindu Pushups/sun salutations
2) Lower: Basic Squat-casts with clubbells
3)Abs: Roller-wheel from knees
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To do the same workout without any equipment (say, when traveling), I could have substituted Hindu Pushup/sun salutations, Hindu Squats, and Be Breathed.
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Shuffle the deck. Start going through the deck a card at a time. If it's a red card, do that number of upper body exercises. The Hindu pushup is a modified upward dog/downward dog combination, in essence the center section of a sun salutation. So perform a sun salute, doing that number of Hindu Pushups in the middle before you complete and stand back up.If it's a black card, do that number of lower body exercises. If it's a face card, do ab exercises, using the last number drawn. If you get a joker, take five deep breaths.
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How far can you get through the deck? You can do this for time, or number of cards, or just until you can't move anymore. The Hindu Pushup/Sun Salutation combination is great because of the integrated stretch and bounce of the motion. In fifteen minutes, you can get one heck of a good workout!
P.S.--be sure to use BE BREATHED breathing throughout the entire exercise. You can even use this in combination with the 5MM--just take a few short exercise breaks during the day and watch your energy skyrocket!
Steve

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sun salutations are obviously a huge part of yoga. But they can be modified to meet your physical needs. I found Leeann Carey has a free yoga video on this that your readers might like: http://planetyoga.com/yoga-blogs/index.php/adjustmentsassists-in-modified-sun-salutation-2/