How will you Move More this week?
What does your week of movement look like? My goal is to be stronger and move better. One of my favorite things to do when I am pressed for time is Tabata workouts. This consists of 20 seconds of work (pick a movement, any movement) and 10 seconds of rest. I like to pick 4-6 movements, depending on the amount of time I have. There is an unlimited possibility of movements which you can choose from. Some of these include squats, lunges, push-ups, ring rows, step-ups, side lunges, mountain climbers, jump rope, and many, many more.
When I think about what movements I will choose, I think about two aspects.
- Am I using different muscle groups? If I do a push-up (chest/arm muscles), what will I then do to balance this with a back exercise (example: ring rows).
- Overall, I try to choose exercises that are single leg/single arm vs both at the same time. For example, a lunge vs a squat. The reason for this: I am weaker on my right side. When I do lunges, I struggle a little bit more to stand up with my right leg forwards. When I do squats, I don’t notice the asymmetry. Don’t get me wrong, squats aren’t a bad exercise to do. I need to focus on cleaning up my asymmetric movement patterns, so when I do a squat, I will add weight to one side to force me to work harder on one side and then switch sides that the weight is in for the next round.
I challenge you to take this week and try a few Tabata workouts. I also challenge you to look at movements that focus on one side at a time and see if you notice any asymmetries in your movement patterns. Of note, no movement should cause any kind of pain. Modify, modify, modify.
Example workout of 4 movements I would choose:
- lunges
- side step-ups
- plank with shoulder tap
- quadruped alternate arm/leg (see picture above)