One of my recent articles was talking about a good routine of animal crawls to do in the morning to wake up the body and even the brain. Here's another option you can work on if you'd like especially when it comes to leg strength, hip mobility and getting the heart rate up for a few minutes to start the day.
Getting the legs going to start the day can have incredible benefits especially if you plan on going for a hike, move around at work or climbing stairs. Having conditioned legs go a long way and as we get older, it becomes more crucial in being able to stand up without help and move with as much ease as possible. Nothing wrong with wanting strong legs from weights but that's only a piece of the puzzle if you do that kind of thing. When it comes to squatting with weights, my main form of it is doing squats with a sandbag, hammers, maces, kettlebells or a 45 lb plate. I don't do barbell squats whatsoever anymore and haven't done it in roughly 15 years.
Bodyweight Squats are a different story, the multiple variations you can use at your disposal have their place. Shit I do 100-200 squats with the band everyday lately and it keeps things rocking and rolling man. It's more than just doing a typical squat, it's being able to control your body and move with power, explosiveness and even durability. Stationary Squats like Hindu Style, Sumo, Air, One-Legged all work and are beneficial for those who do them consistently. Sometimes however, it's fun to play around with certain aspects of exercises.
One routine I like doing is what I call the Step + Squat where it's basically walking and squatting at the same time. For those who want an idea of how this goes, check out the VIDEO here from the Bioneer. It's a great micro workout to get the blood flowing and play for a bit, you can do this anywhere and do it in intervals, in a row or in sets. Whatever works for you. For today, it's about doing it in a interval fashion. If you're new to it, get the feel for it just by taking a step, squat down, come up, take another step and repeat to get the technique down. Pay attention to your form and control. Once you get an idea, start timing it. You can start with 20-30 seconds of work and 30 seconds to a minute of rest for a couple rounds. Work up to maybe 5 rounds and then add time like 10 seconds and then reduce the rest to 45 seconds. Over time, work up to going for a minute or longer and rest for 30 seconds or less. For a micro workout, 3 rounds is great. This is roughly 4 minutes total, if you want to add rounds, go for it, personally, I never went past 7 rounds which is a total of around 10 minutes for the whole workout.
Micro Workouts are awesome for anyone who is short on time and wants to get something quick in or help get their energy levels up during the day in increments. For more info about this check out Matt Schifferle's book Micro Workouts. They're bad ass time savers and can get you jazzed up whenever you need a pick me up. Push-ups, Squats, Isometrics, Intervals, whatever you'd like to do for a few minutes at a time. They can even be used as a finisher to your regular routine to spice things up.
For more on Squat Walking, check out this VIDEO as well.
Be amazingly awesome and get your body going so the blood flows with strength and power. You got this and wake up springing into action.
No comments:
Post a Comment