Hi Everyone,
I am back with our weekly fitness challenge. Most of you should have recieved 2 challenges. One for seniors, and one for everyone else. The senior challenge is less stressful and geared towards the 75-100 year old crowd. The senior challenge has value to people of all ages, so don't discount it if you want to add a consistent low intensity balance or stabiization exercise/stretch to your daily routine.
Each week we will challenge you to perform a movement or an exercise. The goal is complete the task everyday that week. Don’t miss a day. Build a habit. The habit will change each week but doing something physically challenging will improve how your body functions.
Our challenge this week is timed Burpees. Every day do 1 set of Burpees to a set number and time how long it takes you to do it. Pick a challenging number. I would suggest 20 or more because seeing your improvement in time on 15 or less burpees will be minimal. I am proposing a 25 or 50 Burpee challenge.
I will do 50 per day. For those of you who have never performed a burpee follow along. Burpees are sometimes called the best total body exercise out there. Performing a burpee will require you to move and engage almost every joint in your body. Your toes, ankles, knees, hips, spine, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and hands will be stimulated. Working on body control and body position is very important. How you place your hands and feet on the floor will determine how much stress is placed on specific joints. Try your best to keep everything in line and use your core as much as possible. If you are having trouble with parts of the burpee shorten the movements. Take a look at the video for a visual on how to perform it.
Here is how to perform one.
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, weight in your heels, and your arms at your sides.
- Push your hips back, bend your knees, and lower your body into a squat.
- Place your hands on the floor directly in front of, and just inside, your feet. Shift your weight onto your hands.
- Jump your feet back to softly land on the balls of your feet in a plank position. Your body should form a straight line from your head to heels. Be careful not to let your back sag or your butt stick up in the air, as both can keep you from effectively working your core.
- Jump your feet back so that they land just outside of your hands.
- Reach your arms over head and explosively jump up into the air.
- Land and immediately lower back into a squat for your next rep.
Three modifications to make a burpee easier are
- Instead of jumping back, step back and then step forward before jumping back up.
- Instead of exploding up and jumping, stand up and raise your hands over head without jumping.
- Instead of going to the floor use the bottom of a flight of stairs for your hand placement. The closest step to the floor will the most challenging. Each step up will make it the exercise slightly easier.
Good luck and #GETITDONE.
Paul