ahhhh, the season of candy, turkey, parties, booze and watching games on the couch is now upon us. so how about a little challenge to keep your fitness from completely disappearing? i'm thinking simple things that can be done at home in minimal time.
1. strength
pistol or one legged squats. yes that's right, being able to do a full squat while standing on one leg, like 12 of them. start off with having good squat technique for a set of 15 bodyweight squats then start working on the pistol squats. if you need to you can start off holding on to a support as you build up your balance with the end goal being 12 on each leg.
2. speed
how about working on your 100m sprint time. it seems simple just running on the street, just make sure you've warmed up well by doing an easy jog for 7-10 minutes. for the first few weeks don't worry about going full out, just make a point of doing 3-5 100m sprints twice per week. between a warmup, a few sprints and a short cool down with some easy stretching for the legs this should only take less than 20 minutes of time.
3. endurance
instead of focusing on all out endurance let's look at speed endurance via a short run or hill sprints on the bike. we want to aim for a work effort that will last between 5 and 10 minutes, so 1 mile or 1.6km run is perfect. if you choose to do a hill climb on the bike aim for the same amount of time. again, it's a relatively short workout done twice per week. between a 7-10 minute warmup, the workout and a cooldown with some easy stretching after you should be done in less than 30 minutes. start off the first few weeks on the easy side and gradually ramp up the intensity.
We don't know what our limits are, so to start something with the idea of being limited actually ends up limiting us.
Ellen Langer