Saturday, October 31, 2009

Using Your Body

I love to exercise outdoors at autumn time here in the North East - especially early Sunday mornings. The air is crisp and clean, no one's up and about yet in town and well, it's just invigorating as hell to me. And why not, I'm outside using my body to better my health and fitness.

I'm a HUGE believer in frequent, if not daily activity and also a BIG proponent of using your own bodyweight for exercise. Many "poo-poo" bodyweight activities unfortunately feeling that one cannot build strength and that one "must lift weights" to get stronger - nothing could be further from the truth. Strength is relative to the individual and should reflect their goals.

Exercises that you can do just using your body include various deep knee bends, countless versions of pushups, handstands, pull/chin-ups, plank holds, table makers, bridging, jumping rope, hill sprinting, crab walking, lunging, crunches, wall walks, etc., etc., etc. can seriously give you one helluva workout in a short amount of time that will build strength and cardiovascular endurance. - Fred Fornicola