Mom's Workout

MOM has continued her efforts in circuit training. She did very well with a single circuit completion time of 6 minutes 12 seconds. She completed the circuit three times. Her goal is to complete five circuits in as little time as possible. Dad thinks she can do it in 20 minutes.

One circuit consists of 10 repetitions of each of the following:

1. Step Stool. Using one leg, Mom steps up onto a step stool set at a height of 17.5" and then, before locking her leg upright, she lets herself back down. After ten reps, she repeats this with the opposite leg. She does not bounce, but raises herself at half the speed she climbs stairs.



She is doing it right when she down low, like this.

2. Speed Skate. Standing with her feet nearly as wide apart as possible, with her toes pointed out at a 45 degree angle, she takes her right hand, bends over, and touches her left toe, bending her knee to get as low as possible. She then shifts her weight and takes her left hand and touches her right toe, again bending the other knee as deeply as possible. The opposing hand is thrust up behind her for balance. While "skating" back and forth, she never comes fully upright, but does look ahead as a speed skater needs to do while circling the track at 30 m.p.h. This maximizes time under tension.
3. Michale Jordan. This is a jump, straight up, from a squatting position where her rear is inches from the ground. When she lands, she immediately continues downward into the squatting position. The name comes from the story (myth?) that this is what MJ did while training with the Bulls basketball team.
4. Burpees. Mom does a modified version currently, but will soon add a push up while on the floor and an jumping jack while upright. The model at the video forgoes the jumping jack in favor of a simple jump. These are the best all body exercise Dad has found outside of the water. They engage the upper-body, lower-body and abdomen.
5. Elbow to Knee Crunches. Mom does this excercise but does not allow her self to support her head with her hands. Instead she "punches" her fists against her ears. Also, her head never touches the ground and neither do her feet.
6. Leg Crunches. Mom does not bring her legs to completely vertical like the model in the picture at the link. Instead, in order to keep tension on her torso, she only lifts them to about 45 degrees off of the ground, and then lowers them to the ground, but does not allow her feet to touch the ground. It is this time under tension that yields the best and fastest results. And really, who wants to spend more time doing this than they have to?
7. River Dance. So named after the Irish form of dancing made popular by Michael Flatly. This is similar to a jumping jack, but her arms are held rigidly to her sides. After 10 jumps with her legs splaying in and out from her at right angles, she does 10 more where she alternates thrusting one foot ahead and one foot behind her. Soon she will add actual Irish dance forms to this part of the routine.

She does all of this as fast as possible while maintaining good form. In between each exercise, instead of sitting down or standing around to re-oxygenate her blood, she jogs in place. She takes the phrase "train insane or stay the same," seriously.

On the day before the circuit, Mom works on her upper body strength. She curls free weights, does butterflies, pulls up overhand and underhand on the chin up bar, starts the lawnmower (with 10 lbs. in her hand!), pulls free weights into her armpits, and then pushes them up over her head.

Please congratulate her on her efforts and, if she declines to stand up for a few days, please understand why.