Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The New Cardio

I took my son to the gym for two hours so that we can practice basketball. For me, this is a great way to work out without the monotony. I get to run, jump, move laterally, change direction a lot, everything. What I also did today was that every 15 minutes, I jumped rope for 1.5 minutes at a good clip. Then I grabbed two weighted bars like the ones they use for aerobics and walked around for 5 laps around the court holding them behind my back, in front, and overhead: I used a 30 lbs and a 24 lbs bar, for a total of 54 lbs. Then I put down the bars and ran around the court for 3 laps as fast as I could stand. I did 5 of those.

The bars didn't feel heavy, per se. But walking around at a brisk pace with the extra weight really taxed my breathing, and the runs just finished me off. Makes me wonder how much better off I would feel at a much lighter weight. I'll be doing these on my off days when I'm in the gym, maybe even on the track.

I had my son run with a Jump Stretch green ("average")band around his waist, both forward and backward, to improve his running speed and push off. Basically he ran for dear life while I trailed behind him at a much slower rate of speed. He loved that so much (hard as it was) he wanted to see me do it. I thought what's one more killer thing (you should have seen his face turn beet red). Problem was, he couldn't hold me back or the band for long, so I got smacked across the back real good when the band snapped right into me. He wants to try this with the sled, so expect to see me doing those real soon, too.

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