Good morning, Roo Nation!

 

Last week, we shared with you some excellent information about aerobic fitness and some campus routes. Click here if you missed it! Hopefully, you took advantage of this past week's beautiful weather for your outdoor fitness.

 

Today we'd like to offer some suggestions of how you can incorporate some resistance work into your aerobic ROOtine!

 

The American Heart Association recommends strength and resistance training at least twice per week to strengthen bones, muscles and connective tissues (tendons and ligaments), lower the risk of injury, maintain a healthy weight through boosting your metabolic rate and improve your quality of life. Simple weight-bearing exercises that use your body's own resistance can satisfy this recommendation.

 

Here's some of our favorites to either celebrate the end of an intense cardio session or sprinkle throughout a longer, moderate cardio session. As with any exercise program, start wherever your current fitness level is! A good target would be 3 sets of ~8-12 reps for each exercise. Stop immediately if you experience pain, dizziness, light-headed or having trouble breathing.  

 

 

Knee Raises – for an extra challenge, after getting into the knee raise position, straighten the knee to extend the lower leg out before lowering it back to the ground.

Another variation of knee raises is raising the knee of the left leg up toward the right elbow and then repeat with opposite leg and elbow. This variation now also works the oblique muscles.   

 

Donkey Kicks – this short video shows the form of a standing donkey kick. Alternating legs turns this into an excellent walking exercise.

 

Have fun adding these into your cardio 'ROOtines! As always, be well. Stay safe, strong and practice social distancing. We will get through this!​