I don’t mean to rain on Amy’s parade and I think it is great that she is excited about this new exercise program she has found. There are lots and lots and lots of fun exercise programs out there, many of which will do a great job of getting you into better shape. This particular program she has chosen, however, is fraught with problems.
1) Fitness professionals have long maintained that sit-ups are NOT a safe exercise. There is a point in the movement where all except those with incredible ab strength use the hip flexor muscles rather than the abs to lift the upper body. It is just as good for your abs to get to that point where they can’t move your body any more on their own, then return to the floor. This is call the crunch and is a far safer exercise, particularly if your lower back is already prone to injury.
2) Burpees may be fine for high school students with young knees, but anyone past the age of 30 should be very careful to strengthen the knees with other exercises before attempting repeated burpees. They involve a greater bend in the knees than is generally regarded as safe for most people.
3) For many people, push ups can be very irritating on the shoulder joint. There are many exercises that involve lifting a lighter weight than your body weight that should be done to build shoulder strength before attempting repeated push ups. This is particularly true if you are more than 30 pounds overweight, as a push up would be equivalent to bench pressing maybe 50 or 60 pounds, which I don’t think you would attempt the first time out to the gym.
4) It is generally accepted in the fitness community that the most effective way to do strengthening exercises is slowly. Once you put speed into the equation, you begin using alternative, stronger muscles, to complete the exercise, rather than carefully exercising the muscles the exercise was designed to target. And moving slowly is even more important if you are carrying more than 30 pounds of excess weight, because your joints are already under a lot of strain just doing the exercise, even without attempting to move quickly.
5) This exercise routine is a stamina building routine. Building stamina is quite a ways down the continuum of getting into shape. First you want to make sure you have the core strength to move your body in a safe and effective way. Then you want to build a base of overall body strength. Once you have this base built, you work on increasing the strength and endurance of all the muscles. Finally you are at a point to begin working on power and stamina. That whole process could take years and some may never reach the end phase of stamina and power training.
And this is in addition to building aerobic endurance, which you do through your walking, running, biking, swimming, etc.
Please, all of you, remember that just because a workout felt like a “killer workout” does not mean it was a safe workout or a workout that is appropriate for you.
Yeah, I haven’t even tried to do that workout because I know it wouldn’t go well for me. Part of the aerobic video I do includes burpees and I only do a couple of them, much slower than they do, and one leg at a time. I don’t do pull ups or push ups or sit ups or anything that seems like it’s a strain on anything.
I’m enjoying feeling muscles strengthening with what I’m doing, working on my cardio work to get my heart working more strongly, but not hurting myself. It feels really good.
I want to talk again sometime about doing more free weights lifting. The little I’m getting every couple days in the morning seems like just a nibble of a taste and I’d like to be doing a little bit more.
Love ya!