Weeks 7 & 8
PreviewExercise, Level 3, Weeks 7 & 8
Goals
- Increase cardio exercise to 45 minutes
- Increase stretches
Adapting to New Exercise
Welcome back to Pain Free Lifestyle.
The new exercises that were introduced in the last 2 weeks were functional and involved many muscle groups. They are complex muscle motions that the body has to adapt to.
Play Exercise & Stretching Demonstrations
With that in mind, the last changes for Level 3 are going to minimal.
You are still going to be adapting to the changes form the last few weeks. So we don’t want to overload your body, muscles and joints. So for the last 2 weeks of Level 3, you are going to increase your cardiovascular exercise by 5 minutes.
And you are going to increase your stretching.
Increasing Your Cardio
With cardio, we want to slowly increase the duration of the time you spend doing the exercise. The more time spent doing cardio, the more calories are spent. But we can’t go from exercising for 20 minutes and jump to 40 minutes, without expecting some kind of adjustment issue.
To prevent pain and injury, you slowly increased the time of your cardiovascular exercise.
You are now ready to increase it by another 5 minutes, to 45 minutes.
This coupled with the varying intensities, will give you a very good cardio-vascular workout, 3 times a week.
Still focus on changing the intensities. The more you change them around, the more energy, and calories, you will burn.
New Stretches
The last change that we will make in Level 3 is changing around your stretches.
While it may not seem like much, stretching is just as important as cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength. And flexibility might be even more important.
If you aren’t flexible, then you can’t move.
That’s why it is appropriate to increase our stretching now. As your strength increases, you want to increase your flexibility.
This will increase the control that you have over your muscles, joints, and body.The more flexible you are, the less injury prone you will be.
I personally feel that flexibility is more important than strength or endurance.
Take your time with the new stretches. They are more intense, more complex and affect more muscle groups. They are more functional stretches than what you were doing before.
Take it to the point of where you feel a stretch, and hold it there. Don’t force it or bounce.
Have a Pain Free Day.
Thank you.
