what goes on, must come off

Readers of this blog know I am a huge fan of the recipes I find in my inbox from Bon Apétit, Martha Stewart, and the New York Times. They offer amazing distraction from what I should probably be doing at my desk. Along with an influx of news items, I receive not only recipes but links to articles on home improvement, travel, flower arranging, wine insight, and self-improvement. I find these are more than simply a diversion, they often enhance my life.

The biggest “buzz” I’ve gotten from one such article was a link in the New York Times from their smarter living section on H.I.I.T. I had absolutely no idea what this stood for because I obviously had never done it, but it means “high intensity interval training”. The article said that if you do short spurts of intense exercise it is the same as running for 45 minutes. Well this certainly peaked my interest. I looked through some of the workouts listed and there was no way in hell that I could or would ever do many of them. But one stood out. It was a seven-minute workout of twelve different exercises that you do for 30 seconds each with a 10 second break in between.

I was out in California when I got this particular email. After reading the entire article I decided to give it a shot. Right then and there I stood up from my desk (we have an open layout in our house out in CA so you can see almost every room from any vantage point) and got to work. Well, my husband and my dog thought I had lost my mind. When I was through and completely out of breath I tried to explain what I was up to. You see I can do almost anything for seven minutes. And with a few tweaks to the exercise line-up to accommodate some of my joint issues I was set.

Faithfully I have done this routine every day for the past month. Photo alert- there will be no photos of me doing these. I recommend you either google them or better yet take them to a trainer at a gym or to your physical therapist. It’s also a very good idea to run it by your doctor, which I did when I returned to Ohio. (The last thing you want to do is hurt yourself while attempting to get in shape, something I did last spring from a stationary bike accident.)

One thing that was missing from this routine was stretching. I’m horrible at remembering to stretch. So I scheduled a session with my good friend and trainer, Patrick Przyborowski, who owns Practice Pilates in Dayton. We went through the exercises to make sure I was doing them correctly and then he came up with seven minutes of stretches for me.

Now every morning I wake up, turn on the news and get to work. Willie and Dave still think I’m nuts, but I gotta say I feel great!

The 7-Minute Workout

30 seconds each exercise, rest 10 seconds in between

Jumping Jacks
Wall Sit
Plank
Abdominal Crunches
Side Lunge
Squats
Double Leg Stretch (hat off)
Shoulder Bridge
High Knees, Running in Place
Alternating Lunges
Hip Twist
Side Plank, each side

Stretches

30 seconds each

Mermaid side stretch
Spine twist
Forward flexion
Flexion with rotation
Breast stroke prep
Hip flexor stretch
Shoulder bridge with arms tucked under
Rollup