Jump around, jump around!

So the title of this post is supposed to refer to the lyrics to House of Pain's Jump Around. It has been in my head all morning. I actually just looked at the lyrics and they are a lot more involved than I remembered, I was pretty sure 'jump' was just repeated over and over again, but alas that is not the case [if you now are interested here is the link to the lyrics: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/jumparoundlyrics.html].

Ok so the theme for this Tuesday is jumping.  No, I didn't spend my morning jumping, I did Derek's spin class per usual. The workout was great and he is running the marathon on Monday so we talked about that for awhile. As always, a couple people in class did the whole "GASP YOU ARE RUNNING 26.2 MILES?!?!" routine and I loved his response. He goes "running is relative, once you run 1, you run 5, once you run 5, 15 comes easily, and from there you just end up finishing 26.2 miles. Running is natural for the human body." I knew I liked him. Anyway, best of luck to him! I love Marathon Monday, such an accomplishment for those who participate and fun for the whole city of Boston.

During spin class I was thinking a lot about different exercises that I can add to my routine [I should have been focusing but we all have those moments]. My body is used to a lot of variety, including running, spinning, stairs, lifting etc.. Being a heptathlete in college made me crave variety in terms of life-long exercise, thus why my bout for distance running was rather brief. Once your body is accustomed to so many types of exercise, it can be difficult to get results from your workout routine. You have to constantly keep your body guessing and stimulate different muscle groups to continue to achieve the results you want. My opinion is that you should be sore after every workout, if you aren't sore, you need to change it up and increase the intensity. Having said that, the better in shape you are, the harder it is to work yourself to the point of soreness every workout.

My solution? JUMPING! I use the term 'jump' rather liberally, I think this can include jumprope, squat jumps, mini hurdle drills, burpees, and the list continues. The point is, get your body moving in a ballistic motion. It will challenge you in a way that running or cycling cannot, and if you are looking for fat loss this can definitely do the trick. Add in some agility and you are money, lateral movement does the body wonders. My favorite agility drills use ladders, but if you don't have access you can do any of these movements without a ladder or mini hurdles and use your imagination a bit more.

Now that my foot is well on its way to being 100% healthy, I am psyched to start jumping again! I have done a few bouts of jumproping, but I am really looking forward to a variety of jump squats/split squats in the gym and using the stadium stairs, in addition to any sort of agility exercise I can get my hands on. I really just want to be part of football preseason for awhile, I feel like that would do the trick [without the pads and the hitting]. It is supposed to be great weather on Thursday so if I can get out of work on time I am hoping to make it over to the Harvard facilities and get on the track or the stadiums stairs. You can find loads of jumping/agility routines on the internet, so if you need some ideas just visit our good friend google.

Jump!!!