Whether you’re just getting started, or have been forced to switch up your normal fitness routine during the COVID-19 pandemic, this map will help you target four important types of exercise:
Endurance
Your goal: Increase your breathing and heart rate with aerobic activity.
- Treadmills: Try walking briskly on a comfortable incline or lightly jogging.
- Stationary bikes: Pedal while maintaining a steady but increased heart rate.
Balance
Your goal: Improve your balance
to prevent falls, which is a common
risk for older adults.
-
Mats: Practice standing on
one foot, then the other.
Or try holding a side plank
for 15 seconds on each side.
Flexibility
Your goal: Stretch your muscles to give
you more freedom of movement.
- Mats: Take time to focus on stretching all areas
of your body.
- Yoga poses: Practicing a few basic poses can
help stretch your muscles and increase your
range of motion.
Strength
Your goal: Make your muscles stronger
by lifting weights.
- Free weights: Start with
two light weights as
you practice bicep curls,
shoulder presses, and
tricep extensions.
- Mats: Try working against
your own body weight
with lunges or squats. You
may also use a stability
ball, which can help with
core exercises.
“The most comment sports injuries we see tend to involve the knees and shoulders,” says local orthopedic surgeon, Kenneth Edwards, MD. “There are some really common-sense approaches to injury prevention that very often the recreational athlete will ignore. One is spending enough time on flexibility and the other is building up a level of endurance and not over doing it.”