Advice to improve your movement, fitness, and overall health from the world's #1 in orthopedics.
Workout Basics: An Exercise Routine Inspired by Your Fifth-Grade Gym Class
Learn more about exercise basics with this foundational workout program from HSS strength and conditioning specialist Jimmy Russomano.
Advice to improve your movement, fitness, and overall health from the world's #1 in orthopedics.
Turns out your elementary school gym teachers knew what they were doing. Those gym class exercises you loved (or hated) as a kid were actually working your core, helping your stability and increasing your heart rate. "You might not have known the benefits you were getting from gym class, but most workouts for kids pull from the primary five categories for sports training: movement prep, core stability, lower extremity stability, plyometrics and agility," says Jimmy Russomano, MS, CSCS, manager of education for the Injury Prevention Programs at HSS.
They also form a solid basis for a foundational workout you can do as an adult. Go through this routine to warm up before more rigorous activity or repeat the entire series several times for a total body workout. “After doing all of these exercises, you’ll be a bit sweaty, a little fatigued and your legs could be tired,” says Russomano. “Repeat the exercises or go onto something different. It’s perfect for priming your body and mind and warming up before running, tennis, basketball or another sport.”
Russomano recommends doing each exercise for 30 seconds to one minute based on the amount of time you have. “If you have five minutes, do each exercise for 30 seconds — that’s between five and 10 reps. If you have 10, 15, or 20 minutes, go through the entire workout three times, or spend a little more time on each exercise. The more times you do it, the more challenging it will be.”
Published 1/22/2021
