How to Get into Shape: Enjoy Yourself

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Outside Magazine, May 2005

Bodywork: The Play's the Thing
The Seven-Minute Workout

By Ted Spiker

Play all day and you'll certainly end up in excellent shape. But if you want to make the jump from mere sporting enthusiast to bona fide expert, you need muscle—the kind that comes from weight lifting. Well, we've got good news for the gymophobic among you: The world's best integrated-strength machine just happens to be your own flesh and blood. With our full-body regimen, developed by Nancy Cummings, a certified athletic trainer and research scientist at the National Training Center, in Clermont, Florida, you'll develop all the strength, balance, and flexibility you need to thrive. >> THE POWER MIX: Since this workout takes less than ten minutes, you can do it every other morning before breakfast.


	(Illustration by Jonathan Carlson)

Lie facedown with your forearms and palms on the ground parallel to your body, arms close to your torso. Keeping your legs, hips, chest, and head in a straight plane, push yourself up onto your elbows and slide yourself back as far as you can, then slide your body forward as far as possible. Start with ten reps, progress to 15.



	(Illustration by Jonathan Carlson)

Lie facedown with hands at the sides of your chest, palms down. Keeping legs, hips, torso, and head straight, push your body up, extending your right arm upward and rolling your torso 90 degrees so that your right arm points to the sky and your chest is perpendicular to the floor. Twist back, placing your right palm on the ground, and lower until your chest barely scrapes the floor. Repeat, twisting to the left side for one rep. Start with ten reps, progress to 15.



	(Illustration by Jonathan Carlson)

Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Interlock your hands over your chest, elbows out, then raise your torso to a 45-degree angle. Twist to the left until your elbow touches the ground, then twist 180 degrees to the right so that your other elbow does the same. Do ten reps.


	(Illustration by Jonathan Carlson)

Imagine you're standing in the center of a horizontal clock. Lunge forward with your right leg until your right thigh is parallel to the ground and pointing to 12 o'clock. Return to the start position and lunge with the same leg to three o'clock, then backwards to six o'clock. Next, with your left leg, lunge backwards to six o'clock, then nine, and, finally, forward to the 12 o'clock position. Do the circuit six times.

TED SPIKER is a fitness writer and an associate professor of journalism at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

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