Alarm sounds at 5:13am. Out of bed at 5:26am. In the car by 5:42am. Ready to work out at 5:52am. Class starts at 6am. Sharp.
It does not feel like a great idea at 5:13 – I can tell you that unequivocally. In fact, it doesn’t seem like a good idea at 9pm the night before, which is why there was no blog posting on Monday. I decided to go to bed in preparation for the Tuesday 6am class.
Inevitably, getting out of bed early is worth the effort. Dressed and outside at 6am the world is looking fine. There was a waxing crescent moon hanging low over the west horizon on Tuesday morning. Today, just the thought of it being there helped get me out of bed. It wasn’t visible for the cloud cover. Still, I look forward to the next few weeks as it grows into a full moon.
Our 6am class is walking strength and balance with the emphasis on strength and balance, and walking as a way to get there. It’s a great total body workout that moves us out of the saggital plane which is where we do all of our marathon training. So, we work the muscles that move our bodies, arms, and legs sideways and rotationally instead of forward and back.
It’s better than just stretching because the strength and balance moves increase the range of motion around our joints – essentially the goal of stretching – while improving muscle tone.
And, in the WoW spirit, we get outside. It’s amazing how much we can do outside. I definitely look at stairs, railings, picnic tables, benches, parking meters, empty parking lots, hills, and curbs with a whole new level of interest and imagination!
You may not be able to join us on these early morning adventures but I encourage you to think about the outdoors as your strength training playground. Can’t think of what to do? Sit back, imagine you are five. Go play.
And don’t forget to come back and tell us about the fun you’ve had.
