It’s the beginning of snow season. Where I live in the Midwest, we are getting our first real snow fall of the year. Other parts of the country have already had thick or even paralyzing snowfalls. There’s also ice and fallen trees to contend with. Big problems that need to be cleared.
Snow means heart attack and back injury. That’s it. There really is nothing else to say. If you have to dig out your driveway or sidewalk, if you have to push the car off a patch of ice or out of a ditch, or just chasing the kids through snow – your heart is going to pound itself out of your chest, your back will tie itself up in knots, and every other muscle will cramp and pull.
What do you do? Well, even though you’ve got holiday plans and the “end of the year: wrapup at work, you MUST find time to get into condition.
The easiest and fastest way is to begin a daily 30 minute (work up to this if you’re out of shape) bodyweight exercise routine that focuses on the heart:
-squats. Lots of them and every day. The great thing about squats is that you can do sets of 50 or 100 several times during the day.
-pushups. Do Hindu pushups or divebombers, as these will stretch the back as well as strengthen.
-jumping jacks. Yep. The old elementary school staple. Do a lot of these, for aerobic and breathing improvement.
If nothing else will motivate you to start exercising right now, how about this: the number 5 reason people go to the ER during the holiday season is injuries from Christmas toys. The number 1 reason is heart attacks. I’d rather have my kids tease me about getting my finger pinched while setting up the bike, than remember Christmas as the day daddy died. Make this Christmas holiday full of the RIGHT memories.