Improve your cardio and boost energy (Day 17)

You get a choice today: hills or stairs



Notes for stairs:  Find a nice set of stairs (without too many people using them) and go up them at a good pace. Recover on the way down by taking each step slowly. If you start to feel light headed at any point stop.



Notes for hills/hiking: This doesn’t mean you need to upend your day and drive off into the countryside. All you need is a hill to use that has a good enough path for going up and down. And up and down.



Be careful on the “down” part because this can lead to strains. You’ll be getting plenty of work on the way up, and going down is your way to recover. If you’re in the middle of the Prairies where hills don’t exist, there are always stairs or treadmills at steep inclines (walk up for five minutes, down for 1-2).



You should be getting better at this stuff now, so you should quest for a higher performance than your last outing. If you’ve brought a friend along to encourage him/her be sure to feed off their energy and accomplishments as well. Motivate one another and don’t let each other off too easily. A solid high five at the end (no matter how cheesy) always makes everyone feel better!



When you get home, do some more practice with sitting on your exercise ball, and practice balancing while maintaining good form. Remember that the ball is not intended to be used for extended periods of time for sitting.