The Olympics have started, and I am competing in something called the Rowlympics, with 8 different distances and times.
It’s good fun, so I thought, would our Strength & Flexibility community like to participate in something similar? Can all those Olympic athletes inspire us and do our own thing?
So I quickly put a draft of our Strength & Flexolympics games together! You can do your own workout in each category, or draw inspirations from our back catalogue. I put some example workouts at the bottom of the post, derived from many of our posts from our virtual workout buddies . So here we go:
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Strength & Flexolympics Games
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Everyone should be able to participate, all levels and forms of activity are welcome! Be creative but see if you can ‘compete’ in all 4 categories! !
And there will be a virtual award ceremony at the end! But we will use the chance and a throw of dice to identify the gold winner for our Strength & Flexolympics! Anyone having finished at least one workout per category will be eligible to be put into the draw! (Oh, the excitement!)
And I fear no real medals will be sent out, just a virtual award ceremony at the end of our Olympics, ending on the11 of August.
So below are our categories, and as long as you do a workout that fits into that category, you’re good for that category! Do all 4, and you might just win that virtual gold medal!
1) Strength
Do 2 sets of 10 repetitions of a movement that involves some kind of weights (e.g. dumbbells, bodyweight, baked bean can, sack of potatoes, etc) or do any workout focussing on strengthening parts of your body.
2) Flexibility
Do a 15-minute workout focussing on flexibility (e.g. yoga focussing on muscles and tendons, pilates, tai chi, stretching, etc)
3) Mobility
Do a 15-minute workout focussing on mobility (e.g. yoga focussing on joints or back, resistance bands, rollers)
4) Endurance
Do a 20-minute session at a somewhat elevated heart rate. (e.g. active walking, strong row, 30 min stepping.
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So post by reply here when you complete a category, and once all 4 categories are ticked off, let me know also by reply. You will then be entered into our raffle-gold-medal ceremony!
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Example Workouts and more information:
First, an explainer of the difference between flexibility and mobility can be found here: healthunlocked.com/strength...
1) Strength - Examples
My favourite dumbbell arms workout. It’s short but still counts towards this category, I’d say: healthunlocked.com/strength...
Any of the 10 min NHS Strength and Resistance Series are good and only need your body to bring in the weight. All are linked in this post: healthunlocked.com/strength...
Oldfloss really likes “Body fit with Amy” and I do as well. Here a seated dumbbell workout with weights (16 min) healthunlocked.com/strength...
Any of the “Workouts for Strength: @JonnyLewis ' Lockdown WOD” will do the trick, choose one from this lockdown series healthunlocked.com/strength...
2) Flexibility - Examples
Here is a Fiton Full Body Stretch on Youtube, and only 11 minutes! healthunlocked.com/strength...
Here a 23 min YWA session on leg flexibility: healthunlocked.com/strength...
And most yoga sessions will cater for flexibility, so why not head to our current Yoga mat and choose one workout from the YWA Calendar? healthunlocked.com/strength...
3) Mobility - Examples
I think Blackberrypie ’s shoe challenge should definitely be categorised as a mobility challenge! How good is your lower body mobility (and coordination)? Try this very fun challenge: healthunlocked.com/strength...
Try the lower back workout from YWA, which Oldfloss linked in her recent post. It’s only 15 min but very effective. healthunlocked.com/strength...
Here is a post with pictures for a whole roller workout. The video link stopped working a time ago, but the pictures are self-explanatory. I put it under mobility, specifically because of the 7th move, that of rolling your upper back. It made a huge difference to my whole posterior chain, so keep a roller handy nearby to release all sorts of tensions that inhibit your mobility! healthunlocked.com/strength...
4) Endurance - Examples
Step Aerobics is great for this, as advocated by our own ToothPickJafah , and it will get your heartbeat up! See ToothpickJava’s post linking to the whole beginner to 30 min series by Christine Dorner: healthunlocked.com/strength...
A 20-min of active walking outside will do the trick, but if you cannot leave the house, the next best thing might be some indoor walking workouts: healthunlocked.com/strength...
Some 5-Rhythms dancing will also practice your endurance for keeping active for a good time! This post explains what 5-Rhythms is and has some videos to dance to! And you can do 5-Rhythms on a chair or standing up, as it’s highly flexible healthunlocked.com/strength...
