Today’s heart healthy workout can also increase flexibility and mobility in the body too. This is a fun walking workout that includes foam rolling. Well, actually we’ll be using a rolling pin, but this tool really enhances flexibility.
Walking’s easy, and it’s one of the most enjoyable forms of fitness, especially when the weather’s nice, but While walking is less likely to get missed. The stretching that is recommended after a workout often does.
While you may love how stretching feels, lot’s of times it gets missed because you just run out of time to do it or you may even feel like you’ve already spent as much time as you can on fitness and need to get on with your day. (You have a life after all and you don’t want to spend every waking second working out).
The problem is, stretching is vital after 50, because muscles lose elasticity with age.
Mobility decreases, and the body feels constricted. Not only does this increase your risk of muscle strains and tears, but it also increases your risk of falls.
So today we’ll be rolling. This technique is known as Myofascial release. It not only stretches out tight and knotted muscles, but it also smoothes out the casing of the muscles known as fascia.
Around the muscles there is a thin casing much like the casing that holds in the meat of a sausage. When this casing gets tight, it constricts muscle movement and causes a stiff body and reduced range of motion around the joints. It’s so important to include both muscular stretching and fascial stretching for your best range of motion, flexibility and mobility. It just so happens that rolling does just that.
In between rolling, you’re going to work your heart too, and burn some extra calories because we’ll include some fun walking.
It’s a win, win!
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For this exercise you’ll need a rolling pin, a chair and two feet, that’s it.
Let’s get started
If you’re just getting back to fit after 50, do this exercise once, if you’ve been working out for a while, do up to 3 sets.