I’m not kidding, I actually have exercises on this website I am not thrilled with. In fact, I do them at times, sometimes even often. Why on earth would I do this? After all, I write about having balanced, Functional Fitness. You would think there is no room for an exercise that doesn’t meet strict criteria.
Honestly, there is truly only one reason for this, and that reason is variety. Variety in an exercise program is a key component to keep motivated. Once you are stagnant and bored, you slip down the path to idleness. Variety is a huge weapon in the mental game.
Plus, some of these “less than awesome movements/exercises” are something others may enjoy. Now, if they were dangerous, I’d remove them. I have in the past. However, these exercises aren’t going to blow out your shoulder like suggesting you do Overhead Squats with a 200 pound barbell until you explode. Duck Walks and Frog Jumps, though, can be rough on your knees if you have issues there. Rowboats, and other “stomach type” exercises are just that – stomach exercises. They aren’t core exercises. Not only do they try to isolate stomach muscles, they can be hard on your back if you have a weak back or do too many at once.
The key to a successful Functional Fitness program (in my mind) is to offer great variety. Just because a particular exercise is not total body or core-centered, it doesn’t mean it can’t be part of the overall portfolio. Think of a 40 minute workout as your retirement portfolio (stick with me here). Small cap mutual funds are high risk/high reward. You wouldn’t want to invest solely in them, as you could risk losing all your hard earned money. However, if you combine them with medium and large cap, with foreign mutual funds, and with bonds, your overall portfolio will be stronger and will get you more reward for the same amount of risk you would have if you hadn’t invested a some small cap.
Clear? No?
The point is, these exercises won’t kill you, they will add variety, keep it more fun, still provide benefit, but not very much risk when done in small doses while mixed in with better exercises during the length of an overall workout.
There is only one more thing I want you to get out of this. If you don’t like any exercise….any exercise whatsoever…for any reason whatsoever, then don’t do it. Skip it and replace it with something else. We have like 400 to choose from, so don’t get hung up on it. Enjoy!
I have actually come to a sort of peace with the frog jump. When I first started K-Fit workouts, I despised them. Now that I have a few months worth of workouts under my belt, a few frog jumps like the ones I did today are actually kind of nice. Same thing with quad squats and overhead slosh tube spins. I agree with Pete that it is all about variety. I don’t want to be doing these exercises every day, but every couple of weeks they are nice to kind of shake things up.
I bet last year you never thought you’d say you had done Slosh Tube Spins! 🙂