Old-Man Bodyweight Warm-up and Off-Day Workout | Diet and Exercise | Real Life Fitness | PhitZone

Bodyweight workouts keep things fresh!

What do you do on your day off?

Guest post by Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS, CTT

Turbulence Training

This article is long overdue.

Today I want to talk about the best off-day workouts you can do between hard sessions of Turbulence Training.

In most cases, simply walking, biking, hiking, stretching/easy yoga, and easy bodyweight exercises are all good enough off-day activities.

Doing 500 kettlebell swings and 200 pushups on an off-day might be fine once in a while for an advanced person, but in reality, that is not an off-day. That’s a workout.

The 5 true purposes of off-day activity are:

1) For health (if your life is sedentary, i.e. desk job + commute + sitting down leisure time), then you simply need to get up and get moving for 30 minutes each day at a minimum.

If you are a manual laborer who walks 3+ miles per day or does 1+ hour of moderate activity (lifting boxes, etc), then you really don’t need to obsess about off-day activity – stretching, foam rolling and massage, and meditation are probably best for your health.

We’re not trying workout on our off-days. We’re just trying to improve our general health and well-being.

2) Mobility (aka TT Yoga) – In many cases, we can do low-intensity bodyweight exercises and mobility drills to fix our bodies.

This includes foam rolling, simple torso (ab endurance exercises), shoulder mobility drills, hip mobility drills, moderate bodyweight exercises, and stretching. This will not qualify as a workout, but will get you a bit of a sweat going.

And there are some cool new bodyweight exercises in this program:

Turbulence Training

Combined with walking, mobility exercises – such as those found in my “Old Man Warm-Up” would be an excellent way to spend 45 minutes each day.

3) Enhanced recovery from past workouts and preparation for future workouts – same movements as above but this is a different benefit.

By doing light activity, we get blood flow to the sore areas and this might help recovery, decreasing soreness and getting us ready for our next training session.

4) Social time with family and friends and errands – Incorporate light activity into your daily life. Take the dog for a longer walk, meet your friends for a walk, play extra long with the kids

outside, or do your errands by foot rather than by car. Heck, walk around a shopping mall and people watch.

5) Relaxation – Unplug. Go for a walk without a phone, ipod, or in my case, a portable CD player. (Yes, I have one and I use it regularly.) Let your mind wander as your body wanders.

That said, what I do on my off-days is something that I call my “Old Man Warm-up”, that I also do before all of my hard workouts.

It lasts about 25 minutes, and in the list below I’ve added a few other exercises to give you a little extra sweat without stealing from your recovery.

The Old-Man Warm-Up/Off-Day Activity Session

• Foam rolling: Upper back, lats, upper back/posterior deltoid, TFL, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, adductors, hamstrings, glutes.
• Acuball rolling: calves, glute, biceps (i have a sore left biceps).
• This takes about 5-10 minutes. I’ll make a video of 1 & 2 soon.

Then I move into a bodyweight circuit.

• Cross-body arms (also called X’s in some manuals)
• Bodyweight squat
• Bird Dog or Bird Dog with Leg Abduction
• Glute squeeze
• Plank or side plank or ball plank or bird-dog plank
• Band pull (done 4 times at various points in circuit)
• Overhead lunge (using broomstick)
• 1-Leg RDL
• Stick-up
• Chest stretch, shoulder stretch
• Psoas/hip flexor stretch
• Downward dog stretch (hips up position)
• Cossack lunge
• Yoga Pigeon stretch
• Stability Ball Leg Curl – 10 reps
• Pushup – 25% of max reps
• 1-leg lying hip extension
• Chin-up – 25% of max reps
• Spiderman Climb with 3-second hold at top
• Forearm stretches
• Neck/trap stretches
• Leg swings
• Total Body Extension – 10 reps

I hope this off-day activity guide clarifies the purpose and recommendations for these days.

Add a little gratitude and meditation for bonus karmic points and you’ll feel like you’ve done something without doing too much.

Keep rocking,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS, CTT

Turbulence Training

Photo: Gregory Runyan

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