Month #1 - Week #3 - Coordination

Month #1 Week #3

Our Monthly Attribute for December is: Flexibility

Welcome to the third week of December! Our entire monthly focus has been centered around the attribute of Flexibility.

As we continue to work on developing our own personal routine for daily Flexibility, we should be starting to see some real results. Remember… Consistency is paramount! Remember as well, that we’re looking at gentle effort over longer periods of time. There is no hurry here, we’re in this for the long haul and small, regular, consistent progress is safe progress. Whether this is a morning routine, an evening routine, or something after your workout, lets see if we can’t engage this attribute on all or most of our days from this point forward. This is an important attribute and worthy of our time and effort.

As a special focus on Flexibility this week three, we will again:

• Start each session with some dynamic mobility movements.
• Pay special attention throughout class on movement quality and note deficiencies requiring special attention. 
• End each session with Yoga inspired movements with a mind towards individual modifications as needed.

Our Weekly Attribute for Week #3 is: Coordination

I do not believe our loss of coordination as we age is as much of a physiological one as it is due to lack of use. Unfortunately, those of us over the age of 55 seldom engage the two most significant areas to consider regarding the development and maintenance of coordination:

1. When we first learn new movements or skills to accomplish a new task or job (after the task is learned, muscle memory takes over and it’s really not that much of a matter of coordination) 
2. When we challenge ourselves by participating in various forms of play!

This week, therefore will be filled with opportunity to test our coordination. Plenty of hand/eye coordination opportunities including an introduction to juggling, an introduction to the casual past time of “Hackey Sack” and some different moves on the gym floor and along with our agility ladders.

Your "Lifestyle Application" of Coordination

You can easily include activities that use quick hand/eye movements and tasks that require unique stepping patterns:

• Any of the racquet/paddle games like Ping Pong, Tennis, Racquetball or Baseball
• Hackey Sack - Give it some time and you’ll understand why so many young people are attracted to it… (BTW - It is an exceptionally social endeavor).
  
• Dancing! - Be it ballroom, jazz, tap, polkas or line dancing. You can even include Tai-Chi sessions in this category. Most forms of dancing will challenge your coordination and keep you sharp.
• Juggling - Obviously not for everyone but… Wouldn’t it be fun to learn?
• Learn Magic - While this too is a little unique, perhaps you’d always wanted to try it? Many have found this to be a rewarding and enjoyable pastime or hobby.

Here too, I'm sure there are many more ways to work on developing and/or maintaining our coordination and I'd LOVE to hear any of your additional recommendations.

Our Three Daily Attributes This Week

Our challenge here will again, without question, be one of time management! So much to get to!

• On Monday (day 1), we also have a double dose of Coordination  since it is both the Weekly and Daily attribute. I will try and fit some moves involving coordination while we work on both our strength AND cardiorespiratory portions of the workout.
• On Wednesday (day 2), We will touch on the attribute of Balance. There will be more drills with the agility ladder and we will be testing our balance on different surfaces (be prepared to be challenged with our eyes closed for a portion of it)
• On Friday (day 3) - So, what do we do when both the weekly and daily attribute is Stamina? We’ve yet to talk about this attribute but I can tell you that this will entail some longer effort strength movements (and a pretty good chance of being sore the next day… Glad it’s on a Friday!).