Fast Feet! Easy to do and great for your legs

This is a great week. It's not that anything really special has happened, it's just one of those weeks where everything seems beautiful and good: the weather (even when it's raining), my kids (even when the are crying, my hubby (even though he was out of town).  I am definitely an optimist by nature, but I still enjoy weeks like this where I seem to be able to find happiness and pleasure in everything.

My little girl just turned 3 months old (and my son 2 years old); it's amazing how fast that time has gone. I am finally feeling like my body will let me do most of my martial arts moves again so now it's just working back up my endurance and strength. The great thing is that I know I can do it (just like you can), I just have to keep working on it, one workout at a time.

This week is about your legs. I use this exercise in every class as part of our warmup (and sometimes mixed into some agility training). So get ready for:

Fast Feet

This is me, 3 months after having my beautiful baby girl

Think of this exercise as jogging in place really fast and with really small movements.  Start with your feet together, belly in, head up. For your "fast feet", stay on the balls of your feet and only lift each foot up about an inch. Bend down into your legs making sure to not lift back up as you lift your feet up (don't bounce, stay low and steady). Next, you want to make sure to not waddle from side to side as you pick up your feet; think of your upper body staying totally stationary the entire time. This will isolate into your quads, inner thighs, and hip flexors. If you don't feel in working these areas, make sure your knees are bent, you're staying low, and you're not tipping side to side; from the top up you should hardly tell that you are moving your body at all. If you are having a hard time keeping still, try doing this in front of a mirror so you can watch your shoulders and keep them flat.

That's it!  Go for at least 30 seconds - 1 minute, building up to longer. To mix it up, try going out wide with your feet, keeping your movement the same as with your feet together.

Have fun with it!  Make "smoke" come off those feet from moving so fast!