Expert: Ken Alan - 12/19/2009

Question
Hello, Mr Alan.

I'm writing a story where the main character is supposed to do exercise to stay fit. But then it hit me - not being a sports person myself - I might be blundering with her training program. Could you take a look over it and see if there are major problems that would make a more sports-knowledgeable reader cringe?

Basically, it's a woman in her early twenties, lean and generally fit (long-time horse-rider and used to an active life in the countryside, including some gardening and lots of walking to places, rather than driving). At a certain point, someone tries to teach her to fight and starts by giving her a program to up her strength and resistance.

The program is basically warm-up exercises with stretching and the works, jogging/running and strenght exercises with crunches/sit-ups (I'm not a native speaker and I haven't been able to gauge the difference between the two terms, I'm afraid) and variations (twisting the body to touch elbow and knee, etc) and with push-ups and variations (like hanging from a metal bar and pulling oneself up).

I had decided no to mention number of repetitions and the like, nor mention the specific exercises she'd be doing, since it's not really important to show those details, only that she's training and improving in shape and strength.

Moreover, she's supposed to do the warm-up, running, crunches and push-ups every day. I've since realised that there should be 24 h intervals for the muscles to recover and changed the first intensive training sessions for every two days. However if she does a small number of repetitions everyday - not enough to really tire, just to break a light sweat - would it be ok as maintenance exercise?

I hope you can help and don't cringe too much at the program yourself.
Sara

Answer
Yes she could do a small number of repetitions daily as a warm-up.  But if she is just starting training, push-ups and pull-ups may not be likely as a warm-up exercise because they can be very hard to do depending on your initial strength.  They could become a part of warm-up exercises after she has developed strength (a few months time).