HJNO May/Jun 2022

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS  I  MAY / JUN 2022 59 entirely to footwear. A jump rope is one of my favorite tools in any bag; it’s compact, lightweight, and extremely versatile to use in any setting with a smooth surface. There are also thousands of jump rope workouts that you can access on the internet. My fi- nal cardio tool is a medicine ball. I know, I know ... you’re saying they are heavy and not compact. Well, yes and no. Medicine balls have become more compact in the last few decades, and yes, they can get quite heavy, but they are one of my favor- ite ways to work up a sweat in the morning or after a long day on the road. It’s great for functional strength training as well as cardio. If you can find a concrete floor or wall to throw it against, you have found the holy grail. So, I always carry a durable, weight-appropriate medicine ball that has some bounce to it, so I get the benefit of throwing and catching it. If you need a little more guidance for workout ideas, there are plenty of apps out there that can help you in your quest to be more fit. Ladder, Nike Training Club, Map My Run, 7 Minute Workout, Apple Fitness, etc. Simply Google fitness apps, and you’ll be on your way to a new, improved you. So, if you haven’t figured out the angle of this article yet: life is short. Travel, explore, but you don’t need to wait for vacation time to engage in any of these workouts. They perform just fine before work in the morning or after a full day of phone calls from your desk. You simply need to make a commitment to yourself, take the first step, and ... do it. n Jerry Fontenot Special Correspondent to pack. So, an acceptable alternative is to use resistance bands. They’ve been around a long time, and I’ve used them through- out my playing career (more for warmups back then) and find them to be an accept- able alternative to weights. Find any jungle gym in the country or even in your hotel room, and you have enough anchors to supply resistance training for any level of workout you seek. Resistance bands come with handles, without handles, and with bars attached if you desire. They come in different sizes to fit around your ankles, around your body, and vertically to sur- round your body (picture da Vinci’s Vitru- vian Man). They come open-ended (so it’s essentially an elastic strip). They also come in different levels of resistance, allowing for appropriate resistance for beginners to experts and everything in between. Best of all, they are extremely compact and light- weight. Different lifts that I simulate are bench, incline bench, overhead press, lat pull-downs, internal and external rotation, squats, lunges, Romanian deadlifts (RDL’s), curls, and triceps extensions just to name a few. It’s really easy to Google different ideas for using resistance bands in training — try it! Cardio tools are just as important to my routine, and at my age, maybe they are a little more vital! A pair of running shoes, whether they be for distance, sprint work, trail hiking, off-road running, or salaman- der style for beach workouts, whatever my journey and destination dictate will make up the contents of a duffle bag devoted “Cardio tools are just as important to my routine, and at my age, maybe they are a little more vital! A pair of running shoes, whether they be for distance, sprint work, trail hiking, off-road running, or salamander style for beach workouts, whatever my journey and destination dictate will make up the contents of a duffle bag devoted entirely to footwear.”