Learning From Olympians

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Learning With Olympians: Arlene Limas

Olympic gold medalist Arlene Limas demonstrates elements from her fitness routine that can be used in an everyday workout.

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Jumping, kicking, punching -- the sorts of quick, full-range plyometric movements that helped Limas fend off her brothers and her competitors in Seoul -- call those fibers into play.

The warm-up for a typical training session at Limas's studio, for example, includes sets of five jumps, knees as high to the chest as possible.

There are bouts of stair running -- not interminably long climbs, but quick bursts up only seven or eight steps. Limas's students might go one step at a time at first, then do two or three at a clip to extend the leg as in a kick. They hop up the stairs as well: up two, then down one, in a forward-and-back pattern that requires body control to complement leg strength. It can be done with intensity, of course, but anybody with a staircase at home can use this piece of "equipment" as they wish by walking a bit faster at first, for example, and trying to gradually increase speed.

And there is kicking (lots of kicking), an activity that seems intuitive to kids but gets forgotten somewhere along the path to civilized adulthood.

To watch Limas's students kick a target is to understand how little kicking has to do with the legs and how much it has to do with balance and coordination in the rest of the body. To feel them do it (holding a practice pad and bracing for the impact) is to realize just how much power a 120-pound high school girl can generate when she puts her mind and hips into it.

But here's the key: A kick needn't be black-belt quality to help with balance, muscle control and other things we'd like to hold onto as we grow older. You can do a simple two-step exercise lying on your back: "raise" the knee to hip level, then extend the foot. You can progress to doing the same with one hand on a wall or chair for balance, before letting go altogether. Start slowly, but try to make the kick quicker as you get used to the motion.

When you're ready to make contact, have a partner hold a pillow or cushion at hip level, facing the ground. While kicking air is fine, actually hitting something is good for the bones and ligaments and muscles (and maybe the soul as well).

Limas builds those sorts of adaptations into her classes as needed. Roughly a third of her 400 students are adults, many of them beginners who have taken up taekwondo to support or participate alongside their children.

With the bloody spectacle of extreme fighting now so common on television, the idea of pursuing martial arts for everyday fitness might seem distasteful.

It would be wrong to draw that parallel. Across the spectrum of fighting sports, there is a large number of styles. Each has its own ethic and emphasis -- from boxing to the close-contact of Israeli Krav Maga to the spinning and rolling of Japanese aikido.

Even tai chi, practiced most commonly as a slow, meditative set of movements, is at its root a martial art.

Some styles use more kicking, some more punching, some more grappling or other techniques. All share this: They are great exercise, both physical and mental, that call on your body to move in ways and directions that you'll never experience on a piece of cardio equipment. And though they might seem exotic or even dangerous, a good teacher can safely train students of any level.

And, to our point, any age.