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| | | Challenge yourself to reach a new level of fitness | | |
 | | Welcome to The Wall Street Journal Fitness Challenge with me, Jen Murphy. | | |
| 🎉 Congratulations! You've taken a first step to better fitness by signing up for The Wall Street Journal Fitness Challenge. I'm Jen Murphy, a former personal trainer and yoga instructor. I view fitness as the secret to moving better throughout life. That means training so I can pursue my favorite activities like surfing, snowboarding and trail running. My goal with The Wall Street Journal Fitness Challenge was to help motivate readers to improve their fitness by creating a program that was both fun and functional. I enlisted longtime NBA sports performance coach Arnie Kander to develop the workout. There's no one I know with more knowledge of body mechanics. Arnie designed this six-week program for people of all ages and fitness levels. It doesn't require equipment and can be performed anywhere, even in small spaces. —Jen Murphy | |
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| To get started: Test in by seeing how many steps you can take up and down in 20 seconds. - You can use a curb, a stair or any type of step around 7 inches in height. Practice the movement for a few reps to get used to it. For an idea on what it should look like, check out this video.
- When ready, go as fast as you can for 20 seconds, using whichever lead foot is natural. Wait two minutes and repeat with the other foot to get a comparison. My step count was dramatically lower leading with my non-dominant foot.
- Each week you'll receive an email with a new workout aimed at improving your number of steps, as well as tips on nutrition, core training and recovery. Each new workout should be done two to three days a week.
Stop for a moment and record your current step count. At the program's end, you'll retake your 20-second test and compare. | |
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 | | The program's designer, Arnie Kander, center, is joined by a pair of elite athletes for his demonstration: distance runner Nell Rojas, left, and climber Lynn Hill, right. PHOTO: DANIEL BRENNER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL | | |
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| Your coach, Arnie Kander, spent 25-plus years working with NBA teams, including the Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves. The 20-second step-up became his gold standard for measuring an athlete's baseline level of fitness. For The Wall Street Journal Fitness Challenge, you'll hear from him and other athletes, including Nell Rojas, an elite marathoner, and Lynn Hill, one of the best female climbers in the world and the first person to free-climb the Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Together, we'll all complete a dynamic warm-up, core-strength series, cooldown and six weeks of workouts designed to improve your step count. You don't need to be a pro athlete to gain benefits from this workout. At the end of the program, Arnie says, you'll see a noticeable difference in how you walk, go up steps, sit and squat. | |
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| Arnie, along with our expert panel, including Andrew Jagim, director of sports medicine research at Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wis., Miriam Morey, a professor emeritus of medicine who specializes in exercise and aging at Duke University, and Michael Rogers, a professor in human performance studies at Wichita State University, are here to help throughout the challenge. Look out for expert tips on how to stay motivated and apply your gains to a new set of functional fitness goals. | |
| You'll receive your first email tomorrow! We can't wait to get started with you. Good luck! This series was originally published in January 2021. | |
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| By participating in this workout challenge, you acknowledge that the workout could be strenuous. You should consult a physician before proceeding. By submitting photographs, video, text, or other material ("Content") to Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, you agree that Dow Jones has the perpetual right to use, publish, and modify the Content in any medium now known or hereinafter developed and that Dow Jones can credit you by name if it publishes your Content. You represent and warrant that (a) you own the rights to the Content you submit, (b) the Content does not infringe any third party's rights, (c) the Content has not been altered and does not convey a false impression, and (d) any information you submit about the Content is accurate. You also agree to the Subscriber Agreement and Terms of Use, located here. | |
