Fresh: Cardio 1

This week, I’m going to talk about refreshing our cardio exercise.

When most of us think about the gym, what we think of are those long rows of treadmills and other cardio machines.  We think:  boring.  We think:  I can think of so many other ways to spend half an hour or more.

 

Good news:  cardio doesn’t have to involve any of those machines unless we want it to.

 

Literally anything that gets our heart rates up for a reasonable amount of time counts as cardio.  So, yes, helping your cousin move definitely counts.  The kind of yard work many of us need to do at this time of year in which we have to haul a bunch of new dirt and compost for the garden and we make 500 or so trips to the green bin to dump in weeds and other stuff we’re clearing out counts.  Pretty much anything that involves heavy lifting counts.

 

If our lives don’t happen to involve any of those above activities, we still have lots of non-machine things to choose from, including a bunch of sports and other outdoor activities.

 

A couple of rubrics:  keep it fun, get breathless, and do it often!

Monday Workout: They Get Easier

Yes, we are doing burpees this week.  They never get easier if we never do them.  Three rounds.

 

woodchoppers	30
good mornings/deadlifts	20
burpees	10
db kicks	30
Bulgarian split squat	20
hip rotations	10
1 arm clean & press	30
rows	20
plank to pike	10

 

Fresh: 4

Fresh mindsets come in many flavors.  Here are a couple to taste!

 

1.     The power of “yet.”  As in “I can’t do that YET.”  This opens up possibilities!

2.     What did I learn?  I just tried something new and it was hard and it didn’t go the way I wanted it to.  What do I take away from this?  Maybe I want to keep trying; maybe once was enough.

3.     Where’s the fun?  Not that many experiences are 100% awful.  I mean, even going into labor gets to the part where you have a baby at the end.  Burpees may not be fun to do, but they are fun to brag about later.

4.     Make your own.  Yep:  you are powerful and can use your big brain to transform yourself in any direction that occurs to you!

Fresh: Take Out the Trash

An inherent part of freshening our mindsets is taking out the trash.  I mean, how many times have we come home from the store with a bunch of new produce and found that we have to get the sad wilted lettuce and the other expired stuff out of the way before we can even put what we bought in the fridge?

When we spring clean our homes, or clear out our closets, we go through and figure out what needs to go.  What is worn out?  What doesn’t fit?  What hobbies have we grown out of?  What’s broken?

 

Sometimes we learn, as we make space, that what we really needed wasn’t a bunch of new stuff, but rather the space itself.

 

In a fitness context, this can mean anything from letting go of ideas about ourselves (“I’m too ___ to do that thing I want to do.”  “It takes too long.”  “People will look at me funny if I…”) to rethinking what dinner looks like (hint:  if it is mostly nutritious and tastes good, it can be whatever you want).  Maybe we’ve gotten tangled in a complex system of workouts and we just need to make it simple for a while.  Maybe, dare I say, we can put away our gizmos and trackers and just move for a bit to see how that feels.

 

My trash might be your treasure.  There are so many useful paths to take.  The key is that we use our big brains to evaluate what is actually serving us as we live our healthy, happy lives.

 

Go play.

Fresh: Mindset

In March, we’re ready for spring.  I’m going to focus on fresh (freshness, refreshment, all the variations) because that’s the essence of spring to me.

This week, it’s all about the mindset.  We all have mind-habits the same way we have other habits.  Our thoughts as well as our actions fall into ruts.  What I am suggesting here is that we try a new thought-road or two this month and see where we end up.

 

For example, I had a conversation recently with someone about things we wished we had learned about earlier in our lives.  For me, it was growth mindset, or the idea that how we work at things is more important than how innately talented we are.  Growth mindset is still a pretty fresh path for my little brain.  It is in the process of transforming the way I think about failures and about experiments.  I feel like there are a lot more options in the world than there used to be.  Obviously, this applies to fitness, but it’s one of those places where fitness is only one of many useful contexts for an idea.

 

Finding new mindsets means having new experiences.  We learn new stuff because we’ve talked to someone or read something or gone somewhere or seen something.

 

Where might we like to explore?  I’d love to hear ideas!

Monday Workout: Customize!

This is one of those workouts that we can customize based on how much we want to push ourselves.  If we want to go easier, we can (obviously) use lighter weights and we can do regular/modified jacks in place of the plank jacks.  If we want to go hard, we choose the heavier kettle bell, heavier weights generally, and maybe we add weights and/or reverse lunges to our step ups.  Three rounds.

 

kb alt arm swings	30
kb hammer curls	20
kb halo	10
plank jacks	30
bench press	20
Arnold press	10
step up	30
flies	20
side banana

Love Month: More

Still want more ways to love yourself?  How about these?

 

1.     Talk nicely to yourself.  You are amazing!

2.     Give yourself a break.  Sometimes we all need one.

3.     Be grateful.  We all have some blessings lying around in our lives.

4.     Hug somebody.  It’s good for both of you!

5.     Do a favor.  We can all use a bit of good karma, plus an instant mood boost.