Jumping is great for both cardio fitness and bone strength. Here are six things to try:
1. jacks (regular, plyojacks, plank jacks)
2. burpees
3. box jumps or depth jumps (jumping on or off a fitness box)
4. jump squats
5. jump lunges
6. lateral hops (extra fun with a BOSU
Most of us probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our skeletons, but another way we can love ourselves is to keep those bones strong. There are a couple of good ways to do this.
One is to eat right, including plenty of calcium. Y’all know what to do there, right?
Another is to work with weights. Those dumbbells do more than make our muscles strong! Bones increase strength in response to stresses like lifting weights.
Choosing the right cardio can also help. Bones get stronger in response to impact with the ground. That means that swimming, while great for cardio, has less of an effect on strengthening bones than walking. Exercises that include jumping (jacks, jump lunges, jump squats, box jumps, burpees, etc.) help with this, too.
Go play.
One way we can love our bodies is to love our hearts strong. In other words, we can make sure we do some cardio.
Cardio has a reputation for being boring, but it doesn’t have to be. Sure, it’s boring to walk on the treadmill for half an hour, even (or in spite of) the tv being on. It’s a lot less boring to do intervals that get our heart racing. Or, we can take the walk outside where there is plenty of variety. Even better, we can mix up the kinds of cardio we do; some days we can walk, others we can swim, still others we can bike or play sports or do Zumba.
Doing the cardio is one part of the love. The other part is making the cardio as pleasant as possible. The above-mentioned variety can have a role in that. So can workout buddies, good music, time in nature, and workout clothes that are comfy and make us feel good.
Need more help? That’s what I’m for! Poke me!
I am in the mood for arm and core strength, so we have exercises that work all the way around the arms, some upper body weight-bearing, and various core challenges. Three rounds.
squat to leg lift/ticktock | 30 |
bench press | 20 |
bench dips | 10 |
| |
woodchoppers | 30 |
flies | 20 |
renegade rows | 10 |
| |
1 arm clean and press | 30 |
curls | 20 |
butterfly crunch | 10 |
How to show yourself some real love:
1. Eat breakfast.
2. Sleep enough.
3. Move your body.
Captain Obvious would like a word here. Love isn’t always nice. (I’m not talking about abusive relationships here. That’s well out of the scope of my practice. If you feel like you’re in one, PLEASE get some help because nobody deserves that.) We always see the cozy bits of love in popular culture, the snuggles and the chocolate and the laughter. But sometimes love has to do hard stuff, like getting a toddler to bed or wearing that ugly bridesmaid dress or, more relevantly for my purposes, moving the body for its own good.
Love takes responsibility for the maintenance stuff. It pays the bills and does the grocery shopping. Nothing says love like finding enough toilet paper in the bathroom.
In a fitness context, that means that when we love ourselves, we push ourselves the right amount. We acknowledge the parts of ourselves that want to roll over and sleep another hour and then we get our butts out of bed and work out anyway. We eat the veggies first. We meet our friends for a walk rather than an ice cream.
That bit about the right amount is important. Love is also smart. There are some days when love does the math and realizes that we do, in fact, need the extra hour of sleep. Notice I said “some days.” Love keeps the score and gently kicks us out of bed if we’ve missed too many gym days.
Love is kind, in the deepest sense. It gets us to do stuff for our own good.
Go play.
I personally am not a fan of Valentine’s Day, as I’ve said over and over for years. (No shade on my husband, who is a wonderful human I happen to love EVERY day of the year.) However, love is a great thing and February, for better or worse (see what I did there?) in the popular consciousness is about love, love, and more love.
Love can provide powerful motivation for us. In fact, love is the very best motivation there is for positive change in our lives. I’m spending this month discussing how we harness love to make our fabulous selves even better.
A whole lot of people embark on a fitness routine because of negative emotions. We work out because we feel ashamed of how we look or because we feel inadequate. We try to punish ourselves into what we think of as good behavior. Spoiler alert: it mostly doesn’t work, and when it does, it does not make for a holistically healthy human.
When we work out from a place of love, we are far more equipped to deal with the fact that working out is often hard and unpleasant in the moment. The negative brain will tell us that we are having a hard time because we actually suck and we see proof that we are never going to get better and on we go from there. Doesn’t really help with the weight lifting, right? When we are motivated by love, we tend to talk to ourselves more like we’d talk to a kid we love: oh, honey, yes, this is difficult, but you’re going to feel better at the end and it is so important to take care of yourself. And then: look at you! You did it! I am so proud of you for persisting! I know which voice I’d rather work out with.
Go play.
