Dirt is ok

I admit there is not much to like about living in a pandemic.  However, one bright spot is that we are all realizing the magic of outside.

I’ve been pushing myself to go outside for years.  (I had to overcome a family culture that did not believe in dirt, among other things…)  When I could do distance biking, it was an easy sell because I loved it.  After that became less available to my body, it took a while to find something else, but now I love going hiking with my kid.

When we were out last week, we saw dog-walkers, trail runners, and mountain bikers.  In the past we have come across kids investigating pretty much every leaf and rock and stump and lichen and bug and their mostly-patient parents.  The very air is different under trees or near water or both.

We are blessed to live so close to so many beautiful places.  Pop on those shoes and go… it’ll be fun!

Monday Workout: All Balls

I like this workout because medicine balls are fun and my particular ones are colorful, so it is a pretty workout, too.  Rescues and slams are hard without a medicine ball, but feel free to substitute other exercises in their place if you are using dumbbells instead.  Three rounds.

All Medicine Ball
woodchoppers	30
twists	20
rescues	10
ball slams	30
curls	20
pushups	10
overhead high knees	30
skullcrushers	20
Russian twist	10

Zzzzzz

I’m tired today, so here is a self-serving list of five reasons to take a nap:

1.     We are, as a group, underslept.  More than a third of us get fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night.  Catching up is not bad.

2.     It reduces stress.

3.     It keeps us from overeating.  Seriously.  Tired people eat more.

4.     It makes us more productive later.

5.     It feels good.  Yes, this is a totally valid reason.

As we say around my house, don’t bite the bedbugs; they hate that.

You Don't Have To Like It, But You Do Have To Do It

Let me get this out of the way first:  I have nothing against gratitude or positivity or cheerfulness.  Well, not much, anyway.  I even have a gratitude practice in my daily journaling.  It has documented benefits and increases joy and all that important stuff.

It can also be annoying as hell.  And sometimes counterproductive (check out Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich if you’re interested.)

There are times when the best thing we can do is to acknowledge how we really feel, even if it is not the socially acceptable positive emotion other people would like us to experience.  In other words, sometimes whining is good for the soul.

What whining is not is an excuse to avoid doing the unpleasant whatever it is.  Those lunges aren’t going to do themselves.  If bitching about them the whole time gets us through, that’s awesome.  The lunges are done and we might even have come up with some creative new ways to describe how much we hate them.

The best part?  Afterwards we get to feel extra virtuous because we’ve done something we have admitted is hard and terrible.

Two questions and a disclaimer

Some weeks go better than others.  We all know this, but we could consider planning for it.  (No, this does not mean that we pencil in three days of hiding under the covers, or at least not necessarily.)  I find that there are two questions to ask and that there is one important disclaimer when it is time to figure out what we’re going to do for fitness when things go wrong.

One question is:  what’s the minimum I need to do to maintain my health?  For most of us, half an hour of walking per day at a moderate pace is about right as a minimum, whether we do it all at once or in two or three chunks.  We cope better with whatever the heck life is throwing us when we are healthy, so finding that half hour is worth the trouble.  And then don’t think about it anymore.

The other question is:  what part of my fitness activities makes me feel good?  When stuff gets hard, some of us find that we need the mood-lift of cardio or the stress relief of yoga.  Doing the things that help us manage our emotions and our stress when stuff gets hard is not selfish.  We are giving ourselves coping tools so that we can do what needs to be done.

And the disclaimer:  There are times when we don’t need to do any fitness activities at all.  If we can’t find a half hour, if we don’t want to face exercise, if we just can’t do one more thing, that is all right.  Fitness is not another thing to beat ourselves up with—it is there to make us happier and healthier and it will still be there when we have enough spoons to get back to it.

Monday Workout: Body Weight or More

This week we’re back to body weight workouts.  Of course, if weights are available, add them as desired.  Do as many rounds as feel good or as time allows (try for at least 3).

squats	20
1 leg squats	10
lunges	20
pushups	10
punches	20
pretty princesses	10
brains	10

Ideas for balancing...

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about balance, here are five balance exercises to try.  If your balance is poor, make sure that there is something close by that will help you stabilize (chair, wall, sturdy friend).

1.     Brush your teeth standing on one foot.  We have to stand there anyway; we might as well practice balancing.  One side will be much easier than the other.  Do that side first.

2.     Play 1 leg catch.  This is best with a friend, but it is also possible to use a wall to “throw” the ball back to yourself.  Again, do the hard side first.

3.     Do 1 leg weight passes.  I use a kettle bell for this, but any weight you can comfortably hold in one hand will work.  Stand on one leg and hold the weight in one hand.  Pass the weight across your body in the front and transfer it to your other hand.  Pass the weight around behind you and give it back to the first hand.  Repeat five times, then reverse directions.  Then do both directions while standing on the other foot.

4.     Do round lunges.  Changes of direction challenge our balance.

5.     Do any of the exercises you do normally on a BOSU or any other unstable surface.  For safety, use less weight than you do when you do the exercise on the ground.

Have fun!

Practice helps...

After flexibility, I think the most neglected portion of fitness training might be balance work.  We notice when we get out of breath and when we can’t schlepp the groceries as easily as we’d like, but we don’t notice balance until we lose it.

The thing is, balance training helps with that whole strength business.  When we improve our balance, we are doing at least two things:  building our proprioception and strengthening our stabilizing muscles.

Proprioception is a fancy word for knowing where our bodies are in space.  When we don’t have much of it, we bump into things (most of us have enough to avoid bumping into things most of the time).  When we have more of it, we can notice that when we squat, our left leg works harder than the right, or that our right shoulder tends to be lower.  This is the first step toward getting better alignment and alignment is what helps us get strong safely.  We build proprioception when we work on balance because we need to keep track of all those (hey, where did we get so many?) arms and legs that suddenly want to wheel around through space instead of helping us stay over our center of gravity.

Which brings me to that second part:  strengthening the stabilizers.  Balance is about finding stability in a precarious world.  We use the muscles closest to the center of our bodies to stabilize ourselves.  Putting ourselves in (controlled) unstable environments helps us practice stabilizing for those times when we are not in control of how unstable the environment is.  We adapt to what we practice.  Strong stabilizers free up our more peripheral muscles to move us around and lift heavy stuff.

What to do?  Practice standing on one foot.  Use dumbbells instead of barbells.  Work asymmetrically.  Use the BOSU or any of the many kinds of wobbly surfaces available.  Do some yoga or Pilates.

We can’t make the world more stable, so we have to learn to adapt!

A Workout for Every Kind of Stress...

We are all experiencing the current times in different ways, but I think it is pretty safe to say that we’re all finding new and exciting sources of stress.  I say all the time (and it’s a pretty prevalent idea in the culture) that exercise is good for stress, but different kinds of exercise, having slightly different flavors, work in different ways.

If stress is causing depression-like symptoms, what we need to do is cardio.  We need the extra energy and the mood-boosting power of heart pumping to help with that particular kind of stress.  (Note:  exercise is no substitute for actual mental health treatment.  Talk to your therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist and take your meds.  You are important and valuable and I’m always here to listen if you need a friend.)

If we find that stress is spiking our anxiety or that our entire bodies have seized up with tension, what we need is something on the yoga/Pilates order.  We practice our breathing and we move gently in ways that help our muscles lengthen.

And, finally, if our stress springs from feeling like we have lost all power in the world because random or not-random things keep happening to us, we need to lift weights.  The weights do not mind if we express our anger at them.  We can burn our rage and calories at the same time.  And at the end, we will be stronger.

Repeating it one more time:  If you need a friend, call/text/message me.  I’m here for you.

Monday Workout: Kettle Bell If Possible

This week’s workout is technically for kettle bells, but any weight will do.  In fact, some of the exercises, like the overyets, work just fine with no weight at all.  Do three rounds.

kb swings	30
kb twists	20
kb 8s	10
kb one arm clean/press	30
kb goblet squat	20
kb overyets	10
kb overhead high knees	30
kb overhead triceps	20
kb pushups	10

Four things

Left to myself, I’m a stress eater.  I’m working on it.  In case I am not the only one, here are four things to do instead of diving into the ice cream:

1.     Journal.  We can write out our feelings rather than eating them.  It’s inexpensive and keeps our hands busy.

2.     Meditate.  We can learn to put a bit of space between the stimulus and the response.  In other words, just because we want the ice cream, we don’t have to eat the ice cream.

3.     Get some sleep.  Often we eat more just because we’re that tired.  Catch up on dreamtime and maybe the butter pecan will be less compelling.

4.     Go outside and play.  The more nature and the more heavy breathing involved the better.

Please remember, eating is not a bad thing.  If we sometimes overdo the treats, it does not make us bad people.  Loving ourselves does mean trying to choose foods that make our bodies strong and healthy, but we need to love ourselves even when we aren’t perfect.

Fitness for Revolutionaries

Over the last months, we’ve seen some crazy stuff.  We have dealt with change after change in our living and working (or not-working) conditions.  On top of that, we have seen some particularly ugly manifestations of the racism in our society and way too much violence.

So what the heck am I doing writing about cardio and weights and Pilates?  What relevance does fitness have in this kind of crisis?

Two things.  One is that fitness is self-care.  We all need things that help us cope with the undeniable stress of these times.  Doing the breath work that comes with Pilates can give us a respite from the chest-tightening horror of the news.  Getting breathless biking or running or walking can give us a chance to elevate our mood and exorcise some of the demons.

The other is that change requires strength.  It may not require literal strength, but as I say often enough, I majored in English and I believe in the power of metaphor.  When we build our literal strength, we build our figurative strength and our strength of character as well.  We need to live a long time so we can transform our society and have some time left to enjoy it.  Fitness brings us that.

Fitness can be a tool for creating the world we want to live in.

It's the love...

I give a lot of disclaimers in my line of work.  I am not a doctor, a physical therapist, a psychologist, a nutritionist, or a dietician.  I can’t diagnose illness or injury, prescribe treatment or medication, design specific eating plans.  Let me add that I am not a priest, either, and thus cannot absolve anyone of sin.  If I did happen to be a priest, I would still not be in a position to absolve people of the “sins” they most often confess to me because I do not think that not exercising and overeating are in fact sins.  They may not be the best ideas ever, but we really are not, generally, most successful at motivating ourselves with guilt.

What works, in my experience, is love.  When we treat ourselves with love, we are able to recognize that our bodies feel better with the right amount of movement and the right amount of food.  We are also able to see that some days we really need rest most of all, or a bit of chocolate, or both.

We also do best when we don’t try to do absolutely everything at once.  We should start small, with maybe a ten minute walk or a fruit snack in place of a candy.  Small victories add up to big ones.

What I AM is a trainer.  I CAN coach people to success with lots of encouragement and practical programs and general nutrition information.  Let me help.

Monday Workout: More Pilates

Yep, Pilates again!  Breathe and relax into it!

pelvic clock

bridging

side to side

dead bug/femur arcs

chest lift

hundred

side kick

dart

quadruped

leg pull

leg pull front

saw

mermaid

standing roll down

Friday Reading Report: Hey, I'm not mad this time!

It turns out that the AMA has a nice, concise list of things that we can do to get or remain healthy.  It’s called Life’s Simple 7.  Here is the list, with a few comments:

1.     Don’t smoke.  (We all know this one, right?  I’m not going to get all judgy at you, but I do want you to live a long time, so if you do smoke, I’m here to cheer you on if you decide it’s time to quit.)

2.     Maintain a healthy weight.  (This one is helped by some of the other items.)

3.     Engage in regular physical activity.  (See?)

4.     Eat a healthy diet.  (I would have liked a little more description here, but I guess that would make it less simple.)  (Eat your veggies and drink your water.  Most of the rest of it is up for debate by someone.)

5.     Manage blood pressure.  (A little bit of how might have been nice, but exercise is already on the list and the healthy diet and healthy weight both help.  Reduce stress if possible!)

6.     Take charge of cholesterol.  (I like the vigorous language, but it also makes me envision wild cholesterols wreaking havoc throughout the land until we manage to round them up and tame them.  Consider a plant-based diet and that exercise thing, again.)

7.     Keep blood sugar or glucose at healthy levels.  (Yep, exercise and healthy diet again, this time focusing on cutting the added sugar in foods.)

I think I know why they didn’t ask me to write the list now…

This guy didn't stretch and his face froze that way...

We all tend to skimp on the stretching.  Here are three reasons to get around to doing it:

1.     Less risk of injury.  Flexible muscles adapt better to changing conditions, so if we keep our muscles supple, we avoid pesky ankle sprains and the like.

2.     Improved balance.  This goes with the injury risk bit.  When our muscles have the appropriate level of tension, we have the ability to adjust quickly and we are less likely to fall.

3.     It feels good.  Yes, this is a perfectly valid reason.  Not everything has to be just Good For Us.

Perceptive?

I spend a fair amount of time with numbers.  It’s a hazard of my profession.  We are trained to track heart rates, reps, weight, sets, inches, miles, minutes.  This is not entirely bad, but it can be limiting.

My twenty pounds might not be the same as yours.  My mile might be different, too.  It depends on all kinds of things like previous experience, injury status, age, general health, and even hydration status and weather.  What is easy or hard for me may be negligible or impossible for someone else.  This means that saying someone lifted twenty pounds or ran a mile is not all that meaningful without context.

One way to get context without a lot of words is to use something called the Borg scale.  It does have numbers, but the numbers are somewhat arbitrary (especially since they’ve been revised from one arbitrary range to another!).  The Borg scale “measures” perceived exertion.  The beauty of it is that the perceiver is the person doing the work.

What that means is I evaluate my workout based on how hard I think I’m working.  I aim for it to be somewhat hard to hard.  We all have days when our usual workout feels easy and those other days when it seems impossible—the Borg scale lets us adjust to what is appropriate on this very day.

This is also useful for people who take medications that alter their heart rate response or people who don’t want to wear a heart rate monitor or tracker or stop to count pulses.

Those of us who are just starting to exercise want to work at a level we think of as light to moderate.  Moderate to somewhat hard would be the next level.  And so on.  Interval training would move us from a lower level of perceived exertion to a higher one and back.

Try it out!

Two ways

We made it to June.  Some things are reopening and some things remain closed.  Many of us are a little stir crazy (or a lot stir crazy…  or just crazy…).  For myself, I’m finding that things have settled into something of a routine, but there is also an undulation of emotion going on.  Some days I feel like I can do it all and some days I can hardly get out of bed because there is no work to go to and I’m not all that excited about continuing to do the same old things.  I may not be the only one feeling like that, so here’s how I cope (and yes, this is relevant to fitness).  There are two ways.

One way is to let myself rest.  This is a stressful time.  Every time a “new normal” emerges from the chaos, something changes and I have to adapt.  Adaptation is not without challenge.  And I know that the challenges I face could be so much worse, so my heart goes out to those dealing with harder problems.  The point is that it is all right to rest when it becomes too much, to sleep more, to play.  We do not have to be productive every single minute of every single day.  We are not what we do.  However, there are limitations to this approach.  Eventually, doing nothing leads to boredom and apathy and depression.  The good news is I have a second plan.

Plan B is to do some exercise.  It doesn’t matter what kind or how much.  Even taking Cricket out around a single block is enough to shift my perspective, but it is better if I get good and sweaty on the spin bike or on a hike or with the weights.  If that seems like too much work, I can go breathe through some Pilates or yoga.  The small investment of energy creates a whole new outlook, partly from the heart rate elevation and the muscle movement and the flexibility and partly from the simple joy of accomplishing one thing.  Doing one thing means that accomplishment is possible and that opens up the world.

We can rest if we need to and then we can move.  We can do this.

Monday Workout: Pilates mat work

This workout is a repeat of the Pilates mat work I posted a while back.  It’s still a good idea.  Do not do anything that hurts.  Do not do spinal flexion exercises if you have bone density issues.  Remember to breathe!

pelvic clock

bridging

dead bug/femur arcs

chest lift

hundred

dart/press up/swan

scarecrow

quadruped

leg pull

leg pull front

side kick

mermaid

saw

standing roll down