Today I present: 10 things that are better than junk food:
1. Hugs.
2. Baths.
3. Good books.
4. Dogs/cats/other critters.
5. Flowers.
6. Crisp apples, which are now in season.
7. Walks.
8. Sex. (Maybe this should have been higher on the list?)
9. Blue skies.
10. Comfy clothes.
Uncle Joe (Pilates) was an interesting fellow. He had some unusual ideas about cleanliness and sleep and a few other things. But he also was good at noticing the subtle little things that make big differences. Pilates exercise instructions all include breath. How and when we breathe can promote or inhibit our movement.
Now, when we are first learning an exercise, we might have plenty to think about with all our too many body parts to consider our breath. This is fine. As long as we do continue to breathe, we’re going to be all right. However, once we’ve sorted out where our knees go and we’ve figured out that ears and shoulders are not the same thing, we can begin to notice our breath, too.
Our inhalations help us when we want to control the “easy” part of an exercise (the “eccentric contraction” in fancy trainer-speak, or the part where we lower a weight or work with gravity rather than against it). They help us when we want to extend our spines, as we do when we bend backwards. Inhalations help us find length in our bodies and space.
Exhalations help us on the “hard” parts, the pushing parts. We exhale to contract our cores for chest lifts, roll-ups, and the like. Those exhalations help us flex our spines, bending forward.
If you don’t believe me, try it out! There are a few folks out there whose bodies don’t follow the general rules and you might be one of them. But most of us will find that Joe has a point. No matter what: keep breathing!
A lot of people I talk to lately have weight loss on their minds. Maybe it is because the weather is starting to change and we’re all putting on clothes we haven’t worn in a while. Before I talk about weight loss, I need to get one thing out of the way: YOU ARE FABULOUS JUST THE WAY YOU ARE. You will not be a better person or more loveable or more intelligent or more capable if you lose weight; you will just be less weighty. Pardon me for the yelling, but the fitness industrial complex and our capitalist overlords are very loud on the subject of thinness equating to virtue, spice, and everything nice, and they are not right.
Now, fabulous people, if any of us in our fabulousness want to lose weight, we need to approach the process with love. I am not here to take away anyone’s cookies or to chase anyone around a track with a whip. Shame and humiliation do not work to motivate people. Deprivation is not a way of life. So, how do we do it?
First, we give our bodies good food. This might take some experimenting and we might have to remember some stuff about the long term when our short term brain is screaming for Twinkies. (I don’t happen to like Twinkies, but we all have cravings for things that pretend to be food, like Twinkies, Jack-in-the-Box tacos, movie popcorn…) Good food does taste good, but it also makes us feel good, not sluggish or hung over. After a whole chunk of time spent studying fitness nutrition, I will only say with certainty that we should all eat our veggies and drink lots of water. The rest of our consumption really depends on personal chemistry and preferences.
Then we give our bodies good movement. Good movement means we burn some calories with cardio and we change our body composition with weights. We toss in some flexibility, some core and balance stuff, and a touch of relaxation, and we call it a day. Unless we are professional athletes, we should be able to get our movement done in an hour or less a day, on average. Good movement will sometimes leave us a little sore, but we will know it is good movement because we will find our energy levels rising, our brains working better, and our bodies working better.
I will not lie: weight loss is hard. Our bodies have to work against centuries of evolution plus the pressures of agribusiness, modern life, and pandemic bonuses. It can be done, but it is best done slowly and with love.
This week we’re going to do something a little different. We’re going to do a single rep maximum workout. That “we” is important because lifting heavy is not something to do all alone. (If you do not have a partner, you can still lift heavy-ish, but please do NOT try to go to a single rep max without a spotter.)
Here’s how it works: for each exercise, we begin with ten reps of a weight we can do easily. The exercises I’ve listed below are in pairs, an upper body with a lower body. This is so we can do more work in less time: the lower body rests while the upper body works and vice versa, although as we get closer to our single rep max, we will probably want plain old still rest between sets. So: we do a set of the lower body exercise, then a set of the upper body exercise. For the next set, we increase the weight. After a couple of rounds, we will find that we want to reduce the number of reps. This is good. Eventually, we will increase the weight to the point that we can only complete one beautiful rep. The “beautiful” is also important: when we are lifting heavy, bad form can hurt us. Our partner can help us keep an eye on our form so that we don’t start doing things ugly.
Lifting heavy can take a long time. I usually only do one pair of exercises per heavy workout because it can take 45 minutes to an hour to go from my warm-up weight to my single rep max with the appropriate rest intervals. Also, whichever pair of exercises we choose to do first will be our best. All those max weights add up over time, so we shouldn’t expect the same performance from the last pair as the first pair if we keep going. This is also why it is a good idea to rotate what we do first.
As always, if what I’ve said doesn’t make sense or you have questions, ask me! I’m here to help.
Now: here’s the list.
Basic Heavy Workout | ||
5 minute cardio warm-up | ||
Start | Finish | |
squats | ||
bench press | ||
deadlift | ||
flies | ||
lunges | ||
rows | ||
abs | ||
SMR and stretch |
When I meet with clients for the first time, I ask them tons and tons of questions. Some of them are the expected health questions about heart disease and injury and other important stuff for safety. The more interesting questions, however, concern history and preferences. When we are getting back into working out, here are some questions we can ask ourselves:
1. What fitness stuff have we done in the past? Maybe we played softball when we were nine, or did gymnastics, or lived to tackle quarterbacks. Some of us rode bikes everywhere or swam as much as possible or danced all night. Even if we haven’t done whatever it was in a long time, the body remembers and has built patterns around that activity that we can use or reprogram.
2. What do we do in our spare time? (“Spare time”—that’s funny!) Do we like to cook? Watch movies? Garden? Shop? Read? Build battle-bots? Please notice that this is not about fitness or fitness-related activities, just stuff we like to do. When I ask clients this question, I am looking for information about things like whether they like to be inside or outside, sitting or standing, intellectually challenged or soothed. This helps me plan workouts that meet them where they like to be.
3. What fitness activities do we actually like? Very few people hate every single possible kind of fitness activity. And most of us can get all the fitness we need without having to suck it up and do unpleasant things most of the time (there will always be a few necessary evils, but we try to minimize those). There are approximately eighty-seven gazillion kinds of cardio with new ones springing into existence every moment. Trainers and instructors everywhere constantly come up with new kinds of classes that blend cardio and weights and flexibility and all kinds of good stuff. With all those choices, we can find something that is fun, even if the usual choices don’t do it.
With the answers to these questions, we can begin to piece together workouts that feed the body and don’t deplete the soul.
Bridging is one of my favorite exercises. It occurs in both Pilates and yoga in a lot of different variations, but all of them help with spine flexibility and mobility. More importantly, bridging feels good.
First, the disclaimers: people with osteoporosis can still do bridging, but they should not do the versions in which the spine peels up or down one vertebra at a time. In their cases, they should keep the spine moving as a unit. It is also worthwhile for people with high blood pressure, glaucoma, any spinal injuries, or difficulty with weight bearing on feet or shoulders to check with their doctors about the advisability of doing this movement. ALWAYS prioritize safety and STOP if a movement feels wrong.
Now that that is out of the way: how do we do it? Good news! We get to lie down! Find a firm but comfortable surface to lie on. A bed will work, but a carpeted floor or a yoga or squishy mat on a hard floor is better. Face the ceiling and bend knees so that feet are flat on the floor. Take a couple of breaths. Gently encourage the shoulders away from the ears and towards the hips. Feel better yet?
Then we start to move. I am going to describe the articulated bridge first; if you have osteoporosis, don’t do this kind. Inhale. When it is time to exhale, pull the belly button down toward the floor. This will tilt the pelvis so that the tailbone comes a little away from the floor. Continue to tilt the pelvis until it lifts the spine, vertebra by vertebra, into the air. This means that the feet are supporting more weight. The knees may want to splay out or knock together, but work to keep them in line with the hips and ankles. As we reach the end of our range of motion, our hamstrings may cramp a little (or a lot). While this is painful, it is not actually harmful; hamstrings are really good at whining. To reduce the suffering, press the knees away from the head to give the hamstrings a little more space. Eventually, we will find ourselves with our pelvises in the air, our feet pressing firmly into the ground, and our head, neck, and shoulders supporting the other end of our bodies. Ideally, we are a fairly straight line from our shoulders to our knees; in real life, many of us have very tight hip flexors, so we may not be able to lift our hips that high.
Take another breath in. Now we reverse the process to come back down. Exhale and lower the body back to the ground, focusing on the vertebra closest to the head first and then continue on down the chain until the pelvis is back on the ground. I particularly like to focus on pulling the hips away from the head during the lowering process because it adds some length to the parts of the spine that get compressed with all the sitting we do. (If we have a friend with us, we can help each other by gently pulling the hips toward the heels during the lowering phase.)
Ta da! We did it! Do a couple more just for fun. Your spine will thank you.
Now for the variations:
“Lunar lift.” This is the osteoporosis-friendly version. Instead of peeling the spine up and down a vertebra at a time, the pelvis “blasts off” straight up, keeping the spine moving as a unit.
“Chip and dip.” Peel up to the top of the motion as usual. On the way down, imagine there is a tortilla chip on each hip bone. Scoop up imaginary salsa and guacamole with each hip as the spine lowers down one vertebra at a time.
“With block.” This is my new favorite version. At the top of the motion, take a yoga block and slide it under the hips so that the pelvis can rest on it. This gives a bit of traction to the spine and really allows the compression to relax out. Stay for a few breaths before taking the block out and peeling down as usual. Note: the orientation of the yoga block under the hips will depend on the flexibility and size of the human doing the motion; don’t overdo!
Go try it out!
As I’ve been talking about over the last few weeks, I’ve been moving. Moving definitely counts as workout. I can’t even describe how many times I’ve gone up or down stairs, how many boxes I have lifted. Then there is the stretching—I’m short and shelves are often not—and the bending, because boxes to be unloaded hang out on the floor when I get tired of lifting them.
Which brings me to today’s topic: repetitive stress. I am a fitness professional, but this does not give me immunity from injury or stress, sadly enough. Due to my dissolute previous life in office management, I have threatening carpal tunnel in my wrists. Add in some years of long-distance biking and the result is: forearm tendonitis. I’m not here to whine (well, maybe a little…), but to talk about what to do when we have to do stuff that is not entirely good for us. I am just an example in this case.
So. The first thing to do with repetitive stress stuff is to figure out what support structures we can use. In my case, I wear wrist wraps and elbow wraps (what they advertise as support for tennis elbow) whenever I am going to do a bunch of lifting or I need to bear weight on my arms (like in yoga) or I have to do grip things (like biking or carrying boxes). This is not unlike a person with a complicated knee wearing a brace.
The second thing to do is to treat the body with respect. I kind of fail at this, until I am forced to concede. Do not follow my example in this. Sometimes respecting the body means getting help. Sometimes it means setting limits: I can lift that lighter box, but not that heavier one. Sometimes it is about knowing when to call it a day.
The third thing is to know what to do if we happen to overdo it. This might include ibuprofen, ice, heat, massage, foam rolling, and screaming loudly. We want to rest sometimes. We should pay a little bit of attention to hydration and eating decent food.
When the big event is over, it is important to thank the body for what it managed to do. And then it needs a real rest.
Some weeks I have to think really hard about what I want to put in the workout. This week, for some reason, I just knew it was time for a kettlebell workout. For this workout, we want several different weights because we can swing a much heavier kettlebell than we can use for overyets. (If no kettlebells are available, dumbbells will also work.)
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 |
I’m in the mood to have fun. So here are four things that are just plain fun but also count as workouts:
1. Dancing. Find the best beat, or the silliest pop song, or the most inspiring ballet music and get moving! What else are we going to do while we wait for dinner to be ready?
2. Biking. Whether we break out the bike shorts and spiffy jersey or just put on our red tennies and grab our tasseled handlebars, biking is fun. We can get a bell or a unicorn helmet or a really cushy seat or whatever accessories we need to put us over the top.
3. Kid’s games. Play foursquare or handball. If you live with enough people in your circle, play some tag. Draw your own chalk obstacle course on the sidewalk.
4. Walking the dog. (If you don’t have one, see if you can borrow one.) Dogs are in the moment. Walk with a dog and greet all the happinesses in your path.
Don’t like my list? Make your own!
Doing workouts is not like shopping at warehouse stores. Or at least not in this way: we don’t always get the best value from the ginormous pack. Professional athletes need to work out a lot. Regular humans don’t need quite so much. Remember that enormous bag of tortilla chips that seemed like such a good deal? The one that was the size of a ten-year-old? And the first few inches of chips were great, but then everyone was sick of chips and by the time the semester ended there was this looming rock of stale corn products that everyone was afraid to approach? Yeah, not such a good choice after all, right?
The metaphor got maybe a little out of control there, but there is a point in there somewhere. And it is: we need to work out the right amount for our goals. If our goal is basic health, we want to commit to about 30 minutes of moderate cardio (it’s moderate if we have enough breath to chat, but not enough to sing) at least five days a week, one or two sessions of weight training on non-consecutive days, and some daily stretching/balance/core work. That may sound like a lot if we’ve just been holding down the couch, but it averages out to less than an hour a day. (Also, if we have been truly holding down the couch for weeks or months, we want to work up to that 30 minutes of cardio over a month or so…)
If we want to lose weight, it gets slightly more onerous, but only slightly. We need to make the cardio a little harder and a little longer. We want to commit to two or three weight training sessions a week. And yes, we still have to do the stretching/balance/core stuff. We also need to keep track of what we’re eating so we don’t undo all our good work at the gym.
And when we’re done with our workouts, we get to stop and rest. We don’t need to do another hour on the treadmill or elliptical trainer or four hours of weight lifting. Remember the chips: more is not always better.
When things get stressful, my first instinct is to crawl under the covers. There are certainly times when that is a useful response—many of us don’t get nearly enough sleep. However, I am learning that it is often better to push back on the stress by doing some cardio.
On one level, this might just be caving in to some kind of instinctual pressure. A bad thing is happening; I should run away (or bike or swim or whatever. Hmm… anybody know if I can Zumba away from predators?). Sure, my stressors don’t happen to look like wolves or bears, but how different can they be? Fine. Really different. Still, if it makes my primordial brain feel better to run away, who am I to argue?
Or maybe cardio works because instead of lying there suffering, I am Taking Action. The action might not have anything to do with what is stressing me out, but I am doing it so vigorously that I am clearly accomplishing something and so I am capable of accomplishing other things, too.
Yes, of course I am making things up here. As far as I know, the science hasn’t gotten around to saying WHY cardio tends to make people feel better; the studies so far just indicate that it does improve mood and brain function.
So, if stress, then cardio.
So this week’s workout has two exercises in it. That’s all. It’s inspired by my moving process. We’re going to do squats and farmer’s carries.
First, we are going to pick a pair of weights. (If you don’t happen to have weights around, grab a couple of gallon jugs of water or a couple really big books or, for overachievers, a cooperative pair of kids or pets.) Ideally, the weight is light enough to deadlift off the floor pretty easily, but not super easy to carry around for a long time.
Then we are going to pick a location that is six to ten strides long. It can be out in the yard. It can be along the hall. It doesn’t even have to be a straight line.
Now we work. We pick up the weights, hold them with our arms straight down at our sides, and walk to one end of our space. Then we keep holding them and do ten squats. We turn around and walk back and do ten more squats. Repeat until you are tired or your grip fails.
The farmer’s carry works the grip, forearms, shoulders, and back. The squat works everything, but particularly the lower body. Abs should be working the whole time.
Simple!
It’s moving day. I’ll be spending my day hefting boxes and running up and down stairs and driving long distances and at some point collapsing. Here are five better kinds of moving to do:
1. Go for a bike/walk/run. It gets the heart going, gets us out of the house, and improves mood.
2. Lift weights. They come in much more convenient shapes for lifting than furniture does.
3. Do some yoga or other stretching. Both muscles and mind will thank you.
4. Hang out with Joe. Pilates, that is. Your brain will work along with the body and both will be smarter at the end.
5. Do a water sport. Swim, kayak, surf, whatever. Water makes everything more fun!
I just looked up at my window. It has a label on it that says, “WARNING OPEN WINDOWS CAN BE HAZARDOUS. Failure to heed this warning may result in personal injury or death.” Suddenly I feel better about the obvious things I say in my blog. I mean, if we need to be warned that falling out windows is bad, pretty much everything is fair game for advice.
So: failure to get exercise in appropriate doses can make our lives more miserable. We increase our susceptibility to chronic diseases. We feel worse. We can’t play like we want to. Maybe it’s not as quick a hazard as falling out an open window, but the results are not totally dissimilar.
Note: in general, I’m not into the dire-warning-as-motivation. I made an exception because the warning on my window struck me funny. Exercise: better than falling out an open window!
Most people do not get to be as old as I am without having some injury history. Life is just like that. We break a leg, or sprain an ankle a few times, or hurt a shoulder. Injuries heal, but our bodies are not entirely the same afterwards. In fact, one of the best predictors of injury is… previous injury.
Even if we don’t re-injure a body part, we can struggle with how that part behaves. We may consciously or unconsciously compensate for that wrist we want to baby a bit or that knee that makes that weird sound. These compensations ripple through the body and suddenly some other part is working too hard and starts to complain.
So what do we do? First, we try to have some compassion for ourselves and our hard-working body parts. Our bodies do amazing things every single day. Yes, even the ones that don’t conform to societal standards of beauty, even the ones that creak a little more than last year, even the ones that are too whatever for our personal tastes. Some of us might think it’s too weird to thank our bodies, out loud, for all that work they do for us, but maybe it’s not.
Then we tune in to what the body says back. Maybe the body needs to move a little slower. Maybe it would be happier moving more often during the day. Maybe a bath? We only get one, so it’s a good idea to treat it nicely.
We can also do some mindbody work. Pilates is great for this. We discover that our left side is both more stable and more inflexible than the right side. Who knew? We can encourage the right side to work a bit more and the left side to chill out a bit. It can be disconcerting, doing a bunch of exercises that expose all the little cheats we use to get through the day, but once we find them, we can teach our bodies to do better, with less pain and suffering.
We can do this.
TRX was fun last week, so let’s do it again! Or at least a different set of exercises. Do one or two rounds, depending on time or energy. As always, modify based on equipment on hand and personal needs.
1 min cardio | |||
sprinter start with hop | 20 | long | |
curtsy | 20 | long | |
chest press deep angle | 20 | long | |
1 leg squat with hop | 20 | mid length | |
kneeling roll out | 20 | mid calf | |
TY deltoid fly | 20 | mid length | |
back row, deep angle | 20 | short | |
hamstring curl | 20 | mid calf | |
atomic oblique pushup | 20 | mid calf | |
side plank with rotation | 20 | mid calf | |
