Monday Workout: I suggest...

We are continuing to work with multi-joint exercises and compound movements.  These challenge our metabolisms and our core and our coordination (and they make us good and tired at the end!).  As always, modify for what works in YOUR body.  This workout doesn’t have any jumping, but you can add it if you want to increase the challenge; conversely, if your knees do not play well with lunges, substitute something your knees like better.  You are the boss of your workouts!  I will, however, strongly suggest three rounds.

 

lunge with curl	30
squats	20
lateral raise	10
1 leg chop	30
deadlifts	20
pushups	10
standing mountain climbers	30
skullcrushers	20
chest lifts	10

Number 7 is in the photo!

Here we go:  ten things I am thankful for this year.

 

1.     Health.  If we’ve learned anything this year, it’s that we can’t assume health will continue.

2.     Safety.  I am blessed to live in a safe place where I don’t have to fear for my loved ones.  (Worry is another thing, but I’m focusing on the good stuff today!)

3.     Nature.  Without being able to go play outside, I would be even crazier than I am already.

4.     Exercise.  I like how it makes me feel.

5.     Food.  I have more than enough and this is not something to be taken for granted.

6.     Love.  I have family and friends who are dear to me and who haven’t flung me into outer space yet (if that’s not love, I don’t know what is!)

7.     Flowers.  I know I take innumerable pictures of flowers, but they remind me of the beautiful parts of the world.

8.     Books.  Whether I’m reading for information or pleasure or both, they add happiness to my life.

9.     Puns.  Laughter is crucial to life.

10.  Socks.  (You knew there had to be at least one random thing on this list, right?)  They’re warm and I have lots of silly ones.

 

What’s on your list?

Kicking and screaming do burn calories, but there are better ways...

Some of us find holidays more stressful than fun.  I get it.  And I have a suggestion, unless even one more suggestion is too much and will cause explosions/meltdowns/tantrums.  Find a way to do some cardio.

 

Now, depending on the tantrum, it might qualify all by itself, but it might not be the best cardio choice.  If the weather permits, I am particularly in favor of outside cardio right now—run, walk, skip, play tag with your bubble-mates or foursquare or football, bike.  If it doesn’t, inside cardio is also good:  stair intervals, kitchen dancing, stationary biking, whatever is available.

 

Here’s why:  cardio exercise reduces stress.  It improves our mood.  It gets our circulation moving.  It helps our brains work.  It makes it easier to get good sleep.  We may not be able to run away from our problems, but running might help us cope with them better.

 

Go play.

Gravy-Palooza is not a word...

It shouldn’t surprise anybody that I believe in holidays.  I like decorations and food and odd traditions and even my family (ha!).  This year is a weird one.  We’ll have the turkey and all the other good things, but we will only be three of us—no parents, no other kid and kid-in-law, no siblings, nothing.  It’s the right decision and one that I hope lots of people make so that we all continue healthy and we are eventually able to gather safely.

 

I often post about choosing wisely at holiday meals.  Not this time.  For several reasons.

 

One:  Not one of us needs something else to stress out about.  You want all pie for Thanksgiving dinner?  Go for it.  If it makes you happy, be thankful you have pie and knock yourself out.

 

Two:  It’s one day.  The occasional gravy-palooza is good for the soul.  We don’t want to make it a habit, but once in a while?  No worries.

 

Three:  We probably don’t want to indulge as much as we think we do.  If we have been feeding ourselves healthy food on a regular basis, we may find that our bodies are not quite sure what to do with so much butter and sugar and all.  We have learned what makes us feel good and overeating ourselves into a coma is not usually it.

 

I will, however, suggest that a nice socially distant walk/run/bike/whatever outside would be a good thing at some point during the day.  It’ll feel good, I promise.

Monday Workout: Whole Body!

We’ve got some whole body exercises in this week’s workout.  I like them because they burn lots of calories and boost our metabolism.  They’re efficient!  And yes, we do have burpees this week, however you do them:  stepping, jumping, with a BOSU, with a backflip (yes, people do this, but not me!).  Three rounds.

 

goblet squats	30
rows	20
burpees	10
clean and press	30
lunges	20
overhead press	10
overhead curtsy	30
flies	20
roll out abs	10

Let's feel good: four ways

Here are four things about working out that make us feel better:

 

1.     We have to breathe when we exercise.  We get breathless, we recover.  Our breathing becomes more efficient.  And poof!  Feeling better!

2.     We gain a sense of control.  Maybe the whole world is totally chaotic.  Maybe we have a ton of complex problems.  But when we go to the gym, we have simple tasks that we can do.  We leave knowing one thing is checked off the endless list.

3.     We get stronger.  Most of us can use some extra physical strength, even if we just want it to rearrange the furniture again.  But we also get metaphorical strength from the habit of working out.

4.     We like endorphins.  Our brains give us actual rewards in the form of feel-good chemicals when we work out.  And it’s all safe and legal!

 

Go play.

Body, baby!

As I have been returning to work, thanks to the technological wonder that is Zoom, I have been talking with lots of people about what equipment they have or might want.  I love toys and I have pretty much one of everything (and sometimes more!), but we don’t need a lot of stuff to get a good workout.  We come with body weight built in!  And even if we happen to reduce the amount of that body weight as a result of working out, we can STILL use it to good effect with some simple tricks.

 

Take, for example, our friend the pushup.  (Haven’t made friends with pushups yet?  No worries.  They work even if we don’t like them.)  People new to pushups may find the classic position of hands on floor, body long, balls of feet on floor too much of a challenge.  We have lots of choices for modifications.  We can put our knees on the floor instead of our feet.  We can put our hands on a sturdy table or chair.  We can stand facing a wall and put our hands there.  All of those modifications make the pushups less work.

 

As we progress, the classic position might not be enough of a challenge.  We can then make modifications like putting our feet up on a bench or chair.  We can make the work asymmetrical by raising one hand on a box or block.  We can add instability with an exercise ball.

 

The short version is that when we use our brains, we don’t need a lot of equipment to use our bodies!

 

Go play.

Sick workout? Nope.

I spent a lot of last week and the weekend being sick.  Nothing life-threatening, just annoying and inconvenient.  With luck, most of us will not have to deal with too much sickness this winter—we’re all staying home as much as possible and wearing our masks, right?—but germs are really good at finding us, especially when we are stressed.  So:  here’s my guide to figuring out when we are too sick to work out.

 

If we are feeling congestion in our chests or are otherwise having trouble breathing, we want to take things really easy.  Resting is good.  Sleeping is good.  When we get stir-crazy or when lying down and sitting become more uncomfortable than moving, we can do things like stroll slowly around the neighborhood.

 

If we are throwing up, we do not work out.  It is a bad idea.  Really.  Rest.  Drink clear fluids when they stay down.  Rest more.

 

If we have a fever, same deal.  Lots of rest.  Lots of fluids.  Probably our favorite OTC fever reducing medicine.

 

No matter what kind of sickness we have, we need to remember to come back slowly.  Our bodies have been busy with another kind of work.  We work out to be healthy, after all.  When the body is fighting germy or virus-y invaders, we need to focus on that.

 

Did I mention that rest is good?  Rest.

Monday Workout: 30-20-10

This week’s workout is a pretty classic 30-20-10.  We get our heart rate up on the first exercise of each set and keep it up with the later ones.  If you don’t have any weights available for the bench press, lateral raise, dumbbell pass, and flies, improvise with water bottles or cans or heavy books.  Short rest between each set and longer rest between each round.  Do three rounds.

 

woodchopper	30
bench press	20
lateral raise	10
mountain climbers	30
1 leg db pass	20
squats	10
plyo/regular/mod jacks	30
flies	20
femur arcs	10

 

Four

We all get bored with our same old workouts sometimes.  Here are four ways to refresh our routines.

 

1.     Do the other side first.  We all have a preferred side.  Starting with the other hand or leg gives our brains a moment of shock.

2.     Do it backwards.  If we always do the upper body first, try the lower body.  If we usually do cardio first, try weights and then cardio (after a warm up, of course!).  Have a usual circuit?  Go the other way around.

3.     Do it faster (or slower).  We can challenge ourselves to go as quickly as is safe or as slow as we can manage.  One will increase our power, the other our control.

4.     Change the location.  Take it outside, or inside, or into another room.  Or just change the music so it feels like another location—beach music anyone?

 

Go play.

Two kinds of people, one task

There are a lot of ways to divide up the motivations people have for wanting to do fitness activities, but one useful way to think about why we choose to exercise is to ask ourselves if we want to do it for direct or indirect reasons.

 

A direct reason to exercise would be something like enjoying the actual process.  This tends to apply to people who play sports or who get addicted to the mood boost that comes with cardio.  Dancers and those who do expressive sorts of exercise have direct reasons.

 

Indirect reasons are for those of us who don’t really like exercising all that much.  This does not mean that indirect reasons are less important or less powerful.  People who want to keep up with their grandchildren, who want smaller jeans, who want to carry more grocery bags at once and the like are folks with indirect reasons.

 

It’s easy to get the first group of folks to go play.  They already love it.  That second group needs reminding of the connection between the thing they don’t love so much and the reason they are doing it.  It also helps if we can find some kind of exercise that is more fun in the process for those people.

 

No matter what, we can all find a way to do this.

Flexible Pilates

One of the many things I like about Pilates is that it works the body differently than straight weight training.  This means that we can fit it into our fitness schedules in multiple places.

 

On weeks with heavy weight workouts, we can use Pilates as an active recovery, focusing on the way it builds flexibility and mobility.  When we are doing more endurance-based weight training, Pilates complements that work with its focus on core and balance.  No matter what kind of other workouts we are doing, Pilates helps us refine our proprioception (our sense of where our bodies are in space), the quality of our movements, and our use of breath.

 

As with all our fitness activities, we can do Pilates in adaptable ways that suit where we are in the moment.

Monday Workout: Body Weight

Body weight is a perfectly good thing to use for working out.  So, since we all have some, there are no excuses!  If jumping is not good for your body, feel free to substitute the non-jumping versions of exercises.  Use a soft ball (tennis ball?  Koosh ball?  sock ball?) for the ball wall toss.  Three rounds should do it!

 

jump lunges	30
1 leg squats	30
pushup to side plank	10
jump squats	30
transverse punches	30
1 leg ball wall toss	10
plank	hold
superman	hold

It's a stretch

 

Sometimes we need a checklist.  Today I offer some essential stretches:

 

1.     Neck.  Tilt the head toward one shoulder.  This can be made more intense by pressing down on the head with a hand.  Repeat other side.  Some people need to be careful making neck circles, so try half circles.

2.     Shoulders.  Circle them forward and back.

3.     Chest.  Stand in a doorway.  Grab the frame with both hands and lean forward until you feel a stretch across the chest.  This can also be done one side at a time.

4.     Sides.  Stand up straight.  Reach one arm as high as possible into the air and then lean toward the opposite side of the body.  Repeat other side.

5.     Back.  Do the Olympic Salute, arms up in the shape of a Y, chest lifted toward the ceiling, abs engaged.

6.     Waist.  Lie on your back on the floor.  Bend your knees toward your chest.  Let them fall first to one side of the body and then the other.

7.     Quads.  Roll to one side.  Keep your thighs in line with each other.  Bend the top knee so that you can reach back and grab your ankle.

8.     Hamstrings.  Sit up.  Extend your legs out straight in front of you.  Reach for your toes (If you have osteoporosis, keep your back flat while doing this).  Both flat back and rounded back versions feel good.

9.     Ankles.  Circle them in both directions and then point and flex feet.

10.  Whole body.  Stand up.  Reach for the sky.  Shake it all out.

 

Feel better?

Not into pain

A lot of people, when they hear what I do, assume I am some kind of sadist.  They joke about the tortures I inflict (or maybe they’re not joking???).  This is a complete misunderstanding of what I do.

 

Yes, people do pay me to get them to do what they don’t want to do.  Yes, sometimes the things they need to do are uncomfortable.  But no, I do not want people to hurt.  Not even a little bit.

 

Pain, in my profession, is often glorified.  We see or hear “inspiring” stories about Suzy the Amazing Athlete who finished the ultra double extra horrible long race of ordealness with two broken legs, a concussion, and cancer.  I do not recommend aspiring to this kind of achievement (no offense, Suzy…).  I do not want my clients to work until they are injured.  I want them to stop when they have worked all they can in a safe way.

 

Pain’s purpose is to get our attention.  When we try to lift a weight that is too heavy, our bodies signal us with a big fat OW so we stop, not so we pretend to be all super extra macho and keep on going.  Pain alerts us to places where we need to adjust our form.

 

Now, let’s go back to that discomfort thing.  I do believe that not all workout activities that are good for us are always easy and fun.  We will get sore and tired.  Discomfort is like pain’s early warning system—we stop before we get from discomfort to actual pain.  So yes, if a person works out with me and has to do, say, hamstring curls, that person will probably not be comfortable during the process.  But this is just how hamstrings express their indignation that they are having to do more than the usual amount of work.  They’ll get over it.  And they’ll get stronger.

 

We deal with pain by seeing our medical professionals, discomfort with our friends rest, ice, and ibuprofen, and we work out to strengthen our minds and bodies.

 

Short version:  pain is bad, discomfort is all right, and I believe in doctors, ice, rest, and ibuprofen.

Adapting is a challenge...

It’s a new month.  A lot of folks I know are using the opportunity to start new projects, begin or reboot work on some goals, and generally turn over a new leaf.  I love that!  It’s all exciting and new and wonderful.  We dive in to our new workout or sport or activity with fresh enthusiasm.

 

And then, on day two, we are tired and sore.

 

We’re using muscles we may not know we had, or the usual ones in different ways.  Our bodies, like the stubborn toddlers they are, throw tantrums:  THIS IS NOT THE SAME!!!!

 

This is important:  do not spank your inner toddler (or your outer one, if you have one…).  It won’t help.  It will not encourage that change-resistant being to accept that we are doing something new that will probably turn out to be fun.  Right now, the toddler just knows that this is not the usual breakfast/blankie/routine.

 

We need to be patient with ourselves.  We need to talk nicely to ourselves.  Unlike toddlers, we can be reasoned with.  Also, we have access to a lot more resources.  We remind ourselves about why we are changing things up (because we want more energy or smaller jeans or open jars or a view of our toes) and we reward ourselves for good behavior (hot bath anyone?) and we take care of ourselves (yes, I’d love some ibuprofen…).

 

New growth can be painful at first.  But it is so worth it!  We can do this.

Monday Workout: Medicine Balls!

This week I feel like having a ball.  So we’ll use medicine balls in our workout.  (Sorry about the pun… ok, I’m not actually sorry.)  If there are no medicine balls available, no worries!  Substitute something like flies for the rescues and jacks or burpees or jump lunges for the ball slams.  The rest of the exercises can be done with dumbbells.  Do three rounds.

 

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