This week we are continuing to work our compound exercises and our balance. Choose weights that are heavy enough that it’s hard but not impossible to complete the number of reps. Three rounds.
1 arm clean and press | 30 |
rows | 20 |
1 leg squat | 10 |
| |
kb swings | 30 |
kb twists | 20 |
kb 8s | 10 |
| |
mountain climbers | 30 |
squats | 20 |
pretty princesses | 10 |
This week I’ve been writing about reasons to get in a workout. Here are ten of mine, but we all need to make our own.
1. It improves my mood. I’m a depressive, so I am all about finding ways to cope with that. Cardio is the very best antidepressant I have found. (Please note: this does not mean that any of us should stop taking medication without talking with our doctors. Medications can save lives.)
2. It helps me sleep. Not just me. Research says so. Exercise improves the quantity and quality of our sleep.
3. It makes my brain work better. Exercise helps keep our brains functioning well. Also, it clears out all that hamster-wheel stuff in there.
4. It reduces stress. That thing about clearing the hamster-wheel stuff? That’s stress reduction. And the weights don’t mind if we take our anger and stress out on them the way our family and friends do.
5. It gives me more energy for the other things I want to do. I don’t poop out when I’m exploring a park or a museum or a new neighborhood because I’ve built my endurance during my workouts.
6. It means I can eat fries. Not all the time, but once in a while. No one can out-exercise a truly terrible diet, but working out means that there is a little space for treats.
7. I look better. I like what I look like when my muscles are toned and my posture is better and I’m a healthier weight.
8. I can open jars. My dad was convinced that I would starve to death back before I started lifting weights because I needed him to open stuff for me.
9. It improves my health markers. Exercise is good for reducing cholesterol, improving glucose tolerance, preventing heart disease, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
10. I have come to like it. That was a long road, I admit, but nowadays I look forward to my time with my spin bike or in the pool or around the weights.
Your turn.
Sometimes, no matter how many good reasons we have to work out, we don’t. What we need to do then is figure out how to get the obstacles out of the way.
Practical obstacles are relatively easy to overcome. We can go walk or run for free if the gym is too expensive. There are plenty of body weight exercises we can do if we don’t have a lot of equipment around. Almost all of us can find enough time in the day to work out without stealing from our sleep.
The inner obstacle course can be more difficult. Some of us have been scarred by our previous attempts to exercise—that mean coach in middle school or those girls who laughed at us the first time we circled the track and we felt like we were going to die or that time we broke a leg skiing and we had to hobble around on crutches forever. Some of us hate the whole idea of sweat. Some of us are convinced that hell is one big elliptical trainer or an endless aerobics class. Dealing with negative emotions is hard. In fact, it is harder than any workout. No matter what particular issues we have, we want to go gently. When we treat ourselves with kindness and respect and we set teeny tiny goals that we can nail, we encourage ourselves to keep going. We love ourselves through the tough parts because we know that working out is good for us and will make us feel better in the long run, if not in the actual moment.
Navigating all that stuff can feel overwhelming. This is where a friend or trainer can help—someone to be present for us while we work it through.
I’m here to help.
Even though I mostly enjoy working out, I don’t do it just for fun. This surprises people, who assume that I have no problem motivating myself to work out because I am a Trained Professional. Turns out I am human, too. All of us, me included, work out for our own reasons. There are some people out there who run or lift or whatever because they really love the thing itself, but the rest of us have to find other encouragement to hit the gym.
Some reasons are more effective than others. Research strongly suggests, and my experience confirms, that the best motivations are positive ones. Put another way, if shame, meanness, cultural pressure, fear, and screaming worked, we’d all be thin and fit already. What we need is the connection between our workouts and the things we deeply want in our lives.
Those deep wants don’t have to be actually deep—if we really want to be hot/gorgeous/thin out of personal vanity, that can be super motivating because we can see the link between showing up at the gym and how we look in that bikini. Of course, they can also plumb the very depths of our souls: we can work out to find peace, to live longer and better, to keep up with our kids or grandkids, or to reach the literal mountaintop.
So let’s ask the questions: what do we want and how does that link up to getting today’s workout done?
This week we’re doing some basics and some compound exercises. The idea is to mix things up so our bodies stay a little confused, which helps them adapt. Three rounds.
step ups | 30 |
flies | 20 |
Arnold press | 10 |
| |
mountain climbers | 30 |
lunge twist | 20 |
curls | 10 |
| |
squat to leg lift | 30 |
deadlifts | 20 |
Russian twist | 10 |
What counts as exercise? My Wristy Overlord (aka Apple Watch) has one definition, but it is not necessarily the right one. Here are a couple of ways to figure out whether what we are doing is exercise or not:
1. Are we getting sweaty? If we’re not working hard enough to sweat, it’s probably not exercise.
2. Are we getting breathless? This one applies more to cardio and strength training than yoga and other mindfulness-based practices, but it is still a useful indicator. Breathless, in this context, means that we are still capable of speech, but would really have trouble singing.
3. Are we a little sore later? We all have individual pain tolerances, but a good workout will leave us feeling like we did something the next day. If we hate the very idea of stairs, we might have worked a little too hard, but if we can perfectly happily skip up and down them, we might not want to count whatever we did as exercise.
4. Did we learn something new about our bodies in motion? This one applies more to Pilates and its sibling practices. Creating mobility in our joints, figuring out alignment issues, refining our proprioception (five-dollar word for our sense of where our bodies are in space), and improving our balance are all exercises that unite our bodies and minds. It can be very tiring, too.
As always, I am in favor of all kinds of activity, whether they are technically exercise or not, but we do want to ensure that we get some real workouts in. Go play.
Over the last several months, I have been doing what I call my “oilcan” exercises every day. These are the exercises that keep my body parts moving smoothly, little maintenance things that make a surprisingly big difference in how my regular workouts and the rest of my life go.
The practice grew out of work with my clients. Every client has individual needs based on all kinds of things, including injury history. I saw so many folks with knee issues that I just know to tack on a couple of specific exercises at the beginning of those workouts. I don’t have knee issues, but I realized one day (I might have been a little slow on the uptake here, but hey, I eventually figured it out) that I could create the same kind of thing for the parts of my body that were giving me trouble.
It turns out that it takes less than ten minutes to do the five or six things that make my body work better all day. Want to find out what yours are? Poke me!
I have written before about how overwhelming it can be to begin working out. I’m going to do it again, because there are always people just starting out. Also, the rest of us can use some reminding.
What do we do first? What are all these gizmos and machines for? What do we really need to do and what is optional?
When we are starting from the couch, the first thing we need to do is to build some cardio endurance. We need that cardio base to work from when we start lifting weights. It is generally a good idea to start small and work up to reduce the likelihood of injury, soreness, or severe rebellion against the very idea of moving ever again. “Small” is a term that each of us has to define for ourselves. Some of us need to start with five minutes of walking most days of the week; others of us can jump right in to the recommended 30 minutes of moderate cardio five times a week. Once we have reached that 30 minute level and we don’t feel like we’re going to die at any moment, we have our cardio base and we can move along to weight training.
This is where I come in. Most folks don’t need a trainer to get in cardio. We grab our headphones and turn up the music or bribe ourselves with our favorite shows or go on outside and get it done. Weights are a little different, especially when we are starting out. A trainer can help keep us safe by demonstrating good form. It’s nice to have someone do the counting and planning for us. And then there is that whole thing where I get people to have a reasonably good time doing something they don’t really want to do. When we start lifting weights, again, our first priority is building some basic endurance. We start with light weights and work our way up. A good starting point is one session a week, building up to two or three (unless we want to be serious body-builders, in which case things get much more complex). Even if we don’t choose to work with a trainer, we want to put the priority on free weights rather than all those fancy gym machines because most of those machines work our muscles in isolation from each other, which is not how stuff works in real life. When we work with free weights, we also build core strength, balance, and coordination. (Those machines have uses for people with specific issues or injuries or other limitations and it is not BAD to use them; free weights are just, on the whole, BETTER.) Our bodies really start to change when we begin lifting weights. This is where we begin to build lean body mass, increase our metabolisms, and burn a lot of fat.
Then I need to talk about the most neglected part of most of our fitness efforts: flexibility. We get pretty good about showing up to do our cardio and weights and then we’re tired and we think that we’ll just skip the stretching today or do it later and we never seem to get around to it. This is not the best choice. Having toned muscles and all is great, but life is about moving, so if we skip the stretches too much, we are essentially limiting our lives by way of our range of motion. Stretching feels good, so we perverse slaves of the Protestant Work Ethic think that it must not be all right to do or something. Fight the power: do some stretching!
I am always available for questions, so don’t hesitate to drop me a line or give me a call to ask. Now go play.
Bad news first: there are burpees in this workout. We do them because they are good for us, increasing our coordination, muscle mass, balance, and calorie-burning. This does not mean we have to like them. Swearing is allowed. Three rounds.
woodchoppers | 30 |
bench press | 20 |
burpees | 10 |
| |
lunge punches | 30 |
squats | 20 |
kickbacks | 10 |
| |
plyo/regular/mod jacks | 30 |
lateral raise | 20 |
brains | 10 |
I’ve been putting a lot of balance exercises in workouts for my clients lately. Practice is key to balance, so here are four ways to squeeze in balance practice in daily life.
1. Brush your teeth on one foot. We brush our teeth every day. We might as well practice balance at the same time since we’re standing there anyway. Having the sink right there to grab makes it a pretty safe place to practice, too.
2. Balance during that time in line at the store. Focus on your favorite tabloid headline and see if you can read it all before you lose your balance. Then do the other foot.
3. Use commercials as time to balance (if you still have commercials in your TV programs. If not, practice while the streaming stuff loads or during the endless scrolling to find something new to watch.). May I suggest single leg deadlifts?
4. Do some core exercises before you get up. A few femur arcs or chest lifts before getting out of bed is a good way to start the day. Maybe not as good as rolling over and going back to sleep, but good. Ambitious people can do pretty princesses, too.
The weather is getting warmer and, in some places, actually hot. What that means is that we have to pay attention to a couple more things when we work out outside.
First, we need to drink more water. This is almost always good advice, but it is truly crucial if we are getting sweaty in hot weather. We need to bring more than we think we need and if we’re going to be out for more than a couple hours, we might want to bring a drink with electrolytes in it.
Second, we need to remember that we don’t need THAT much sun. Personally, I think I am secretly a plant and I need to photosynthesize, but even this walking plant needs to remember the sunscreen and the floppy hat. Sunburn is Not Fun and it’s not good for us.
We can have tons of fun if we do a tiny bit of planning. Let’s be good scouts and Be Prepared.
Now that more of us are getting vaccinated and we’re allowed to see our friends safely, it’s time to talk about workout buddies again. I am totally in favor of them, but it is important to choose the right ones.
Sometimes the people we love best are not the best workout buddies for us. We are not looking for a soul mate in a workout buddy. Here is what we ARE looking for:
Great workout buddies keep us accountable. That dear friend who is always late or bails out at the last minute may be a wonderful human, but they will not help us achieve our workout goals.
We want workout buddies who are more or less at the same level of fitness we are. If we work out with someone who is a lot less fit than we are, we won’t get much of a workout (however, this can be a Good Deed with a side of active rest for us and an opportunity to connect). If we work out with someone a lot fitter than we are, we run the risk of working too hard or of getting discouraged.
We also want workout buddies who can focus enough. That friend who has fascinating stories to tell might be perfect if both of us can still keep enough of our minds on pedaling/running/walking, but if the stories distract us from lifting form or traffic maybe not so much.
All of that said, active fun with our friends is good for us, even if those folks are not our perfect workout buddies. Go play!
This workout should feel a little challenging because it has a bunch of compound exercises in it and that first set has two fairly aerobic exercises in a row. If it feels TOO challenging, slow down a bit; if you want more challenge, increase the weight and/or speed (but not to the point of compromising form!). Three rounds.
mountain climbers | 30 |
squat to leg lift | 20 |
rows | 10 |
| |
kb swings | 30 |
kb twists | 20 |
kb 8s | 10 |
| |
clean and press | 30 |
1 leg deadlift | 20 |
Russian twist | 10 |
I know my job is to encourage fitness, but sometimes that doesn’t mean running marathons or lifting all the weights in the gym at the same time. Sometimes it means giving our bodies the rest they need. Here are some semi-active kinds of rest to consider:
1. Exploring. On most days, we want to get breathless and sweaty, but sometimes we can take it all down a few notches. Instead of running through the neighborhood at top speed, we can slow down and notice the details. Maybe that means poking our noses into the shops or admiring all the flowers in our neighbors’ gardens.
2. Playing in water. Maybe we usually swim laps (and that is totally awesome!), but sometimes it’s good to float around with a pool noodle or play Marco Polo with the kids (no peeking!).
3. Being a tourist. I rarely exercise when I travel because I like to see the places I go on foot. I get ten bazillion steps in while going through the average art museum without even thinking about it until I realize that my feet are falling off and I really need to sit in the café with some fizzy water.
4. Napping. Yes, napping. It is all right to rest. We are allowed to do it and our bodies are better for it.
Play then rest.
I think we’re all familiar with two eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia, but there is a third one out there that we might want to be familiar with both literally and figuratively. It’s called orthorexia, and it is an obsession with healthy eating. People who suffer from this disease don’t focus on the amount of food they eat, but they fixate on the quality of that food, trying to ensure that they are eating the very healthiest of everything. How can that be a bad thing?
Well. It’s in the obsessive part. Most of us manage, one way or another, to get our nutritional needs met. On the whole, Americans have zero trouble getting enough calories or enough protein. We get more than enough fat in our diets and more simple carbohydrates than our bodies know what to do with. As I have said more than once, my two pieces of nutritional advice for almost everyone are to eat vegetables and drink water. A reasonably varied diet that incorporates a balance of complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and unsaturated fats is likely to have all the vitamins and minerals we need as well. (If we’re worried or wouldn’t eat a fruit or vegetable except on pain of death, we might pop a multivitamin, but that’s just insurance.) This does not mean that we can never eat cake or bacon or Grandma’s heart attack on a plate fettucine alfredo. We just need to splurge occasionally and moderately. No one died from eating one French fry (if they did, it must have been a poisoned one or an allergy or something.).
Anyway, my point is that we want to think enough about healthy eating but not too much. We all know when we’ve eaten too much and we feel gross. We all also know that those all kale all the time diets make us equally miserable.
That’s all the literal bit. The figurative bit is this: not everything we do all the time has to be useful. Sometimes we can relax. Sometimes we can play, and not just because play makes us more efficient later. Real health comes from being fully human, engaging in the ebb and flow of life, enjoying the salad and the cake by turns, running around like crazy and then resting. Let’s do what we need to do and let it go.
I was talking with a client about the purposes of an exercise and it brought up a couple of terms that I want to share more widely. We get stability from our bodies in at least two ways: form closure and force closure.
Form closure is how our bones fit together. For example, at the back of our pelvis, the sacrum (base of the spine) fits like a wedge in the slot between the two halves of the pelvis. This is stability by design and unless something goes seriously wrong with our bones, we don’t have to do anything about it—we can’t really do anything about it.
Force closure is something we have a bit more influence over. Our bones are connected by ligaments (directly), and tendons and muscles (less directly). When we work with muscles around a joint using good form, we are improving our force closure. In other words, hip exercises improve the stability of our hips, shoulder exercises keep our shoulders stable, and so on. The extra good part about force closure is that it is about stability in motion—we want to be able to move those joints, not live our lives as stable statues.
Let’s be strong, stable, and mobile!
This week’s workout has a few twists, on purpose. Life does not just go in a straight line, so we need to practice side movements and twists. Three rounds.
1 arm clean and press | 30 |
squats | 20 |
pushups | 10 |
| |
jacks | 30 |
deadlifts | 20 |
Arnold press | 10 |
| |
overhead curtsy | 30 |
skullcrushers | 20 |
Russian twist | 10 |
