Yes, Maybe, No

The best blog post ideas come from my super awesome clients.  One of them asked me whether it was possible to do, say, bench press with twelve-pound dumbbells forever and have it be okay. 

There are a lot of ways to answer that question.

 

One:  yes.  The workout we are willing to do is always better than no workout.

 

Two:  maybe.  It depends on why we want to do that.  We, culturally, are under so much pressure to do more and faster and better that it’s a little bit amazing that we don’t all just blow up.  If we are trying to unplug from the competitive machine without sacrificing our desire to be healthy, exercising beings, it is perfectly all right to have a go-to workout that hits all our major muscle groups, gets our heart rates up, and gives us a chance to balance and stretch.  We do not have to do the shiny new workout of the moment.

 

Three:  no.  BORING!  Bodies and brains need different stimulation in order to prosper.  Doing the very same workout forever sounds like absolute torture to me, personally, and while I may not be entirely normal, I’m sure I’m not alone in this.  A boring workout is easy to postpone or shirk entirely.  Worse, when we’re bored, we tend not to pay attention to what we are doing and that is a good way to get injured.  From a body perspective, there are several reasons to change things up from time to time.  One is that we grow in response to challenge.  Those twelve-pound weights are going to become ridiculously easy to press after a while, so we are not providing our muscles with sufficient challenge.  Another is that, depending on our age, we need either to build up strong muscles and bones or to prevent and/or postpone the natural loss of muscle and bone that comes with aging; we do this by lifting challenging weights.

 

We need to consider why we are asking the question when we choose our answer.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: While I'm Off

I am on vacation, but y’all can still work out!  Three rounds.

 

woodchoppers	30
bench press	20
lateral raise	10
clean and press	30
1 leg squat	20
curls	10
jacks	30
flies	20
pretty princesses	10

The Amazing Stickie and the Kettlebell Hammer Curl

Today the Amazing Stickie is working on her biceps.  She could do ordinary curls, or hammer curls, but she wants a little extra challenge.  Enter the kettlebell hammer curl.  Because of the shape of the kettlebell, she has to work extra hard to stabilize the motion as she curls it.  Here’s how it works.

Stickie begins holding the kettlebell in one hand down at her side.  Keeping her upper arm next to her body and her torso still, she bends her elbow to lift the kettlebell toward her shoulder.  The ball end of the kettlebell should be pointing up at the top of the movement.  Then Stickie lowers the kettlebell back to the starting position.

 

A set of five reps on each side is a good place to start.

Goal Setting, Part 2: Aim, Process, Minimum

Yesterday we talked about where we are and where we want to go.  Now it’s time to get to the actual goals.

One way to structure goals is to make SMART goals.  That is, goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.  Instead of saying “I want to lose weight,” which is definitely a goal, we might say, “I want to lose ten pounds in the next two months.”

 

While a lot of people love SMART goals, I have a few issues with them.  For one thing, when we’re just starting out with fitness, we have no idea what is achievable or realistic in any particular time frame.  How many magazine headlines have we all seen in the grocery store offering us fifty pounds of weight loss in a month?  Maybe it’s twenty pounds in two weeks, or thirty by swimsuit season or whatever.  We don’t generally know what is sustainable and healthy.  (Note:  healthy, sustainable weight loss is generally one to two pounds per week, but some of us lose faster than others.)  My other big issue is that SMART goals say absolutely nothing about how.  Great!  I want to lose ten pounds and I know when I want it done, but how the heck am I supposed to do it?

 

I am a fan of process goals.  Process goals take a quick look at the direction we want to go and then drill down on how.  If, as in my example above, I want to lose ten pounds, I keep that aim in my mind and make some process goals like “I am going to do 30 minutes of cardio on five days this week to burn some calories” or “I am going to stop eating chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”  Process goals give us something to do rather than something to aim for.

 

That said, we might have to do some experimenting.  I may discover that 30 minutes of cardio isn’t enough, or that replacing chocolate with vanilla ice cream doesn’t actually improve the situation.  Or I may learn that after one day of cardio, I’m so exhausted that I can’t get off the couch for three days.  That is all right.  We are learning.  We are growing.  We are allowed to modify.

 

Which brings me to my final comment on goal setting.  I believe in stupidly easy goals, especially when we are starting our fitness journey or are starting to incorporate something new into our routines.  Our first goal is to build the habit of success and we do that by making it as painless as possible.  Walk five minutes every day.  The next week, we may walk six, or ten.  Do one pushup, and make it a wall pushup.  Once we have established good habits, we shift just a little bit and set ourselves minimums:  I do 30 minutes of cardio at least three days a week, or I lift weights at least once a week for 15 minutes, or I eat at least one vegetable every day.

 

Bottom line:  choose an aim, make process goals to get there, and set minimums.

Goal Setting, Part 1: Pre-Goal Data

So far this month, we’ve been going over the basics of our fitness programs.  Now it’s time to think about goals.  Today I’m going to discuss some pre-goal planning and tomorrow I’ll talk about some characteristics of good goals.

 

One of the first things I do when I meet a new client is collect a bunch of data.  (No, I don’t say, “Hi, my name is Janet and now I’m going to wrap my tape measure around you,” but it’s close…)  I do this because we have to know where we are before we start trying to go anywhere.  I’m putting the “You Are Here” mark on the map, so to speak.

 

When we’re getting ready to set goals, we want two different kinds of data, quantitative and qualitative.

 

Quantitative data, as we all probably know already, is stuff we can measure.  I collect height, weight, and circumference measures (chest, waist, hip, upper arm, thigh, calf).  I use my electrical impedance gizmo to get an approximate measure of my client’s body fat percentage.  (The gizmo also calculates BMI, but I’m not in love with that as an indicator of fitness even though it is widely used, mostly because it’s a relatively easy math problem.)  I give a step test to assess cardio fitness.  I give a flexibility test.  All of this is the Before picture, the benchmark.

 

Qualitative data is the fuzzy stuff.  I watch my new clients do a squat with arms overhead and analyze the movement to see where compensations are happening.  I ask about what they do for a living, what they like to do, and what they want, in a general sort of way, whether that is to impress the former Mean Girls at the high school reunion or to run a marathon or just to feel better.

 

I do a lot of listening.  I know a lot about the general recommendations for what people should do to be fit, but I’m not there to make someone’s goals for them.  I will choose a different workout for someone planning to climb mountains than I will for someone who wants to decrease body fat percentage and yet another workout for someone who wants to get to the top of the stairs without passing out.

 

What we want, at the end of our pre-goal-setting data collection is a picture of where we are and an idea of where we want to get.  I use my education and experience to map out areas that are going to need attention and I pay attention to what is important to my clients.  The important stuff is what gets clients to do stuff that, in the moment, is not always super fun.

 

So:  where are we and where do we want to go and why?

Monday Workout: Step on up...

This week I’m thinking about compound exercises, as usual.  I like the altitude change that step ups give us.  For more challenge, hold weights or do jump-ups instead!  Three rounds.

 

step ups	30
rows	20
(lunge to) curl	10
squat to leg lift	30
flies	20
truck driver	10
suitcase swing	30
bench press	20
pretty princesses	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Clean and Press

The Amazing Stickie is a very busy stickperson.  She likes efficient workouts so she can get on with her life.  The clean and press is an exercise that works well for her, since it works her whole body at once.

She begins holding weights at her sides.  She squats down, lowering the weights close to the floor.  Then she straightens her legs, lifting the weights up to shoulder level.  From there, she presses the weights overhead.  Then she returns the weights to shoulder level, and squats back to the floor.

 

(This version of the exercise uses dumbbells.  If Stickie has a spotter, she sometimes uses a heavy barbell instead.  In that case, she sometimes does an additional small squat to help her raise the bar from her shoulders to overhead.  Stickie, like all of us, is very cautious about lifting heavy weights and never does it all by herself.)

 

If the weights are pretty light, a set of 30 reps is doable.  As always, follow Stickie’s good example and stop if form deteriorates.

Nutrition 101

This one comes with some disclaimers.  I am not a doctor or a nutritionist or a dietician.  I have a certification in fitness nutrition and opinions, but the scope of my practice does not extend to designing diets (in the sense of what people eat, not in the sense of what people avoid eating to reduce weight).  What follows is within the scope of my practice, which is general advice about macronutrients and micronutrients.  When I am giving my personal opinion, I will say so.

 

Nutrition can be complicated because we are each lovely individual snowflakes with our own bundles of food preferences, sensitivities, and metabolic propensities.  It is my opinion that we all have to do some experimenting to figure out, within the parameters of science, works best for our bodies.  It is also my opinion that there are no inherently “good” or “bad” foods, that no one should punish themselves for eating anything, and that health comes from happiness as well as other things.

 

However, there are some general guidelines that it is good to keep in mind.  Food is made up of what are called macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) with small amounts of micronutrients (our friends the vitamins and minerals).  While there are exceptions (looking at you, keto eating plans), most people seem to do best on eating plans that are sparing with fats, moderate with proteins, and heavy on the complex carbohydrates.

 

All macronutrients are not, however, the same.  Fats come in a range from fully saturated to fully unsaturated.  The easy way to tell a saturated fat is that it is solid at room temperature.  In general, the more unsaturated a fat is, the better it is for us.  Fats are tasty (mmm…. butter!) and give us a lot of calories in small doses.  They also can help us feel satisfied at the end of a meal.  People who want to reduce their calorie intake often find that cutting the fat content helps a lot.

 

Protein is the macronutrient we use to build our tissues.  Virtually no one in our culture needs to worry about protein intake.  We all get plenty.  Animal proteins often come packaged with a pretty high fat content, so we want to pay attention to that a little.  And, for those of us who have not been paying attention for a long time:  vegetarians have no problem getting enough protein and vegans just have to be a little conscious of getting a wide range of essential amino acids.

 

Carbohydrates are the current favorite target of bad press.  This is undeserved.  Our brains function on glucose, which is a simple carbohydrate.  Now, we are not hummingbirds, so just sucking down red syrup is not enough to make our brains and bodies function well.  Simple carbohydrates, like glucose and other sugars, join together into larger molecules to form starches.  In general, the more complex a carbohydrate is, the better it is for us.  Bulky starches and their friend fiber are our friends because they make us feel full and they keep our digestion moving along.  Mom was right:  we should eat our veggies.

 

The thing is, we don’t eat macronutrients; we eat foods.  Our best bet when choosing foods is to pick the least processed versions.  An apple is better than apple juice in terms of nutritional bang for calorie buck.  That said, we don’t chow down on a pile of wheat.  Choose foods that are less processed when possible.

 

Micronutrients are generally not a problem if we select a wide variety of foods.  I am not a super proponent of lots of supplements, but a multivitamin is a reasonable insurance policy against any gaps in our food plans.

 

Finally, drink water.  Most of us don’t drink enough water and we tend to drink too much other stuff that is full of calories.  Water makes us nicer, really.

 

To sum up:  eat veggies and drink water.  The rest is pretty optional.

Scheduling 101

Over the last weeks, we have gone over all the different kinds of work we need to incorporate into our fitness routines.  It’s a lot, so we might feel a little overwhelmed about how we are going to manage to do fitness and anything else in our lives, too.

 

Never fear!  Today I’m going to talk about scheduling and how to make it all work together.

 

One traditional way to make it all fit is to stagger workouts.  We do our cardio every day and add in strength training with some stretching and balance work on two days a week.  Maybe on one day we forego the cardio and take a yoga or Pilates class to increase our commitment to flexibility and balance.  It’s perfectly workable and gives our weight-training muscles a chance to rest.

 

However, there are a couple of tweaks to the traditional system that make it work better in less time.  May I introduce everyone to my two favorite things:  interval training and circuit training.

 

Interval training (sometimes called High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT) allows us to burn more calories and improve our cardio fitness in less time.  Once we are warmed up, we intersperse whatever cardio thing we are doing with bursts of about a minute of going as fast and/or hard as we can.  If we are, say, walking on a treadmill, we increase the incline and/or speed for a minute.  Then we recover for a minute or two and repeat.  If we are biking, we add hills.  If we are swimming, we go faster.  Our hour-long workout becomes half an hour.  What’s not to like?

 

When we combine this concept with circuit training on our two or three days a week that we plan to do strength training, we get even more efficient.  We combine our weight work with cardio intervals and we’re done with both cardio and strength in 45 minutes.  (Note:  the workouts I post every Monday are designed on this principle, so we have plenty of resources available!)  With a bit of planning, we can ensure that we are building in balance moves right there in the circuit.  This is why there are always core moves and often asymmetric or single-leg versions of exercises included in the workouts I write.

 

So a weekly workout plan might look like this:

 

Monday: half hour interval cardio, 5-10 minutes stretching

Tuesday:  circuit strength training interval workout, 5-10 minutes stretching

Wednesday: same as Monday

Thursday:  same as Tuesday

Friday:  same as Monday

Saturday: Pilates or yoga

Sunday: gentle walk and stretching

 

We’re done in under an hour every day except possibly Saturday, depending on class length.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: Kettle Bells

I am in the mood for kettlebells.  Three rounds.

 

kb swing	30
kb twist	20
kb 8/overyet	10
leg kicks	30
bench press	20
Arnold press	10
squat raise	30
flies	20
Russian twist	10

  

Amazing Stickie and the Bear Crawl

This week, the Amazing Stickie is working on her abs.  (Fine.  She does that every week, but I drew her working on her abs this time.)  She is doing this by doing the bear crawl.  To begin, she puts her hands and feet on the floor and makes an inverted V out of her body.  Then she crawls forward using her right arm and left leg and then her left arm and right leg.  Ten steps is a good amount.

As a variation, instead of making a V out of her body, sometimes Stickie begins on her hands and knees.  She lifts her knees just slightly off the floor and then crawls forward as usual.  Both are good for Stickie and, therefore, for us as well. 

Flexibility and Balance 101

Unfortunately, we don’t just need cardio and weight training to be physically fit humans.  We also need flexibility and balance.  I touched on this a little bit yesterday in talking about Pilates, which is a good way to improve both flexibility and balance, but it is not the only way.

 

Flexibility first.  I have bad news.  Most of us are getting less flexible all the time.  This is because we tend to skip even maintenance in this area.  How many workouts have we ended without a stretch?  I think we assume it’s not necessary because it feels good; we assume that all fitness things need to be unpleasant to be effective.

 

So how do we turn this around?  First:  exercise is not a punishment.  If it hurts a lot, we are doing it wrong.  (Sometimes it’s a bit uncomfortable, but that’s different.)  Second, we learn how to do flexibility right.

 

There are various schools of thought about stretching.  Personally, I think doing static stretches first thing in a workout is a good way to get hurt.  We want to warm the body up a bit before we stretch those muscles, which means we can do a little walking or we can do dynamic stretches (think of things like high knees, or windmills, or twists) if we want to do some flexibility work before our main workout.  There is some data to suggest that doing flexibility first reduces our weight lifting performance, but we may not care about that if we are not going for a world record.  I prefer to stretch after other workouts, when the body is good and warm.  It is best to stretch whatever muscles we have been using for our workout and science says holding stretches for 30 to 60 seconds works best.  Alternatively or additionally, we can add a flexibility practice like a yoga or Pilates class to our routines, but please note:  flexibility is one of those things that works best if we do it every day.  Five minutes can make a big difference.

 

Balance is a life skill.  We are all getting older and one of the major predictors of mortality in older people is falls.  Good balance is basically insurance against icky stuff like hip fractures.  I have good news:  balance is easy to incorporate into our daily routines, both in and out of our workouts.

 

In our workouts, we work on balance any time we do core work or asymmetrical work.  All those single leg exercises we do are for balance, as are things like single arm clean and presses and woodchoppers.  Our work on our pretty princesses and all our other core exercises help with balance, too.

 

However, we can sneak balance practice into regular life.  We all (I hope!) brush our teeth in the morning.  If we stand there on one leg, we are practicing balance.  Same deal for doing the dishes or waiting in line at the store.

 

A safety note about balance work:  start slow and easy and make sure that there is a counter or sturdy piece of furniture to hold on to if necessary.  We don’t want to fall while we’re learning.

 

We can do this.

Pilates 101

Most people I talk to are pretty clear on why cardio and strength training are good ideas, but they get more puzzled when Pilates comes up.  A lot of folks see the equipment and assume that it’s just an expensive form of torture, or they see a mat class and figure it’s just some flavor of yoga with less granola.

 

When we start Pilates, it is best to avoid the DIY route.  It makes a huge difference to have a knowledgeable and perceptive instructor to help us learn what Pilates has to teach us about our bodies.  So, unlike when I wrote about cardio and weight training, I’m not going to lay out where we should begin our Pilates journeys, but rather discuss why we might want to start one.

 

My favorite reason to do Pilates is that it makes me feel good.  The focus on the breath and on the mind-body connection is part of that and that focus is available to the very beginning Pilates student.

 

Of course I have lots of other reasons.  I like the way Pilates works synergistically with the other workouts I do.  The precision recruitment of muscles that Pilates requires refines my movement in every other part of my life.  The strength and endurance I get from my weight training and cardio help me access more of the Pilates repertoire.

 

I am not, by nature, a flexible person.  Pilates helps me lengthen my tight muscles, creates mobility in some of my stubborn joints, and makes more space in my spine.  Better, the exercises do all that without me having to hold a static stretch for a long time.

 

Then there is the core control and balance part.  Life, as we all have figured out by now, is full of surprise potholes, wayward hedgehogs, slippery floors, and other tripping hazards.  Successfully coping with all of that without falling on our behinds requires core control and the balance it enables.  Pilates gives us that set of tools.

 

Finally, there is the posture bit.  Not only does good posture make us look better, it makes us move better.  Better movement reduces pain in our bodies.  What’s not to like about less pain?

 

Interested in pursuing some Pilates?  Talk to me.

Monday Workout: Remember These?

It has been a while since we did bench dips, so I thought we’d revisit them.  They are a great exercise for triceps.  However, if there is no bench (or sturdy chair) available, kickbacks are a perfectly good substitution.  Three rounds.

 

suitcase swing	30
deadlift to curl	20
bench dip or kickback	10
(lunge) punches	30
rows	20
pushups	10
squat to leg lift	30
front raise	20
brains	10

The Amazing Stickie and Single Leg Deadlifts

The Amazing Stickie knows that working on balance is important as she gets older.  One of her favorite balance exercises is the single leg deadlift.  She begins standing on both feet with good posture.  In the picture, Stickie has her hands on her hips, but sometimes she puts her arms out to the side like airplane wings, or, if she wants more challenge, she puts them overhead.  She then transfers her weight to one foot, moving her torso and her non-standing-leg as if they were one piece until they are parallel with the floor.  Then she returns to the starting position.  Five or ten reps on a side make a good set.  It is more challenging to switch legs on each rep rather than doing one side and then the other.

Strength Training 101

Yesterday I wrote about starting with cardio.  Once we have a cardio base and an exercise habit in place, it’s time to get into our weight training.

 

Weight training is where the real changes start to happen in our bodies.  We shift our body composition away from fat and toward lean body mass.  We get stronger (of course!) and look better.  We burn a lot more calories, both while we work out and in our daily lives.  On a mental level, we also find that we feel empowered.

 

Just like with cardio, we want to start small with our weight training goals.  One weekly session that we commit to is better than two or three that we flake on.  Most of us end up with two or three sessions per week, but how many and how long depend on what our goals are.

 

While we are building the habit of lifting weights, we also want to build up our endurance.  That means we use pretty light weights and do lots of reps, about 12 to 20.  We want to make sure we do exercises for our upper body, our lower body, and our core.

 

Once our habit is built, we can, of course, continue with an endurance program, increasing the weights we lift as we get stronger.  However, we may want to work on other goals.  If we want to build big muscles, we shift our workouts to lifting heavier weights and sets of about 8 to 10 reps, making sure that the weight is heavy enough that it is hard to complete that last rep.  The fancy word for making big muscles is hypertrophy.

 

Others of us may want to lift the most weight.  In this kind of workout, after our warm-up, we lift progressively heavier weights in sets of about 5 reps until we get to the point where we can only do a single rep.  This is called the one-rep max.

 

Still not sure what to do or where to start?  Ask me! 

Cardio 101

Here we are in the new year, ready to be new people (maybe).  In fitness, that probably starts with some cardio.  I pretty much always tell folks to begin with cardio.  The benefits of cardio training in itself are many, as I keep repeating:  improved mood, better brain function, greater heart health, and the like. 

For people just starting (or re-starting) their fitness journey, cardio is a good first step for additional reasons.  First, cardio is super easily available and doesn’t have to use equipment.  Nearly all of us can go for a walk.  Because of the aforementioned mood benefits, building a cardio habit tends to be slightly easier for most of us.  When something makes us feel good, we tend to do it again.  Our very first goal on our fitness journey is building a fitness habit and we start with the simple stuff.  Finally, building up a cardio fitness base will allow us to progress faster when we get to the weight training portion of the show.

 

Now that we’ve explored why, let’s talk how.  I believe in making ridiculously easy goals and meeting them, so I suggest committing to a five minute walk seven days for a week.  We can all find five minutes, so there is really no excuse.  It is all right to do a little bit more, but here’s the deal:  we’re committing for all seven days.  We don’t get to do a 35 minute walk on the first day and call it done.  The point is to build the habit.

 

Eventually, we work ourselves up to doing a total of 150 minutes of cardio a week.  That’s the recommendation for Americans.  That works out to five 30 minute sessions a week.  However, I personally believe that to keep our habits in place we need to do something every day.  A rest day is just a day with a significantly less intense workout in it.

 

We will notice, as we go along, that things that used to be really hard get easier.  Our bodies change in response to challenge, so when what we are doing gets easy, we need to make it harder.  We have choices about how to do that.  We can, with cardio, do it for more time, do it faster, or choose a harder route (e.g., with hills or intervals).  (Note:  if swimming is your cardio of choice, it is very hard to find hills.)  What we want to ensure is that we work hard enough that we can still carry on a conversation (again, probably not while swimming), but singing is not manageable.

 

Make sense?  If not, ask me!