Monday Workout: Simple

Sometimes simple is good.  Nothing fancy this time, but still plenty of work!  Three rounds.

 

 

step ups	30
flies	20
lateral raise	10
jacks	30
renegade rows	20
pushups	10
woodchoppers	30
bench press	20
pretty princesses	10

The Amazing Stickie and Pelvic Clock

Today the Amazing Stickie is working on her Pilates exercises.  One of her favorites is one of the simplest because it increases her proprioception, helps her maintain a neutral spine in her daily life, and releases any tension she has from prolonged sitting.  She’s demonstrating the pelvic clock.

She begins by lying down on her back, arms at her sides, knees bent so that her feet are flat on the floor.  It is hard to see in the picture, but her spine is maintaining its natural curve in the starting position.  That means that there is a little bit of space between her lower back and the floor, enough for a ladybug to crawl through like a tunnel, but not enough for a badger.  (No, I don’t know why ladybugs or badgers would want to crawl under Stickie’s back.)

 

Stickie is going to do three variations of this exercise, but there are certainly more out there and she encourages everyone to experiment.

 

First, she is going to rock her pelvis up and down her body.  As Stickie exhales, she uses her abdominals to tilt her pelvis back toward her belly button.  (This presses her lower back into the floor and would squish our ladybug friend.)  Then she inhales and tilts her pelvis forward toward her pubic bone.  Working with the breath on this exercise is very useful.  She keeps the movement small to minimize the engagement of her powerful thigh muscles.

 

After several reps, Stickie shifts her attention to moving her pelvis from side to side.  When she does this, she tries to maintain the distance between her ribcage and her pelvis.  She knows that many of us, when we shift our weight from one side of our pelvis to the other, tend to hike our hip up toward our ribcage.  This might look slightly sexier, but does not help.  We want to be using our obliques to practice keeping our pelvis level even as we press one hip bone and then the other into the ground.

 

Then Stickie combines both movements.  She makes pelvic circles by pressing first her belly button, then one hip, then her pubic bone, then the other hip toward the floor.  Some people do this by envisioning a clock lying on their pelvises and pressing down the various numbers (thus the name of the exercise).  Alternatively, Stickie can imagine that she has a shallow bowl of water on her belly and she is swirling the water around.  Of course, she makes circles in both directions.

 

After she is done, her lower back often feels much nicer.

Why, yes, I AM the funglepress champion of the world

Yesterday I talked a little about montages.  They’re awesome, right?  But in real life, how do we see our progress?

In small steps.  Most of them go forward, but not all of them.

 

With our cardio workouts, we don’t want to increase our time by more than about 10 percent per week.  If that’s too mathy, we can just add a minute a week until we get to our target time.  When we want to increase our intensity, our best choice is to add in a minute of high intensity here and there, either by going faster or adding incline or resistance. 

 

With weights, we want to choose a weight that barely allows us to complete a set of reps.  When completing the set isn’t hard anymore, we increase the weight and see how many reps we can do with good form, even if that is fewer than we were doing before.  For example, let’s say we start doing funglepresses (yes, I made that up so no one has any judgy opinions about the exercise) with 5 pound weights.  After a couple workouts, it's easy to complete ten reps.  We trade our 5s in for 8s, but now we can only do six good-looking reps.  Over the next weeks, we work up to ten reps with the 8s.  When we switch to 10s, we have to drop back to four reps.  And so on until we are eventually, 25 years later, doing our funglepresses with 3 tons.

 

In either scenario, cardio or weights, we will have days when we need to back off.  Maybe the baby kept us up all night and all we can manage is five minutes of random stumbling on the treadmill.  Or we foolishly offered to help our friend move and all her furniture is solid oak, so we’re lucky to complete a single funglepress with 3 pound weights.  This is all part of the process.  Stuff happens.  We listen to our bodies and we do the right amount of work for this day.

 

Go play.

Not just the eye of the tiger...

We all love a good fitness montage.  Think about, say, any Rocky movie.  There’s always a series of clips of Rocky working out in various weird ways with an inspiring sound track and five minutes later he’s ready to have that big match.  (Also applies to the Creed movies I’ve seen, but I haven’t seen the last one.  I’m going to guess it still works.)

Sadly, here in real life, we don’t get fit by montage.  (Neither do we get to travel by map, as they do in The Muppets, but I digress.)  We get fit by showing up over and over again and getting sweaty.  The good news is that we can have any kind of inspiring soundtrack we want!

 

Go put on some Survivor and lift, kids.

Monday Workout: Bound!

Jumping makes everything both more fun and more challenging.  Not jumping is also good, if jumping is not appropriate.  Three rounds.

 

kb alternate arm swing	30
kb hammer curls	20
kb pushups	10
lateral bound/lateral lunge	30
bench press	20
truck driver	10
clean and press	30
rows	20
plank	10

The Amazing Stickie and Kettlebell Halo

The Amazing Stickie was thrilled to learn about another thing to do with her kettlebells!  Today she is doing the kettlebell halo.

She begins standing with good posture holding a kettlebell with both hands in front of her chest.  She circles the kettlebell around behind her head and back to the starting position while maintaining a neutral spine (and not bonking herself in the back of the head with a kettlebell, natch).  Five circles in each direction is good.

 

Variation:  this exercise can be done in a tall kneeling position or in a lunge position for extra fun.

Systematically unsystematic

I love systems.  And office supplies.  I have never met a planning system with color coding that I didn’t think I could use to transform my life.  And yet, here I am, mostly untransformed.

 

The thing about systems is that they want things to fit.  Tasks need to be categorized.  Hours need to be accounted for.  Nothing must be wasted.

 

Life, on the other hand, doesn’t care if stuff fits.  (This is why lycra was invented.)  No matter how carefully we write our workout on the calendar in the correct color of pen, life can still say, “Hey, but the car is going to break down right then and actually we’re going to spend the day talking to tow people and insurance agents and repair guys.”  We can plan the perfect workout that uses every single muscle group the optimum amount and life can hand us food poisoning instead.

 

I am not saying that we shouldn’t plan.  I’m just saying that we need to understand that life is bigger than our plans.  The world is not going to end if we miss one workout, or even if we write it on the chart in the wrong color.  If we end up getting in our steps pacing the hospital corridors while we wait to hear about a loved one’s test results, that still counts.  If someone offers us a spontaneous hike to see waterfalls, we don’t need to say no because we were planning on lifting weights right then.

 

The system is not important.  We are important.  When the system doesn’t serve us, we need to ignore it.

 

Go play. 

Everybody's Doing It

None of us does the same workout.  Even if we do the exact same exercises in the exact same order, we are different humans so our workouts are not going to do the same things in our bodies.  What this means is that we have permission to modify.  Heck, maybe we even have an obligation to modify.

This is where I point out that modifications are not static entities.  For example, sometimes we modify because a particular version of an exercise is not appropriate for us at the moment.  As we continue to work on that exercise, we need to modify our modifications.

 

Safety modifications can be either temporary or permanent.  Those of us who become pregnant need to make some adjustments to keep ourselves and our future progeny safe before returning to business as usual afterwards.  (Note:  afterwards will not be the same body as before and this is all good.)  On the other hand, when we receive a diagnosis of osteoporosis, we need to change our workouts forever to avoid spinal flexion.

 

No matter why we are modifying, the point of modifications is to make our workouts work for us.

 

We can do this.

Monday Workout: Compound

I love compound exercises!  So much work in so little time!  Three rounds.

 

 

squat heel lift	30
(lunge to) curl	20
Arnold press	10
kb swings	30
kb twists	20
kb 8s	10
woodchoppers	30
lateral raise	20
V sit press	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Roll-Up

Today the Amazing Stickie is working on her spinal articulation.  People who have osteopenia and osteoporosis should not do this exercise; Stickie has no actual bones, so this is not a problem for her.

She begins lying on her back with her arms at her sides (beginning with arms overhead is also all right).  She takes a big inhale.  As she exhales, she curls herself up until she is in a sitting position with her back straight and her arms extended in front of her in what she and I like to call Zombie Position.  She takes a big breath in and then as she exhales she curls back down to the starting position.

 

For those of us who find this too difficult, Stickie is also demonstrating the assisted version of the exercise, which begins with the legs in tabletop position.  The extra leverage from the weight of the legs helps us get our spines off the floor.

 

No matter which option we choose, three to five repetitions are enough.

The Amazing Stickie and Side Lunge Row and Raise

Today the Amazing Stickie is working lots of muscles doing the side lunge row and raise.

She begins in her side lunge position holding a dumbbell in the arm by her straight leg.  She rows the arm up so that the dumbbell is by her shoulder and then presses it overhead.  She returns to the starting position.

 

Sets of 15 on a side are good.

Sadly, workouts are rarely like sundaes

Every once in a while, I have a conversation that reminds me that I need to review the basics of something.  Someone recently asked me about working more on cardio.  This person basically forgot how interval training works, so I’m going to go over it for everyone.

What we are doing when we do cardio training is teaching our hearts and lungs to recover more quickly from exertion.  We do need some base cardio endurance for things like an unexpectedly long or steep hike, or surprise stairs.  We do want to be able to finish the dog walk without passing out.  One way to get that basic endurance is to do those things.  Walk for half an hour.  Hop on a bike or spin bike or elliptical trainer.  Go for a run.  This is called steady state cardio training.  We go at about the same speed for the whole time we’re doing whatever it is we’re doing.  It is a great way to begin, but not a great way to keep going forever.  Even people who do endurance events like century rides and marathons don’t just ride or run forever and think they’ve got enough training.

 

What we want to do, once we have enough oomph built up to do maybe fifteen minutes of steady-state cardio like brisk walking, is add intervals.  Intervals are short bursts of more intense work sprinkled across the workout.  If the workout were a sundae, intervals are the jimmies.

 

If we are working out on gym equipment, chances are that the machine already has a built-in interval program.  Chances are it is also not optimal, but it is an all right place to start.  A lot of those pre-programmed interval workouts have intervals that are too long—two of three minutes of harder work followed by the same amount of recovery.  Again, this is not a bad way to try interval training, but there is an easier way.

 

Whatever cardio thing we are doing, once we are warmed up, we want to add short (about a minute) bursts of intense activity to them.  So if we are fairly new to working out and we are doing a neighborhood walk for cardio, we go at our usual brisk pace until we’re warmed up.  Then we go as fast as we can to the end of the next block.  We slow back down until our heart rate and breathing recover, and then we do it again.  That minute is important, because in a minute we use up all our readily available quick-burn energy.  The other energy pathways available to us aren’t as easy to access and take more time.  We want to use the quick stuff and then give it a chance to refuel before burning it again.

 

The science shows that this kind of training improves general cardio fitness faster than steady state endurance cardio.  That means that when we do interval training, we are automatically making that steady state cardio easier.

 

Short version:  warm up; do a fast minute; do a slower minute or two; do a fast minute; do a slow minute or two; repeat until time to cool down; cool down; rest.

Maybe I'm Not the Only One Who Forgot That Part?

A long time ago now, my older kid watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail for the first time.  He was my first child and I tried to be careful to avoid exposing him to inappropriate things as much as I could (yes, this is hilarious, in retrospect, but at the time I was very young and earnest and innocent).  Having played back what I could remember of the movie in my head, I thought it would be fine, that he’d laugh, and we’d all had a good time.  I totally forgot the scene when Galahad gets to Castle Anthrax.  There are many things one does not necessarily want one’s child to yell excitedly at kindergarten and at least one of them occurs in that scene.  But I did not come here to tell a funny anecdote about my kid.  I mention the scene because later in the scene, when the other knights come to rescue Galahad, he asks if he can have just a little peril.  Which in context is hilarious.

In fitness, we, too, want a little peril, although maybe not from the activities Galahad was contemplating at the time.  (One would have to be VERY vigorous to get a workout out of that, frankly.)  What I mean is that we don’t want to be too comfortable in our workouts.

 

Now, I spend a fair amount of time making sure that people are comfortable in their workouts.  This is because many people have exercise anxiety, or a cultural expectation that workouts have to make them feel like dying, or concern about an old injury, or the like.  Workouts need to be a normal part of our existence, not some terrifying visitation of punishment.

 

However, if workouts are too comfortable, we don’t grow from them.  We need just a little peril.  We need to have a certain amount of doubt that we can, in fact, finish that last rep.  We need to push ourselves a little past where we are confident.  Not so far that we get hurt or even that we trigger large fears, but a little.

 

The underlying principle here is that we need a particular kind of peril, called eustress, to make positive adaptations.  Eustress is the kind of stress that is good for us.  It’s just difficult enough that we can manage it, but not so hard that it kills us (or gives us Black Knight type flesh wounds).

 

Go play.  And play hard.  With just a little peril.

Monday Workout: Sideways

We’re doing some work in the frontal plane this week because sometimes life goes sideways.  Three rounds.

 

jacks	30
bench press	20
deadlifts	10
squat to leg lift	30
flies	20
YTA	10
skier jump	30
rows	20
brains	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Sumo Squat to High Pull

Today, the Amazing Stickie is demonstrating the sumo squat to high pull.  She begins standing with her feet fairly wide apart and externally rotated from the hip.  She holds two medium dumbbells as if she has just done a front row.  From there, she bends her knees into a sumo squat and lowers the dumbbells toward the floor (not quite touching!).  Then she returns to the starting position.  Sets of 20 or 30 are good.

Both!

Unsurprisingly, I read and watch a fair amount of stuff about fitness.  I do this so that my clients don’t have to unless they want to and because I like to learn new stuff.  Sometimes the new stuff I learn is that I already know stuff.

I recently spent an hour watching a webinar about combining Pilates and weight training.  I thought:  hey, I’ll get some new insights!  Nope.  It was a lot of what I’ve been doing all this time where I use Pilates (sometimes in stealth mode) with my personal training clients to build more control or proprioception and I use my knowledge of weight training to make sure that my Pilates clients get appropriately challenged.  Doing both Pilates and weight training, and sometimes both together, is better than doing either one alone because bodies need both strength and precision, both relaxation and challenge.

 

We grow where we work.  How can I help?

How long?

I am making a nuisance of myself to my friends by asking them what they would like to know about fitness.  One friend, and presumably more than one, would like to know how long it takes to get results when we start working on our fitness.

It depends.

 

Which is a crappy answer, but be patient with me for a moment.

 

Some kinds of fitness activities make us feel better basically immediately.  We get a mood burst on the very first day we begin walking.  Most of us will notice a pretty good improvement in our cardio within a week or two assuming we aim for five or six days per week of about half an hour of work.

 

Weight training can take a little longer.  We get faster results if we work two or three times per week than we do if we have one workout per week.  If we’re doing two weight workouts per week, we should notice that we can increase the weights in about a month.  Changes in body size can also occur in that time period, but results will vary depending on what we’re eating.

 

So the slightly nuanced answer is that, with reasonable effort, we will begin to feel better somewhere between right away and in a month.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: Coordination

This week we’re doing some exercises that challenge our coordination.  Three rounds.

 

step ups	30
renegade rows	20
reverse lunge twist	10
squat raise	30
reverse flies	20
front raise	10
clean and press	30
flies	20
pretty princesses	10