Variation, the Amazing Stickie knows, is good for the soul. She is doing Reverse Burpees today to experience this.
She begins lying on her back on the floor with her arms over her head. From there, she rocks herself forward to a squatting position and then jumps up in the air. She reverses the process, going back through the squat to lying down.
Ten is a great number of reps.
It is time for a bulletin from Captain Obvious. The captain would like to remind everyone that, in this season of giving, we do NOT give fitness gifts to other people unless they specifically request them. Even if we have the very best intentions, this is not helpful, useful, or kind. Do not do it.
Minding our own business is a pretty good principle generally and it is essential when it comes to fitness. We can only do our own work. Frankly, most of us have plenty of our own work to do, so we really should not be looking around at what everyone else is doing or not doing.
Committing to fitness is not always an easy process. It is not going to happen from the outside. We have to want it ourselves. It is certainly helpful to have supportive family and friends, but the big desire has to come from within.
Want to improve your HRV and your cognitive function? Try breathing.
I know it sounds like a joke. In fact, it is a joke my kids’ grandma used to tell my kids (How do you avoid dying? Keep breathing!) (They might be genetically inclined to dark humor.)
However, The People Who Do Research say it works, at least in this study.
The takeaway from the study, in my opinion, is that it would probably be good for us if we spent some time breathing at a rate of about six breaths per minute. There are tons of breathing apps out there that can measure that for us. In the study, the participants spent 20 minutes doing it in the morning before caffeine. (I know that last bit might be a deal-breaker for some of us, but maybe it’s worth a try?)
Worst case? We have relaxed for a bit. No down side.
It’s that time again! (Yes, we’re doing it a little on the early side. I am taking a couple weeks off and want to get it in with the clients before I go.) (Don’t worry: I’ll still post workouts while I’m off.)
The 12 Days of Christmas workout works like this. On the first “day,” we do one push press. Then we go on to day two, with two goblet squats and one push press. Most of us can keep going without a break until after day five. Then we want a rest to gear up for day six: six burpees, five deadlifts, four single leg squats on each leg, three overhead presses, two goblet squats, and one push press. After that, rest as needed until all the days are done! At the end, you will have done 42 burpees and you will be absolutely convinced that I am not, in fact, your true love.
1 push press |
2 goblet squats |
3 Overhead press |
4 1 leg squats each leg |
5 deadlifts |
6 burpees |
7 pushups |
8 renegade rows |
9 mountain climbers |
10 jump lunges |
11 kb swings |
12 plyojacks |
The Amazing Stickie knows how important it is to have good hip function. She does hip rotations to help ensure that her hips keep working well.
To begin, she sits on the floor with her knees bent and her feet flat on the floor. She puts her hands behind her and leans back slightly. Then she tilts both knees to one side before returning to the start position. She can alternate sides or do a set on one side and then the other.
Yesterday I suggested that those of us who are getting older (which is all of us, unless we happen to be dead…) might need to eat a bit more protein in order to maintain our muscle mass. There is a certain amount of evidence that focusing on the amino acid leucine might be particularly beneficial.
I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t have an amino acid sensor that lets me look at a food and know that it’s a good source of any particular one. Fortunately, we have the internet.
Leucine-rich foods for vegetarians include chickpeas, brown rice, soybeans, peanuts, and tree nuts like Brazil nuts, almonds, and cashews. Eggs are also a good source for those who eat them. Fish lovers can get leucine in salmon and the omnivores can find it in beef. There you go: an ingredient list for weight-day dinner!
There are plenty of good things about getting older (I can buy as many books as I want, for one!), but then there’s the other stuff. One of the less good things about getting older is that we lose muscle mass.
Over time, our muscle units remodel. That’s a normal process in the body, but with aging, some of those remodels are essentially tear-downs. We lose mostly fast-twitch motor units, which are responsible for strength and power. Slight bright side: our endurance motor units enlarge a bit to compensate, so we lose endurance more slowly than straight strength.
In the same way, our muscles are constantly breaking down and rebuilding as part of the general maintenance processes of our bodies. As we get older, though, we don’t replace all the muscle proteins that we break down. Some of this has to do with how we process dietary protein. To some extent, we get less results from our resistance training. We have to lift heavy to overcome this effect.
Then there are the hormones. We all experience a rise in cortisol as we age, as well as an increase in inflammation. Both of those contribute to the breakdown of muscle tissue. Women, additionally, experience the hormonal shifts of menopause, which are not the kindest to our muscle tissue.
Pretty tempting just to give up and hold down the couch, right? Nope. Physical inactivity makes the whole enchilada worse. In fact, we need to focus on more high-intensity, low-volume work than we did when we were younger in order to keep the muscle-eaters at bay.
So: eat your protein and lift your iron. Then get some sleep to solidify the gains.
This is an adaptable workout. Feeling like the weight bearing on the arms is too much? Sub regular jacks. Knees hurt? Just do twists without the lunges. As always, this needs to work for where we are today. Three rounds.
woodchoppers | 30 |
good mornings | 20 |
skullcrushers | 10 |
| |
squat to leg lift | 30 |
bench press | 20 |
lateral raise | 10 |
| |
plank jacks | 30 |
(lunge) twist | 20 |
brains | 10 |
The Amazing Stickie is working her abdominals today with Side Banana (which also reminds her to eat her fruits and vegetables).
She begins lying on her side. From there, she lifts her head and her legs up toward the ceiling. Then she lowers them back down. A set of ten on one side and then the other is good.
Yesterday we talked about anatomy. Today: physics! I know a lot less about physics than I do about anatomy, so maybe I’ll be brief? We can hope.
Force, as we all recall from physics, is mass multiplied by acceleration. When we do strength training, we are essentially doing a physics lab on ourselves. How cool is that? No dorky lab coat required, unless you want to wear one, in which case, do you!
In this instance, the mass part is the easy bit. It’s right there, on the dumbbell rack. Whichever one we choose, it will remain constant throughout our endeavor. (Unless we approach light speed. Then the workout will probably become irrelevant.) The other two parts of the equation will vary. When we lift the weight, we have to accelerate it from a standstill into motion. That initial acceleration against gravity results in a different amount of force than, say, at the top of the motion when we want to slow the movement down, stop it, and start the descent. As the acceleration of the motion changes, so does the amount of force we use.
The good news is that we don’t actually have to do the math on this. We have very smart bodies and brains that do the work for us. Motor units, the functional groups that do the work for us, consist of motor neurons and their muscle fibers. Those are plugged in to the central nervous system.
Bottom line: strength and strength training are a function of the central nervous system. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that we get smarter when we lift weights.
Go play.
Let’s talk anatomy for a moment or two. In the classical conception, we have muscles that attach to bones via tendons. (Nowadays, we talk about the myofascial system and it’s a lot more connected than previously thought, but for the current purpose, the old way works well enough.) Tendons are thick pieces of connective tissue and they are less elastic than our muscles. When we do weight training, we are of course strengthening our muscles, but we can also strengthen our tendons.
Why would we want to do that? Hypermobile people need strong tendons to keep their bodies together. The rest of us also need our muscles to stay attached.
The People Who Do Research have done some and what they learned is that isokinetic exercises are great for strengthening tendons. That five-dollar word there? It means exercises in which the movement takes place with an even cadence over the same distance. What we need in order to do this work is a simple metronome app, or an actual metronome if one happens to be lying around from the days when we took music lessons.
(In theory, we could just count evenly as we did our reps. It turns out that we all make lousy metronomes and it is worth getting a free app and letting it handle that for us.)
Even if we’re not super excited about the idea of getting strong tendons, it’s a new way to play with our exercises, and who doesn’t want that?
This week we’ve got a little of everything. We’re working in multiple planes. We have some whole body stuff and some stuff that will help us refine our movements. Three rounds.
step ups | 30 |
gorilla row | 20 |
bench dips | 10 |
| |
clean and press | 30 |
flies | 20 |
hip rotations | 10 |
| |
side hops/side lunges | 30 |
deadlifts | 20 |
pretty princesses | 10 |
Today the Amazing Stickie is working her amazing abdominals by doing Captain’s Chair.
She begins sitting on the edge of a box, leaning back slightly, hands behind her. From there, she lifts her knees toward her chest and then lowers them back to the starting position.
Ten reps is a good set.
November is a month of gratitude.
No month of gratitude would be complete without a shout out to my clients. I am privileged to work with and for some truly remarkable people.
As I watch them get stronger, I am inspired. When they have setbacks, they trust me to figure out how to get them back on track. They teach me so much.
Thanks, y’all, for putting up with me!
November is a month of gratitude.
I am grateful for the Internet today. While we certainly have to be careful to evaluate the quality of the information we find there, we have access to so many more resources than ever before as we figure out how to create health in our lives.
Need a new workout? No problem. What to do for that achy knee? (The Internet is no substitute for actual medical care, but can provide handy tips for stuff that doesn’t need a doctor’s attention!) Veggie box came full of kale and no idea what to do with it? Zillions of recipes are right there!
What’s your favorite fitness site?
Another month is coming to an end, so we get a shorter circuit. Four rounds.
1 min cardio | |
| |
kb swings | 30 |
bench press | 20 |
hamstring curls | 10 |
tap backs | 30 |
flies | 20 |
plank up down | 10 |
The Amazing Stickie loves using a pullup bar. Today she’s using it with an exercise band to do dead hangs.
She uses a looped exercise band, pulling one end through the loop to secure it to the pullup bar. Then she puts her feet in the band, holding on to the bar with her arms bent and her chin over the bar. She slowly lowers herself until her arms are fully extended and then pulls herself back up.
A set of ten is great.
November is a month of gratitude.
I am thankful for foam rollers, yoga tune-up balls, tiger tails, ducks, and all the various tools that allow for self-myofascial release (SMR). In other words, the gizmos that help me get rid of the stiffness and soreness in my body.
There is nothing better than a good massage, but until such time as I win the lottery, I won’t be getting massage as often as I would like. (I tried convincing my sons that one of them should marry a massage therapist, but they apparently used different and probably better criteria in choosing their partners.) SMR is a great way to keep me happy between massages. Plus it feels really good and encourages my flexibility.
What’s your favorite feel-good fitness thing?
November is a month of gratitude.
Today I am thankful for my two favorite fitness uncles, Uncle Joe and Uncle Patanjali.
Uncle Joe is Joseph Pilates, visionary creator of the eponymous system. His determination to create health and “spontaneous zest” in his own life and the lives of others has been transformative. I am thankful for the training I have had in his methods because it makes me a better mover and teacher.
Uncle Patanjali is credited with systematizing the huge complex that is yoga into sutras. The practice of yoga brings peace to my body and my mind.
Who are your fitness heros?
This week we have options. Choose the squat pop up if you want extra bonus points. Three rounds.
jacks | 30 |
Arnold press | 20 |
squat pop up or pushups | 10 |
| |
1 arm clean and press | 30 |
flies | 20 |
YTA | 10 |
| |
overhead curtsy | 30 |
deadlifts | 20 |
toe reaches | 10 |
The Amazing Stickie loves step ups, but sometimes she wants a bit more challenge. Today she’s doing power step ups.
She begins with one foot up on a strong box, step, or bench. She pushes herself up onto that foot and lifts her other knee high, hopping up above the box. After landing back on the box, she returns her foot to the floor. Her arms swing as she moves for extra bonus calorie-burning points. She usually does a set of 15 or so on one leg and then switches to the other side.
November is a month of gratitude.
I am thankful, today, for weights. Not just heavy things, but specifically weights. Of course, we can get strong by lifting couches or groceries or growing children. We can use our muscles to lift our own body weight in various ways.
But the person who decided that having a set of measured weights in graduated sizes is a genius. With measurement comes the ability to track and plan and plot progress. We can benchmark where we are and we can add incrementally to our challenges so we can develop in a healthy way.
Also: weights are much easier to grip than couches or children.
What is your favorite piece of fitness equipment?
November is a month of gratitude.
Today I am grateful for the parasympathetic nervous system. (Now that’s a sentence I never expected to write!) The world out there likes to encourage me to be best buddies with my sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for stress reactions like the fight-or-flight response. But my parasympathetic nervous system offers a respite from that.
Tapping into deep breathing allows me to relax and heal, to rest, to repair the results of the day’s stresses, even if those stresses are good things like a hard workout, a challenging situation well-resolved, or a novel experience.
What’s your favorite way to find relaxation?
We’ve got lots going on today with compound exercises. Ramp up that metabolism, baby! Three rounds.
tap backs | 30 |
farmer carry | 20 |
renegade row | 10 |
| |
woodchoppers | 30 |
good mornings | 20 |
lateral raise | 10 |
| |
suitcase swing | 30 |
side lunges | 20 |
side banana | 10 |
