Goal Setting Part 2: What to Do

All right:  we know what we want.  Here’s what we need to do.

If we have cardio goals:  Our first target is 150 minutes of cardio per week.  Those of us who haven’t been outside since 2001 will need to work up to this, starting with something stupidly easy, like five minutes of cardio per day.  We want to increase our time gradually, about 10 percent per week.  (It is also all right to choose a distance and work up to longer distances instead.  Do what works.)  When we are building a cardio habit, I’m not actually in favor of total rest days unless we really need them.  It is better to have a very light day than a total rest, just to keep our rhythm going.  One rest day can magically turn into a rest month.  Once we have hit our target 150 minutes, we can add intervals, work on speed, or increase the intensity some other way if we want.

 

If we want to get stronger:  we need to have strength training goals.  We start with one weight workout that works all our muscle groups per week.  Once we’ve got that habit well established, we can add a second and even a third.  In all our weight workouts, we need to adjust the weights so that we are challenged but not overwhelmed.  This takes some practice and there will be some times when we overdo ourselves and need plenty of recovery time.

 

If we want to refine our movement, we probably want a Pilates goal.  A session every week with a professional plus daily brief home practice should do the trick.

 

All of us need a stretching goal.  It’s simple:  stretch every day.  Five minutes is a good start.  Fifteen minutes should take care of everything amply.

 

Folks who want to lose weight and get more shapely need goals in all four categories.

 

Still need help?  Talk to me!

Goal Setting, Part 1: What We Want

Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked about the basic components of working out.  One of my pet peeves about folks who write about goals is that they always tell people to set manageable and achievable goals before we know anything about what is manageable or achievable, particularly when there is a time element involved.  This is why I talked through the basics of cardio, strength training, Pilates, and stretching before turning my attention to goals.

The first question we need to answer when setting goals is what do we want?  For some of us, this is obvious.  We know we want to run a marathon or wear smaller clothes or show that gym teacher from high school that we actually can do stuff.  Others of us are not so sure.  We know we feel a little breathless sometimes.  We struggle lugging groceries more than we used to.  We wake up stiff and that nagging ache in our back lingers and lingers.  It might take a little digging to come up with what we actually want.

 

This is important:  our goals need to be things we want, not things that other people say we should want.  When we get to the part where we have to do the work, we are not going to be motivated by someone else’s desires and values.  Our goals need to be meaningful to us even if they make zero sense to anyone else.

 

What we want dictates the goals we make.  Breathless folks need cardio goals.  People who want to be smaller need both cardio and strength training goals.  Nearly everyone will feel better with some Pilates and stretching goals.

 

Tomorrow:  what those goals might be.

Monday Workout: Back in Action

This workout has a few exercises that target our less-used back muscles.  This is good for posture and balance!  Three rounds.

 

1 arm clean and press	30
rows	20
reverse fly	10
(jump) squats	30
skullcrushers	20
pushups	10
kb alt arm swing	30
deadlift	20
chest lift	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Criss Cross

This week, the Amazing Stickie is doing a similar exercise to last week.  This one is called Criss Cross.  It also works her oblique abdominals and her spinal flexion.

Today, she begins lying on her back with her hands behind her head and her knees bent so that her feet are flat on the floor.  She twists her torso slightly so that one elbow is touching the ground.  From there, she lifts her head and shoulders off the mat, maintaining the twist, and raises her opposite knee toward the higher elbow.  Her other leg stays long, floating just above the floor.  Then, without lowering her head and shoudlers toward the mat, she switches the position of her legs and twists her body the other direction.

 

Sets of ten are good.

 

Stickie would like to point out that this exercise may look familiar to gym-goers who are not Pilates people.  This exercise is done with more control and usually less speed than the gym version.

Basics: Stretching (2 of 2)

I hope that yesterday I convinced the skeptical among us that stretching is worthwhile.  Now let’s talk about how.

The first thing I need to emphasize is (and I’m about to yell it, so be prepared):  STRETCHING SHOULD NOT HURT.  Not even a little.  It is all right to feel, well, a stretch, but not pain.  In my recent experiments on myself and my family members, best results were obtained without even discomfort.  (I feel like I have been lied to in the past by the Stretching Industrial Complex and I’m a little bitter, but I’m sure I will get over it now that I can stretch in comfort!!!)  When we stretch a muscle group, we want to find the first place where we feel even slight resistance to the stretch.  We want to go a little bit past that, but not so far that we feel a lot of resistance.  Between these two points is where the magic happens.

 

However, we have options about how we work in that stretch zone.  Perhaps the most familiar and traditional method is the static stretch.  We get into stretch position and we hang out there.  It’s simple and pretty much foolproof, but we need to make sure we hold the stretch for at least 30 seconds for best results.

 

A newer and potentially more interesting method uses perpetual motion.  We take the muscle into the stretch zone and then explore around with motion, being careful to avoid pain and stay between the minimal resistance and the much resistance points.  We may discover, as we keep moving, that the range of painless motion gets larger!

 

Finally, I need to talk about reciprocal inhibition because it’s cool.  To paraphrase Newton, for every muscle group, there is an equal and opposite muscle group.  The hamstrings bend the knees and the quads straighten them, for example.  If we are stretching our hammies, we can help them relax by tightening up our quads (do this by trying to move the kneecap up toward the hip).  The act of tensing the quads (the antagonist muscles to the hammies) tells the hamstrings to relax, opening up a whole bunch more flexibility and range of motion.  It is the optional add-on to the stretching process or a fun party trick, if you go to those sorts of parties.

 

Go play.  AND IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HURT (in case I wasn’t clear about that).

Basics: Stretching (1 of 2)

Stretching is possibly the most neglected part of our workouts (assuming we manage to DO workouts in the first place).  I think there are a few different reasons for this.  One is that we have this idea that working out has to be hard and painful and stretching, done right, is not.  In fact, it feels good.  How dare we have a good time at the gym???  Another is that by the time we get to the stretching part, we’re tired, we want to go home, and we don’t really see the point.  I get it.

So:  we are allowed to do things that feel good and there are plenty of benefits of stretching.

 

That feeling good thing, from a certain point of view (does everyone hear Obi Wan when they use these words, or just me?), is why we work out at all.  There are people who love sweat for its own sake and enjoy the process of lifting weights, but most of us work out because we want to feel good at some later time.  That time might be when we go out on that hot date in our very cute outfit that we bought to show off our toned body or it might be those extra years of independence we get by putting in an investment in our health now or something in between.  In the same way that we try to pick activities we like to do in order to get the appropriate amount of exercise, we can put stretching right in there as a good part of the process.  Far be it from me to get between people and their desire to feel guilty for feeling good, but on the scale of self-indulgence, stretching is not up there with getting another puppy or eating an entire cake.  Live a little, people!

 

I know some of us really need to know the reasons.  So here is why it is good for us to stretch, assuming that feeling good is not enough of a reason for the sticklers among us.  The most obvious benefit of stretching is that it improves our flexibility and mobility.  And yes, those things are important.  It doesn’t matter how strong we are if we can’t raise our arms over our heads, for example.  Stretching reduces tension in our bodies and I should not have to explain why that’s a good thing.  Additionally, it can help us sleep well and reduce pain.  Not enough?  How about improving performance and balance?

 

Tomorrow:  how to do it!

Monday Workout: Short

We’re switching things up with a shorter circuit today.  Plus burpees.  Sorry/not sorry.  Four rounds, or as many as we have time for.

 

1 min cardio
suitcase swings	30
bench press	20
burpees	10
flies	20
plank jacks	30
V sit press	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Single Leg Stretch

Today the Amazing Stickie is doing the Pilates exercise Single Leg Stretch.  She begins lying on her back with her knees curled into her chest.  She puts one hand on the inside side of the opposite knee and the other hand on the outside side of the same shin.  On an exhale, she curls her spine up, bringing her head toward her knees while extending the leg she is not holding out parallel to the floor.  Then she switches legs and hand positions to the opposite side.  She finds that a good set is ten repetitions.

Basics: Pilates (2 of 2)

Yesterday we talked about what Pilates is and why we might want to do it.  Today we’ll talk about how.

In general, I believe in DIY, which is why I do my best to provide tools for folks to go out and do their own thing.  However, with Pilates it really is best to start out working with a professional.  Here are the things we want to think about in choosing a Pilates class or trainer.

 

Class or trainer is actually the first question.  Those of us who belong to a gym with Pilates mat classes included may find that to be the easiest way to test it out and see if it is a good fit.  Many studios also offer introductory reformer classes so that clients can try the equipment in a safe environment.  Once we’ve tried a class, we can carry on if it is meeting our needs.

 

Those of us with particular needs, however, may need to cough up for individual sessions.  An instructor facing a classroom full of students will of course offer modifications for various things (bad knee, osteoporosis, etc.), but will not be able to tailor the session for any one person’s health or injury history.

 

Whether we decide on classes or individual sessions, we want to choose an instructor who knows how to be present.  We want someone who tunes in to how the bodies in front of her are moving and who has the knowledge and skill to elicit better movement from them.  What that looks like may vary.  We have different learning styles and so an instructor that is great for one person may not be so great for another.  It also helps if we like the person.

 

Try it out!  (And remember, the first session with me is always free!)

Basics: Pilates (1 of 2)

Next in our workout basics, we are turning our attention to Pilates.   Today we’ll discuss some of the whats and whys of Pilates and tomorrow we’ll talk about how.

Pilates is the creation of Joseph Pilates (I call him “Uncle Joe”) and it is both an exercise system and a philosophy.  In that way, it is similar to yoga, although yoga is more inherently spiritual.  After Uncle Joe died, his students took his work in a variety of directions, which is right and natural.  Different Pilates schools will emphasize different parts of the practice.  However, all kinds of Pilates will share some basic principles.  There are six.

 

First, breathing.  If we don’t breathe, we die.  If we learn to breathe better, we can improve our quality of life.  Breath facilitates motion and movement in turn can facilitate our breath.  This is why, when we go to Pilates, our instructors will tell us about when to breathe.  As we practice Pilates, we find that we do breathe more easily and this has good impacts across our lives.

 

Second, axial elongation and core control.  Think of this as countercultural pressure.  We live in a slouched society.  As we work through our Pilates exercises, we find that we feel taller and more centered, more capable of deep breath and clear thought.  (This is also one of the principles that makes us look good!!!)  This also contributes to good balance.

 

Third, spine articulation.  Our spines are there not only to support us, but also to enable us to move freely.  When our spines get too rigid, the rest of our movements are impaired.

 

Fourth, organization of the head, neck, and shoulders.  As I mentioned in the part about axial elongation, we are slouchy.  We hunch over our desks and phones.  This puts our upper body out of whack and contributes to all kinds of problems, including headaches.

 

Fifthy, alignment and weight bearing of the extremities.  Once we have our spine and our upper body straightened out, we want to propagate that healthy positioning and strength out into our arms and legs.  Here’s where we get practical in the activities of our lives.

 

Finally, movement integration.  Isolated movements in any part of the body can improve local function, but in real life, we rarely use just one body part or muscle group.  The Pilates repertoire helps us learn to coordinate movement using our whole bodies with efficiency and grace.

 

Given the principles, it’s not too hard to see why we might want to do some Pilates.  The practice is both empowering and relaxing.  We tune into that mindbody connection space, which can deeply enrich our lives.  We feel taller.  We move more efficiently, which means we have more energy to do the things we want to do.  Our balance improves, as does our posture.

 

It's good stuff.

Monday Workout: Arms

We are doing some extra arm work this week, so your deltoids might want to have words with me tomorrow.  Three rounds.

 

jacks	30
bench press	20
lateral raise	10
woodchoppers	30
kickbacks	20
goblet pour	10
squat raise	30
flies	20
plank	10

The Amazing Stickie and Rolling

Stickie loves to articulate her spine, so she enjoys the Pilates exercise Rolling.  She does not technically have bones and so is not at risk for osteopenia or osteoporosis; those of us who have either of those conditions should avoid this exercise.

To begin, Stickie sits with her weight just behind her sit bones.  She curls her spine in toward her belly and draws her knees up to her chest.  She clasps her hands around her shins to maintain her ball shape and points her toes.  As she inhales, she rolls back on to her shoulders, hips in the air.  She exhales back up, not letting her feet touch the floor.  (Note:  those of us who are not imaginary may want a soft surface underneath us.)  She continues as long as she is having fun.

 

Some of us may find that it is pretty challenging to roll all the way back and forth.  It is all right to begin by rocking and progress to rolling as we get stronger.

 

A variation of this exercise is called Seal.  Instead of clasping the hands around the legs, Stickie holds her heels or ankles with her arms on the inside side of her legs.  She can either put the soles of her feet together or point her toes, whichever feels better.  As in Rolling, she will roll back, but in that position she will clap her feet together a few times before rolling up, where she will clap her feet together a few times more.  (Seal noises are optional.)

 

In both variations of the exercise, it is important not to roll back too far and put pressure on the neck.

Basics: Strength Training (2 of 2)

Yesterday we discussed the why of strength training.  Now we’re going to talk about how.

Pick up weight.  Put down.  Repeat.

 

Just kidding, mostly.

 

We need to make sure we work out our whole bodies.  That means we need lower body exercises, upper body exercises, abdominal exercises, and exercises that work both the back and the front of the body.  A good basic list includes squats, deadlifts, bench press or pushups, rows, pretty princesses, and supermans.

 

When we start out lifting weights, we want to build some endurance and stability first.  That means we lift relatively light weights a lot of times and we incorporate some balance challenges (throw in some single leg exercises or do those squats on a BOSU, for example).  The best way to figure out the right weight is to experiment.  We want a weight we can use with good form for 15 to 20 reps.  As with all strength training, as we get stronger, we will need to increase the weight, dialing the reps back down to the low end of the range and working our way back up.  We can do two or three sets of reps for each exercise.

 

Once we’re more confident about the whole idea of weightlifting, we can choose a variety of goals.  Maybe we want to build big muscles or get as strong as possible.  In the first instance, we want to choose slightly heavier weights and work in the 8 to 10 rep range.  In the second, we want to work in sets of up to 5, continually increasing the weight until we can complete only one good-looking rep.  Another possible goal is power, which means lifting a whole bunch of weight really fast.  We want to do that after we have mastered form and we’ve worked on max strength for a while.  Power strength training is best done with a trainer for safety.

 

For folks just getting started, commit to one strength training workout a week.  When that habit is ingrained, we can add a second weight workout.  That is enough for most people, but those of us who get really into it can add more.  We need to keep in mind, however, that we don’t want to work the same muscle groups two days in a row.  This is why some people do lower body work on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays and upper body work on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, keeping Sunday as a rest day.  (Bad news:  it is ok to do ab work every day.)

 

Still have questions?  That’s what I’m here for!  Ask me!

Basics: Strength Training (1 of 2)

Last week we went over the basics of cardio.  This week, we turn our attention to strength training.

There are a lot of us who, having figured out the cardio thing, don’t really care about strength training.  We go run or dance or swim or whatever and we feel fabulous and why would we want to do anything else?

 

There are a bunch of reasons.  One of them is that time, from our perspective, only flows in one direction, which means that we are all getting older.  As we age, we lose lean body mass even if our weight remains unchanged.  One of the markers of good health is a low body fat percentage and the way we keep that low body fat percentage is by increasing our lean muscle mass.  How do we do that when time is against us?  By strength training.  It helps us keep the sand in the upper half of the hour glass longer.

 

Additionally, we need strength training as we get older to help us keep our bones strong.  Work with weights helps to stave off osteoporosis.

 

Those of us who want to lose weight will do better with strength training because of the aforementioned lean body mass increase.  Muscle burns more calories per pound than fat does, which means that as we add muscle, we fire up our metabolism.

 

Need more reasons?  We’ll look better.  Strength training gives our muscles tone and makes us more shapely.  (Those of us who identify as female don’t need to worry about bulking up; it is actually challenging for women to get bulky.  We’re much more likely to get smaller and tighter-looking.)

 

Even more?  Strength training is practical.  We all need to lug groceries around and shift furniture from time to time and open jars.  Stronger people are more able to be independent.

 

Tomorrow we’ll talk about how we go about this whole strength training thing.

Monday Workout: Core and Balance

This week we’re working on core and balance with our whole body work!  Three rounds.

 

step up to balance	30
(lunge) to curl to overhead	20
truck driver	10
kb swings	30
kb twist	20
kb 8s	10
squat to leg lift	30
rows	20
brains	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Side Lift

The Amazing Stickie loves all varieties of planks because of their benefits for her core and general strength.  One of her favorites is the Pilates side lift.

To begin, she lies on her side, her body propped up on one elbow placed directly below her shoulder.  Her hand is out in front of her body.  Her other hand is lying along the side of her body that is toward the ceiling.  She inhales to prepare and on an exhale, she presses her elbow into the ground to straighten her body from head to toe by lifting her hips up toward the ceiling.  She balances on the side of her bottom foot and her elbow for as long as she wants and then lowers herself (with control!) back to the starting position.

 

If she wants more challenge, once she is in the side plank position, she can raise her upper arm away from her body and lift the top leg.

 

Stickie also knows that it is possible to do this exercise balancing on an extended arm rather than on an elbow.  She advises trying all the variations until we decide which one we like best.

Basics: Cardio (2 of 2)

Yesterday we talked about the very basics of cardio.  Today we’re going to add a key technique, the cardio interval.

Most of us, when we head to the gym in the dark, cold morning, plop ourselves on the spin bike or the treadmill or the stair machine and go at a steady pace until we’re done.  This is a perfectly valid way to work out and if it is working for us, we can carry on.

 

However, those of us who want to progress more quickly, or have already progressed to the point where we are bored, or just want to get out the gym quicker may want to try intervals.  Here’s how they work.  We warm up for five minutes or so.  Then we bump up the pace or incline or resistance for a minute so that we’re working at the very high end of our appropriate range.  At the end of the minute, we return to a pace/incline/resistance that allows us to recover (but still stay in our target heart rate zone) for a minute or so.  Then we repeat the tough minute and the recovery period as many times as we want, ending with a cool down. We can burn an hour’s worth of steady-state calories in half an hour this way AND we improve our cardio function more than just chugging along.

 

A few notes to keep in mind, though.  Many pieces of equipment with programs already on them have an interval program.  If the hard interval is longer than one minute, it’s not really interval training (but it might be fun and we can certainly try it).  The key to interval training is that we work as hard as we possibly can for that minute.  By the end of a minute, we have used up our ATP supplies (remember ATP from biology way back when?  It’s our quick energy cellular power.  We have about a minute’s supply before it’s depleted and we have to give it a minute or so to regroup.).  If we’re working hard enough, we really can’t go longer than a minute without a recovery.  Our bodies will inevitably slow once our ATP is depleted.

 

The recovery interval can vary.  When we first start out with intervals, we might need three or four minutes to recover between intense intervals.  As we get more fit, that time can shorten until we’re doing minute on and minute off.

 

If we are working out outside and don’t want to focus on our watches, we can do our intervals by distance.  We choose a landmark like the end of the block or a really cool tree and go as fast as possible until we get there.  Then we pick another landmark and go slower until we get to that one.  Alternatively, we can choose a route with built-in intervals in the form of hills, which work for walking and running and biking and the like.  Outside intervals may not exactly align with the one minute max and the ATP cycle as discussed above, but they still work.

 

Go play.