Other ways to bring joy to workouts:
1. Do something silly. Never tried Zumba? How about tai chi? Laser tag?
2. Do something new. A new hike, a new bike, a new adventure!
3. Do it with friends. But make sure it’s not all chat and no moving!
4. Do it loud. Music helps. Really.
5. Do it. Yep, sex counts.
I have more to say about joy and working out. Sure, on some level, we just have to get our workouts done. Blah blah lift lift run run, right?
But really, when we work out, we are giving ourselves a gift. The time we spend working out is invested in improving our quality of life, and often in increasing our quantity of life. We work because life is good and we like it and we want to feel good in it. We work out of love.
That’s great as far as it goes. I love a high-level perspective. But then I’m looking at the burpees and lunges I have planned and maybe I’m not feeling the love.
There are two ways to deal with this. One is: skip the damn burpees. There are very few exercises that we actually have to do. We can work our muscles some other way. The other is: get them done quick and get on to what we want to be doing. Think of the exercises we don’t like but need to do as vitamins or vaccinations or something slightly unpleasant that saves us from something truly unpleasant.
Look for the joy.
I am as apt as anyone to get stuck in the shoulds. We are surrounded by responsibilities and tasks. Fitness so often gets shoved in with all the other stuff we’re supposed to do. But what if we approached it a different way?
What if workouts were fun? What if we found joy in what we did with our bodies?
Humans need to play. All humans. Not just the young ones. Our brains and our bodies work better when we give them things they like to do.
Here’s how this could work. Instead of thinking “I need to get 30 minutes of cardio exercise today,” I could think “I get to walk and see what’s blooming in my neighbors’ yards” or “I get to play pickleball with my friends” or “I get to swim today!”
Instead of “I have to lift weights today,” I could think “I wonder how many different pieces of equipment I can use in my workout today” or “I bet I can lift more than last time” or “If I finish by this time, I can give myself a prize!”
Try it!
We’ve got a short circuit this week. Use your favorite cardio for the minute (I use my spin bike, but jacks or jump rope or running in place or whatever gets your heart rate up is fine!). Four rounds.
1 minute cardio | |
| |
woodchoppers | 30 |
flies | 20 |
burpees | 10 |
opposite knees | 30 |
lateral raise | 10 |
brains | 10 |
More ways to get efficient!
1. Do balance work. This can be as simple as swapping single leg squats for regular ones, or doing regular squats on a bosu. Same time, more benefits!
2. Use the free weights. Machines are great for some purposes, but when we choose free weights, we automatically add stability and coordination to the benefits we are getting from our lifting. (Be safe, though. Spotters are useful!)
3. Use microwave time. Sure, we could just stand there while we wait for our ramen or our coffee, but a minute is a great amount of time to use for pushups or squats or even just standing on one foot for balance practice.
Yesterday I wrote about the kind of efficiency that comes from doing a bunch of stuff at once. There is also an efficiency that comes from doing one thing at a time. This is what I love about Pilates.
When we do Pilates, we are focusing in on what we are doing. We move on purpose, in coordination with our breath. We think about the movement. That level of thought puts us in touch with the mind body connection.
With attention, we are able to refine our movements. We learn where we need to work a little more and where we need to ease up a bit. We discover flow.
Then, when we go back to our other workouts, we find that our bodies move better.
I love efficiency. I love tools that can do lots of different things and activities that tick multiple boxes at the same time. This is why I’m always looking for ways to get the most out of my exercise time.
One of my favorite exercise efficiency tools is the compound exercise. When we use lots of muscles and joints at the same time, we burn more calories, improve our stability, train our coordination, and just get done sooner.
Similarly, I love circuits because not only do we get in our weight training, but we also pack in some cardio at the same time. For even more bonus points, we are, by design, doing that cardio in intense intervals, the most efficient way to build our cardio capability.
Other ways to add value to the time we are spending exercising include adding a social element (classes, exercise buddy) and taking it outside (fresh air, nature!).
Go play.
We are working in multiple planes this week, which is good for balance. Three rounds.
squat raise | 30 |
lunge twist | 20 |
YTA | 10 |
| |
kb alt arm swing | 30 |
kb hammer curl | 30 |
kb halo | 10 |
| |
step ups | 30 |
1 leg deadlift | 20 |
femur arcs | 10 |
I asked y’all for your favorite proactive practices (a.k.a. things that We Now can do for We in the Future) yesterday. Here are mine:
1. Make a workout plan for the week. This can be as simple as knowing that weight days are Tuesdays and Thursdays and Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are for cardio, with yoga on Saturday and Sunday for rest. Or you can get fancy and make a spreadsheet that lists exactly what you’re planning to do each day down to exercises, weights, and reps.
2. Pack the bag. Or repack it. What we need in that bag varies by activity, but stocking the stuff we need before we need it is just smart. That way we don’t get caught without our emergency snack or our goggles or that extra shirt we like.
3. Put out the clothes. This is a variation on packing the bag for those of us who roll straight from bed to workout. If the clothes are right there, we can get dressed and going before we’re awake enough to think of excuses.
4. Put out the water bottle. Heck, if you’ve got an insulated one or you like your water at room temperature, you can fill it ahead of time. Cold-water lovers can prep the water and leave it in the fridge, but personally, I forget stuff I can’t see, so I do better filling at the last minute with cold water and ice.
5. Choose the music. That might sound silly, but I can spend forever scrolling through playlists to find the right one. If I choose ahead of time, I don’t stand there wasting time; I just get to work.
One of my favorite quotes from my homie Ralph Waldo Emerson is this one: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” So I’m now going to say something that, on the surface, contradicts what I said yesterday about how we need change to thrive. We also need habits.
When we are doing hard things, like working out, it helps if we make the process easy on ourselves by reducing the load elsewhere. Routine is really good for this. It’s a lot easier to work out if my gear is right there when I roll out of bed, I know what I’m going to have for breakfast, and I have a workout plan. We can prep all those things ahead of time so that we don’t have a bunch of excuses about why we can’t go, or so that we get there smoothly with all the right stuff. Then we have enough spoons left to do the actual workout.
What is your favorite thing that You Now can do for You In The Future?
Anyone who has been following along knows that I have a favorite workout format. I like that the structure becomes familiar even while I can plug in different kinds of exercises as I learn new things, as my clients’ needs change, or just for fun.
However, even the best systems need to change from time to time. I try out other formats on myself and then roll them out sometimes for my clients. It keeps all of us from becoming bored and ensures that we keep making progress. Bodies thrive when we give them new challenges at appropriate levels.
So: what new stuff do you like to try?
I love compound exercises because we get a lot done in few movements. Also we ramp up our metabolisms. Three rounds.
split squat pulldown | 30 |
bench press | 20 |
shoulder tap pushup | 10 |
| |
squat to leg lift | 30 |
gorilla row | 30 |
lateral raise | 10 |
| |
farmer carry | 30 |
skullcrushers | 20 |
V legs | 10 |
A few suggestions about how to get more water in our systems:
1. Add a little something, like a slice of lemon or lime, or some mint leaves.
2. Figure out the right temperature. Some of us want lots of ice and some of us prefer room temperature water. It all works.
3. Find the right cup/bottle/whatever. Personally, my insulated cup was a game-changer. Plus it’s red.
4. Consider the plastics. Not technically about drinking more water, but the world would be better if we drank less bottled water from plastic bottles. (I like my water with fizz in it and invested in a Soda Stream so I could stop buying so many bottles. Economical and good for the environment!)
5. Set reminders. Until drinking a lot of water becomes a habit, we can use little nudges.
A follow-up to yesterday’s reminder about drinking water: here’s why.
Most of our bodies’ processes require water. No water means no processing.
Even a slight amount of dehydration can make us crabby. No one wants that.
We often mistake thirst for hunger. While we can get some hydration from juicy foods like fruits, drinking water is better at hydrating us and also keeps us from blowing the calorie budget. Further, water helps our digestion move along what we’ve already eaten.
Our brains work better when we’re hydrated. Who doesn’t want to feel smarter?
Drink up, y’all.
Friendly reminder: drink some water. Most of us don’t drink enough. How to tell? If we aren’t going to the bathroom every hour or so, we’re not drinking enough. Also, if what comes out is not very pale and clear, we’re also not drinking enough.
Different sources will tell us different things about whether our morning coffee and all those other things we drink count toward our water total. I’m not going to weigh in on that particular issue except to suggest, strongly, that most of what we drink should be water. We don’t need the calories and/or chemicals in all those other things (OK: caffeine addiction is real and understandable, but eventually, we gotta clear that stuff out…).
If it is very hot or we are working out for more than a couple of hours, we might need to get some electrolytes as well as our water, but most people doing normal workouts do fine with water.
The best way to drink plenty of water is to carry it around all the time. Yeah, we look silly, but we feel better.
Go drink!
This week we’re thinking about our feet, among other things. We have two exercises that specifically call for lifting our heels. Strong feet give us a strong foundation. Three rounds.
squat heel raise | 30 |
flies | 20 |
hip rotations | 10 |
| |
cossack lunge | 30 |
good morning/deadlift | 30 |
reverse fly | 10 |
| |
1 arm clean and press | 30 |
rows | 20 |
side banana | 10 |
Some days we just need a list of quick pick-me-ups that have no calories or chemicals:
1. Go outside.
2. Take some deep breaths.
3. Take a bath.
4. Hug somebody.
5. Take a nap.
6. Call a friend.
7. Move your body.
