A few more favorite ways to rest, recover, and regenerate:
1. massage/foam rolling
2. bath (bonus points: Epsom salts)
3. nap (just not too long!)
4. drink some water
5. eat a vegetable
6. sing or blow bubbles—they help us breathe!
7. go outside
8. connect with someone you love
Another rest/recovery/regeneration practice I love is what I call oilcan exercises. These are the exercises we do that take us from Tin Man before Dorothy to Tin Man, ready to roll.
What exercises make up the oilcan for each of us will vary. Some days, my list changes based on what I’ve been doing or not doing recently. Here are a few ideas to get us started on building a base list that can change as needed:
• The whole routine should take no more than five or ten minutes. This is about rest/recovery/regeneration, not working out.
• Most of us get plenty of spinal flexion (bending forward) because of our desks and screens. We probably want to add some gentle back bending (spinal extension). This can be as simple as standing up straight, raising our arms in what I describe as the Olympic salute, and lifting our breastbones toward the ceiling. Bonus: spinal extension like this tends to lift mood.
• That stiff bit? Stretch it, gently.
• That old injury that still sometimes irritates? Dust off one or two of those exercises you got in physical therapy.
• A few foot exercises can reset our balance. Try putting your feet flat on the floor and just lifting your big toes. Then try putting the big toes down and lifting the rest of the toes, keeping the ball of the foot on the ground. Extra challenge: put the big toe and the baby toe on the ground and lift the three middle toes.
• Breathe. I like to do this while doing arm arcs, inhaling as I lift my arms overhead and exhaling while lowering them down to my sides, either standing or lying down, but any kind of focus on breath is good.
Let me know what’s on your list!
All that movement is fabulous for us, but no month of favorites would be complete without a chance to rest, restore, and recover.
One of my favorite ways to reset my busy little brain is by meditating.
I am a terrible meditator. And that’s okay. I keep practicing.
Sometimes I use an app to time my sitting or for music or a guided meditation. Sometimes I sit and focus on my breathing. Sometimes I think about a word or phrase.
Even two minutes can help me reset. Heck, even five breaths helps.
Give it a go!
As always, how hard the workout is depends on us. When we choose heavier weights or change up the tempo (both faster and slower can be harder, depending), we are deciding how difficult things are going to be. Choose wisely, for today’s body. Three rounds, or the number that is appropriate for right now.
suitcase swings | 30 |
bench press | 20 |
reverse fly | 10 |
| |
1 arm clean and press | 30 |
db pullover with bridge | 20 |
1 leg squat | 10 |
| |
(lunge) punches | 30 |
flies | 20 |
plank to pike | 10 |
Other favorite Pilates mat exercises include:
1. chest lift
2. arm arcs
3. side to side
4. swan
5. leg circles
6. dart
7. roll down
8. push up
9. twist
10. mermaid
My other favorite Pilates mat exercise is the bridge. Again, because most of us spend too much time sitting, we suffer from tight hip flexors and relatively weak glutes. Bridge to the rescue!
I love how many variations of bridging there are, including the single leg version, the “chip and dip,” the typewriter, and more. I particularly love adding a hip flexor stretch by sliding a yoga block under my pelvis at the top and then extending my legs long to let gravity do the work.
One important note, though. Those of us who have osteoporosis need to be a little careful in our bridges. Articulating through the spine is not recommended because it puts us at risk of fracture.
Be careful, but enjoy!
Since not everybody has a studio full of Pilates equipment, I’m choosing my favorite Pilates exercises from the mat work. We all have floors.
Because, like most of us, I sit at a desk more than is ideal, my favorite Pilates exercise is the supine twist. I like to do it with yoga tune up balls under my back at the spot just above my bra strap (people who do not wear bras will have to envision the spot) with one ball on either side of my spine.
To do the exercise, we lie on our backs (With or without balls. People new to this exercise might find doing it with balls a little… spicy.). We bend our knees and place our feet flat on the floor. So far, so comfy! Then we extend our arms up toward the ceiling and place the palms of our hands together. Throughout the exercise, the hands stay together and the elbows stay straight.
First, we keep our head still and move our arms as far from side to side as we can without moving our hips or suffering more than discomfort. After about ten reps, we shift to moving our arms and taking our heads with us; another way to think about this is that we keep an eye on our thumbs as we move. Then, after about ten more reps, we take our arms one way and our head the other way for ten reps.
At the end, our upper backs tend to feel looser and our breathing is easier.
Try it!
We’re doing some stuff that focuses on the back of the body this week. Our hammies will notice those db kicks. Kettle bell swings work the entire back of the body. And tap backs get those glutes working. Three rounds.
db kicks | 30 |
rows | 20 |
YTA | 10 |
| |
kb swings | 30 |
kb twists | 20 |
kb 8s | 10 |
| |
tap backs | 30 |
kickbacks | 20 |
scissors | 10 |
More strength favorites? I got you:
1. pushups
2. deadlifts
3. pretty princesses
4. rows
And some un-favorites that I do because they’re so good for me:
1. lunges
2. burpees
3. YTA
4. single leg anything for balance
My next favorite strength exercise is the fly. It’s not as popular, perhaps, as the bench press or as practical as the row, but it feels good.
We all need that feeling of expansion in our chests that we get in the lowering phase of the fly.
Additionally, when we do flies, we have to concentrate. Form is important. We need to pay attention to how far we can lower the weights and still get them back up. We need to know how to protect ourselves if the weight becomes too heavy (Bend your elbows, bring the weights in toward your body, and then, if necessary, drop them on the floor. You are more important than the floor. And ripped rotator cuffs are No Fun.)
Another great thing about flies is that when we do them, we learn about the value of the eccentric contraction. Eccentric, in this context, doesn’t mean slightly odd. When we lift weights, the working muscles contract; this is the concentric phase. Then when we lower them again, the muscles lengthen; this is the eccentric phase. Because the eccentric phase cooperates with gravity, the job our muscles are doing in this part is controlling the descent. When we do flies, that lowering phase requires control because if gravity takes over, we are back to that ripped rotator cuff scenario. (Choose your weights wisely and it’s good to have a spotter.)
Go play.
Strength training is a good thing to lean into in August. Most obviously, it makes us stronger. That physical strength often translates into strength of character and other kinds of resilience, and who doesn’t need that? Strength training has positive effects on our metabolisms and our body composition. Plus we look cool.
There are approximately eleventy bazillion strength training exercises, so choosing a favorite has a certain amount of challenge. If I had to choose only one, I would choose the squat.
Squats are the ultimate in practicality. We have to do them many times a day. They are the key to our independence in our old age: when we can’t squat, we can’t go to the bathroom alone, and that’s a problem.
They’re also flexible. We can do them with body weight wherever we are. We can do them with heavy weights. We can do them on one leg to work our balance. We can use a barbell across our shoulders, dumbbells in our hands hanging at our sides, or holding a kettlebell at our breastbones. Those of us who need a little more support can do them with a stability ball against a wall. For additional challenge, we can squat on either side of a BOSU.
No matter how we do them, we’re working pretty much our whole bodies. That’s efficient!
We’ve got a little of everything this week: a bit of rotation with the db circles, some lateral motion with the squat to leg lift, some balance work, and, of course, lifting. Three rounds.
db circles | 30 |
flies | 20 |
Arnold press | 10 |
| |
jacks | 30 |
bench press | 20 |
curls | 10 |
| |
squat to leg lift/tick tock | 30 |
1 leg deadlift | 20 |
femur arcs | 10 |
I admit: I have a hard time picking a favorite cardio exercise. Here are some other of my favorites, but feel free to add more!
1. pickleball
2. ballet and other dance
3. elliptical trainers
4. skiing
5. hiking
6. roller skating
My other favorite cardio exercise is swimming. I have said, semi-seriously, more than once, that my personal aromatherapy scents are chlorine and sunscreen and maybe a hint of grape soda because those are the smells of my childhood summers.
Swimming is a great cardio exercise for a bunch of reasons. It’s not an impact sport, so it’s easy on the joints. The water provides resistance, so it’s a good amount of work. The work is in water, natch, so there isn’t that uncomfortable sweaty feeling.
There’s a funny thing about swimming for me. I am not a particularly great swimmer. I couldn’t do a flip turn to save my life and I have never met a pair of goggles that I like. What’s great is that it doesn’t really matter. I get a perfectly good workout and I have a fabulous time. Over time, I am improving, but I don’t have any Big Goals about swimming, except not drowning.
Go play.
For years, August has been, to be polite, not my favorite month. I have learned not to plan to get anything in particular done during August. This year, my coping strategy is: lean into my favorite things. All month, I’ll be highlighting my favorite fitness things!
This week, I’m starting with my favorite cardio exercises because there really is nothing better for lifting mood than getting in some heart-pounding work.
My very favorite cardio comes from bikes. There is no quicker way to make me feel like an ecstatic nine-year-old than to pop me on a bike. I like the kind of work I do when I ride, I like getting outside, I like zooming around.
When it is dark or wet, I have my spin bike, which is nearly as good. The scenery isn’t much, but I have good music and a distinct lack of excuses to get going.
What’s your very favorite? (More of mine tomorrow!)
One of the things we’re working on this week is weight bearing on the upper body. For bonus points, all the exercises that work on that also work on our core strength. Three rounds.
step touch | 30 |
renegade rows | 20 |
hip rotations | 10 |
| |
step ups | 30 |
good morning/deadlift | 20 |
diamond pushup | 10 |
| |
woodchoppers | 30 |
skullcrushers | 20 |
plank up down | 10 |
