Fresh: 3

Three ways to make cardio fresher:

 

1.     Change the speed.

2.     Change the time.

3.     Change the intensity.

 

Up or down!  You pick!

Fresh: Cardio 2

Maybe we really love what we are already doing for cardio.  I mean, you can have my spin bike when I’m dead and not before, for example.  Even so, we can freshen up our routines with a couple of tweaks.

In my experience, we all have a preferred spot on the continuum between time and intensity.  That is to say, some of us would rather work really hard for not very long and others of us would rather spend a longer time working less hard.  This is all just fine, but we can mix it up just a little and get lots of benefits.  Maybe one workout a week is longer or faster or otherwise harder (think:  hills).  If we are doing something with a cadence like running or biking, we can shift it faster once in a while.

 

Even changing up something as basic as what we listen to while we go can make things new.  Heck, grab a buddy and listen to them for a workout instead of whatever is on your playlist!

 

It seems worthwhile to note here that not all things we do to entertain ourselves while working out are equally useful.  For example, I love to read, but I can’t work out hard enough while also tracking words across a page.  If I want to read and workout, it’s going to have to be audiobooks.  (Other folks’ mileage may vary and it depends on many factors including the stability of the modality, the fitness level of the person working out, and even the size of the print.)

 

Essentially what I am saying here is:  get playful.  Experiment.  Do something novel and see if it is fun.

Fresh: Cardio 1

This week, I’m going to talk about refreshing our cardio exercise.

When most of us think about the gym, what we think of are those long rows of treadmills and other cardio machines.  We think:  boring.  We think:  I can think of so many other ways to spend half an hour or more.

 

Good news:  cardio doesn’t have to involve any of those machines unless we want it to.

 

Literally anything that gets our heart rates up for a reasonable amount of time counts as cardio.  So, yes, helping your cousin move definitely counts.  The kind of yard work many of us need to do at this time of year in which we have to haul a bunch of new dirt and compost for the garden and we make 500 or so trips to the green bin to dump in weeds and other stuff we’re clearing out counts.  Pretty much anything that involves heavy lifting counts.

 

If our lives don’t happen to involve any of those above activities, we still have lots of non-machine things to choose from, including a bunch of sports and other outdoor activities.

 

A couple of rubrics:  keep it fun, get breathless, and do it often!

Monday Workout: They Get Easier

Yes, we are doing burpees this week.  They never get easier if we never do them.  Three rounds.

 

woodchoppers	30
good mornings/deadlifts	20
burpees	10
db kicks	30
Bulgarian split squat	20
hip rotations	10
1 arm clean & press	30
rows	20
plank to pike	10

 

Fresh: 4

Fresh mindsets come in many flavors.  Here are a couple to taste!

 

1.     The power of “yet.”  As in “I can’t do that YET.”  This opens up possibilities!

2.     What did I learn?  I just tried something new and it was hard and it didn’t go the way I wanted it to.  What do I take away from this?  Maybe I want to keep trying; maybe once was enough.

3.     Where’s the fun?  Not that many experiences are 100% awful.  I mean, even going into labor gets to the part where you have a baby at the end.  Burpees may not be fun to do, but they are fun to brag about later.

4.     Make your own.  Yep:  you are powerful and can use your big brain to transform yourself in any direction that occurs to you!

Fresh: Take Out the Trash

An inherent part of freshening our mindsets is taking out the trash.  I mean, how many times have we come home from the store with a bunch of new produce and found that we have to get the sad wilted lettuce and the other expired stuff out of the way before we can even put what we bought in the fridge?

When we spring clean our homes, or clear out our closets, we go through and figure out what needs to go.  What is worn out?  What doesn’t fit?  What hobbies have we grown out of?  What’s broken?

 

Sometimes we learn, as we make space, that what we really needed wasn’t a bunch of new stuff, but rather the space itself.

 

In a fitness context, this can mean anything from letting go of ideas about ourselves (“I’m too ___ to do that thing I want to do.”  “It takes too long.”  “People will look at me funny if I…”) to rethinking what dinner looks like (hint:  if it is mostly nutritious and tastes good, it can be whatever you want).  Maybe we’ve gotten tangled in a complex system of workouts and we just need to make it simple for a while.  Maybe, dare I say, we can put away our gizmos and trackers and just move for a bit to see how that feels.

 

My trash might be your treasure.  There are so many useful paths to take.  The key is that we use our big brains to evaluate what is actually serving us as we live our healthy, happy lives.

 

Go play.

Fresh: Mindset

In March, we’re ready for spring.  I’m going to focus on fresh (freshness, refreshment, all the variations) because that’s the essence of spring to me.

This week, it’s all about the mindset.  We all have mind-habits the same way we have other habits.  Our thoughts as well as our actions fall into ruts.  What I am suggesting here is that we try a new thought-road or two this month and see where we end up.

 

For example, I had a conversation recently with someone about things we wished we had learned about earlier in our lives.  For me, it was growth mindset, or the idea that how we work at things is more important than how innately talented we are.  Growth mindset is still a pretty fresh path for my little brain.  It is in the process of transforming the way I think about failures and about experiments.  I feel like there are a lot more options in the world than there used to be.  Obviously, this applies to fitness, but it’s one of those places where fitness is only one of many useful contexts for an idea.

 

Finding new mindsets means having new experiences.  We learn new stuff because we’ve talked to someone or read something or gone somewhere or seen something.

 

Where might we like to explore?  I’d love to hear ideas!

Monday Workout: Customize!

This is one of those workouts that we can customize based on how much we want to push ourselves.  If we want to go easier, we can (obviously) use lighter weights and we can do regular/modified jacks in place of the plank jacks.  If we want to go hard, we choose the heavier kettle bell, heavier weights generally, and maybe we add weights and/or reverse lunges to our step ups.  Three rounds.

 

kb alt arm swings	30
kb hammer curls	20
kb halo	10
plank jacks	30
bench press	20
Arnold press	10
step up	30
flies	20
side banana

Love Month: More

Still want more ways to love yourself?  How about these?

 

1.     Talk nicely to yourself.  You are amazing!

2.     Give yourself a break.  Sometimes we all need one.

3.     Be grateful.  We all have some blessings lying around in our lives.

4.     Hug somebody.  It’s good for both of you!

5.     Do a favor.  We can all use a bit of good karma, plus an instant mood boost.

Love Month: Love your tummy

All of this love for our bodies requires appropriate food.  We can’t do our best cardio, strength, balance, and flexibility work on a diet of Cheetos and whiskey.  Here are some general ideas for how to eat for self-love:

Drink water.  It’s good for hydration, calorie free, and essential to so many body processes.  If it seems a little boring, throw a slice of lemon in there, or try fizzy water.

 

Eat those veggies.  They really are good for you.  They fill us up, give us essential nutrients, and don’t have too many calories.

 

Get enough protein.  Choose wisely here, though.  We want to eat low on the food chain for our own health and for the health of our ecosystems.

 

Change it up.  There is no perfect food.  We need to eat a variety of foods to meet all our needs.  Plus it’s fun and tasty.

Love Month: Love your balance (plus a little relaxation video!)

Today we’re going to talk about loving ourselves by working on balance.  Falls are one of the biggest risks we face as we age.  The statistics on what happens to us after we fall and break a hip are not encouraging.  We want to prevent falls with better balance.

Balance is not a talent; it’s a skill.  That means we can practice and get better at it.

 

One way to practice, of course, is to take yoga or Pilates.  Both of those are good choices because they have lots of other benefits, making them efficient use of time.

 

But it’s not hard to work on balance in regular life.  I think we all spend a fair amount of time waiting for the microwave.  That minute while lunch heats is a great time to try standing on one leg, or doing one-leg squats or deadlifts.  Brushing our teeth is another daily opportunity to balance.  One of my clients practices calf raises in line at the grocery store.

 

Assuming we’re already doing weight workouts, a few tweaks can make those workouts even more effective for balance.  When we work asymmetrically, we challenge our balance.  Any exercise that works our core musculature helps balance.  Using instability also helps (think BOSU, wobble board, etc.).

 

Safety note:  start slow and simple and make sure that you are in an environment where you can get support if you need it!

Monday Workout: Mix

We’ve got a good mix of stuff for the end of the month.  Try for four rounds.

 

1 min cardio
plank jacks	30
gorilla row	20
pushups	10
skater jump/curtsy	30
flies	20
windscreen wipers	10

 

Love Month: 6

Quick reasons to do Pilates:

 

1.     Increased mobility

2.     Increased flexibility

3.     Better balance

4.     Better posture

5.     Better efficiency

6.     Fun

Love Month: Love your muscles long

Yesterday I wrote about strong muscles.  Today, I need to add a bit about long muscles.

 

OK, not necessarily long.  Muscles at optimum length.  Bear with me here.  In our muscles, there is a relationship between length and tension.  That relationship produces strength in action.  A muscle with an optimal length-tension relationship is as strong as possible.  One that is too short (contracted) or too long (released) can’t do its best work.

 

It’s true that most of us walk around with a lot of muscles overly contracted.  (PSA:  this is a good time to lower your shoulders away from your ears.)  What we may not realize is that this means we are also walking around with a lot of muscles overly stretched.  For every muscle group that bends something, there is a group that extends it and vice versa.  When some are too tight, some are too loose.  We need to balance everything out.

 

So what do we do?  Let me introduce you to my favorite “uncle,” Uncle Joe Pilates.  Pilates (and yoga) as a practice does a great job of teaching us to use the right amount of force at the right time.  We may notice the increased flexibility more, but the increased strength in the opposing muscles is there, too.

 

Don’t want to do Pilates?  That’s cool.  Do some stretching at least, making sure to stretch both sides (e.g., both quads and hamstrings) for best results.

 

(I’m a Pilates instructor.  You can make an appointment with me!)

 

Go play. 

Love Month: Love your muscles strong

Another way we can love our bodies is to love our muscles strong.  Yes, I realize that this means weight work, but again, love isn’t always nice even while it is being kind.

A digression that is sort of relevant:  when I was in high school or thereabouts, my dad was sure I would not survive on my own because I couldn’t open jars myself.  My days as a 90-pound weakling are behind me now.  I can even open jars for other people.  Strength training for the win!  Also tasty jam!

 

We all know that strength is practical.  Not only do we have to open jars, we also have to carry groceries, lift kids, move the furniture around, schlepp the laundry, and so on.  Doing those same tasks will build skill and ability, but we get their faster with strength training.

 

As I mentioned last week, strength training is good for our bones.  It also helps us maintain a healthy body mass distribution:  more lean tissue is good for us!

 

Need more reasons?  It’s good for posture, it makes us look better, and it increases our sense of personal power.

 

Sometimes love looks like barbells.

Monday Workout: Slow then not

We start slow on this one and then we get a bit more intense and complicated with our compound exercises.  Three rounds.

 

opposite knees	30
good morning/deadlift	20
1 leg db pass	10
squat raise	30
(lunge to) curl to overhead press	20
truck driver	10
db circles	30
kickbacks	20
toe reaches	10

Love Month: 6

Jumping is great for both cardio fitness and bone strength.  Here are six things to try:

 

1.     jacks (regular, plyojacks, plank jacks)

2.     burpees

3.     box jumps or depth jumps (jumping on or off a fitness box)

4.     jump squats

5.     jump lunges

6.     lateral hops (extra fun with a BOSU

Love Month: Love your bones strong

Most of us probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our skeletons, but another way we can love ourselves is to keep those bones strong.  There are a couple of good ways to do this.

One is to eat right, including plenty of calcium.  Y’all know what to do there, right?

 

Another is to work with weights.  Those dumbbells do more than make our muscles strong!  Bones increase strength in response to stresses like lifting weights.

 

Choosing the right cardio can also help.  Bones get stronger in response to impact with the ground.  That means that swimming, while great for cardio, has less of an effect on strengthening bones than walking.  Exercises that include jumping (jacks, jump lunges, jump squats, box jumps, burpees, etc.) help with this, too.

 

Go play.