Back to Basics: Pilates 2

One of the other principles of Pilates that seems both basic and powerful is alignment. 

In the literal sense, when we move with improved alignment, our bodies are more graceful and efficient.  We are less likely to get injured, either through repetitive stress or catastrophe.  Balance and coordination are easier.

 

The thing is, the alignment of our literal bodies tends to have metaphorical effects as well.  As we align, say, our heads over our shoulders, we align our principles with our actions, our values with our work, our hearts with our minds and bodies.

 

I’m not saying that doing Pilates will automatically transform our lives.  Just that there is an opportunity there for the kind of small shift in alignment that can have, over time, big results.

Back to Basics: Pilates 1

 

Getting back to basics with Pilates is kind of the point of Pilates.  When we show up to our sessions, we want to check back into our bodies, to connect the body and mind more consciously (pro tip:  they’re always connected; it’s our awareness that shifts).

Personally, the part of Pilates that triggers that most directly and easily is the breath.

 

I’ve had more than one person tell me that they were bad at breathing.  That is not a thing.  Anybody who is not dead is doing a perfectly adequate job of breathing.  So we’re all starting from a place of success.

 

There are two exercises that, for me, facilitate connection to the breath most and they’re both really simple and accessible.  One is the pelvic clock.  To do it, we lie on our backs (hooray!) with our knees bent and our heels lined up with our sit bones.  As we exhale, we tilt the pelvis gently toward our belly buttons.  Then, when we inhale, we tilt toward our pubic bones.  There are further progressions of the exercise (tilting side to side and making circles), but this basic movement takes the natural motion of the spine as we breathe and slightly exaggerates it.  What I mean by that is that our spines naturally flex a little as we exhale and extend as we inhale.  We make conscious what happens without our even knowing it.

 

In a similar way, arm arcs do the same thing in a different part of the spine.  To do them, we start in the same position as for pelvic clock with our arms down at our sides.  As we inhale, we raise our arms overhead.  Then we lower them as we exhale.  This exaggerates what is called the “pump handle” motion of breathing.  As we inhale, the spine extends and the sternum rises like an old fashioned pump handle.  The exhale lowers the sternum, pumping out the breath.

 

Bringing attention to the way our breath moves our bodies and our bodies move our breath is a quick route to mindful movement.

Back to Basics: Strength 2

So:  you’ve got a workout.  Now what?

First things first:  you want to aim for two or three strength training sessions per week.  (OK:  some people do more.  That’s beyond the basics, for one thing, and also gets into dividing the body up into segments for things like “leg day.”  If you want to know about that stuff, poke me and we’ll talk.)  The overall principle is that you give muscles you’ve worked a day off between workouts.

 

There are multiple variables in weight workouts.  What you choose depends on your body, your goals, and your current state.

 

For each exercise, you need to consider how much weight to lift, how many reps and sets to do, and how quickly or slowly to do the lifting.  In general, if you are choosing lighter weights, you will be choosing to do more reps and/or sets.  Most of us will choose a moderate tempo for our lifts, unless we are working on power, which, by definition, is the ability to move a heavy weight fast.

 

However, once a workout starts, you may need to adjust.  Maybe last week I did my lifts with 7 gabillion pounds, but today I can hardly unrack 6 gabillion.  Or maybe I’m even stronger this week and need to use 8 gabillion.  (Yes, I am using fictitious measures because some of us get over-attached to the numbers.  That’s not useful.)  In general, I want the weight I choose to be heavy enough that it is challenging to complete the number of reps with good form.

 

Go play.

Back to Basics: Strength 1

Starting, or re-starting, strength training can be daunting.  Unless we happen to have a bunch of weights lying around (me!  I do!), we need to acquire some or go to a place that has them.  That can be intimidating or expensive or both.  Then we have to figure out what to do with the weights.

Most gym memberships come with a free orientation.  Gyms use these as a tool to sell personal training, but that doesn’t mean we have to buy.  (Buying personal training is definitely a useful idea, but when I did those orientations myself, I wanted to ensure that gym members knew how to use the equipment safely on their own.  Any reasonably ethical and responsible trainer should do the same.)  It is worth taking the gym up on the freebie rather than just relying on watching other folks, who may or may not know what the heck they’re doing.  In the orientation, the trainer should show you how to set up and use machines safely, where the free weights are located and what safety precautions to take (things like weight collars for barbells, for instance), and should help you figure out where to adjust seats and arms and such for best performance.  You should end up with a sheet of paper that tells you all that stuff for reference in the future.  That’s a great place to start.

 

Another possibility for a no-cost start is to take a trainer up on a first-session-free offer like I give.  Typically, this can include a fitness assessment and interview to discuss who you are, what you want out of a gym experience, what your injury history is, and what motivates you.  Then you get a workout.  That workout is one you can use on your own in future, whether or not you sign up for training.  Some trainers get grumpy if you take the free one and don’t sign up for training.  I do not.  I often encourage people I know shouldn’t be paying me (or any other trainer) to come for a free one because I think I can help them.  If their circumstances change in future, maybe they’ll buy sessions; if not, I’ve done a good deed.

 

Tomorrow:  some thoughts on specifics.

Thursday List: 7

There are any number of ways to get cardio exercise in.  Here are a few:

 

1.     Take a ten minute walk after breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

2.     If you watch something with commercials, do jacks (or the exercise of your choice that gets your heart rate up) until the show comes back.

3.     Variation on 2:  If you don’t watch TV with commercials, every time the main character says That Thing They Say, do jacks.  Kind of like a drinking game, but better for you!

4.     Dance.  This can range from going out with friends to taking a Zumba class to cranking the tunes in the kitchen and boogie-ing down while sauteeing the spinach.

5.     Borrow a kid.  Play tag, any variation.  Climb on the play structure at the park.  Try to get your phone back from the little booger.  Take them swimming or hiking or biking.

6.     Challenge a friend to a game.  No, not chess, unless you play full-contact chess.  I’m thinking basketball or soccer or pickleball or ultimate frisbee.

7.     Hubba hubba.  But no just lying there thinking of England.

Back to Basics: Cardio 2

If you know me, you know that I am always in favor of whatever exercise we get out and do.  Something is always better than nothing.

That said, it’s good to know what we’re aiming for.

 

Before I talk about targets, I need to pause and say that we are all unique.  We all have skills and injury histories and life experiences and proclivities that help and hinder us in our pursuit of fitness.  Fitness is not even kind of one size fits all.  What is appropriate for me is not necessarily appropriate for you.  Heck, what’s appropriate for me today is not ideal for 20-year-old me or 80-year-old me or even next-week me.  We work out in today’s body.

 

So.  Ideally, we want to get about 150 minutes per week of moderate cardio exercise.  That’s half an hour, five days a week.

 

Moderate, in this context, (as Lemony Snicket says), means “at a heart rate that is between 65 and 80 percent of our maximum heart rate.”  Now there’s an explanation that doesn’t explain much.  The next bit contains math.  Sorry about that. 

 

If you want to skip the math, see the rubric I used yesterday (if you can sing, you need to work harder; if you can’t talk, you’re working too hard).

 

OK:  math. 

 

A person’s maximum heart rate is 220 – their age.  For me, this means 220-58, or 162.  My moderate cardio range, therefore, is 65 to 80 % of 162.  That’s 105 to 130.  If we’re wearing a tracker or smart watch, we can see our heart rate right there.  If not, we can take our own pulse.  Over time, however, we get a feel for when we’re working out hard enough and when we’re not.

 

I don’t much worry about people working out at or over their maximum heart rate.  As we approach that level of work, we start to feel like we’re going to die and, being sensible humans, we slow down!

 

Math is over now.

 

Those of us who work out a lot will not have trouble getting in our 150 minutes.  Those of us who prefer screen time to gym time might have to work up to 150 minutes much more slowly.  Starting with five minutes or a walk around the block can be totally appropriate. 

 

Start small and go play.

Back to Basics: Cardio 1

Good news!  It’s September!  While it has been a long time since I’ve been in school, I still think of September as the month when things start.  Maybe summer was fabulous; maybe not.  Either way, we’re seizing the opportunity to get back to basics, beginning again.

This week, we’ll dig in with cardio.

 

Cardio is a great place to start because almost all of us have the ability to do it right now.  We lace up our shoes and we head out for a walk or a run.  Ta da!  Cardio!  (Those of us who are dealing with disabilities that prevent us from walking or running will, as with most things, have to find a work-around.  I can’t speak to every flavor of accommodation needed in a short post, but if you need one, poke me and we’ll brainstorm!)

 

Cardio exercise doesn’t require any special expertise, either.  We all know if we’re getting a little breathless.  (Rubric:  if you can sing while you’re doing your cardio, you need to work harder.  If you can’t talk, you’re working too hard.)

 

The benefits of cardio are pretty instantaneous, too.  We often notice an immediate lift in mood.  We burn calories.  We have sharper thinking.  We sleep better.

 

Tomorrow I’ll talk about more nitty-gritty details.

3R Favorites 2

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! 

3R Favorites 1

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! 

Pilates Favorites 2

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!

Pilates Favorites 1

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!

Strength Favorites 2

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 Favorites 1

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!

Cardio Favorites 2

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.

Cardio Favorites 1

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!)

Interdependence: Work, rest, eat

Workouts, as we know, don’t occur in a vacuum.  It’s hard to breathe there.  (Sorry/not sorry for the joke.)  Our workouts are part of the larger picture of our lives.

This means that we can’t just keep working out more and more.  We may try to do that and we find that it doesn’t end well.  We get frustrated because we’re working so hard and we’re not getting the results we want.

 

Workouts require the support of adequate rest and good nutrition.  If we’re not sleeping and we’re living on sugar and caffeine, we’re not going to sustain a healthy workout load.  We need all the pieces of the puzzle.

 

So:  eat well, sleep well, work enough to get tired and hungry.

Interdependence: Pilates and weights

One way that interdependence plays out in workouts is in the synergy between weight training and Pilates.

As everyone knows, I offer both personal training and Pilates.  When asked which one someone should do, I usually say that both are good, and not because I want more business.  Both are good, and they’re better together.

 

Here’s why.  Weight training increases our strength.  It’s where we build lean body mass, encourage our metabolism, and acquire what we think of as “tone.”  Those are all good things.  However, if we want the most benefit from the work we do with weights, we need to hone our form.

 

This is where Pilates is so beneficial.  In Pilates, we train our proprioception (five dollar word for “knowing where our bodies are in space”).  We work on our alignment.  We challenge our stabilizing muscles.  We open up both our range of motion and our control of that range.  When we apply our Pilates skills in our weight training context, we get better results.

 

Conversely, when we bring our strength to Pilates, we open up more of the repertoire.  We can tackle some of the challenging exercises without worrying that our basic strength isn’t up to them.

 

All that said, some of us do better starting with one or the other.  If you want guidance, you know where to find me.

Interdepence

Interdependence has a lot of relevance in a workout context.  As I’ll be talking about over the rest of the month, the different kinds of workouts we do are interdependent, as are the things we do outside of our workouts.

Today, though, I want to focus on how our workouts make us better community members.  When we get strong and fit, when we take care of our own health, we increase our ability to give back to the people around us.

 

We are soaking in a culture that wants us to believe in competition as a supreme virtue.  That same culture feeds us the idea that we can be “self-made.”  Let’s reality-check that a little.

 

Competition, maybe, has its place.  When it is used for good, it can spur us on to achieve more than we might otherwise.  However, I think we all get farther when we rely on cooperation.  When we work together to make sure we all succeed, not only do we all have success, we have a nicer environment in which to enjoy that success.

 

And we do need other people.  We are social animals.  When we were children, we needed parents or other caregivers to feed and tend us.  As adults, we thrive best when we are surrounded by family and friends who love us and whom we love in return.

 

In a workout context, what this means is that when we individually get stronger, we all get stronger.  When we encourage each other, we all do better.  And, sometimes, we are willing to do things for other people that we’re not willing to do for ourselves.  When my kids were small, I needed to be strong and healthy to be there for them.  As our parents age, we need to be strong and healthy to help them out, too.  We have to pay forward the gifts we have been given.

 

I know this is really abstract and high-level, but we need to know why we are lifting those heavy weights and sweating it out on the treadmill.  It’s to make the world better.

Independence, Part 9

Up to this point in the month, we’ve been talking about independence as a list of things we get to do or not do.  But that’s only part of the story.

When we are independent, we take on a good chunk of responsibility.

 

There is a security inherent in being dependent.  We know what to do.  We know what the consequences are when we don’t do what we’re supposed to do.  We understand the rules.

 

When we are independent, we have to make our own order.  We have to figure out how to live healthy and happy lives without infringing on other folks’ ability to live their healthy and happy lives.

 

We have to find the balance between taking care of ourselves and taking care of our duties to our family and friends and larger society.  Sometimes a workout gets top priority.  Sometimes we miss one because we have a sick kid or a work deadline.  We need to stay tuned in to all the shifting priorities.

 

Because, truth is, we are both independent and interdependent at the same time.  We don’t get healthy and happy alone.

 

I’ll be exploring that over the next while.

Independence, Part 7

Today’s declaration of independence is that we are independent of stupid opinions.  This is similar to what we talked about yesterday, but perhaps a little more personal.

A whole lot of people seem to think they are entitled to have opinions about what we do.  We can’t control what goes on in their heads.  Usually we have enough to do dealing with what’s in our own heads.  But, there those folks are, spouting off about how we should or shouldn’t do whatever it is we’ve decided to do.

 

When those folks are motivated by our “own good,” it can be hard to blow them off.  But until they live in our skin, they really don’t get a vote.  Our loved ones love us.  They worry when we change, even when we start changing for the better.  Sometimes they do have skills or experiences we don’t have, but that doesn’t mean that what they know is right for us.  We need to find our own paths.  With people who are motivated by love of us, our technique is this:  Thanks for your input.  I’ll consider what you say.

 

(Some people are not even a little bit motivated by our best interest.  They want to control us or keep us small or weak or unhealthy for their own reasons.  When we get up the courage to be our fabulous selves, they get mad and manipulative.  If thanking them for their input doesn’t do the trick, it is all right to choose not to deal with them at all.  We are not put here to be abused by other people.  Please do whatever is necessary to get out of unsafe circumstances.  Really.)

 

Working out is hard enough.  We don’t need to add emotional workouts on top.