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.

 

Independence, Part 6

While we are getting independent this month, another area we can explore is freedom from stereotypes.

Such as:  women can’t lift heavy.  Or men are inflexible.  Or old people can’t be strong.  Or people with (fill in the condition) can’t do things.

 

People who are alive have the ability to change.  It’s kind of definitional.  (When dead people change, it’s not exactly on purpose and we really don’t need to talk about that.)  The cool thing about our bodies is that they change in response to what we do.  If we practice getting faster, we get faster.  If we practice getting stronger, we get stronger.

 

So maybe at the start, women who have been told for a lifetime that it’s unladylike to lift weights and get strong don’t lift really heavy weights.  We lift weights that are heavy for us.  As we progress, we continue to lift weights that are heavy for us until someday we are lifting weights that the Almighty They think are heavy.  Usually by that point we don’t care what They think, or if we think about Them at all it is with a little burst of I-showed-YOU.

 

I’m not going to say that limitations aren’t real.  Gravity exists.  Our bodies can tolerate only so much work before they break.  But for most of us, the limitations are much farther away than we think they are.  If a stereotype isn’t helping, ditch it!

 

Go play.

Independence, Part 4

Another thing we can declare independence from is ideals.  Don’t get me wrong:  I am an idealist.  But we live in the real world, which is often less than ideal.

In our workouts, there are lots of folks out there who will tell us what the ideal routine for us is.  They’ll give us helpful information about heart rates, duration, volume of training, speed, tempo, and all kinds of other stuff.  It’s not that that stuff isn’t useful; it just might not work for us in our particular circumstance.

 

In an ideal world, we’d all get 150 minutes of moderate cardio exercise every week.  Expecting to meet that standard when we haven’t been off the couch in years is not realistic or workable.  Some of us are coming back from injuries, or have difficulty finding a safe place to work out.

 

The ideal workout, from a practical perspective, is the one we do.  It’s the one that empowers us to do the other stuff we want to do, like live a long time or play sharks and minnows with the grandkids in the pool.  Sure, we can aim for the ideals, but we shouldn’t be upset when our ideal is not somebody else’s.

 

Go play.

Independence, Part 3

One of the biggest things we can declare independence from in our workout life is other people’s goals.  This can be a challenge.

What do I mean?

 

Let’s say, for example, that I have just hopped on a bike for the first time in years.  I have a great time.  And, as I start telling people about it, they start telling me about century rides, or hill rides, or single track mountain bike rides.  They suggest different shoes or fancy gear or maybe even a brand new bike.  All of that is intended to be helpful, but mostly it’s discouraging.  I’m at the very beginning.  I want to pedal and have fun and I don’t want to overthink things.  I need to declare my independence from their ideas about what I need to do and do what I want.

 

Or, another example.  Imagine I have never been to the gym before.  I think I might like to try some stuff there and I tag along with a friend, who happens to be a true gym rat.  He shows me his heavy lifting routine, which takes approximately two hours and involves really big dumbbells and barbells.  I go home and think:  I am never going back there again.  It’s too hard and scary.  Instead, I can declare independence from my friend, however well-meaning he is, and I can start with a short workout that is appropriate for my own body.

 

One more.  Imagine I have a routine in which I go to the gym for a Zumba class every week.  I have friends there.  It’s fun.  I feel energetic and good at the end.  But imagine I have a less-helpful friend/partner/parent who thinks I’m not doing enough because I’m not losing weight.  I can declare independence from that person and do what makes me feel powerful and good in my skin.

 

We are all unique snowflakes.  We all have things we like and dislike.  The best workout is the one we will actually do.

 

Go play.

Independence, Part 2: 8

While working on fitness tends to enable our pursuit of happiness, sometimes the fitness work itself can be happy.  Here are some happy workouts:

 

1.     Dance

2.     Yoga

3.     Pickleball

4.     Swimming

5.     Tag with the kids

6.     That sport you love

7.     That hike that inspires you

8.     That thing you do with friends and you end up laughing until your abs hurt

9.     Add your own

Independence, Part 1

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Declaration of Independence

 

The Declaration of Independence is one of the founding documents of our country.  Despite its problems (“all men” meant everybody, until people of color and women wanted to be equal, just for example), the declaration inspires us with its list of rights:  life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  When it comes time to consider our fitness, it is a pretty good place to start getting inspired.

 

Take life.  Of course, the very basics of life are about keeping breathing.  Fitness work helps us do that, for sure.  But it also improves the quality of the life we have.  When we get stronger and improve our cardio fitness, when we work on our balance and flexibility, we open up so much more of life.  We’re not so limited in the activities we can engage in.  We feel better.

 

Liberty?  We all have tons of choices, every single day.  When we work out, we increase the number of viable choices we have.  Let me explain.  I could wake up and decide to run away to join the circus.  My odds of getting hired by the circus for anything beyond cleaning up after the animals (although I hope there aren’t any more circuses with animals) improve if I have actual skills that the circus can use.  If I work out hard and build up my upper body strength, I might have a shot at succeeding at trapeze.  If I focus on balance, I might be able to walk the tightrope.  The choices we make today enable the choices we want to make in the future.

 

Then there is the pursuit of happiness.  Any time we’re dealing with pursuit, we want both speed and endurance.  Fine.  I know it’s not a literal pursuit.  But again, happiness is much easier to find when we feel good.  Feeling good is one of my favorite outcomes of working out.

 

So:  get independent and work out!

Wellness Check: Mental and Emotional Wellbeing

On this last day of the month, I am going to spend a minute or so talking about mental and emotional wellbeing.  This is maybe the hardest piece of the wellness puzzle.

All the other things I’ve talked about this month feed into our mental and emotional wellbeing.  They give us the healthy body in which to keep our healthy mind.  For many of us, using the tools for movement, recovery, sleep, and nutrition will give us enough support that we have no trouble with our mental and emotional wellbeing.

 

Many of us may also need a few more tools.

 

This part is important:  I am not a doctor or a therapist or a psychologist.  If you are experiencing serious depression or other mental illness, PLEASE get professional health.  You are 100% worth it and you deserve a healthy and happy life.

 

If our struggle feels like something we can manage ourselves, I have two more tools to suggest.  The first one is stress reduction.  Sadly, stress reduction in this context does not mean that I wave a wand and all the bad stressors in our lives go away.  If only.  It can mean anything from improving our time management to acquiring a meditation practice for three minutes a day.  What reduces stress for some folks doesn’t for others, so, again, experimentation is in order.  Find a couple things that work and keep a list for those times when the stress goes to eleven.

 

The other tool?  Fun.  Sometimes wellness seems like just another list of tasks in an already task-overloaded life.  We have to have some fun, whether that’s laughing our butts off at a silly movie or playing a game with the kids or reading quietly by ourselves for a while.  We all know the things we love to do and don’t do often enough.  Do those things.

 

Be well.

Wellness Check: Nutrition 2

Anybody who knows me will not be surprised that my favorite technique for good nutrition is planning ahead, since it’s my favorite technique for almost everything.  There are some particularly good reasons to use planning for nutrition, however.

One is that hungry people make less good decisions.  If I plan my meals and have healthy choices on hand, I’m a lot less likely to choose ice cream for dinner.  (It’s a sad reality that once we become grown-ups and can have whatever we want for dinner, we also know that ice cream is not the best choice.  Even when we are stressed out.)

 

Another is that we can incorporate more variety.  When we buy a bunch of different vegetables with an actual plan for using them, it’s a lot easier to “eat the rainbow.”  We can experiment, maybe one night a week, with a new recipe or even a new cuisine.  (You know that experimenting is one of my other favorite techniques!)

 

Meal planning is not rocket science.  It’s definitely a skill, and skills can be acquired.  I’ve been doing it for a long time, so it’s easy and obvious to me, but when I started out, I sometimes planned too much food and sometimes too little.  Nobody died, I learned, and my family eats better than if I just opened the fridge every day and had to figure out what to feed them in the moment.

 

Try it and see how it works for you!