It’s time for a periodic reminder: drink water!
Dehydrated people are crabby people. Dehydration also contributes to injury. None of our body processes run as well when we are dehydrated. Plus we eat less when we’re properly hydrated.
Need another reason? We get to stand up more often because we need to use the bathroom when we’re drinking enough.
Do it.
We made it to the end of another month! Gold star for us!
This is a good time to pause and take a look at how things have been going. Are we getting the results we want from our workouts? How are we feeling? Are we stronger? More flexible? Or, conversely, have we been focusing too much on opening the fridge door?
If things are going great, great! We can pat ourselves on the back and carry on.
If not so great, also great! We have data! We know what isn’t working. That means we can figure out the next batch of things to try.
What do you want from the next months? Anything I can do to help?
Sometimes the person we are when we plan our workouts is not the person we are when it comes time to do the workouts. This can happen for any number of reasons (alien invasion, cranky baby, sore hammies…). Why it happens is not that important. Having a backup plan is, however, helpful.
I was recently reading a habit blog that suggested making a list of things that make us feel good for those times when we need to be reminded of how to feel good. I am shamelessly stealing the concept and applying it to our workouts. We need to make a list of exercises or a list of workouts that make us feel good.
In practice, this might mean that when we look at our planned workout, see that there are burpees, and think we might die right then, we choose, instead, to substitute an exercise we like for the burpees, like maybe flies. Another way this could work is that we could look at our planned weight workout, recognize that we’re sore already, and choose some restorative Pilates instead. We can all adapt. We just have to remember to plan for it!
Go play.
We all overdo ourselves from time to time. Maybe we were on vacation and we were hiking and it turned out to be more strenuous than we expected. Maybe we were trying to impress that cute person in the gym and we lifted more than was good for us. Maybe it was just one of those days. Now everything hurts. What do we do?
First, we need to decide if we’re sore or actually injured. If we think we might have an injury, we want to seek qualified medical advice. (I am not a doctor, a physical therapist, or anything like it, so I do not diagnose or prescribe treatment; get real help when needed!)
If we’re just really darn sore, I can make some suggestions that might help. Pain, while useful in keeping us from doing too many dumb things, is not a fun thing to experience.
Take ibuprofen or your favorite OTC pain reliever as appropriate. This is not being wimpy. Pain relief is a good thing. We are nicer when we don’t hurt.
Use ice or heat. Ice is particularly good for anything that feels inflamed or swollen. Heat soothes when things feel tense. Bonus points for heat in the form of a soak in Epsom salts, which will add to the soothing.
Move a little. This one may sound counterintuitive. We got this way from moving too much! But a little gentle movement really will help the body heal by keeping everything from stiffening up.
Rest. Duh. We need to stop doing what made us sore until we feel better. A good night of sleep or two will also help.
Yesterday we discussed in-workout strategies for injury prevention. Today we’ll look at general lifestyle choices that help.
The first big thing to do to prevent injury is to get enough sleep. Tired people make mistakes and workout mistakes make injuries. Getting enough sleep can be a challenge in our all-hustle-all-the-time culture, but please, let’s fight the dominant paradigm enough to get our rest. It’s worth it.
Another basic choice for injury prevention is proper nutrition. When we don’t have the nutrients we need to build our bodies or to run our cellular processes, we are less resilient, more likely to get hurt, and more likely to take a long time to heal. Our bodies can only run so long on caffeine and sugar. Throw the cells a vegetable now and then, please.
Another thing we can do to help keep ourselves injury free is to reduce our overall muscle tension. The cheap way to do that is to spend quality time with a foam roller or tune-up balls. The luxurious way is to make massage a habit. The time and money we spend on relaxing are investments in our wellbeing.
So: sleep, eat, relax.
We’re going to spend a couple of days talking about injury prevention. Today we’re focusing on things to do during our workouts that help and tomorrow we’ll talk about lifestyle changes that keep us less likely to get hurt.
The first thing we want to do in our workouts to prevent injury is to warm up. I have to admit that I was a slow adopter of warm-ups. Some of that is just that I was younger then and my body was more forgiving. And, even if I wasn’t a big believer in it, it doesn’t mean that my body didn’t have to warm up; my movement naturally got better and bigger and stronger once my body warmed up by doing whatever I was going to be doing anyway. Those of us who are smarter than I used to be will want to do an intentional warm-up of at least five minutes before jumping into the main part of our workout. Gentle cardio, some stretching, and a few body weight exercises are good choices for that.
We also want to protect vulnerable body parts. What that means will vary with our bodies. Some of us will need to be extra careful about having supportive shoes. Others of us will want our ankle support or our wrist support. Obviously, the bikers among us need to wear helmets. We may also want to use some kinesiology tape to increase blood flow to particular areas.
During those workouts, we want to ensure that we spend some time working on core and balance work. Practicing balance helps us prepare for life’s little surprises. A strong core means that we can react gracefully to whatever comes along.
Proper form is crucial to injury prevention. When, say, we do our lunges without paying attention to knee alignment, we add strain to our knee ligaments. Similarly, a lack of focus on glute engagement can put pressure on our knees. We want to work with our best possible alignment from top to bottom to make our movements as efficient and safe as possible.
Finally, we want to make sure we stretch. Flexibility training gives us the appropriate range of motion to do our workouts safely.
Now go play.
A lot of us have back pain and tight shoulders and hips that creak and stiff legs. One possible culprit? Too much sitting.
Those of us who commute don’t have too much choice. We’re stuck in that car for as long as we have to be. Then, when we arrive, we’re often stuck at our desks. We get home and we plop on the couch for yet more sitting.
We may not be able to fix all of that, but there are a few things we can do. Desks that adjust to allow us to stand or sit are really useful. Failing that, we can choose to walk over to talk to our coworkers rather than call them or message them. We can make sure we drink plenty of water—standing up and taking a bathroom break is a guaranteed way to keep us from sitting for too long at a stretch.
Our lives are designed to keep us sitting a lot. We have to tweak that design where we can to allow our bodies to move like they prefer to do!
Our moms probably just wanted some space when they told us to go outside and play. Kid noise isn’t as intense when it isn’t bouncing off the walls. But even if that was the whole reason, our moms were on to something.
Today, I’m everybody’s mom: go outside and play.
We human animals need natural light. It helps us sleep better and have more energy while we’re awake. We need fresh air. We need movement.
For bonus points, we can find some nature to hang out in. We were not designed for concrete living. A glimpse of sky and some trees or flowers will do us a world of good.
If you need a “scientific” reason, it’s about the Vitamin D, which we get from the sun.
I used to think I had a problem with time management. I was wrong. I had trouble with energy management. I’d get to the time I’d set aside for whatever it is I wanted to do and I just couldn’t find the oomph to do it. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person who has had this problem. But now I have some tools for energy management!
The big one is regular cardio exercise. It’s a little counterintuitive that doing more will give us more energy, but it works. Bodies are made to move. Pretty much all our systems work better if we get sweaty on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount, either. A brisk, 30-minute walk can do the trick. (And it can even be two 15-minute walks, for those who like smaller doses!)
We get a bigger energy boost from higher-intensity exercise. Amping up that walk with some speed intervals or hills will bring us even more benefits.
There is, however, a limit. Too much exercise is as problematic as too little. If we find ourselves sore for more than a few days or if we find that we’re having trouble sleeping, it’s time to rethink how much we’re doing.
Aim for the sweet spot!
When it comes to change, a lot of us struggle. We look at where we are and where we want to be and the distance just seems too big. There are so many things we ought to be doing and it’s all so overwhelming. I get it. So here’s my suggestion: do one stupidly easy small change.
Let me break that down.
We’re going to choose ONE thing. Not one thing and seven super-secret bonus things. Not two things, because really, we’re the overachieving type and if we’re supposed to do one, we can certainly do two. One. Choosing one means that we’re living in a binary experiment. We either do the thing or we don’t do it. There’s not a ton of wiggle room.
We’re going to make it stupidly easy. We’re working a Jedi mind trick on ourselves here, showing ourselves that we can, in fact, change. It’s a proof of concept thing. If we can make this one small, easy change, we’re learning that we have efficacy, that we can make a difference. And, as we all know, that thousand-mile journey starts with one step. So this first change is going to be as easy as possible. This is not the time to say we’re going to work out for an hour every day when we don’t even know where our workout clothes are anymore. This is where we decide to walk for five minutes. Other examples might be not pushing snooze in the morning or cutting the sugar in our coffee in half or eating a vegetable every day.
We’re going to make it small. Again, no marathons here. No pantry-clear-out-diet-makeovers. Just one small shift. Five minutes of weights. A hard limit of one episode of TV at night. An apple.
When we make one stupidly easy small change and we stick to it for a month or so, we learn that we can learn. Then the change is our new normal and we can shift something else.
If we get carried away with enthusiasm and fail spectacularly, we can always return to one stupidly easy small change.
We can do this.
Sometimes the best way to get out of our own way in fitness is to do something we like that we are not good at.
Counterintuitive, right? I’m supposed to be telling everyone to excel or something. Actually, I’m not. I’m here to promote health. And sometimes health is about playing.
Playing doesn’t have a goal in mind. When we play, we do whatever it is we are doing for the joy of doing it. It doesn’t mean we don’t play hard, but we’re not attached to some outcome beyond the present enjoyment.
Take me and swimming, for example. I am not a great swimmer. I’m unlikely to drown, but that’s about all that can be said about my abilities. But I love swimming. I love being in the water and the feel of my body moving through it. Because I love it, I’ll do it and have a good time even if objectively I’m doing a poor job of it. My body gets to work and I get to let go of all the judgments that I might put on myself about my performance (other people who want to judge my performance can go pound sand; I’m too old for that crap.).
Of course I’ll get better at swimming over time, but I’m not thinking about improvement. I’m just enjoying what I’m doing.
Go play.
Some folks are not going to like this one. I’m okay with that. Competition is not our friend when it comes to fitness.
Sure, there are people who are motivated by contests. Who can lose the most weight? Who can win the gym’s bingo game by going to the most different classes? I’m not trying to ruin anybody’s day or take away their joy or whatever.
Here’s the thing: competition requires someone to lose. In fitness, the goal is for everyone to win. Further, because we’re all starting from different place, my win may not look anything like someone else’s win. The comparisons are useless and/or unfair.
It’s hard to do, but here’s what we’re aiming for: doing our best on a daily basis. We do this not by looking at what anyone else is doing. We also don’t need to look at what we did yesterday or what we think we should be able to do today. We just need to show up, be present, and work hard.
Go play.
Yesterday I talked a little about spring cleaning. Today I’m going to add some stuff we might want to pitch:
Perfectionism. The best workout is the one we actually do. Doing something is always better than doing nothing.
Negativity. It doesn’t help to focus on what we can’t do, on what is going wrong, and the like. Let that stuff go.
Other people’s opinions. Our fitness is our business. We need to work out in the ways that feel best to us. Anyone who wants to criticize our current fitness level, our choice in clothing, or our dance styles can just get lost.
Punishment. Workouts are not punitive. We don’t have to do them because we ate cake. We don’t do them to become worthy of something. We are worthy. We work out because we are valuable humans who deserve to be healthy and happy.
Go play.
We’re getting to real spring now, which means it’s time for… spring cleaning!
In the fitness sense, this means we get to stop and take a look at what we’ve been doing and see what needs to shift. Bodies like change because change promotes growth. Here are some questions we might want to consider for our spring fitness:
Is my stuff in good order? What needs some maintenance? Does the bike chain need some lube? Are our shoes wearing out? Do we have the right kind of layers for our outside workouts? Where did we hide our bathing suit?
Am I getting the results I want from what I’m doing? Do I feel good? Do I look good? Am I meeting my fitness goals? If not, it’s definitely time to change stuff up.
What would it be fun to learn? Now that it’s less cold, maybe we want to try outside workouts. Maybe we’ve always secretly wanted to take karate. Maybe now is the time to sample a different yoga class or even to try out some other kind of cardio machine.
What would make my workouts seem fresh? Maybe we just need a cool workout shirt. Maybe we need to do our workout backward from how we usually do. Maybe we just need to bring a different gym buddy with us or change up the music.
Let me repeat: change promotes growth. Where do we want to grow this season?
One thing I want my clients to know is that I am not the boss of them. Sometimes they are glad to be reminded of this, but sometimes not. If I am not the boss, then it means that they are actually responsible for their own results.
This is not to say that I don’t have useful knowledge and expertise. I have studied and observed and tried a bunch of stuff. The thing is, I have never lived in their bodies. They are the ultimate experts on what works for them, what feels good, what makes a positive difference in their lives.
What I like best is when my clients adopt an attitude of curiosity. We can try things and see how they work. We can experiment, keep the good stuff, and tweak the less good stuff.
I’m always curious to see how things turn out!
Fitness while traveling can be a challenge. We’re out of our normal routines, we’re away from our gym or our instructor or our equipment. We may have to deal with jet lag.
This is where our adaptability comes in.
If we’re traveling for work, we can maintain some of our normal frameworks and habits. We can seek out places to stay that include some way to work out, whether that’s a hotel gym or a pool or just a neighborhood where we can walk or run.
Pleasure travel is a different animal. We’re going to relax or to experience new things or both. We want to see what there is to see, do what there is to do, and try all the fabulous foods. I find that I generally get in a lot more steps when I travel than I do at home and I do a whole lot less weight lifting, even if there is a gym in my hotel. It is absolutely all right to have vacations as vacation. I do notice, however, that as we get more fit, we tend to choose more active kinds of vacation. We’re inclined to walk through the cities we visit or we seek out the scenic hike or we decide to swim in a different ocean than our usual.
As always, we need to use our good judgment about how much we move and how much we eat. And, if we blow it and eat our way through our trip, we need to accept the consequences, return to our healthy habits, and avoid punishing ourselves.
Patience is one of those boring virtues. It’s just not sexy. No one goes, “Whoa! Look at the patience on that guy! So hot!” And yet, under whatever it is we do find sexy in that guy, I am guessing there’s a fair amount of patience.
It takes patience to put in the work to get and stay healthy. No matter how much we try, there are going to be some boring or unpleasant parts of our workouts. (Which parts those are vary from person to person. One person’s treadmill torture is another person’s happy place.) And, when we start from the couch, we’re going to need to exercise our patience along with our bodies as we wait for the results of our actions to show.
The good news is that, much like the rest of our work in fitness, the patience we build is something we can use in the rest of our lives.
We can do this.
Captain Obvious has some things to say today. She would like to remind us that things that feel good in the moment are not necessarily good to have as habits, that things that feel a lot less good in the moment might make good habits, and things that hurt are to be avoided. (It is OK to stop reading now; the rest is just unpacking this part a bit.)
So: things that feel good in the moment. Some of them, like massage, are fabulous habits to have. If I ever have more money than I know what to do with after saving the world and feeding all the hungry people and all that, I’ll be getting a massage every day. There are plenty of things in this category, like getting enough sleep and hugging people and petting puppies and hot showers. However, there are some things that feel good in the now that are not that great long term. I’m giving the side-eye to Haagen Dasz right now. While I’m eating all that sugary dairy deliciousness, I feel fabulous. Later, when my innards react to all that dairy and I’m headachy with a sugar hangover, not so much. It is all right as an occasional indulgence, but a pint a day is just too much for my health. When we’re stressed, it can be challenging to choose something that feels good and is good for us in the larger sense. It’s worth trying.
As for things that feel less good in the now, my whole career is based on those. My job is to get people to do stuff they don’t want to do for their own good. Tough workouts are tough. We may not enjoy them. We may feel sore and grumpy afterward. And yet, in the long term, those very workouts make us healthy and strong to live long and enjoyable lives.
That last category of things, the things that hurt, should be self-explanatory. Sadly, the no-pain-no-gain crowd is way too popular. It’s a Mean Girl of a motto, ready to abuse us at any time. We do not need that kind of negativity in our lives. We want our workouts to be enough work, but not so much that we actually hurt ourselves and suffer. When I was studying flexibility and stretching, the course had to emphasize again and again that pain is counterproductive to improving mobility and flexibility. No pain is a Good Thing.
Now go play.
Yesterday I wrote about horrible workouts. Today I want to remind us all that workouts don’t have to be horrible. We just need to find something we like or something we like about what we don’t like much.
It’s easiest, of course, if we happen to like workouts. It doesn’t take much convincing to get me to swim or ski or bike. I’m down to play pickleball or rollerskate or ice skate. For some of us, this means we have to spend a fair amount of time experimenting. We may not take to the first dozen things we try, or it might take a while to find the right instructor.
When we don’t love something (fun fact: I don’t actually love lifting weights), we have to find ways to make it more fun. Doing it with a buddy can help. Fun music goes a long way toward making the time go by. And never discount bribery as an option (although it might be best if the bribe was not edible, for best results.).
We can do this.
Several careers ago, I had a commute. The company I worked for bought a bunch of tapes about various business topics that we could check out. When we returned them, we were supposed to write a paper about what we learned. I don’t remember what benefit we got from the exercise besides learning stuff. I listened to a lot of them because I’m that person.
It's been about a zillion years since those days, so I can’t tell you who the particular time management guru was who taught me the concept of Worst First, but I am thankful to them all the same. It has been useful far beyond that job.
Here’s the gist. When we look at the list of things we need to accomplish, one way to help us get them done is to do the most awful one first. This avoids that procrastination thing where we spend all day doing anything we can to skip that one. Once the horrible thing is over, the rest of the day seems lighter and better, like walking downhill instead of up.
I mention this because for many of us, working out is that horrible thing. If we do it first thing in the morning, it’s done and we’re free of it and the worry about it for the whole rest of the day. Putting it off until the evening just gives us a chance to think of all the reasons why we really shouldn’t have to do it at all.
In a perfect world, working out would not be horrible. But I get it that it can be. If it is, get it over with and then get on with life!
