Monday Book Review: Spark

I stayed up later than I should have last night because I was so excited about the book I was reading.  John Ratey’s book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain unfolds all kinds of motivation to get moving.  He provides the evidence for why exercise, particularly aerobic exercise, promotes good brain health.

Specific chapters discuss particular issues, such as depression, ADHD, aging, addiction, and women’s health.

While the focus is on aerobic exercise, the book does advocate for a balanced exercise program including weight training, agility, and balance and flexibility.  The benefits accrue, according to the evidence, at fairly minimal levels, but more is better.

Speaking as a person who would prefer not to be depressed, senile, and physically impaired, I am newly motivated to move (not that it takes much…).

Go play!

Wee Willie Winkie did stairs at night...

I’m a morning person.  Once I am out of bed, off I go, full of energy, until afternoon, when it all goes downhill.  I have learned that it is best to do the most important things first off.  Some other people, not so much.  They need some time to get moving and do best waiting to tackle the important or hard stuff until later.

There have been studies showing it is best to work out in the morning, the evening, or both.  The best time to work out is when it works for you.  That might mean sleeping in your gym clothes, rolling out of bed and into the car to hit the gym before you are even entirely awake.  Maybe you need a lunch time movement break.  Maybe finally, after dinner and dishes, you can take the time to sweat.  Any workout is better than no workout.

No matter what time you choose, you will feel better for having done it!

No tire rotation, please

I’m going to the doctor today for what one of my former coworkers called my annual lube and oil filter change.  My doctor calls it a PAP smear.  As much as I like my doctor, I’m not particularly looking forward to it.  I’m doing it because it is part of being a healthy person.

Virtually every exercise advice begins with “Talk to your doctor.”  For some health conditions, it is crucial.  High blood pressure sufferers and diabetics, for example, need to understand what they can and cannot do and how to deal with various circumstances that can arise while exercising.  It is also important to get your doctor’s and your physical therapist’s input when you are coming back from an injury.

However, checking in with the doctor isn’t just about fitness plans.  It is about general wellness.  We all need routine tests, vaccines, screenings.  As our bodies change, medications may need to be added, adjusted, or eliminated.

And if you park at a distance from the office, you can get a little exercise on the way.

Grab your partner...

We don’t have to do it alone.  A friend can make us show up to work out.  Some people thrive on a little friendly competition.  Another set of eyes can help our form.  Having someone to talk to can make the miles of that walk or ride go faster.

There are a few important ground rules, though.

1.     Pick the right friend.  We know which one, the reliable one, the good influence one, the one who makes us our better selves.  I’m not trying to be judgmental here.  The point is that we want to encourage ourselves to exercise, not provide ourselves with a convenient excuse.  A subset of this rule is that if a friend has a real reason not to meet up on a particular occasion, we have to go anyway.

2.     Pick the right destination.  If all our walks end at the doughnut shop, we might have a problem.  We need to choose walks that are inherently interesting, say, along the beach, or that end at places we need to go anyway, like the bank or the store.

3.     Pick the right pace.  We want to be able to have a conversation, but one that keeps moving.  If you can burst into song, you are probably not moving fast enough, although if you start dancing along, bonus points.

Go make a date!

Likes and unlikes

We all have favorites—color, food, movie, exercise, gerbil—and unfavorites.  When it comes to fitness, we need to pay attention to both of those things.  Doing our favorite form of exercise is the easy part.  Quick, ask me if I want to ride my bike.  Duh!  Prioritizing kinds of exercise we like makes fitness fun, which is all to the good.

But those unfavorites can be useful, too.  When my kids were little, I found myself saying, a lot, “You don’t have to like it, but you do have to do it.”  In workouts, if we always work the same muscle groups, we are asking to look like, say, Popeye, with his strangely developed forearms and no other discernable muscle.  We also set up a situation for our bodies that is unbalanced.  That adds strain and tension.  It can also lead to injury.

Often we don’t like a particular exercise because we aren’t good at it.  It is okay not to be good at every single exercise.  People do not expect football players to be good at synchronized swimming or sprinters to be good wrestlers.  Let’s allow ourselves to explore, to try, and to learn.  A sense of humor also helps, especially at those times when we catch a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror or when we make an accidental loud noise.  Sometimes letting go of having to be good at something makes it feel a lot better.

Friday exercise: lateral raise

Today the ever-gorgeous Stickie is demonstrating the lateral raise.  As you might expect from the name, it involves raising dumbbells to the side.  It is a simple exercise, which means it is a great opportunity to pay attention to some form details that are often ignored.

Of course, Stickie begins with good posture.  It is hard to see in the picture, but her abdominals are drawn in and up.  Her ears are lined up over her shoulders, which are lined up over her hips, which are lined up over her ankles.  Her knees are straight but not locked.

When Stickie raises the weights, her arms float up, her wrists stay neutral, and most importantly, her shoulders stay out of her ears.  Shoulders make lousy earrings.  Also, the resulting tension in your traps can cause headaches, among other things.  One way to help keep those shoulders down is to imagine that each arm is a railroad crossing barrier and the shoulder blade on that side is the counterweight.  As the arm rises, the shoulder blade drops down toward the hips, keeping the shoulders where they are supposed to be.

The primary muscles working on this exercise are the deltoids—the ones that make your shoulders look good when you go sleeveless.  They are not big muscles, so you may find that you want to use an unexpectedly light weight.  This is perfectly wonderful because form is always better than big numbers.

Enjoy!

C is for Cookie, and Calculus, and Crunch

When I was in school, math was not my favorite subject.  As I informed my parents, nervously, “C is for Calculus…”  (They did not care.  It turns out that I was the one who cared about my grades.  That one C turned out to be useful.)  I have come to appreciate some of the coolness of math over time, but it will always remain a challenge for me:  my math gear grinds slowly.

I am not at all suggesting some sort of training program in which we have to integrate an equation while lifting heavy objects—that’s crazy talk.  Weight training is about physics more than math!  (Like the two can really be separated…)  This is about the C.

With a C grade, a person can go on to the next level.  The problem is that all that stuff that makes the difference between the C and the A is missing, making the next level harder.  We don’t get out of learning that information; we have to do it in the context of learning what builds on it.

This is extremely relevant to fitness.  We all have our macho moments in which we want to lift that personal record setting weight right now, darn it.  It will get up off the floor or the rack one way or another if we bust a gut doing it.  And we probably will.

In fitness, we need to get an A in form at each step in order to progress safely to the next one.  Not only does this help prevent injury, but it gives authenticity to each success.  No one really wants to brag, “I can bench press x zillion pounds with crappy form.”  Or, “Yeah, I got the y million pounds unracked and lifted once, but then I had to go into physical therapy for a month.”

Fitness is a class in which we all have to get 100%.