The weight of years...

I went to visit my parents over the weekend to help them pack some things in advance of moving.  It was thought-provoking.

My parents are both in their seventies and reasonably healthy.  They are dealing with some age-related issues in their knees and backs.  They are not as strong as they used to be.  They do not have the same stamina.  Like many of us, they could lose a few pounds and make better food choices.  They are living out the results of their life choices; some are good, some less so.  They count their blessings, and I count them as blessings.

Sometimes it is easier to see in other people what we need to see in ourselves.  I want to be a healthy and strong septuagenarian.  That means I need to work now to be healthy and active because I will never be younger!

The other provoked thought was about stuff.  They have a lot of it, like all of us.  I packed things that they hadn’t used in a long time and may never use.  They are carrying a lot of extra pounds.  A few of them got shed while I was there and maybe more will get lost before the move is over.  Moving the extra pounds around, putting them in boxes, was hard on their bodies. 

Let’s lighten up.

Even though it is pi(e) day...

Rewards work.  Sometimes.

When we want to build a habit or achieve a fitness goal, it can help to promise ourselves a treat for our accomplishment.  However, there are a couple of risks to the technique.

For instance, if we choose a reward that isn’t that compelling, we can decide, moment to moment, that it isn’t worth it.  Maybe, in a general way, we want a new gizmo or outfit or thingie, but not enough to motivate ourselves not to eat the cake or to do more pushups or to spend the extra ten minutes of cardio.  That can be useful information, of course, but it doesn’t get us closer to our goal.

Alternatively, we can choose something small that we do want, like maybe a car wash or a pedicure (two of my favorite fairly inexpensive, inedible indulgences).  Then, when we screw up, we think we don’t deserve any of those things ever.  That, in some cases, can throw us into the whirlwind of self-doubt, self-hatred, and even self-punishment.  Not helpful.

In order to make rewards work for us, we need to choose carefully.  With a big goal, giving ourselves incremental rewards can help us feel special and empowered along the way.  If, say, we get some new workout clothes halfway to our goal, we might make better, faster progress toward the ultimate goal and the big reward, which might be something like a weekend away, or a better bike, or a fancy makeover.

Just watch out for the ice cream rewards.

Friday Exercise: Reverse Flies

Last week, Stickie had so much fun doing flies that she decided to do reverse flies this week.  This balances the work she did on the front side of her body by giving the back muscles a turn.

The starting position is lying face down on a bench.  Most people prefer to have their heads sticking out over the end of the bench, and many women may find that putting the end of the bench just at the bra line is more comfortable.  Stickie has a dumbbell in each hand.  This exercise is challenging enough that she uses much smaller weights than she does for flies; do not feel bad if you need to use what seems like a silly light weight.

Keeping her arms in a slightly curved shape, Stickie lifts the weights out to her sides.  It looks like she is flapping her wings.  She thinks about drawing her shoulder blades toward the center of her back.  While it is tempting to bend her elbows more as she lifts the weights as if she were doing a row, she resists because she knows this is cheating.  Three sets of 10-12 reps is sufficient.

Thursday Book Report: We Have the Technology

So We Have the Technology by Kara Platoni is not really about fitness.  Don’t tell anyone, but it is perhaps more of a philosophy book than a technology book.  Why am I writing about it?  (Besides that I finished it and needed to write a post, of course…)  Well, because the book is about human perception and how technology is changing it.

The chapters on each of our senses trace out the biologic mechanisms as far as we know them.  They explore prosthetics and investigate our innate filtering and sorting systems.  Underlying that whole discussion is our whole definition of “normal” functioning.

Other issues that arise include who is creating the technology, who controls it, and how much is too much.  A fitness example cites my beloved Fitbit.  I choose to wear it and track various things.  But what if my company (not MY company, but my company if I worked for someone else) asked me to wear one and track my data for health premium calculations?  What if my Fitbit evolved to track other things, like my medications or my cholesterol level?

Then there are the people who are trying to add superpowers.  Who doesn’t want superpowers?  But maybe not magnets implanted in our hands, or a camera installed in our eye sockets.  Issues abound.

When I was done reading, I was not particularly freaked out.  Technology has always changed the world and culture has evolved to deal with it.  What I did think was that each of us might want to think about what and how we perceive things, about why we want various perceptions, and about how that might influence all of our decisions, including our fitness choices.

Spinal Tap approves this message

I like the number 10.  It is nice and round in the zero part and pleasantly upright in the 1 part.  Also, it does not exceed my number of fingers for counting.

However, ten can be so comfortable that I get stuck there.  Ten squats, ten pushups, no problem. 

Sometimes we need to go to 11 or 19.  Sometimes we need to choose a weight that makes 7 the most we can complete.

Let’s pick a new lucky number today.

I was just thinking...

What do we think about when we exercise?

“Ow, ow, ow!”

“I wonder if I remembered to send that email…”

“How will Perry Mason get his client out of it this time?”

“Only 29 minutes and 50 seconds to go…”

None of those are bad thoughts.  It is not that there is some magic batch of thoughts that are supposed to fill our heads while we are working out.  I would simply like to suggest a couple more kinds to add to the mix.

“What are my abs doing right now?”

“What happens if I do the movement more slowly?  More quickly?”

“Are my shoulders level?”

“Am I staring at my feet?”

Checking in with our bodies to see what and how they are doing every once in a while can help us maintain good form.  That good form will eventually translate into less  “Ow!” and more “I did it!”

Shiny happy people holding weights...

Sometimes reading about fitness can make us crazy.  Well, me, anyway.  Exercise articles tend toward a couple of themes:  back to the basics or new revolutionary technique, all of them equipped with enough exclamation points to weigh down all but the strongest stick figures.  What is a body to do?

Shockingly, the answer is:  both.  Some basic exercises are crucial.  Squats, lunges, pushups or bench presses, and rows make my list.  We need to do some kind of cardio and everyone has a favorite basic, whether it is walking, running, biking, swimming, or the like.

However, doing the same routines over and over again forever does not serve us.  Personally, my brain gets bored before my body does, but the boredom is a real problem, whichever kind comes first.  Our bodies learn what we do; we grow from new movement patterns.

Yes:  do the squats and run the miles.  But also, every once in a while, do a heavy weight workout, a Tabata routine, or a jump rope session.  Happy bodies are engaged bodies.