Reward: Wanted

I believe in treats.  They are so much more motivational than punishments.  When we do things for treats, not only do we accomplish what we need to get done, but we also get rewarded.

Here’s the thing:  we have to choose the right treats.

There is an art to this.  Unless I mean there is a math to this.  I get those things confused.  Let me clarify by using an example.  Let’s say I want to exercise more often.  I decide that I will motivate myself to exercise by giving myself a treat.  If I choose staying up all night playing pinochle as my reward, I may find that the next day I am too tired to exercise.  My treat may have been fun, but didn’t advance my overall plan to exercise more often.  (Also, I have no idea how to play pinochle, so my brain would probably hurt.  And doesn’t it involve worms?  Or is that just the song?)

I have to choose something as a treat that will not get in the way of the larger goal.  This may mean choosing smaller treats (one cookie, not ten), different treats (hot bath), or better proportioned ones (pinochle party that ends at 10, not 2).

Within those parameters, the treat should be as awesome as possible:  that had better be one life-changing cookie, bubbly bath, or hilarious party.  Make the treat worth it!

Naked Lady (That's the name of the flower...)

Most of us need to drink more.  No, not that kind.  Water.

It is hard to pick up a magazine without seeing an article about “detoxing.”  There is no diet that will pull toxins out of our bodies.  That is why we have livers; livers do that.

Digression:  we can put fewer toxins into our bodies in the first place by choosing organic, whole, health-inducing foods, but that is not the same thing.  End of digression.

Our livers do appreciate a little help with the process.  This is where the water comes in.  Hydration is essential to our bodily processes.  Without water, we become crabby, headachy, and slow.  Our brains don’t work as well and our bodies quit on us.

Drink up.

Not the candy

Sometimes stretching seems like the runt of the litter.  He or she gets shoved aside by the bigger, cuter puppies that seize our attention with their active bodies and insistent wiggling.

Feed the runt.  Take care of him or her.  That dog will save you later.

Tight muscles eventually fail.  They inhibit range of motion, causing problems with form.  Form issues produce injury.  Let’s not go there.

Warm up a little before you stretch, or use dynamic (moving) stretches as you warm up.  Stretch between weight lifting sets or during cardio recovery periods.  Stretch at the end.  This is just basic care and feeding for our little runt.

If you take your puppy to Pilates or yoga, it’s like a trip to the stretching dog park.  Not only does the puppy get lots of play time, he or she also gets to play with others and strengthen social bonds.

Runts can grow up to be healthy, happy dogs.

Friday Exercise: Over Yets

Stickie enjoys working with kettle bells.  There may be another name for this exercise, but she likes to call it Over Yets (as in “Are they over yet?”).

She begins with a kettle bell in one hand, raised over her head.  The kettle bell will stay in this position throughout the exercise.  Stickie bends her knees, keeping her torso upright, placing one knee and then the other on the floor.  (She uses a squishy mat or towel for padding if necessary.)  Then she stands back up straight, coming through the position that could be described as “will you marry me?”

This is a challenging exercise and has to be done on both sides, so five repetitions per side is a good place to start.  A couple of sets is usually plenty.

Thursday Book Report: Resilience

Bad things happen.  How we choose to cope with those bad things is the subject of Steven Southwick’s and Dennis Charney’s book Resilience:  The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges.  The authors reviewed existing studies on the topic, conducted their own research, and interviewed highly resilient people, including former Vietnam POWs, Special Forces instructors, and regular people who overcame many different kinds of horrible circumstances.

Ten resilience factors emerged from their research:  optimism, facing fear, having a moral compass, religion and/or spirituality, social support, role models, physical training, brain fitness, cognitive and emotional flexibility, and a sense of meaning.  They explore each factor in a separate chapter while recognizing that all the factors are interrelated and often build on each other.

Resilience, they argue, is a skill that can be learned.  They outline specific actions that we can take to increase our resilience.  Even better, we can start anywhere; an increase in skill in any of the ten areas will help us with resilience in general and will give us leverage in learning the other skills.

The fitness takeaway message here is that not only do we get more fit when we engage in physical training, we improve our ability to deal with whatever life chooses to deal out to us.  Fitness is a survival skill.

Being Core-teous

Core strength underlies everything we do.  Without it, our cardio work and our other strength work comes to very little.  We need it to stand, to balance, to control our movements, and to protect us.

We all know about crunches (I hope).  Here are a few other exercises to try when you are bored with them:

Pushups and Pullups

Planks, Straight and Side

Woodchoppers

Medicine ball overhead slams and oblique slams

Quadruped/Bird Dog

Kettle Bell Twists

Straight Leg Lowers

Femur Arcs

Anything with the TRX

Strong is beautiful

Some people gravitate more naturally toward weight training than others.  Those who instinctively enjoy moving heavy objects need no convincing that it is a good idea.  For everyone else, here are some good reasons to do it:

1.     Bone health.  Weight training builds bones as well as muscles, reducing the risk of fracture as we age.

2.     Increased metabolism.  Our muscles are more demanding than our fatty tissues, burning more calories and making weight loss or weight maintenance easier.

3.    Strength.  This one is obvious, but maybe not as obvious as it first seems.  Yes, lifting heavy objects makes it easier to lift more heavy objects.  It also makes it easier to shift furniture, play with kids, and use crutches if necessary.

4.     Vanity.  Muscles that are used look prettier than muscles that watch TV all day. 

5.     Challenge.  There is nothing like meeting a challenge to build self-esteem.  When we crank out a new personal record, we earn a new sense of our own awesomeness.