woodchoppers
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30
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ball slams
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20
|
rescues
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10
|
curtsy with ball overhead
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30
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twist lunge
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20
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ball pushups
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10
|
side slams
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30
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skullcrushers
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20
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Russian twist
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10
|
Monday, March 20, 2017
Monday Workout: Fun with Medicine Balls!
Friday, March 17, 2017
Friday Book Report: When Breath Becomes Air
Andrew Luck made me cry. I’m a little behind, so I just finished
the “veteran” selection for February for his book club, Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air. What a beautiful book!
And, despite the fact that it
made me cry and the fact that it’s about a guy dying of cancer, the book is not
depressing, not at a deep level, because it is about someone who gets it,
someone who figures out how to live life before it’s over.
We don’t get to control the
quantity of our days. Let’s make
the most of the quality.
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Planning and unplanning
Of course I plan workouts. That’s what I do. I’m a professional, after all. But I don’t always stick to the plan.
Sometimes stuff happens. We eat something that keeps us up in
the night. We twist an ankle
unloading the groceries. We have
cramps, or allergies, or goosebumps.
We have to listen to our
bodies. Sometimes they don’t want
to lift heavy, but they are happy to run around outside. Other times, weights gladden our hearts
and muscles.
One of the messages we ignore
most often is the one about stretching.
Our bodies like it. We feel
like we can’t spare the time, and how useful can it be to do something that,
you know, feels good?
Listen. It’s how we learn.
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
It's kind of about fitness, if you squint a little, or if you run away from the comb fast enough
As a kid, I was a pretty serious
Goody Two-Shoes. I believed in
following the rules and doing my homework and not leafing through the Candyland
cards to find the one that got you to the end quickest. It worked. I am a reasonably successful adult with a sense of
responsibility.
I did, however, once steal a fire
engine, according to my mother. I
was maybe two or three, so I don’t actually remember the crime in
question. A kid in our neighborhood
had one, the kind you could sit in and pedal. The lust in my heart apparently led me to pedal it home and
tantrum because I eventually had to give it back. The punishment for this crime? I got my own fire engine.
A few years later, there was a
new chapter in the epic battle between my mom and me over my hair. We were running late for school. I hate to be late (see previous
declaration about Goody Two-Shoes, who is clearly always prompt.). I explained to my mother that I could
in fact go to school without combing my hair, but I could not go without
putting on my shoes. This logic
did not cut it with my mom. Then
again, she would go out naked before she would go out without lipstick, so I
expect she reasons from different premises. (I eventually learned to go to school both with combed hair
and shoes.) Discovering the
difference between actual rules and preferences or norms can be a painful
process, particularly if there are tangles involved.
The point is that rules are
useful, but breaking the rules can also be useful. We cannot be rigid and still grow. What rules are keeping us from blooming? Are they really rules? What are we so passionate about that we
are willing to make off with it from the neighbor’s driveway? How can we get our own?
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Wishing...
When I work with clients, the
most important questions I ask are about what they want. We grow toward what we practice, so it
is important to choose practices that are in line with what we wish.
When those things aren’t aligned,
we are as likely to get what we want by blowing dandelion seeds to the wind.
Monday, March 13, 2017
Monday Workout: More core for stability
I think this week’s workout
continues our theme of stability through core strength! Four rounds!
1 min cardio
|
|
|
|
jump lunges
|
20
|
flying tricep kickbacks
|
20
|
squats
|
20
|
plank straddle jump & pushup
|
10
|
mountain climbers
|
20
|
Russian twist
|
20
|
femur arcs
|
10
|
Friday, March 10, 2017
Friday Book Report: The Nichomachean Ethics
So maybe Aristotle doesn’t make
everyone’s list of top fitness writers.
I put The Nichomachean Ethics
on my to-read list because it was cited in one of the books about resilience
that I read; knowing what is right helps us survive.
It turns out that Aristotle wrote
a pretty good justification for personal training: “Moreover, individual tuition, like individual treatment in
medicine, is actually superior to the public sort. For example, as a general rule rest and fasting are beneficial
in a case of fever, but not, perhaps, for a particular patient; and presumably a
boxing instructor does not make all his pupils adopt the same manner of
fighting…” (Book X, ix).
I’m not sure that we need yet
another Dead White Male telling us what is right, but the exercise of thinking
is always useful. We need to use
our brains as well as our bodies to be healthy.
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