They have an event for that, right?

My son made me a sewing box in shop class a few years back.  It is beautiful, solid wood.  And it weighs about forty pounds.  (I am a pretty good estimator of stuff like that.)  My ironing board, which I stole fair and square from my mother, who stole it fair and square from her mother-in-law, is solid, sturdy, and heavy as sin.  I keep my fabric in plastic tubs on the top shelf of my office closet, which can be reached only by standing on a lower shelf, twisting around, swearing loudly (that part might be optional, but I wouldn’t know), and heaving awkwardly.

This is why I work out:  so I can be strong and agile enough to sew.

I am half joking.

I have made the point before and I will make it again, I am sure.  I never waste a good point.  Fitness is not an end in itself.  We work on fitness so we can do other things we really want to do, whether that is running through fields of flowers with our beloveds or hauling down the big mixer to make cookies with our kids.

For the record, I intend to win the Olympic event of carrying a sewing box around spiral stairs without whacking too many shins.

I get to pick up T. today, so thoughts on driving!

Because I am exceptionally lucky, I do not have to drive every day.  I might pick commuting as my least favorite part of contemporary society, except for the usual racism/sexism/agism/ablism stuff, and rudeness, I hate rudeness.  The reasons I do not like driving pretty much boil down to this:  it’s uncomfortable and it’s bad for us.  Since my Tuesday is going to be spent driving, here are my favorite tips for how to make it less horrible.

1.     Bring a tennis ball.  Or a lacrosse ball, or a fancy yoga tune-up ball.  Placed between your back and the seat, it can remove some of those tension knots and improve posture at the same time.  Under one cheek on the seat, it relieves hip and butt tension.  Please note:  there is no throwing of balls in the car.  Do not make me turn around.

2.     Bring a duck.  I’ve written about the duck before.  The duck is a curved plastic stick with a duck head shape at one end.  It hooks over your shoulder and releases the pressure points in that spot where you really love it when people rub with their thumbs.  The duck I have cost $1.50 at the Daiso store.  It is worth the investment.

3.    Sing.  This is not about the power of music, although that is also good for transforming a chore into an adventure.  It’s not even about entertaining the drivers around you with your patented arm motions.  It’s about breathing.  If you are singing, you are definitely breathing and breathing leads to All Good Things.

4.     Bring rations.  Water and snacks can turn what seems like forty years of wandering in the desert into a quick jaunt with scenery.

5.     Clean your car.  It’s the last thing we want to do when we finally arrive.  It’s no big deal to leave those wrappers there.  We might need that scarf/jacket/hat tomorrow.  Do it anyway.  Making your habitat nice makes you nicer.  Trust me.

6.    (This one is cheating.)  Only drive to good places.  If you want to go or if you want to see the people there, it will be a better drive.

Monday Workout: Burpees are Back...

We’ve had a nice long run without any burpees, but the time has come to fix that.  Sorry, everyone.  Four rounds.

1 min cardio
suitcase swings	20
ball bench press	20
lunge to curl	20
bench dips	10
burpees	10
pretty princesses	10

Friday Book Report: The Distracted Mind

The Distracted Mind by Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. Rosen is a book for our times.  We are nothing if not distracted and the authors lay out the internal and external reasons why.

Of course, laying out the problem is only part of the book.  The rest is about what to do about it.  The authors outline lots of suggestions, each with an indication of what level of scientific support it had.  Some ideas just seem like reasonable hypotheses with no good studies to back them up.  Others have what they describe as “signal” levels of evidence, but still require more research to be definitive.  Only one of their suggestions made it all the way to their highest category, “prescriptive.”  It was physical exercise.

Go forth and exercise.  It will help your brain.

What time is it?

The best workout time is the time we have.  Some of us don’t struggle much with getting up a little early to pump iron.  Others of us want to strangle those people, but sometime after noon.  Some of us leave work at the end of the day ready to crush it at the gym while others would like to commune with the couch.  And then there are the lunchtime folks, who would rather lift barbells than forkfuls of salad.  Finally, there are the people who will do it whenever their best buddy can go, too, or at the times their favorite instructors have class.

All of those times are good.  Choose the one that works best.  Working out can be hard; no reason to make it harder than necessary.

Where am I?

I will admit to being slightly obsessed with proprioception.  However, in my defense, I’m seeing a lot of places lately where improved proprioception would have helped prevent injury or can help with rehabilitation.  If we don’t know where we are in space, how can we have a sense of whether we are properly aligned?  Or safe?

Think about, for example, that drunk test.  Arms out to the sides, eyes closed, can we touch our nose?  If not, we don’t know where we are in space.  We are not safe to drive.  That’s an extreme example, of course.  But consider a person with a knee problem.  Without a sense of where the knee is in space, that person can’t align the knee over the ankle, putting the knee at risk when stepping off curbs.

A lot of low back pain comes from poor posture.  Much of poor posture comes from lack of awareness—we just aren’t thinking about where we are and everything slumps.  Getting everything back in line and updating our sense of what is correct and normal can help.

Let’s tune in a little more.

Cardio outside is bonus points

Need some motivation to get in your cardio?  Here are five good reasons to do it!

1.     Burn calories.  Cardio does not mean that we can go out and eat all the cookies, but it does mean that we are burning off our healthy breakfasts.  Using up calories is an important component of both weight loss and weight maintenance.

2.     Improve metabolism.  Interval work while doing cardio ramps up our metabolisms so that we burn more calories all day long.  Who doesn’t want to burn more calories even while slumped in front of the television?

3.    Torch stress.  Cardio improves our moods and gets us out of our funks.

4.     Focus.  When we need to concentrate on an important project, we can improve our performance by getting our hearts pumping first.  (More on this on Friday, when I post my book report for the week.)

5.     Fun.  There are so many kinds of cardio that I’m sure we can all find at least one that amuses us.  (Yes, sex counts, if you aren’t just lying there thinking of England.)  Maybe, in a gym context, that means zumba or a HIIT class or treadmill intervals with our favorite disco tunes.  Whatever it is, let’s find it!

Go!