Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Get in Line!



One of the things that I love about Pilates is that it helps us focus in on our alignment.  Alignment, along with core control, is key to maintaining balance and avoiding pain, which are both Good Things.

Some questions to ask ourselves to encourage alignment:

What are my shoulders doing right now?
Where is my pelvis?  Is it tilted forward or back?  Is one side higher than the other?  More forward?
What about my head?  Am I looking up or down?  Do I always tilt it one way or the other?


First we notice, then we correct.

Monday, July 31, 2017

Monday Workout: Balance and Core


This week, we continue to work on balance and core strength, especially oblique and back.  Four rounds.


1 min cardio



lunges
20
woodchoppers
20
1 leg squats
10/side
rows
20
YTA
10
plank

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Transcendental Fitness


Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.”  This statement is a great comfort to we humans who tend to live in the midst of paradox, but something of a disservice to those of us who seek fitness.  In a fitness context, there is not much that qualifies as foolish consistency, except perhaps insisting on a workout while injured.

What we do day in and day out builds our health or our lack of health.  One workout (sadly) will not make us fit.  We need to be regular and diligent.


What are we going to do today to be fit?

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Why train with me? Spoiler: it's not about my looks


Some people might wonder what the point of a personal trainer is, in general, and what the point of coming to work out with me in particular is, since I post a workout every week and anyone can just follow the directions.  It’s simple:  I’m that cute.

Not really.  I’m that funny.

OK, it’s not that either.

Workouts are easy to find.  You can get them from the grocery store, the library, the bookstore, the Internet, and even the dim recesses of high school memory.  Motivation and consistency are rarer.  Some people wake up motivated and do everything on their to-do lists.  Those people probably also floss their teeth and wax their kitchen floors.  I don’t know any of them.  When we have an appointment with a trainer, we have made a commitment of time and money.  That trainer is going to stand there looking at us the whole time; we might as well get on with the work.

Then there is the personal part of the personal training.  Yes, I do post a workout every week.  Most of my clients do that workout, more or less.  But sometimes someone has a tweaked knee, or an irritated rotator cuff.  Some people need and want to work with heavier weights, while others need to build endurance.  My job is to take the workout we have planned and alter it to fit the human being who walks through my door with a particular energy level, health status, and stress condition.


Doing the workout I write every week is good.  Doing it with me is better!

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

How to Use Rewards


I wrote a list of rewards last week (remember?).  That kind of list can come in handy when it’s time to make a deal with ourselves.

When we do it formally, the Almighty They call it Contingency Contracting.  We can write down an actual statement.  For example, “If I complete two weight workouts this week, I get to have a pedicure.”

If we need extra formality, we can give the contract to someone else as our enforcement arm.  Posting the contract on the fridge or bathroom mirror serves pretty much the same purpose.

On an informal level, this works out much like the self-talk we use to push ourselves through tough stuff:  “When I finish this bike ride, I’m going to soak in the bathtub as long as I want!”


One note:  be careful about things like “Will run for chocolate.”

Monday, July 24, 2017

Monday Workout: Three rounds


Nothing super fancy this week.  Three rounds.  Get tired!


suitcase swings
30
squats
20
pushups
10


kb swings
30
kb twists
20
overyets or 8s
10


plyojacks
30
lunges
20
pretty princesses
10

Friday, July 21, 2017

Friday No-Book Report


What?  No book this week?  Sometimes weeks don't go the way we want them to.  Sometimes stuff gets in the way of our goals.  Occasionally, that is all right.  By next week, I should have read something to write about!