Monday Workout: Choice!

This week involves choices!  If you are looking for more cardio and tolerate higher impact well, choose the plyojacks, jump squats, and jump lunges.  If you need to be kind to your knees, opt for modified jacks and regular squats and lunges.  As always, modify the workout to meet YOUR needs, choosing weights that are appropriate for you and your goals.  If you are sweaty and tired at the end, you have done a Good Thing.  Three rounds.

plyojacks/jacks/mod jacks	30
flies	20
pushups	10
(jump) squats	30
bent over rows	20
skullcrushers	10
(jump) lunges	30
curls	20
Russian twist	10

Curiouser

My blog-related reading is taking a back seat to finishing my other reading goals for the year, so no book this week.  Instead, I’m thinking about the connection between curiosity and movement.

I have two tendencies (at least!) that make me want to explore this.  One is that I am almost always in a rush.  Faster is almost always better, in my idiom, in the Monty Python sense of the word.  The other is that I’m almost always self-critical.  Clearly, I am doing it wrong, whatever it is.

But I have managed to notice something.  When I am compelled to slow down, as in yoga or Pilates, the constant criticism doesn’t help.  I’m not saying I’m not bad at lots of things in yoga and Pilates.  I am.  But when I approach whatever movement or balance or pose or exercise it is with a sense of curiosity rather than censure, I learn stuff.  What exactly is happening when I fall out of my own personal Tree (pose)?  How is one side different from the other?  What happens if I shift my hip or ankle or knee?  What if I think about baseball instead?  Some of those things help.  Some not so much, but even laughing is an improvement over the constant I-suck-at-this message.

Maybe everyone else is not like me.  But maybe some people are and could use a change from high-speed negativity.  Maybe we can learn.

Second thoughts...

Wait:  isn’t that the same picture as yesterday?  Nope.  Just similar.  I liked both of them and decided to use them to illustrate that there are nuances.  Not a news flash, I’m sure.

In a fitness context, however, nuances can make a difference.  This is one reason why it is useful to work out with a trainer or friend at least every once in a while.  Someone else will see our movement from a slightly different perspective.  They will notice that when we feel like our head is on straight, we are actually tilting it a little to the left.  They will catch that little cheat we do with our hips or shoulders or whatever.

Small corrections can have big impact on increasing strength and avoiding injury.  Let’s work out together!