Monday Work Out: The whole thing!

This week, we are working the whole body.  Notice how much we involve our abdominals when we do compound exercises like lunge to curl, ball slams, and deadlifts.  We also use them to do brains, of course.  If we want to make sure to use them on the bench press and flies, we can do those exercises on the ball instead of the bench.  Keep in mind that when we add instability like that, we may want to choose slightly lighter weights.  Four rounds.

1 min cardio
lunge to curl	20
ball slams	20
bench press	20
deadlift	20
flies	20
brains	10

Friday Book Report: Clean House!

My older son, after the usual extreme messy phase around middle school, became a very tidy human being.  When he moved out, he left behind Alison Haynes’s book Clean House!.  I hope this was not a commentary on my personal housekeeping skills.

The book could be a useful gift for a kid moving out on his or her own who did not have regular chores, or even as a reference for a kid who did.  It covers the basics of household management in a readable style with many handy charts.  Better, it does all of this from a more ecologically sound perspective than some of us may have learned growing up.  There are even recipes for non-toxic cleaners of all sorts.

Our environment can make us healthier or it can make us sicker.  We can choose.  This book could be the tool some of us might need.

Breathing

I believe in multi-tasking.  I’m a parent; it’s a survival thing.  That said, there are limits to its usefulness.

Lately I have been focusing on yoga and swimming as my exercises of choice.  “Choice” in this context, as Lemony Snicket would say, means “It has been pointed out to me that continuing to bike and lift weights with my current physical situation is harmful, so it would be a good idea to do something else.”  Not that I don’t like yoga and swimming.  I love both.  I am also not particularly good at either one.

What happens, as a result, is that I have to focus.  There is no music in swimming, just the rhythm of breathing and splashing.  My brain quiets, eventually, when all there is to do is count the lengths of the pool.  In yoga, the whole point is to connect the mind to the body, to use each to enrich the other.

It’s simple, but it’s profound.  Where else can we find that deep and basic space?