Monday, March 5, 2018

Monday Workout: Plyo-huh?



There are a couple of ways to make an exercise more intense.  One way is to make them plyometric, which is a fancy word for adding jumping.  This week our plain-old squats and lunges go plyometric to increase power and ramp up the cardio.  Three rounds.

lunge jumps
30
incline press
20
YTA
10


squat jumps
30
1 leg deadlifts
20
dips
10


kb swings
30
kb twists
20
kb 8s
10

Friday, March 2, 2018

Not a Book Report and Not the Last Flower Picture I Will Use



(I did not finish a book this week, so this is a post about mind-body stuff.  “Stuff” is a technical term, of course.)

Because I am having surgery on Monday, I filled out an advanced health care directive and got it notarized this week.  Which means I’ve been thinking about life and death.  Cheerful, eh?

I am going to die, but probably not on Monday.  We all are.  That means that at some point, we will do things for the last time.  Sometimes we know when the last time is and sometimes we don’t.  When I visited my parents recently, my dad gave me his baseball mitt.  He has played catch with it for the last time.  I doubt he knew that when he was doing it, but he knows now.

We create rituals for this.  That’s what graduations and weddings are for.  Even birthday parties serve to mark the last time we were a certain age and the first time we were the next age.  They help us notice.

Mindfulness helps us notice more often.  Being fully in the moment, whether we are biking or swimming, can give us a deeper sense of what we are doing.  Then, when we have biked or backstroked for the last time, we can remember how our muscles felt, how our emotions soared, how glad we were to get to the top of the hill or the edge of the pool.

That might make the last-ness a little less final.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Mary Poppins, Practically Perfect in Every Way, Approves of This Post



I have forgotten which of the many books on food I have read first pointed out to me that the general trend of food policy and advertising boils down to Eat More.  More is better, right?  We want more space, more time, more fun.  We want to be more fit, more attractive, and more special.

Trouble is, we tend to end up more stressed, more stuffed, and more tired.

I am not going to advocate more vegetables, more fiber, more meditation, or even more exercise to attack this problem.

To be “more better,” I think we need to focus on the right amount.  We need to bring attention to the moment.  Let me un-hippie-fy that with an example or two.  Say we’re having dinner and the conversation is great and the food is tasty and maybe we’re even enjoying a glass of wine.  Allowing some part of our brain to pay attention to the sensations in our bodies will keep us from shoveling in another ten bites after we are full.  Similarly, when we’re working out, we can notice the point at which we can’t do another bench press without compromising form and we can end the set (even if we’ve done eight reps!  Ten is not magic!) knowing we have worked our muscles the right amount.

Both of those examples are instant.  The principle also works over time.  When we notice how we feel the next morning after a glass or more of wine with dinner, we can figure out the right amount for next time.  When we are sore for an entire week after a workout, we can know that it’s time to dial it down a little (or if there is no soreness at all, dial it up!).

More is not always better.  Let’s be optimal!