Monday Workout: Core in Motion!

This week we are working core via burpees, renegade rows, and pretty princesses.  If we do our skullcrushers standing, we will also be using abdominals to avoid excessive arching in the lower back.  Four rounds!

1 min cardio
squats or bosu squats	20
bench press	20
burpees	10
deadlifts	20
renegade rows	10
skullcrushers	10
pretty princesses	10

Dagnabbit, I am OLD...

Today is my birthday.  I am grateful for all these years piling up on me.  Maybe we can all be grateful together, just for today, for what our bodies can do:

Thanks, feet, for carrying me around, even though I have abused you with uncomfortable shoes from time to time.

Thanks, knees, for holding the fort when other joints have failed.

Thanks, hips, for containing those babies who have suddenly turned into adults.

Thanks, spine, for holding me up, down, and sideways as needed.

Thanks, arms, for carrying all that stuff.

Thanks, skull, for keeping my brain safe despite my best efforts.

And thanks, heart, for keeping the beat and for filling with love (anatomically and metaphorically, respectively).

Just a little bit more... in focus...

Focus is important for a lot of reasons, but there is one in particular that I have on my mind: the MYOB principle.  Minding our own business is, in many ways, countercultural.  We live in a competitive soup that will boil us alive if we let it.  School, sport, work… all of them tend to focus on rankings and wins.

But when the time comes to work out, we need to let that go, especially in a class environment.  We have to tune in to our own bodies and see only our own performance or we risk injury.  That guy in the front row might be freakishly flexible and trying to emulate him will do nothing more than win us a trip to the couch with ice.  That woman with the enormous weights?  She’s been working up to that for years and we need to remember that we’ve only come to class twice so far.

We need to do our workout, paying attention to what we are doing, how it feels, and how to make it better.