Not all the time...

With the exception of professional athletes, most of us do not spend the bulk of our time exercising.  We have to do things like work and sleep and drive and read to the kids or ourselves and cook dinner and call our moms.  It is useful to remember this and plan accordingly.

One implication of our limited exercise time is that we need to be efficient.  This is where circuit training, interval work, and schedule balance help.  We want the most metabolic bang for our minute/buck (time is money, right?).

Another is that we need to think about how the other stuff we do interacts with our fitness plans.  Figuring out how to get enough sleep can make all the difference to what happens at our workouts.  Ditto for proper nutrition.  Sorting out a method for sneaking stretching into the odd moments of the day or somehow squeezing out time for a massage or at least some rolling can get stuck stuff moving better when we can lift/run/dance/bike/swim.

We are creative and we can harness that ability to improve what we do and how we feel while doing it!

One thing

When we first start something new, there is almost always too much information to process at once.  All of a sudden, we seem to have acquired extra body parts, each with a mind of its own.  While we are thinking about what the left knee is doing, somehow our elbow ends up wrapped around the back of our head, or the right knee feels that it is time to go on vacation, or we clench our teeth so hard that we have bite marks on our scalp.

There is only one thing we absolutely have to do:  keep breathing.

After we ensure that is happening, we can focus on one or two other things until we can do those on autopilot.  Maybe we want to concentrate on balance, so we think about abdominals and center of gravity.  Maybe we’re rehabbing a knee, so we stay tuned in to how it is aligning with our hips and ankles.  As we improve, we can turn our attention to whatever seems most important next.

Trying to do everything at once mostly produces frustration.  Let’s be patient and thorough and smart about all this.

Monday Workout: Ropes!

While it is not necessary to have lots of toys to have an interesting workout, we might as well use them when we have them!  This week we’re playing with the battle rope, which combines a bunch of core work, an endurance (small) squat, aerobic challenge, and arm strength all at once!  Three rounds…

rope double slams	30
ball bench press	20
dips	10
rope alternating slams	30
ball flies	20
pushups	10
rope circles	30
deadlifts	20
plank/side plank