And bring some water...

Go outside and play.

No, I’m not your mom (unless T. and Syd are reading this…), but it’s still a good idea.

I love the gym.  I love weights and cardio machines and classes and handy showers and often I even love the cheesy music.  But.

Outside is better.  The view from the treadmill doesn’t change much, but a walk or run out in the world can change our perspective.

It can also be a reality check.  No matter how much we vary the intensity or incline or speed on a cardio machine, it’s not the same as tackling real hills or dealing with different surfaces.  We don’t work out to get better at working out.  We do it to get better at the stuff we actually want to do.

So get out.  Feel the sun and the breeze.  Breathe a while.

In which I disagree, slightly, with the Grateful Dead, in some contexts

Enthusiasm can get us into trouble.  In general, I am in favor of having lots of it.  It’s inspiring.  It helps us try new things and embrace the weird and wonderful.  It can also lead to those moments when we have to ask, “How did I end up here?”

I’m talking about fitness contexts here, so I don’t mean those times when we wake up wearing a hula skirt and several decorative fish, or even those times when the conversation in the car is so good that we pass the right exit and don’t notice for another seventeen miles.

No, it’s when we start something new in fitness and fall in love with it, or when we are getting back to something we love after an injury or vacation or other layoff.  We are so excited to be doing this wonderful thing that we overdo ourselves.  Too much of anything can hurt us.

By all means we need to find the play and the fun.  But we also need to have a real sense of enough so we stop before we get hurt.

Monday Workout: Christmas comes twice a year...

I can’t let summer go by without a little Christmas cheer.  Yes, it is time for the Dreaded 12 Days of Christmas Workout, swiped years ago from my dear friend and colleague Michelle and now a twice-yearly tradition.  Here’s how it works:  on the first “day,” we do 1 push press.  On the second “day,” we do 2 goblet squats and 1 push press.  On the third, we do 3 overhead presses, 2 goblet squats, and 1 push press.  We continue until we have completed all 12 days, which doesn’t actually take 12 days.  Yes, I realize this works out to doing 42 burpees and that that makes me mean and grinch-like, but it makes all of us stronger.  Let’s do it!

1 push press

2 goblet squats

3 Overhead press

4 1 leg squats each leg

5 deadlifts

6 burpees

7 pushups

8 renegade rows

9 mountain climbers

10 jump lunges

11 kb swings

12 plyojacks