Some thoughts on workouts...

Because I have my own studio, I rarely work out with other people around.  While I was away, I went to the gym with my son and did my thing with other people in the room.  All of a sudden, I was remembering things I had forgotten.

Like, I didn’t comb my hair.

Intellectually, I know there is absolutely no point to combing my hair before going to the gym to get sweaty and gross.  But then I met a friendly lady also working out.  She was wearing a coordinated workout outfit.  I had to go through the whole thing in my head about what is important, what is doable, what works.

Other people may have different math for this issue, or, possibly, it is not an issue for them at all.  If so, those folks can go read something else.  Anyone with similar issues may find my math useful as one approach to the problem.

Here are my workout priorities.

1.     I have to be actually willing to do it.  That means it can’t be too much work just to get there.  This is why I don’t comb my hair and why I often sleep in workout clothes so I can just get up and go.

2.     The clothes have to be comfortable and functional.  For me, this means that I do wear “real” workout clothes rather than whatever t-shirt is on top because I prefer not having soaking cotton on my body.  I am lucky because I wear workout clothes for work, so that doesn’t mean buying more clothes, but even if I did not do this kind of work, I would now have actual workout clothes.

3.     The clothes have to be cute enough.  My bar for cute enough is extremely low.  I believe all pants should be black.  This makes matching easier and it makes me slightly less likely to wince when I look in the mirror and see my own butt.

4.     At last!  I’m finally ready to work out!  For the workout itself, the first priority is that I have to get sweaty and/or out of breath.  Sweaty would cover it entirely, except I also swim and when I do that, sweat isn’t so noticeable.

5.     I have to be tired and a little sore at the end.  This works whether it is a cardio or strength workout.  With strength workouts, the soreness probably should last into the next day or so.

6.     I have to stretch.  It’s better if I also take the time to do myofascial work on the roller or tune-up balls.  In any case, something that makes my body parts move better later.

7.     Ignore the rest.  This is the hardest part.  What that guy over there is doing doesn’t matter.  That girl with the adorable hair?  Not me, not my business.  I have to do my workout, not anyone else’s.

What are yours?

Not like the movies...

Last weekend I went to the movies.  I saw Creed II.  It was very much fun.

I have to stop for a moment here and say that I do not like boxing, despite the fact that my son does it for fun.  I think that the world, in general, would be better if none of us spent time figuring out how best to hit other people.  I’ve done boxing workouts with my kid before and they are awesome for testing the limits of the body, so I like a lot about them, except for the aforementioned hitting people, which I did not even have the opportunity to do because I was a first timer.

The movie, of course, was not really about boxing.  Boxing is a metaphor for life.  It is how we learn to deal with obstacles, train for them, dig deep, lose, and then, maybe, win, but not how we expected and not what we expected.  (I am not spoiling the plot of the film.  It is a Rocky movie.  We all know how it ends.)

I loved watching the actors do the workout montages.  Battle rope burpees!  Giant tires!  Weights suspended from leather straps around heads!  Underwater dumbbells!  The thing is, that is workout porn.  Real workouts are not and should not be like that.

I don’t believe in puking.

Most of us are not professional athletes.  We do not need to do all those things to be at our best.  If we get to the point where those things are the next step for us, then we should by all means do them.  Otherwise, we work with what is appropriate for us.

It’s great to go look at impressive muscles and crazy stunt workouts.  Enjoy away.  Then come home and do the real work.  Which probably won’t include battle rope burpees, but I won’t promise.

Love and Workouts...

I hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed the holiday weekend.  I did.  I am also enjoying getting back to my usual life.

Maybe we all stuck to our plans and didn’t eat ourselves into comas every day over the long weekend.  Maybe we did actually work out.  Maybe we didn’t.  Guess what?  That’s all over now.  No amount of hand-wringing (or self-congratulation) will change what happened.

Today we work out.  We don’t go crazy and do a punitive, three-hour marathon of suffering, but we don’t slack off either.  We pay attention to our bodies and give them the right amount of work to make progress over the long term.

There is not one thing to be gained by being mean to ourselves.  We need to begin from a place of love, continue in love, and finish up in, you guessed it, love.

We can do this.