Monday workout: Maybe we'd rather have lords a-leaping?

This is the week before Christmas.  Technically, the twelve days of Christmas don’t start until Christmas itself, continuing until January 6, but we are not strict theologians around the studio.  Heck, we also do this workout once sometime in the summer, just for fun.

Here’s how it works.  We begin with day one and do one push press.  Not so bad.  Then, even though about ten seconds have passed, it is magically day two and we do two goblet squats and one push press.  Then three overhead presses, two goblet squats, and one push press.  And so on.

Most of us need a rest for the first time after day 5.  We try to keep the rests to the between-day periods, but, as always, we need to use our good judgement about what we need.

Yes, I do know that we end up doing 42 burpees before the workout is over.  Thank me later.  Or put coal in my stocking.  Your choice.

The good news is that once we finish day twelve, we are done.

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

Friday Reading Report: More on Metabolism

I am continuing to read about metabolism.  At the cellular level, I do not find it to be a page-turning subject.  That said, I am learning things.

As I have been reading about the various chemical reactions involved in turning food energy into energy the body can use, I am reminded about why we need to meet our micronutrient requirements.  (Micronutrients, for those of us who are not currently reading our brains out in nutrition, are vitamins and minerals and anything else the body needs for purposes other than straight caloric content.)  A whole bunch of the enzymes that make our cells work are derived from vitamins.  The reactions that fuel our bodies stop when we run out.

(Enzymes, by nature, are not used up while working.  They catalyze a reaction and then get out.  However, they can be broken down for spare parts if the body needs to use their components for biosynthesis.)

At this busy time of year, we all need all the energy we can get.  Fueling our bodies with a wide variety of foods, particularly our vegetable and fruit friends, can help ensure that we have enough.

Where do you think all those other numbers come from?

Remember when selfish genes were widely discussed?  I don’t want to talk about scientific controversy, publicity, evolution, or any of that stuff.  It’s just that a long time ago I read a critical remark about the concept of selfish genes that was, whether or not it was accurate, funny enough that I still remember it.  The critic said that it made as much sense to talk about sex-crazed prime numbers.  I imagined 7 and 23 hanging out in a bar, trolling for dates, chain-smoking, hooking up in back alleys, intent on making more and more numbers.

Whether or not numbers are out there procreating, we sure have a lot of them around.  And some of them could be said to have a tyrannical streak.  I will limit myself to two (prime!) examples:

1.     That number on the scale.  Whatever it is, it is not the sum of our self-worth.  It, and its relatives, including the number on the tag in our pants, do not get to tell us that we are wonderful or worthless.  The number may get bigger or smaller.  We remain uniquely valuable.  We may want the number to be different for any number of reasons and we may be taking appropriate steps to make that happen, but we will not be inherently better when the number changes in the direction we desire, nor inherently worse if it goes the other way.

2.     The gym numbers.  Ten reps are not more magic than nine or eleven.  We are not better humans if we bench press a lovely round number of pounds.  If it is best for us to do seven reps with 22.5 pound dumbbells, that is what we should do and then we should feel appropriate pride in our accomplishment.

Numbers are useful, but not the most important things.  We do better when we treat ourselves with love.