Billion dollar idea?

It is my job to help people do things they don’t actually want to do for their own good in a way that is as pleasant as possible so they keep doing it.

Occasionally, I consider helping people do things they do want to do for the same reasons.  Here are some things I would like us all to do more often:

• Sleep.  Nearly every time I go to yoga, someone falls asleep during savasana.  We are, as a people, that sleep-deprived.  Sometimes the right fitness decision is to take a nap.  (When some genius opens a napping studio and makes a billion dollars, I will kick myself for not having done it first.)

• Get a massage.  Many of us are so tense we can hardly move.  Getting some of the kinks worked out of those muscles will help make the next workout better.

• Meditate.  Our brains need to relax, too.  Finding a few minutes to pray or meditate or just plain breathe can help us create clarity in our lives.

Some fitness things are naturally both good for us and pleasant.  Let’s do them!

Why are we here?

We all head to the gym for different reasons.  What we do there depends on what those reasons are.

At first, pretty much all of us need to establish a base level of cardio ability.  The good thing about cardio exercises is that most of them are not technically difficult.  We all know how to walk.  Most of us can ride a bike or figure out an elliptical trainer without straining the brain.  Those of us with the dance gene or a well-developed sense of humor can check out Zumba class or hip-hop fusion.  The classes help deal with the downside of most cardio exercises:  they get a little dull.  If classes are not good for us, we can cope with the boredom via interval training, loud music, or gym television.  I don’t recommend reading because it is very hard to read when we are working out hard enough to be effective.  (However, if we are choosing between reading on the couch or reading while pedaling slowly on an exercise bike, the latter choice produces bonus points, even if it is closer to “activity” than “exercise.”)

Once that baseline cardio fitness habit is established, we have choices.  We all need to do some weight training to maintain or increase our lean body mass, to bump up our metabolisms, and to keep our bones good and dense.  Some of us are interested in Big Muscles.  Others want to Lift Big Things.  Others just want more shapely arms in our tank tops or a cuter behind in our jeans.

The Lift Big Things crowd will train by doing short sets of heavy weights, working to increase the one-rep maximum weight (which is the heaviest thing we can lift a single time).

The Big Muscle folks will do medium-rep sets of fairly heavy weights, usually weights we can do 10 to 12 reps with.

The Shape set will work with lighter weights in sets of 10 to 20.

Plan accordingly!

Sometimes I get lucky...

I have a dog with a bad habit.  She is an early riser.  For the most part, I am, too, but she and I have slightly different definitions of “early.”  If I am very, very lucky, she lets me sleep in until 6.

Because I strive to be a make-lemonade kind of person, my dog’s bad habit has led to my personal daily minimum exercise.  She and I have to go for a walk.  We spend about half an hour trekking to 7-Eleven to buy a newspaper and coming back.  It gets me close to the recommended 30 minutes per day of moderate cardio and my normal running around takes care of any minutes that I miss.

We all have ways we can essentially automate our lowest bar for exercise.  Those of us who are not blessed with an early-rising dog may have to make a rule about having to walk to get that special coffee in the morning or about which parking place to choose or maybe even how many items we carry up and down the stairs at a time.

This makes it possible to focus our dedicated exercise time on the stuff that is harder to automate, like lifting weights or working flexibility and balance.

We can do this.  Also, I am happy to lend out my dog.