Stand up and smell the roses...

In general, having a short attention span is not a great thing.  Sustained focus comes in handy for all kinds of serious, deep work.  However, that short attention span has one really useful feature:  it helps us move.

I am not suggesting that we jump up from whatever we are doing every five minutes.  Every half an hour to an hour, though, a pause to stand up, stretch, go to the bathroom, take a quick lap around the office/house/block can give our brains and bodies a moment to refresh.  When we don’t move often enough, we lose range of motion and flexibility.  Things that hurt feel worse.  Things that didn’t hurt before start to get in on the act.

Try it and see how it works.

This flower would look sweatier if it were working out...

Last week I posted a photo of myself that I took during my weight workout.  News flash:  I am fifty years old, not exactly thin, and unlikely to have a career in modeling.  In the photo, I was also sweaty because that is what happens when I lift heavy weights.  Because I was raised female, it was hard to post that photo.  Because I work in the fitness industrial complex (although I try pretty hard to be subversive), the difficulty was compounded.

Say it with me people:  fitness is not about image.  Then say it again, louder, to the mirror.

Fitness is about doing hard things that make our bodies feel better in the long run.  It can get messy.  We don’t have to comb our hair first.  Unless cute fitness clothes motivate us to put them on and go work, we don’t need those.  The mirror in the gym is there not to reproach us or criticize us but to show us useful information about alignment.  The mirror does not care what size our butts are and really, if someone else at the gym is worrying about the size of our butts, that person should be working harder and paying attention to their own stuff.

It’s tough to ignore all the programming.  Do it anyway.  It makes us stronger.

Monday Workout: Heavier

This week we’re changing it up a little.  The goal is to choose a heavier than usual weight, one that makes it so we can barely complete that last rep.  It’s a short circuit, so we get to do it four rounds!

1 min jump rope/Xiser
squats	10
bench press	10
deadlifts	10
flies	10
lunges	10
rows	10
roll out abs	10