Monday Workout: Joints!

This week’s plan is to get our hearts pumping while we do some good muscle building!  We have a bunch of mulit-joint exercises that should do the trick.  Three rounds.

suitcase swings	30
bench press	20
YTA	10
woodchoppers	30
ball slams	20
rescues	10
(jump) squats	30
rows	20
barbell twist	10

Or I could just play Calvinball...

One of the ways I motivate myself is by making up games.  What makes games different than just screwing around is rules.  When a game stops working for me, I change the rules.

For example, I have the photo game.  Every time I work out, I take a photo of something.  Simple enough.  The thing is, I work out, most of the time, in the same locations.  It’s boring to take a photo of the same thing every time, so while I’m moving my body, I’m thinking about how to take a different photo, how to find a new angle, how to find freshness.  Robert Frost talked about non-rhyming poetry as playing tennis without a net—my photos have to find a way over the net of sameness.

Another wellness game I have involves a post-it note on my computer.  (Actually, a lot of my games involve post-it notes…)  I’ve written about it before.  It has four words on it:  body, mind, creation, and connection.  I try to do something in line with each of those words every day to keep myself healthy and moderately sane.

I’m trying a new post-it game this week.  This one has two categories:  short-term and long-term.  The goal is to do something to make both better.  So maybe I take a nap to make my short-term self feel better and then I get some exercise to meet my long-term wellness needs.  Or I could have a snack for short-term and make it an apple and almond butter to contribute to long-term better nutrition.

We can find ways that work!

Physics are involved, one way or another...

I don’t know if Einstein actually said this, but the internet says he did:  The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.  Sure, he was talking about physics and the universe and relativity, but I’m going to use the quote for a fitness purpose because I’m fresh out of cosmic problems to solve.  I recycle like that.

When we are new to fitness or when we try a new activity or sport or when we learn a new exercise, sometimes we discover that we have way too many body parts to keep track of at once.  It can be overwhelming.  We get the feet under control and suddenly our arms are flailing around like the tentacles of a panicked octopus.  Meanwhile, the ball or puck or beat has blown by us.  This is totally normal, if not always pleasant.

In the Pilates workshop I went to recently, we were discussing assessments.  Often, clients have a whole bunch of issues going on at once.  The very helpful advice?  Pick two things to focus on.  Do some work on those compensations, those particular issues of form, and see what happens.

The point is, we have to start somewhere.  Maybe getting our feet under control is enough for now.  We can deal with the tentacles later, and the ball/puck/beat after that.  It’s also possible that when we figure out the tentacles, the ball/puck/beat will handle itself—we get the benefit of some chain reactions.

When we give our bodies and our minds time to process new information, we get better.  It can be hard to be patient, but it is usually worth it.

We can do this.