Monday Workout: New Toy!

I got some new toys, so we’re going to try them out this week.  Sliding disks are another way to recruit core and work on balance because they create instability.  The only exercise that doesn’t use the disks is brains, but I thought we should end with something familiar that involves lying down.  Three rounds.

Sliding Discs
mountain climbers	30
lateral lunges	20
hamstring curls	10
speed skaters	30
outstretched plank	20
open close pushups	10
plank jacks	30
crisscross jacks	20
brains	10

If it's Thursday, there is probably a list involved...

Fitness has some surprising allies.  Here are some things that we might not consider as assets, but that turn out to be useful:

• Laziness.  Not the first thing that springs to mind as a fitness skill, right?  However, those of us who are lazy are willing to figure out the most efficient way to get the exercise we need.

• Intellect.  We all know the stereotype of the dumb jock.  While exercise does not require any particular smarts, those of us who think and read can learn and apply best practices to what we do.

• Busy Schedules.  When we are busy, we are forced to plan our fitness if it is going to happen at all.  Knowing that we have a particular window of time can make us show up for class or for that date with the treadmill.  Once we get fitness into our routine, we’re golden because what is on the calendar actually happens.

By Accident

Recently, a couple of people asked me why I chose Pilates.  I told the truth:  by accident.  I was already a personal trainer and one of my colleagues asked if I wanted to do the training with her and some of our other coworkers.  I went for it.  I’m not sorry.

I may get a visit from the Pilates police for saying this (it’s okay; they don’t really exist or I’d have been hauled off long before now…), but I think of Pilates as a great part of fitness, not as a means to fitness all by itself.  Pilates, as a practice, creates abilities to do other things.

Some of us, for example, struggle with flexibility and mobility.  Pilates, by moving the body through its range of motion, helps with both.  Others need to build coordination to improve performance in sports or activities (or daily life!).  Coordination depends on proprioception, the sense of where our bodies are in space.  The mindful movements of Pilates help us hone that sense.  That same mindful movement can help us retrain our motor pathways after injury.  These things can be ends in themselves, but they also enable us to run, jump, and play with more abandon.

By nature, I tend toward the holistic—I love mixing things up and seeing what happens.  Pilates, as a practice, infiltrates my approach to weight training and both are enriched as a result.