Monday Workout: Rope a not-dope (because we use nice language here about ourselves...)

When I first got the battle ropes, I wasn’t sure I was going to like using them.  Now I know:  super fun and useful!!!  When something facilitates multi-joint exercises, raises heart rate, and remains friendly to people with knee issues, I am all over it!  Three rounds.

rope double slams	30
deadlift	20
pushups	10
rope alternating slams	30
squats	20
lateral raises	10
rope circles	30
rows	20
Russian twist	10

Top Five!

We all have favorite exercises.  Here are five of mine and the reasons they are my favorite:

1.     Squats.  I love squats best.  They are the one exercise that I want everyone to do.  They have variations that work for pretty much every human because we all have to stand and sit.  Squats are a compound exercise, meaning that they use lots of joints and thus work multiple muscle groups at once.  They are practical and easy to learn.  Watching someone’s squat form tells me more than any other single exercise about what a person needs to work on.

2.     Pushups.  Again, pushups have about a gazillion variations so that almost everyone can do them.  They are also a compound exercise, working upper body and core at once.  While pushups can be done with equipment, none is actually required.

3.     Deadlifts.  Another compound exercise!  (Sensing a theme here…)  What I like about deadlifts is that they use the entire back of the body.  We’re really good at working all the muscles in front, but we neglect the hamstrings, glutes, and back muscles.

4.     Rows.  Yet another compound exercise!  In our society of chair-warriors, we need to do things that help us maintain our posture.  Rows work the back muscles that get weakened when we slouch through the day.

5.     Pretty princesses.  It was hard to pick a favorite abdominal exercise because I like all of them, but pretty princesses work all of the abdominals, so I pick them because they are efficient.  And yes, they, too, are a compound exercise.

What are your top five? 

You are not sorry

Often clients will apologize to me when an exercise is hard for them.  News flash:  the exercises are supposed to be hard.  My job is to provide challenge in appropriate doses.  This, in itself, is hard for most of us because we all secretly, or not so secretly, want to be good at everything we do.

I work on balance with all my clients.  Not one of us is getting younger and the difference between independent old age and nursing home care pretty much comes down to balance—falls are everyone’s kryptonite.  So yes, I am going to ask everyone to try to stand on one foot, or do single leg squats, or stand on the BOSU, or play one-legged catch with me.  Yes, sometimes we have to put that other foot down, or use a body bar, or step off the BOSU in a less-than-controlled manner.  This is called practice.  When the task gets too easy, it’s my job to make it harder.

Failure is part of the process.  It doesn’t mean that we are “bad” at balance (or whatever else we’re working on); it means we haven’t mastered it yet.  That’s what we show up to do—to practice until we get to mastery and then find a new skill to master.

We never need to apologize for not being able to do something yet—only for not trying to grow.

We can do this.