Monday Workout: 2 goals!

I have two goals for this week’s workout.  One is to get a bunch of cardio work in, so we get a medicine ball set, the dreaded single arm clean and press, and our friends the plyojacks to get our hearts pumping.  The other goal is to continue to work on stability and balance, so we have those asymmetric exercises in there to challenge our core while we build muscle.  Three rounds.

woodchoppers	30
ball slams	20
rescues	10
1 arm clean and press	30
1 arm rows	20
1 leg squats	10
plyo/reg/mod jacks	30
deadlifts	20
barbell twists	10

In order!

When we approach fitness for the first time, it is easy to get overwhelmed.  There are so many things to do—try Zumba, eat kale, buy a shake weight, figure out if water aerobics is a thing that anyone can do—that we don’t know what to do first.  (No, none of us need to buy a shake weight; it won’t hurt, but it probably won’t help either.)  Most of us do best not trying to change everything at once, so here is the order I suggest for working toward fitness.

1.     Cardio.  The main reason to start with cardio is that we all have built-in equipment in the form of feet.  If we haven’t been off the couch in years, we want to start with walking.  Our first goal is to get in half an hour three times a week, and all thirty minutes don’t have to happen at once.  From there, we build up to five days a week at a pace that leaves us able to talk, but barely.  We’ll get mood benefits and burn calories.

2.     Water.  This is the first dietary change I suggest because most of us don’t drink nearly enough water.  Plain water (or water with bubbles or a slice of lemon) has no calories and helps us feel full longer, which can help us lose weight if we have a habit of drinking a lot of soda or juice or sweetened coffee or tea.  Staying hydrated helps us maintain a good mood.

3.     Weight training.  Once those two habits are truly habitual, we can bump it up a notch.  Weight training is what really starts to change the body once we have our cardio base.  It slims us down and shapes us up.  Start with one session a week and build up to two or three with rest days in between sessions.  (People who lift every day need to make sure to avoid working the same muscle groups two days in a row for best results.)

4.     Get out the junk.  Now it’s time to ditch those French fries, mostly.  (I believe that the occasional treat is important, but it has to be worth it!!!)

5.     Add a mindfulness practice.  Pilates, yoga, and/or meditation can help tune us in to our best selves.  We can change the quality of our movement, lengthen our muscles, and weed out the stress that gets in the way of our good habits.

That should get us moving in the right direction!!!

All the fancy words

Today’s fancy word is synergy.  I like it almost as much as I like efficiency.  Synergy is, of course, when two or more things work together to have more benefit than we expect.  The particular synergy I am interested in today is the one between weight training and Pilates.

Weight training, obviously, makes us stronger.  It also makes us sore and tired.  When we don’t have ideal form, we can end up overusing some muscle groups or even getting injured.  This is where Pilates can help.

Pilates, by itself, improves our proprioception (another excellent fancy word meaning our sense of where our bodies are in space), balance, and core control.  It builds flexibility and mobility.  It does build some strength, but much more gradually than weight training.

Together, Pilates and weight training build strong, flexible bodies that use good form to continue to improve.  We can get more powerful by lifting weight and then refine the movements by tuning in to our Pilates exercises.

There are certainly people who love one or the other.  All of us have limited resources and may have to choose a focus.  But if we can, combining the two can have amazing results.

We can do this!