How about a flamingo with your veggies?

In the immortal words of noted sage Mary Poppins, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.  Given the inflammatory effects of sugar in my personal body, I’m not sure I’m down with her literal message, but I completely support her point:  let’s have as much fun as possible while we get whatever we have to do done.

I have not actually tried working out to the Mary Poppins soundtrack, but I can see how it might be hilarious and thus, potentially, a good idea for a day when I’d just rather not.  Some people find that crazy workout pants make the difference between showing up to show off or stay home.  I once got someone to finish a workout by encouraging her to think of the best possible names to call me while she worked—and we both got a bonus ab workout from laughing so hard.

On an even more basic level, it helps to choose workouts that we actually enjoy anyway.  There is no reason to run when we hate running—we can swim, bike, dance, ellipt, roller skate, row, ski, or anything else that gets our heart rates up.

The point of workouts is to bring more joy into our lives in the long term sense.  It’s good to have some in the short term, too.

How do you like those apples?

While it is absolutely true that I have certain exercises that are my favorite, there are others that are not my favorite.  My least-favorite list is not quite the same as anyone else’s because—news flash!—we are all unique.  The good news is that there is almost always some other way to work the same muscle groups, so for the most part we can avoid the exercises that fill us with dread or fear.

Let me digress for a moment:  dread, the way I’m using it, is that feeling that we just don’t want to do it.  Whatever we’re dreading isn’t going to cause damage, but it isn’t going to be fun either.  We’ll suck it up if we have to, but really, we’d rather be doing pretty much anything else.  Fear is a different animal.  We have real concerns that what we are contemplating might hurt us, that we could fail, that something is going to go horribly wrong.  We deal, on the whole, pretty well with dread all by ourselves, but fear is something we can use some help with from time to time.  In a fitness context, fear might mean that we move an exercise to a more stable position (from the Bosu to the ground, or off the TRX to a bench) or we use a lighter weight until we are confident about the movements or we just stop and breathe for a few moments to collect ourselves.  I try to help my clients examine exactly what it is that is underlying the fear and then we break the Big Scary Task into something more manageable with whatever tools and encouragement we need.  End of digression.

So:  if someone really detests skullcrushers, she can try kickbacks instead.  If a person would rather be shot than do jumping jacks, he can substitute any other cardio exercise and make sure that there is some lateral motion somewhere else in the workout. 

Often times, the perceived evil of an exercise comes from the fact that we’re not ready to do it yet.  People who hate regular pushups may find that doing them on a wall or bench where there is less load makes them much more tolerable.  A stability ball against a wall can make the difference between a good squat and an actual torture.

I believe that workouts should not hurt.  We may get uncomfortable, but anything that causes pain is right out.  And if we can build in as much fun as possible while working hard, that is the best outcome of all.

Let’s play.

Monday Workout: Multi!

I love my multi-joint exercises because they get a lot done in a short amount of time.  Take, for example, the suitcase swings that we do first this week.  We use our ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders to do the major motions, while the rest of our joints work, along with our core musculature, to stabilize everything.  The more muscles we work at once, the more calories we burn and the more we amp up that metabolic system.  Then, of course, we have eight more exercises to go.  (This is why we get tired at the end!)  Do three rounds, squeeze in a little stretching, and make sure to get some water.

suitcase swings	30
bench press	20
1 leg pass	10
plyojacks	30
kickbacks	20
pushups	10
mountain climbers	30
(lunge to) curl	20
Russian twist	10