Harvest of ideas...

I don’t read a lot of magazines, but I look at the covers when I’m standing in line at the store.  I’m not enticed by the make-ups and break-ups of celebrities I don’t recognize, or even by those I do recognize.  I’m tempted more by tasty-looking food, or organizing tips.  But one of the most alluring things that magazine headlines do is offer lists of “essentials.”

I know this is capitalist propaganda at its finest.  If I were to buy the magazine and flip my way to the six fall essentials, I would discover that at least two of them are makeup or hair products I don’t have the first clue how to use.  The rest are probably expensive clothes that I really don’t see myself wearing in this lifetime—I don’t really live the high heels and skirt life and anything that isn’t a cozy sweater that requires dry-cleaning is not for me.

But what are my six fall essentials?  Here they are:  fitness essentials for fall.

1.     Cardio.  As the days get shorter, the holidays get closer, and the stress ramps up, we need the mood-boosting and calorie-busting effects of cardio.

2.     Yoga.  In this more reflective time of year, having a practice that helps us tune into what we need and want is extra important.  Also, our muscles can use the warmth and flexibility yoga provides.

3.     Sleep.  All the research is there.  Go look.  We don’t sleep enough and it is bad for our brains, our bodies, our relationships.  We do not have to be accomplishing things every single hour of every single day to be valuable humans.  Get the rest that refreshes!

4.     Light.  It can be challenging to find the light at this time of year, but we need to seize the precious daylight when we can.  If we can’t make it outside during the day, we need to make sure that we get enough bright light indoors to keep our diurnal rhythms working.

5.     Warm drinks.  They’re cozy, whether they’re coffee, tea, cocoa, or broth.  Bonus:  they keep our hands warm.

6.     Laughter.  We laugh best with those who love us.  Make some good times, get an ab workout, and feel connected all at once.

Guess what?  Almost all of those are free, too.

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.