Practically the best thing

I am not the boss of the weather.  It is not my fault that we are having rain and cold and darkness.  However, it would be on me if I didn’t offer my number one strategy for dealing with rain/cold/darkness and the low spirits that can accompany these conditions:  do cardio.

Maybe I should rephrase that.  It’s my number one practical strategy.  Most of us don’t have the opportunity to scurry off to the equatorial region or the southern hemisphere to enjoy a second round of summer.  Those of us who like having a place to live and food to eat probably can’t get away with hiding under the covers for days on end.

So, in the absence of independent wealth and unlimited travel, we have cardio.  This may be small consolation compared to the lifestyle of the rich and famous, but the good news is that it really works.  When we get our heart rates up, we get our brain chemicals in whack.  We improve our mood and our energy level.  Our minds work better.  I firmly believe in doing things that make us feel good and cardio is one of those things.

What are we going to do today to get breathless?

Monday Workout: True Love????

Just to make sure we don’t miss it this year, we’re doing the dreaded 12 Days of Christmas workout this week.  The dread is somewhat misplaced; it is not as hard as it used to be for those of us who have kept up with our workouts.  Also, it is always an option to substitute out inappropriate exercises if a person’s body doesn’t do jumping, or has knee issues or a shoulder injury.

Here’s how it works:  on “day one,” we do one push press.  Then we move to “day two” and do two goblet squats and one push press.  “Day three” brings three overhead presses, two goblet squats, and one push press.  Most people find that they need to rest for the first time after “day five” and after every “day” after that.  Of course, we can rest any time we need to, but we try to make it between the days.

Yes, I do realize that we end up doing 42 burpees before we are done.  We will survive.  The good news is that when we finish the twelfth day, we are actually entirely finished with the workout and can head out to find a new true love.

1 push press

2 goblet squats

3 Overhead press

4 1 leg squats each leg

5 deadlifts

6 burpees

7 pushups

8 renegade rows

9 mountain climbers

10 jump lunges

11 kb swings

12 plyojacks

Gifts!

Here we are, approaching several major gift-giving holidays.  Of course, we are all such organized humans that we have already dealt with all the things we need to get and wrap for the other humans and critters we love, right?  Here is a yearly reminder:  never give anyone else any exercise-related gifts that were not specifically requested—it’s not helpful or kind or useful.  However, if any of us want to give ourselves a fitness gift, here are some ideas:

• Time.  The number one reason people cite for why they don’t work out is that they don’t have time.  For some of us, this may be true.  I’m not suggesting that anyone steal workout time from an already limited pool of sleep time, but I’m guessing that if we tried really hard we could figure out that we waste at least fifteen minutes somewhere in the course of the day that we could put to fitness use.  Anyway, the gift part:  let’s give ourselves enough time to work out at least a few times during the week.  We’ll feel better, really.

• A break.  Not the resting kind, although that’s fine, too, since rest is important to our fitness.  I mean the kind where we stop beating ourselves up.  If being mean to ourselves actually worked for fitness or weight loss, we’d all be Olympic caliber.  Tell the critical voice to go yell at somebody else—we’re busy loving ourselves with sweat over here.  We can cheer ourselves on instead.

• Joy.  Hate the treadmill?  Stop doing it!  Go dance instead, or swim, or roller-skate.  If you have time, go ski.  Play that music that makes you laugh or sing along.  Wear the crazy workout pants if that helps.

• Fuel.  We need to feed our bodies what they need and what tastes good.  We need to give ourselves the right amount so that we feel energized and not stuffed.

Best news:  none of this stuff costs extra.  We can use the resources we already have to make things better!