Captain Obvious to the Rescue!

I’m going to be Captain Obvious today.  I’m not sorry.  Sometimes we get so caught up in all the minutiae of our workouts that we forget a basic principle:  we get better at what we practice.

That means we have to do the stuff we are not yet good at.  Say, for example, that we want to improve our balance.  First we have to wobble around standing on one foot.  Then there’s the other (harder) foot.  We finally master that and… oh no!... now we need to try with our eyes closed, or we need to play catch on one foot.

I’m not saying we don’t get to stop and appreciate that we have achieved something.  Hooray for us!  And now, let’s tackle the next step on our journey because we’re not going to get there without working on it.

Check in...

Most of us enjoy distractions while we work out.  We like to listen to music or watch videos while we do our cardio.  We chat with our friends or our classmates or our trainer about any number of things from celebrity gossip to pets to best recipes to the antics of that crazy person at work (Wait!  At my work, that’s me!!!!).  Most of the time this is a good thing.  I mean, I personally would rather repeat calculus than have to spend my spin time without loud music—it would be both easier and less boring.

Sometimes, though, we need to stop the external chatter and focus.  We do it naturally when we learn a new exercise.  It takes attention to direct the body into different motion.  Even if we are familiar with a movement, we occasionally need to tune in to refine what we’re doing.  Data needs to flow both directions, from the brain to the body and back.

Maybe we are unconsciously babying the ankle we twisted a little stepping off a curb.  Maybe we slept funny and our neck is tweaking left a little, propagating a tweak down the body.  Maybe our knee has a mind of its own, always tending a little inward if we aren’t constantly encouraging it to stay in line.  A bit of a check-in usually does the trick to get us into alignment.

Then we can turn the music back up and rock out.

Monday Workout: All at once!

As usual, I’m working on a lot of different things at once in this workout.  We have our friends the multi-joint exercises to burn calories and boost metabolism, we have balance work, we have multi-plane work, and we have core stability stuff.  No wonder we get tired!  Three rounds (do regular plank on the first round for 30 seconds or longer, one side plank the second round as long as possible, and the other side the third round!).

kb swings	30
kb twists or 1 leg pass	20
kb 8s	10
mountain climbers/stand	30
rows	20
kickbacks	10
overhead curtsy	30
bench press	20
plank/side plank