Yep. I really hate Valentine's Day. But I love exercise.

Tomorrow is the official Hallmark Holiday For Capitalist Celebration of Smug Romance and Conspicuous Candle Consumption (can you tell I love V-Day a lot???).  Being countercultural like I am, I’m in the mood to write a list of ten exercises and/or pieces of equipment I love more than roses, chocolate, and bad verse.

1.     Squats.  They’re my favorite because they work everything.

2.     Spin bikes.  Also known as mood-enhancers.

3.     Regular bikes.  Like spin bikes, but bonus points for OUTSIDE!

4.     Mermaid on the Pilates reformer.  It unsquishes everything that gets squished when I have to sit for a long time.

5.     Swimming.  Cardio AND chlorine aromatherapy together!

6.     Pushups.  Arms, chest, and core, working together.

7.     Stability balls.  Everything is more fun with a giant ball.

8.     Foam rollers and yoga tune-up balls.  Unless I manage to acquire the kind of life where I get a massage every day, I will remain addicted to these.

9.     Downward dog.  It’s calming, lengthening, and strengthening, all at once!

10.  Supine arm twist.  It facilitates breathing and only takes 30 seconds.

Hug your sweetie or your sweet self and have a lovely day!

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.