Lugging Guilt Does Not Build Muscles

Under normal circumstances, I find myself encouraging people to do more.  These are not normal circumstances.  I have written more lately about doing less and chilling out than possibly ever before, but some folks still need to hear more about that.

Here’s the deal:  times are stressful.  Not one of us needs a single other thing to feel guilty about.  If exercise makes us feel better, we should do it.  If we don’t feel up to it, we should let it go.

In more detail, here is what I suggest.  Figure out a minimum acceptable level of activity.  This is not the time to go all macho (it is almost never the time to go all macho, really…).  My absolute base minimum is that I have to walk the dog around one block.  If I’ve done that, cool.  I’m still alive.  I can get on with whatever else urgent is there.  Having a really easy-to-meet minimum target is exceptionally freeing.  There is no more guilt to lug around.  And what usually happens is that the very act of starting out improves my mood so much that I do much more than my minimum.  If I don’t, no big deal.  But most of the time, I walk about a half hour, come home and feel like doing spin or Pilates or yoga.  And then in the afternoon I feel like walking more because I need to go outside.

Exercise is NOT something we do to punish ourselves.  If it does not feel good (in the larger sense, if not always right in the very moment we are doing it), don’t do it.

Our goal is to stay healthy right now, by whatever means necessary.  We can get back to hard workouts when this is done if they feel like too much to handle right now.

Monday Workout: Mat Pilates

As I have said many, many times, I prefer equipment Pilates to mat Pilates, but with my studio shut down, I need to offer something for those of us who don’t have our own studios to do at home.  This will look like a very long post, but that is because I am going to explain each exercise.  Folks already familiar with Pilates exercises can just skip to the end for the list.

All the exercises can be done right on the floor, regardless of surface, but a yoga mat or squishy mat or even towel might make it more comfortable.   There is only one standing exercise, so there is no need to worry about slipping (any more than usual standing around!  Some of us are more graceful than others!)

Here we go:

Pelvic Clock:  Lie on your back (See?  Pilates is awesome!  We get to lie down!  Oh, wait, then we have to do stuff…)  Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor more or less in line with your sit bones.  Take a couple of breaths just to remember that you’re alive.  Now, as you exhale, tilt your pelvis toward your belly button.  This is a small motion and should not get your powerful legs involved.  Your abs will be doing a little bit of work and your lower back should be closer to the floor.  When you inhale, tilt your pelvis toward your pubic bone.  Repeat a few times.  Return to a neutral position.  Now we are going to tilt from side to side.  Many people, in doing this, like to move the pelvis up toward the shoulders while doing this.  We are going to avoid this by thinking of pressing the pelvis into the ground on one side and then the other.  (No, the Pilates Police are not going to come find you if you don’t get this perfectly.  They haven’t hauled me away yet!)  Do this a few times back and forth.  Now we’re going to get fancy and combine the two into a circle.  Tilt the pelvis toward the belly button, then toward one hip, then the public bone, then the other hip and back to the belly button.  If there was a bowl of water sitting on your belly, you’d be sloshing water in a circle and making a big wet mess.  Do a few in one direction and then do the hard way (everyone does the way that comes most easily first, so the second way is always the hard way).  Don’t forget to breathe from time to time.

Bridging:  If you have low bone density, you can still do this exercise, but please read through to the modifications before you start.  Begin in the same position as for Pelvic Clock, on your back, knees bent, feet flat in line with your sit bones.  The motion begins just like the Pelvic Clock, with an exhale and a pelvic tilt toward the belly button, but the tilt keeps going until the hips lift off the ground.  The spine peels up off the floor one vertebra at a time until the body weight is resting on the feet and the shoulder blades.  You may find that your hamstrings don’t like you very much right now.  That is all right; they will get over it.  Ideally, your body will be a straight line from your shoulders to your knees sloping up from the ground.  If not, try squeezing your butt a bit to lift the pelvis a little more.  Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect.  Take a breath in.  Then, as you exhale, peel the spine back down one vertebra at a time pulling your hips a little away from your shoulders so that they come down a little closer to your heels than when you started.  Inhale and repeat a few times.  If you have low bone density, do not peel your spine up or down (flexing the spine is not recommended).  Instead, lift the hips straight to the ceiling, keeping the spine neutral, and then lower.

Dead Bug/Femur Arcs:  These are basically the same exercise, but one is a slightly easier variation.  The Dead Bug starts in the same position as Pelvic Clock.  From there, exhale and lift one leg with the knee still bent until the thigh is perpendicular to the ground and the shin is parallel to it.  Inhale to lower.  Repeat on the other side.  Do a set of ten.  The Femur Arc begins with both legs lifted in “tabletop” position (thighs perpendicular to floor, shins parallel).  One foot at a time touches down to the floor and returns to the starting position.  It is very tempting to do this motion by bending the knee more.  Resist!  Keep the 90 degree bend at the knee and use the hip joint to lower the leg.  You will know you are doing it right if you feel your lower abdominals working.  Do a set of ten.

Chest Lift:  If you have low bone density, skip this exercise.  You can substitute Brains (from my weight training exercises) instead.  If you do not have low bone density, you get to keep working!  This is the Pilates version of the ab crunch, but I like it better than the fitness version, so follow the directions!  Starting in our now-familiar position on our backs with our knees bent, bring your hands up behind your head, elbows out to the side but still in your peripheral vision.  In a fitness crunch, most people use their big heavy heads to heave themselves up toward their knees.  In Pilates, we exhale and think about moving our breastbone toward our heels.  The head lifts, but only because it happens to be attached to the rest of the body.  The muscles at the back of the neck should stay pretty relaxed and the upper part of the abs should be working (roughly the bra strap line, for women—men can use their imaginations if they do not have bra experience).  Do ten.  If this feels too easy, take the legs to tabletop position and work from there.

Hundred:  This is possibly the most famous Pilates exercise.  If you are new to Pilates, please do not start with a full hundred.  Do maybe a twenty.  (If you have low bone density, do not do this exercise.  You can substitute pretty princesses.)  Begin lying on your back with your legs in tabletop position.  Exhale and extend your legs out long at about a 45 degree angle from the floor while lifting your torso as in a chest lift.  The arms will be long, hands stretched out toward your hips.  The arms are going to pulse up and down while we do the breathing part:  five little exhale bursts followed by five little inhale bursts.  Each burst counts as one, so a full hundred would be holding the position and pumping the arms 100 times with each burst.  Do what you can.  Rest when you need to.  When you are done, rest a bit.

Side Kick:  Finally, we are going to get off our backs!  Roll to one side and come up on an elbow.  Check that you are a reasonably straight line from your shoulder to your heels.  Legs should be stacked on top of each other.  Lift the top leg about six to eight inches above the other leg and lower it.  Repeat about 10 times.  Then lift the top leg again.  Flex your foot and move the leg forward as if you were kicking a ball, but not so far that you shift your weight on your pelvis.  Point the toe and draw the leg back behind the body (knee still straight), again keeping the pelvis still.  Repeat for a set of 10.  Roll over and do the other side.  (There are more variations, but we’ll save those for another day.)

Dart:  Lie on your belly.  Phew!  Rest here if you want for a moment or two.  Then extend your arms down along your sides and turn your palms up toward the ceiling.  Turn your face toward the ground but lift your neck just enough that your nose is about an inch off the floor.  Inhale and lift your breastbone toward the wall in front of you to that your upper spine curves upward as you reach your arms back toward your heels.  Exhale and lower back down.  It is really tempting just to lift your head using your neck muscles.  Resist and use the upper back muscles instead.  You may feel a stretch in your chest.  This is good.  Repeat a few times.

Quadruped:  If you are not on carpet, you may want to pad your knees for this one.  Come up to your hands and knees, taking care that your knees are directly under your hip sockets and your hands are directly under your shoulders.  Your back should be flat like a table.  Pull your belly button toward your spine.  Engage your brain!  Extend your right arm out until it is parallel with the floor as you also extend your left leg out behind you.  Most people will find that their pelvis will want to tilt up on the side with the lifted leg; resist!  (I place a Koosh ball on my clients’ sacrums when they do this; if the ball falls, they know they are tilting!)  Lower the arm and leg and repeat on the other side.  Do a set of 10.

Spine Stretch:  If you have low bone density, be extra careful to keep your spine long to avoid spinal flexion.  Start sitting up.  If you have very tight hamstrings, you can bend your knees slightly and place the soles of your feet together and/or place a pillow or yoga block under your behind so that you can get your spine up straight.  Otherwise, sit up straight with your legs extended straight in front of you at about hip’s distance apart.  Put your hands on the floor next to your hips.  Slide your hands forward on the ground, keeping the spine long.  Some people find it useful to think about bringing the breastbone toward their feet.  This is NOT about touching your toes, but about hinging from the hip joints with a long spine.  Move toward your feet on the exhale and back to the starting position on the inhale.  Repeat a few times.

Spine Twist:  From the same starting position as Spine Stretch, extend your arms out to the sides, then curve them a little like you are getting ready to hug someone.  Keeping the arms in that position, turn your torso to one side and then the other.  Many people just move their arms across their bodies.  If this is too tempting, you can cross your arms over your chest and focus on moving the breast bone toward one side and then the other.  Repeat a few times, making sure to go the same number of times in each direction.

Saw:  If you have low bone density, skip this.  It is an extension of the previous exercise.  With legs out long (or in whichever modified position works for you), extend the arms out to the side and curve them like you are hugging someone.  Twist as above, but this time reach the right arm toward the left ankle (in other words, twist AND bend forward at the same time!); repeat other side.  Do an even number of repetitions on each side.

Mermaid:  If you have knee problems, leave your legs out long.  If not, bend your left leg as if you were going to sit tailor-fashion (shin across your body).  Bend the right leg so that your knee is next to your left foot and your right foot extends back toward your hip (i.e., externally rotate the left hip and internally rotate the right hip).  Your shins should form a 90 degree angle.  Ideally, both sit bones are still on the floor or close to it.  If they are not, you can put a towel under the side that does touch the floor to level your hips.  If this position is terribly uncomfortable, skip it and just extend your legs out in front of you.  Lift your arms out to the sides until they are parallel to the floor.  As you exhale, place your left hand on the floor and stretch your right arm up overhead in a side bend.  You should feel a stretch along the right side of your body.  Inhale and return to start.  Repeat a few times and then stretch the other direction.  Then switch your legs to the opposite side and do a few on the other side.  There are some other variations, but that’s enough for now.

Standing Roll Down and Olympic Salute:  If you have low bone density, skip the roll down and go straight to the salute.  (The salute is technically not Pilates, but it feels really good, so we do it anyway!)  Stand up.  (Yeah, I know.  It’s hard already.)  Align your posture so that your ear, shoulder, hip, knee, and ankle are all in a straight line.  For many people, this requires pulling the head back a little and tucking the pelvis under a bit.  Inhale and lengthen the spine.  As you exhale, tuck your chin and curl your pelvis down toward the floor one vertebra at a time as if you were peeling yourself off of a wall.  Keep your weight toward the balls of your feet to help your pelvis stay over your feet rather than falling back.  Eventually, the pelvis will need to drop back so you don’t fall over, but delay as long as possible.  At the bottom, breathe in and out.  As you inhale again, reverse the peeling process getting the hips under you as soon as possible.  When you are back upright, add the Olympic salute by raising the arms overhead in a big Y shape and lifting the breastbone to the ceiling, extending the upper back.

Woohoo!  You did it!  And, finally, here’s the summary:

pelvic clock

bridging

dead bug/femur arcs

chest lift

hundred

side kick

dart

quadruped

spine stretch

spine twist

saw

mermaid

standing roll down

Walk this way...

To fight the stir-crazy, everyone at my house is doing more walking.  Here are four ways to make walking more fun.

1.     Take pictures.  I like to take pictures of flowers, but other folks might want to snap cars or shapes or letters or sidewalk geography or dogs.  This helps us pay attention to what is around us.

2.     Go on a hunt.  Lots of places are doing teddy bear hunts.  We can use the bears as interval markers—go as fast as we can until the next bear, then recover until another bear is found.  Repeat until the end of the walk.  (Those of us who like to run can run between bears if desired.)  If bears do not appeal, we can use anything else that strikes our fancy:  little free libraries, or trees in bloom, or street signs with the letter E on them.

3.     Take a dog or a kid.  The pace may be different than we are used to, but dogs and kids bring a very different perspective to our usual haunts.  Who knew there were so many bugs?  But please do not pee on people’s lawns and bring bags to clean up when necessary.

4.     Vary the route.  Routine is often lovely and helpful, but we might find an unexpected pleasure around some other corner—a particularly gnarled tree, a tricycle, an amusing yard rabbit—who knows?

Step away from the fridge...

I admit:  I’m a stress eater.  I know I’m not the only one.  Add the fact that I like to cook and that I’m protecting my clients by not working with them in person right now, and I could be in trouble.  I am not the only one.  Stress and boredom are both triggers for a lot of people to eat.

One thing that helps combat both stress and boredom is exercise.  I know we can’t (and shouldn’t) exercise all the time, but even a short walk or stretch session can improve mood and at least interrupt our M&M consumption.

We can also pay attention to what we eat.  Sure, candy is extremely sweet and soothing.  But we can experiment to see if we can find other snacks that have fewer calories or more nutritive value or both while still helping us feel full.

Finally, we need to remember that our primary health goal right now is preventing the spread of disease and keeping our most vulnerable people from dying.  If it takes a few extra Snickers bars, totally worth it.

Here to help

As we are all still staying home to protect the health of our communities, some of us are feeling unduly tempted to overdo things, in many directions.  Messages around us suggest that if we’re not lovingly creating a gourmet dinner out of whatever the heck is in the back of the cabinets or teaching our children and ourselves four languages in addition to our normal schoolwork and work or finally mastering the most difficult yoga poses, we are doing it wrong.  Nope.  Not at all.  If we and our family remain alive during this time, we win.  The stress we are all feeling does not need to be augmented by induced feelings of failure.

Some of us find that exercise helps us cope with stress.  We may be tempted to work out really hard for lots of hours every single day.  This is not good for us.  When we lift weights or do weight training exercises with our body weight, we need to take a rest day between workouts to allow the muscles to recover.  We don’t get stronger while we are lifting weights, but in the recovery period after we are done—that’s what that soreness is about, rebuilding stronger.

We can do cardio every day, but we should make a point of making some days easier than others.  (If, say, we are doing weight workouts three times a week, we can do light cardio on weight days.)

It is also entirely all right to have some days when we do no exercise at all.  In stressful times, we often need more rest than usual.  The workouts will be there when we are ready.

If you need help figuring out what to do, or how much, or how many, text or call or email me.  I’m here to help.

Monday Workout: Cardio Poker!

My dear friend Mary Matlack passed this idea along to me.  I have adapted it a bit, but it is a great way to do some exercise during this time we are stuck at home.  There is only one catch:  we need to find a deck of cards.  The game works better with two people, but I’ll discuss how to play alone below if we need to.

Here’s how it works:  Divide the deck (evenly) in half and place in two locations a reasonable distance apart, like on opposite sides of the yard or living room.  Make sure there is a clear path between the two spots and that there is enough space for a body to work at each spot.  (A mat might be nice to have and a good way to ensure there is enough space, but hey, we’re getting sweaty anyway.)

For two people:  each person starts at one of the two spots.  Each runs (or moves quickly-but-safely) to the other spot and turns over the top card.  Using the chart below (or another chart adapted from it with exercises that fit the equipment and needs of players), each player does the exercise that matches the card suit for the number of times shown on the card (e.g., Ace of Spades is one pushup; Queen of Hearts is 10 jump squats).  Repeat until both players have a full “hand” of cards or more or wear out entirely and run out of cards.  For bragging rights, the player able to make the best poker hand from her or his cards, “wins,” but really, everyone who plays automatically wins.

If you are playing alone, go as many rounds as you like and compare one day's "hand" to the next.

Cardio Poker
Suit	Exercise
Hearts	squats/jump squats
Diamonds	lunge punches
Clubs	pretty princesses
Spades	pushups

Bonus tip: make stuff

Real self-care is particularly important these days.  Here are four free things to do that keep us safe, improve our fitness, and boost mood:

1.     Walk, at a safe distance from anyone we don’t live with already.  I like walking because it offers the opportunity to notice the world around us more than running or even biking, but those are good, too.

2.     Stretch.  All this tension is not good for us.  Even if all we do is raise our arms overhead or tilt our heads from side to side to release neck tension, we are ahead.

3.     Drink that water.  Dehydration causes crabbiness.  Crabbiness plus tight quarters causes arguments.  Arguments cause stress.  Easiest reduction of family friction ever!

4.     Talk to people.  Again, maintain safe distance, but we die when we don’t connect, even the introverts among us.