Does it count?

What counts as exercise?  My Wristy Overlord (aka Apple Watch) has one definition, but it is not necessarily the right one.  Here are a couple of ways to figure out whether what we are doing is exercise or not:

 

1.     Are we getting sweaty?  If we’re not working hard enough to sweat, it’s probably not exercise.

2.     Are we getting breathless?  This one applies more to cardio and strength training than yoga and other mindfulness-based practices, but it is still a useful indicator.  Breathless, in this context, means that we are still capable of speech, but would really have trouble singing.

3.     Are we a little sore later?  We all have individual pain tolerances, but a good workout will leave us feeling like we did something the next day.  If we hate the very idea of stairs, we might have worked a little too hard, but if we can perfectly happily skip up and down them, we might not want to count whatever we did as exercise.

4.     Did we learn something new about our bodies in motion?  This one applies more to Pilates and its sibling practices.  Creating mobility in our joints, figuring out alignment issues, refining our proprioception (five-dollar word for our sense of where our bodies are in space), and improving our balance are all exercises that unite our bodies and minds.  It can be very tiring, too.

 

As always, I am in favor of all kinds of activity, whether they are technically exercise or not, but we do want to ensure that we get some real workouts in.  Go play.

Oilcan for everyone!

Over the last several months, I have been doing what I call my “oilcan” exercises every day.  These are the exercises that keep my body parts moving smoothly, little maintenance things that make a surprisingly big difference in how my regular workouts and the rest of my life go.

 

The practice grew out of work with my clients.  Every client has individual needs based on all kinds of things, including injury history.  I saw so many folks with knee issues that I just know to tack on a couple of specific exercises at the beginning of those workouts.  I don’t have knee issues, but I realized one day (I might have been a little slow on the uptake here, but hey, I eventually figured it out) that I could create the same kind of thing for the parts of my body that were giving me trouble.

 

It turns out that it takes less than ten minutes to do the five or six things that make my body work better all day.  Want to find out what yours are?  Poke me!

Where to begin

I have written before about how overwhelming it can be to begin working out.  I’m going to do it again, because there are always people just starting out.  Also, the rest of us can use some reminding.

 

What do we do first?  What are all these gizmos and machines for?  What do we really need to do and what is optional?

 

When we are starting from the couch, the first thing we need to do is to build some cardio endurance.  We need that cardio base to work from when we start lifting weights.  It is generally a good idea to start small and work up to reduce the likelihood of injury, soreness, or severe rebellion against the very idea of moving ever again.  “Small” is a term that each of us has to define for ourselves.  Some of us need to start with five minutes of walking most days of the week; others of us can jump right in to the recommended 30 minutes of moderate cardio five times a week.  Once we have reached that 30 minute level and we don’t feel like we’re going to die at any moment, we have our cardio base and we can move along to weight training.

 

This is where I come in.  Most folks don’t need a trainer to get in cardio.  We grab our headphones and turn up the music or bribe ourselves with our favorite shows or go on outside and get it done.  Weights are a little different, especially when we are starting out.  A trainer can help keep us safe by demonstrating good form.  It’s nice to have someone do the counting and planning for us.  And then there is that whole thing where I get people to have a reasonably good time doing something they don’t really want to do.  When we start lifting weights, again, our first priority is building some basic endurance.  We start with light weights and work our way up.  A good starting point is one session a week, building up to two or three (unless we want to be serious body-builders, in which case things get much more complex).  Even if we don’t choose to work with a trainer, we want to put the priority on free weights rather than all those fancy gym machines because most of those machines work our muscles in isolation from each other, which is not how stuff works in real life.  When we work with free weights, we also build core strength, balance, and coordination.  (Those machines have uses for people with specific issues or injuries or other limitations and it is not BAD to use them; free weights are just, on the whole, BETTER.)  Our bodies really start to change when we begin lifting weights.  This is where we begin to build lean body mass, increase our metabolisms, and burn a lot of fat.

 

Then I need to talk about the most neglected part of most of our fitness efforts:  flexibility.  We get pretty good about showing up to do our cardio and weights and then we’re tired and we think that we’ll just skip the stretching today or do it later and we never seem to get around to it.  This is not the best choice.  Having toned muscles and all is great, but life is about moving, so if we skip the stretches too much, we are essentially limiting our lives by way of our range of motion.  Stretching feels good, so we perverse slaves of the Protestant Work Ethic think that it must not be all right to do or something.  Fight the power:  do some stretching!

 

I am always available for questions, so don’t hesitate to drop me a line or give me a call to ask.  Now go play.

Monday Workout: Yep, there are burpees

Bad news first:  there are burpees in this workout.  We do them because they are good for us, increasing our coordination, muscle mass, balance, and calorie-burning.  This does not mean we have to like them.  Swearing is allowed.  Three rounds.

 

woodchoppers	30
bench press	20
burpees	10
lunge punches	30
squats	20
kickbacks	10
plyo/regular/mod jacks	30
lateral raise	20
brains	10

 

Sneak it in...

I’ve been putting a lot of balance exercises in workouts for my clients lately.  Practice is key to balance, so here are four ways to squeeze in balance practice in daily life.

 

1.     Brush your teeth on one foot.  We brush our teeth every day.  We might as well practice balance at the same time since we’re standing there anyway.  Having the sink right there to grab makes it a pretty safe place to practice, too.

2.     Balance during that time in line at the store.  Focus on your favorite tabloid headline and see if you can read it all before you lose your balance.  Then do the other foot.

3.     Use commercials as time to balance (if you still have commercials in your TV programs.  If not, practice while the streaming stuff loads or during the endless scrolling to find something new to watch.).  May I suggest single leg deadlifts?

4.     Do some core exercises before you get up.  A few femur arcs or chest lifts before getting out of bed is a good way to start the day.  Maybe not as good as rolling over and going back to sleep, but good.  Ambitious people can do pretty princesses, too.

Outside!

The weather is getting warmer and, in some places, actually hot.  What that means is that we have to pay attention to a couple more things when we work out outside.

 

First, we need to drink more water.  This is almost always good advice, but it is truly crucial if we are getting sweaty in hot weather.  We need to bring more than we think we need and if we’re going to be out for more than a couple hours, we might want to bring a drink with electrolytes in it.

 

Second, we need to remember that we don’t need THAT much sun.  Personally, I think I am secretly a plant and I need to photosynthesize, but even this walking plant needs to remember the sunscreen and the floppy hat.  Sunburn is Not Fun and it’s not good for us.

 

We can have tons of fun if we do a tiny bit of planning.  Let’s be good scouts and Be Prepared.

Wanna work out?

Now that more of us are getting vaccinated and we’re allowed to see our friends safely, it’s time to talk about workout buddies again.  I am totally in favor of them, but it is important to choose the right ones.

 

Sometimes the people we love best are not the best workout buddies for us.  We are not looking for a soul mate in a workout buddy.  Here is what we ARE looking for:

 

Great workout buddies keep us accountable.  That dear friend who is always late or bails out at the last minute may be a wonderful human, but they will not help us achieve our workout goals.

 

We want workout buddies who are more or less at the same level of fitness we are.  If we work out with someone who is a lot less fit than we are, we won’t get much of a workout (however, this can be a Good Deed with a side of active rest for us and an opportunity to connect).  If we work out with someone a lot fitter than we are, we run the risk of working too hard or of getting discouraged.

 

We also want workout buddies who can focus enough.  That friend who has fascinating stories to tell might be perfect if both of us can still keep enough of our minds on pedaling/running/walking, but if the stories distract us from lifting form or traffic maybe not so much.

 

All of that said, active fun with our friends is good for us, even if those folks are not our perfect workout buddies.  Go play!