Do I Really Need to Tell You Number 5?

Need some motivation?  Here are five good reasons to lift some weights:

 

1.     It improves your metabolism.  Muscle tissue burns more calories than fatty tissue.  Building muscle means that our bodies use more calories.

2.     It improves your shape.  Muscle tissue is also denser than fatty tissue.  This means that even if we do not lose any weight, our bodies will be smaller.

3.     It can get your heart rate up.  Weight lifting is not the same as endurance cardio exercise, but as those weights get heavier, the heart gets going!

4.     It improves our bone density.  Falls and broken bones are big risks as we age.  Weight lifting builds our resilience to those dangers.

5.     It makes us strong.  (Of course it does!)  We can impress our friends with our ability to move furniture, open jars, and hoist heavy children.

 

Go play. 

Weight!

I think most of us, when we think of exercise, think of cardio or of sports.  It takes a while to get around to remembering weight training and sometimes even longer to get around to doing any.

 

Sometimes all those weights in the gym can look intimidating.  So can some of the people using them.  I have a news flash:  those weights are for everyone and those other people need to share nicely.  Often, people start with the weight machines.  That’s a good place to begin because the machines have some built-in safety and stability things and there are directions, right there, in words and pictures.  Working with the machines offers a way to get comfortable in the gym, look around, see what else is going on.  And then, after a while, we realize that the machines are pretty boring for both our bodies and our minds.

 

Free weights open up lots of possibilities.  When we use them, we are not artificially stabilized by the tracks of machines.  We have to use our own core to do that.  We have to pay attention because free weights don’t have something protecting us from dropping them on our own feet.  It can be a lot more rewarding and challenging.  It is all right, and even encouraged, that we start small and build from there.  It’s worth the trouble.

Why I Post Workouts Free and Why People Pay Me Anyway

Every week, I post a workout to the blog on Mondays.  Anybody who wants it can use it.  This is also the workout I use for my clients during the week.  So what do they pay me for?

 

For one thing, it is not exactly the workout that my clients do because I tailor it to what each client needs.  The workout I publish on Mondays is the base model.  What my clients do is the custom version that takes into account that one person has knee issues, or another person needs to work on shoulder mobility, or yet another person just doesn’t like jumping moves.  My clients know that I know their bodies and that I will make sure that what they are doing is safe and effective for each of them, personally.

 

I also watch them do the work.  This sounds like a silly thing to pay someone for, but it isn’t.  Some of it is that Mom Look I have that gets people to do things they don’t much feel like doing (works on everything but getting my kid to turn in reading logs, it turns out; I am thankful those days are behind us!).  This is not a small thing, given how many of us want to work out but somehow don’t manage to do it on our own.

 

My watching, Mom Look notwithstanding, is not like everybody else’s watching, either.  I am watching form, to keep clients safe and to make their workouts effective.  I am watching energy level to adjust the intensity of the work in the moment.  I am tracking progress, whether that means increasing weight, increasing coordination, or just better performance.

 

I am happy to offer the workout to anybody who feels like doing it.  I am also here to help if it turns out that folks need more than just a list of exercises.

Monday Workout: Burpees Are Back!

This week we’re doing our due diligence and visiting the burpees again.  They’re not super fun, I know, but they are good for us and we get better at them when we practice.  Three rounds.

 

step ups or high knees	30
flies	20
burpees or pushups	10
woodchoppers	30
rows	20
Arnold press	10
jacks	30
bench press	20
roll out abs or chest lifts	10

 

Three Micronutrients to Boost Immunity

Since we’re (still) living through a pandemic, I thought it might make sense to talk about micronutrients that help boost immunity.  The evidence suggests that supplementing may or may not help, but ensuring that we have adequate amounts of these vitamins and minerals is a good idea.

 

1.     Vitamin D.

2.     Zinc.

3.     Vitamin C.

 

So:  go outside, have some fish, and eat an orange or two.

Mobility vs. Flexibility: YES!

I hear a lot about people feeling stiff (No, not like that.  Get your mind out of the gutter!).  There are at least two things going on there, and we often have some confusion about a couple of common terms.  I’m going to explain.

 

Flexibility is about muscles.  When our muscles feel stiff, we need to stretch them.  This happens when we are stuck in a chair for too long or we do a bunch of exercise and don’t stretch afterwards to help our muscles recover from all that contracting.  Flexibility is a learnable skill, although there will always be folks who are more flexible than others.

 

Mobility, on the other hand, is about bones and joints.  As we get older, mobility can be affected by things like osteoarthritis.  We want to preserve as much mobility as we can and the way we do that is to take our joints through their full range of motion pretty much daily.  Mobility is a lot more structural, but we still can help it along by working on our flexibility and by continuing to move.

 

Bottom line:  moving is still good.  Go play.

Improve Mental Health!

Let’s talk about mental health for a minute or two.  Mental health treatment is out of my scope of practice (I am not a doctor or a therapist; I don’t even play one on tv.).  That said, actual researchers have gathered data on the links between exercise and mental health.  Here’s what they have to say:

 

Cardio exercise improves mood.  Those of us who suffer from depression and anxiety can benefit from getting moving.  In some studies, cardio was as effective or more effective than antidepressants (please note:  do NOT stop taking medication without talking to a doctor.).  It is a helpful adjunct to whatever our healthcare providers suggest we do for our mental health.

 

Exercise also helps relieve stress.  Different kinds of exercise relieve it in different ways, in my experience.  Those of us who need to practice chilling out might want to go to Pilates or yoga.  Those with some aggression to burn might prefer cardio or weights.

 

Finally, that whole Juvenal (yes, I looked it up) healthy mind in a healthy body turns out to be true.  When our bodies are healthy, our minds feel better, too.

 

Go play.