Try Five!

 

Following up on yesterday’s post, here are five things to try for fall:

 

1.     Adding intervals to cardio.  It’s nice to get into the endurance cardio groove, but our bodies like the occasional burst of speed.  We will improve our cardio fitness faster and burn more calories.  Just go as hard/fast as possible for a minute every once in a while during the workout and then recover for a bit at the usual pace.

2.     Lifting heavy.  Choose one upper body exercise and one lower body exercise.  After warming up, alternate sets of each, increasing the weight each time until form deteriorates or the lift is impossible.  I like bench press/rows or deadlifts/bench press.

3.     Circuit training.  This is one form of functional fitness.  We cycle through a series of weight exercises plus a few cardio ones thrown in to keep our heart rate up.  It definitely busts boredom.

4.     Go outside.  It’s finally cool enough!  Trade the treadmill for the park or the spin bike for the real one!

5.     Stretch.  Almost no one I know stretches often enough.  How about we change that for fall?  It’s good for us, feels good, and doesn’t take long.

 

Go play.

Fall Forward!

I have no idea what the weather will be like when this actually posts, but right now it is raining.  What a welcome sound!  The season is changing!

 

I love fall.  Fall is the time of new beginnings, sharpened pencils, cooler temperatures, and renewed energy.  It’s also a great time to start a new habit; all the kids are doing it!

 

May I suggest taking a look at what we’re doing for fitness?  If we’ve been doing the same thing for months and months, our bodies are bored with it and our brains are likely bored, too.  This might be the time to change heavy lifting for functional fitness, or vice versa.  Maybe it’s time to throw in a little Pilates, or to try a different kind of yoga.

 

If we haven’t been exercising at all, this is still a good time to start.  I always recommend that folks start with cardio because it is a great foundation for everything else and it has such mood-boosting power.  Begin small and work up to 30 minutes on most days of the week.

 

We can do this!

Banish the Hobgoblin!

Crazy Uncle Ralph (Waldo Emerson) said that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.  My mind appears to be hobgoblin-free, because I try not to be too foolish or too consistent.  Why am I thinking about this?  I was thinking about workout plateaus and how to deal with them.

 

Workout plateaus, those times when we don’t seem to be making progress, can be incredibly frustrating.  We look resentfully at the numbers on the weights, which are not going up, or the numbers on the run time, which are not going down, or the numbers on the scale, which seem to be frozen entirely.  So how do we break out?

 

It depends.

 

Sometimes we hit a plateau because we are not working as hard as we think we are.  We’ve actually been coasting a bit on the cardio, or skipping workouts here and there.  It’s also possible that we aren’t eating as well as we think we are.  This is where it is good to renew our commitment to tracking, because that will reveal what is really going on.  Then we can adjust as needed.

 

Other times, we are hitting the plateau because we have been overtraining.  As hard as it is when we are really motivated to DO things, we need to choose to rest a bit at that point.  Easing off gives our systems time to catch up with all the good work we’re doing.

 

We have to check in with ourselves and gently inquire what is going on.  If we are slacking off, we can nudge ourselves back into the work and if we’re overtired, we can treat ourselves with love and take a nap.

Monday Workout: Compound!

This week we are doing lots of compound exercises.  They make us strong and burn lots of calories.  Three rounds.

 

squat to leg lift	30
flies	20
burpees or pushups	10
woodchoppers	30
bench press	20
Arnold press	10
suitcase swings	30
lateral raises	20
brains	10

Somehow Burpees Didn't Make the List!

We all have our favorite exercises.  Here are five of mine, and, as a bonus, why I like them so much.

 

1.     Squats.  Squats are my Very Favorite exercise because they are infinitely practical.  Don’t want to end up in a nursing home?  Do squats.  The line between independence and dependence is whether or not we can get up and down off the toilet alone, which is a squat.  Not enough of a good reason?  Squats also use a whole bunch of joints, which means we burn a whole bunch of calories doing them.  They increase our stability, improve core strength, and give us a feeling of power.

2.     Lunges.  OK, lunges are actually one of my least favorite exercises, but I’m including them on this list because they are so good for us.  Lunges have the same kind of compound exercise benefits that squats do, plus they work our balance and teach us good knee habits.

3.     Pushups.  Pushups work the same muscle groups that bench presses do, but they give us the bonus of recruiting our core at the same time.  There are many, many kinds of pushups, so there is an appropriate variation for nearly everyone, whether we need them to be easier or harder.

4.     Plyojacks.  There’s a theme here:  compound exercises.  Plyojacks, again, work lots of joints, which means lots of muscles have to engage, which means lots of calorie expenditure.  Added to all of that, we have jumping, which gets our heart rates up, helps us build coordination, and improves landing mechanics.  That last one is a good habit to have for any of us who ever trip.

5.     Pretty princesses.  This is my favorite ab exercise because the spine is stabilized, making it safe for nearly everyone, and because it works all the abs from top to bottom.  Also, it uses a great big rubber ball, so it must be fun, right?

 

Don’t like my favorites?  Do your own!

Transformative Tools

A few months back, I bought hiking boots.  A few weeks back, I bought a water pen.  What is the common thread?  (No, not capitalism.  That’s a different sort of post.)  I invested in better tools.

 

The water pen has improved my artwork a lot because it gives me more control over where the water ends up on the page.  It wasn’t an expensive item, but it made a big difference.

 

In the past, I have gone hiking in flip flops, or whatever shoes I happened to have on.  I can say that it is totally possible to have a great time hiking in “wrong” shoes.  That said, I really love how my new boots help me interact with the ground (and by “interact with,” I don’t mean “fall on,” which has been the case in the past).  I could hop from rock to rock a lot more confidently.  I came back without sore feet, blisters, or scrapes.

 

When we are just starting out on something, we don’t need to spend a chunk of money on fancy stuff, but there is a moment when we can enjoy what we do even more with the right equipment.

Not the Boss of Me

I had an interesting week with my Wristy Overlord (aka my Apple Watch).  I was on vacation away from my usual environment.  I closed my exercise ring most days and my stand ring every day, but my move ring languished without my daily chores and activities.  I learned some things.

 

One lesson is that I have done a pretty good job of making my ordinary life conform to my goals.  I am not the couch’s best friend.

 

Another one is that I don’t have to pay too much attention to the Great Gradebook in the Sky.  I talked back to my Wristy Overlord.  I explained that I was on vacation, that vacation is good for me, and that I’d get back to moving when I got home.  I didn’t want to completely ignore the W.O., but I did want to give it a lower priority than having fun.

 

I am the boss, not the W.O.