Maybe a different kind of rest?

I spend a surprising amount of time, given my profession, telling people to rest.  However, sometimes when we’re feeling low-energy and tired, we don’t actually need rest; we need to get moving.

 

I know we’ve all had days (or maybe even weeks!) where we’ve had a lot on our minds and we feel stressed out.  We may have “treated” ourselves to less healthy foods as a stress management technique, or leaned on the caffeine to make up for the sleep we can’t seem to get.  It is tempting, at that point, to crawl under the covers or cocoon ourselves on the couch, but if we want to get our minds and bodies back to life, we’d do better to throw on some shoes and go for a walk.

 

I am not saying that we shouldn’t sleep when we need to, or that we should go run a marathon to beat the fatigue.  I AM saying that some moderate exercise and maybe a dose of fresh air is the kind of break we need even more.  Cardio, once we get started, increases our energy level and boosts our mood.  Our brains start to work better.  Going outside literally changes our perspective (bonus points for going outside into a natural setting, where “forest bathing” can occur to soothe our souls).

 

It takes determination to get started when we feel blah or worse.  We can talk ourselves into it by giving ourselves stupidly easy goals, like walking around the block one time.  We may discover that that is enough; we’ve earned our nap at that point.  We may, however, realize that we feel better already and we’d like to do another lap or two.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: Sneaky!

I love exercises that challenge the core in sneaky ways.  The single arm clean and press, by virtue of being asymmetric, does just that!  Mountain climbers are obviously a cardio move, but core recruitment is definitely happening at the same time.  The row part of renegade rows is actually the easy bit; it’s the balance/core work that makes them hard.  Three rounds.

 

1 arm clean and press	30
flies	20
renegade rows	10
kb swings	30
kb twists	20
kb 8s	10
mountain climbers	30
squats	20
Russian twist	10

Five Tasty Things

We all get hungry.  One of the keys to staying healthy is choosing good snacks.  Here are five that I like right now:

 

1.     Apples.  Crisp, sweet, full of fiber, relatively low in calories.  Pair well with nut butters or cheese for a protein hit as well.

2.     Nuts.  Healthy fats, a bit of protein, and some tasty salt!  What is not to like?  But watch portion size because there are tons of calories to be found here.

3.     Hard boiled eggs.  Again, a good source of protein with some fat to keep us feeling full.

4.     Fruit and yogurt.  The protein/fat/carb combo here helps us stay satiated without eating too many calories.  Choose low sugar yogurts for best results.

5.     Pretzels.  This one is not peak nutrition, but when we want something salty and relatively low in fat, pretzels beat chips every time.

Not an easy out

Pilates can be deceptive.  Sometimes it seems like we’re not doing that much when we do the Pilates exercises.  We rarely get out of breath and we may or may not get sweaty, so we get it into our heads that Pilates is “easier” than weight training.  If we’re looking purely at calories burned, that might be true.

 

However, because Pilates focuses in so much on how we move and not just on how much, we have to use our brains even more than we do during weight training.  A lot of weight training is about big muscles and brute force.  Pilates is about little shifts with smaller muscles, about refinement of technique, and about breath.

 

It is absolutely true that I sometimes offer Pilates as a gentler option to clients who are not feeling up to a big cardio/weight workout.  I do it because I know that those clients have the mind space to concentrate, to explore the connections between bones and muscles and nerves, to move with intention.  We may not go hard, but we do go deep when we do Pilates.

 

What we end up with is improvements in proprioception, core control, balance, alignment, and overall form.

 

Check it out!

Exercise Exorcism

One of the things that makes working out more complicated is that we are not simply bodies.  We’re also great big bags of emotion and thought and experience.  All that mind stuff can either help or hinder our workouts.  The good news is that we can use various techniques to ensure that things go in the “help” direction.

 

This last week, one of my clients (who actually suggested this blog post, so I’m not violating privacy here) showed up to her workout just after a pretty major disagreement with someone.  That meant that she had tons of adrenaline and energy flowing through her, but that her ability to focus was somewhat impaired by anger and frustration and hurt.  We dealt with the demons by performing exorcism by plyojacks.  (I have not tried to exorcise any actual demons and I don’t recommend trying that at home, with plyojacks or any other exercises.  Consult a professional in case of actual demon possession.  That is well out of the scope of my practice.)

 

In other words, we channeled all that (negative) nervous energy into cardio.  It took about a minute.  Her heart rate got up, which made her breathe heavy instead of the shallow breathing of stress.  The air and floor took the pounding without damage.  The work was just hard enough that there wasn’t room in her brain for all the icky thoughts.  And, as I keep saying over and over, cardio is a proven mood-improver.  We broke the cycle of Bad Stuff and were able to get on with the rest of the workout.  At the end, she had accomplished a lot with her body and her mind was in a calmer state.

 

Sometimes, I need to take a client in a different direction.  A person shows up with the low energy of sadness.  We can go gently, then, adding in some breath-focused exercises from the Pilates repertoire that help soothe and then energize.  We focus on exercises that are familiar.  We don’t go for the big challenge, but for success.

 

To be clear:  I am not a therapist, doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist, or mental health professional of any kind.  I am a personal trainer and Pilates instructor.  Nothing I do is a substitute for professional help with mental health issues.  Exercise, according to science, can help with some mental health issues, but please talk to the appropriate folks to get the real help you need.  My purpose here is to suggest complementary behaviors, not to treat or correct any conditions.

 

When in doubt, just keep breathing.

Monday Workout: Lunges

One of the easiest ways to make an exercise more challenging is to add a jump to it.  Lunges (even though I hate them) are good for us because they are a compound exercise that requires core recruitment for balance and a lot of coordination to ensure we use our knees well.  Jump lunges do all that while getting our heart rate up.  Note:  if jumping is not appropriate in your body, don’t do it.  Plain lunges are, as I just said, still awesome.  Three rounds.

 

step ups	30
squats	20
1 leg squats	10
woodchoppers	30
deadlifts	20
lateral raises	10
(jump) lunges	30
rows	20
pretty princesses	10

 

Six for the haters

Here’s a list of things to try depending on what we hate most about exercise.

 

1.     Sweat-haters can try swimming.

2.     Boredom-haters can do Tabata or HIIT because they’re efficient and change often.

3.     Weight-room haters can take their body weight routines outside.

4.     Cardio-machine-haters can run or bike or swim or row in the real world.

5.     Cardio-haters can try yoga or Pilates, which also have beneficial effects on heart health.

6.     Class-haters can go it alone and self-motivation-haters can find a workout buddy.

 

Just keep trying!