Same Muscles, Different Choices

We all have the same muscles, but we don’t all need to work them in the same way.  Fortunately, there are lots of ways to vary exercises to get each of us the right kind of work. 

For example, let’s take pushups.  I think most of us are familiar with regular pushups and the version with the knees on the ground, which are usually called modified pushups.  Those of us who have a hard time getting up and down from the ground can do wall or TRX pushups.  Those of us who want additional challenge have lots of choices:  we can raise our feet, add instability with a BOSU, add asymmetry with a medicine ball under one hand, add a renegade row between reps, and so on.  Additionally, we can choose to work the same main muscle groups in an entirely different way by doing bench presses (or any of the many variations of them) instead.

 

Even if we have a favorite version of an exercise, it can be interesting to try a subtle variation just to see how our muscles work slightly differently.  This would be the case when we keep our elbows next to our bodies when we do whatever pushup version we like and we find our triceps working more.

 

One of the things I offer my clients is tons of options, variations, modifications, and choices.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: Variation

This week we’re trying a variation on kettle bell swings:  the alternating arm kettle bell swing.  It works like the usual version except that we hold the kettle bell in one hand and at the apex of the forward swing, we swap it to the other hand.  Of course it is all right to substitute regular kettle bell swings as desired.  Three rounds.

 

jacks	30
squats	20
pushups	10
alt arm kb swing	30
rows	20
reverse flies	10
mountain climbers	30
skullcrushers	20
femur arcs	10

Three, Plus One More

Some of us are better than others at going outside.  If we need a little inspiration to make it out the door, here are three reasons to do it.

 

1.     Vitamin D.  The sun is our best source of this essential nutrient.  D helps keep our bones strong, reduces inflammation, supports our immune system, and keeps our brains working.

2.     Forest bathing.  Spending time in nature has been shown to reduce heart rate, lower blood pressure, and zap stress.

3.     Variety.  Our brains and bodies like novelty.  That’s where the growth happens.  The world outside changes more than the world inside where we control everything from the temperature to the light.

 

Still not working?  All right.  Mom says we have to go play outside. 

Roll for Damages

Yesterday I wrote about pain not being the same as damage, among other things.  However, we don’t really want either one, so today I’m going to discuss ways to avoid damage.

 

Maybe the best piece of advice in this context is that we need to use our good judgment.  I mean, that’s always good advice, but what I mean is that we need to engage our critical faculties when we go do our fitness things.  This might mean realizing that we are not twenty anymore, or that it has been a while since we lifted weights.  It might mean that we warm up even if we think warming up is boring.  While we are in the middle of whatever it is we are doing, we need to check in with our bodies to see if we’re getting tired or if we’re starting to feel the strain.  A lot of the time, we get plenty of warning that we’re pushing things too far before we actually injure ourselves.  Oh, yeah, and that safety precaution stuff?  Like wearing a helmet or a life jacket or appropriate footwear?  Do it.

 

The other big piece of the solution is building good habits.  Coming to our workouts rested and fed and hydrated is a good start.  Practicing balance, building a strong core, and enhancing our flexibility are also important.

 

Sometimes injuries happen anyway, but we don’t want to create situations in which it is easier for them to occur.

 

Play nicely.

What a Pain

Recently, I spent some hours in a workshop about pain.  I had high hopes that I would come away with some spiffy new exercises to wave around and POOF! Pain would vanish from my clients’ bodies and my own.

 

Sadly, pain does not seem to work that way.  There is no magic wand.  However, there was some good information.

 

For one thing, pain is not the same as damage.  When we think about it, we know this is true.  To use an extreme example, phantom limb pain is a feeling in a body part that no longer exists.  Pain does correlate with damage, but even that is not as strong a relationship as we might think.  For example, a literature review of studies of people without low back pain and the MRI images of those people found that, depending on the age of the subjects, from 37% to 96% of the people showed degenerative disks in the spine.  In other words, more than a third of younger people and nearly all of older people showed tissue damage without pain.  Conversely, plenty of people feel lower back pain without observable damage.

 

So what is pain?  Pain is an interpretation made by the brain of data from nociceptors (nerve endings that detect “noxious” sensations) in the body.  The sensory data is like a smoke alarm; it is the brain’s job to decide if there’s a fire or if someone is just cooking bacon in the kitchen again.

 

Please let me be clear:  while pain is a function of the brain, it does not mean that pain is all in our heads.  We are reacting to real stimuli in the real world.

 

What we can do about pain is to change our reactions.  Sometimes it is as simple as not doing something that hurts.  Other times, we need to learn more about what we’re feeling.  When we first start to exercise and do a bunch of squats and our thighs start to burn, we might interpret that sensation as pain; later, once we have had the feeling often, we might interpret it as a sign that we’re getting in a good workout.  The sensation has not changed, but our interpretation has.

 

After we have had an injury, the picture can be more complicated.  Damage has occurred.  But, as we saw above, damage and pain don’t always go together.  The longer it has been since we had the injury, the less likely our pain is to be correlated to tissue damage.  In other words, if our injury was more than three months ago, the tissues are probably all right (of course, we should check with our doctors for actual diagnosis and treatment!).  The pain we feel can come from all kinds of other things, like changes in movement patterns, muscle guarding, and fear of injuring ourselves again.  What we need to do in this instance is move.  Notice that I did not say we need to move the part that hurts.  Moving any part of the body will help reduce pain in the whole body.  We need to increase our sense that we are safe in movement (lots of ways to do this, including working with a trainer, taking things slow, making movements small, etc.).  And we need to look critically at the sensations we are having—discomfort is not the same as pain—so that we can retrain our brains to be less reactive.

 

Maybe I wanted a magic wand and got a bunch of tape measures and hammers and screw drivers instead, but tools are better than no tools.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: Twist!

We are doing some work in the transverse plane this week.  In other words, there will be twisting!  Three rounds.

 

kb swings	30
kb twists	20
kb 8s	10
squat raise	30
row to kickback	20
curls	10
overhead curtsy	30
Arnold press	20
Russian twist	10

 

Six Kinds of Feeling

Some days we wake up and don’t know what kind of workout to do.  Here’s a quick list of choices based on how we happen to feel:

 

1.     Grumpy.  Maybe that’s just me first thing in the morning?  Maybe not.  Anyway, if grumpy, choose cardio.  It really shifts mood a lot.

2.     Tired.  Another good time to choose cardio for its energy-boosting effects.

3.     Sore and tired.  This is the time to get gentle with ourselves.  Some yoga or simple Pilates or a less-intense walk would all be good choices.

4.     Bored.  This is the moment to kick things up a notch.  Choose heavy weights or more high intensity intervals.  Nothing beats boredom like lots of sweat!

5.     Fat.  This one requires a two-pronged approach.  First, we work out our minds by reminding ourselves that we are valuable humans no matter what we look like or weigh.  Then we hit the weight room to increase our lean muscle mass, burn calories, and boost our metabolisms.

6.     Stiff.  We need a little cardio to get the joints to wake up and then some yoga or other stretchy exercise.

 

What did I forget?