How to choose

This week’s workout had some choices in it.  Here are some ways to figure out when to make a workout harder and when to make it easier.

 

1.     I’m bored.  Time to make it harder!  It’s hard to be bored when we’re out of breath.

2.     I’m hurting.  Time to make it less hard, at least on the part that hurts.

3.     I didn’t sleep well.  Less hard, or at least a longer warm-up

4.     I’m stressed.  This one can go either way.  If we enjoy taking things out on our weights that we can’t take out on our actual stressors, harder is a good thing.  If we need to conserve energy to deal with life outside the gym, easier might be a good choice.

 

Go play.

Happy Skeletons

We rely on our skeletons, even though we (I hope!) don’t see them.  Keeping our bones strong is a good way to ensure that we have a happy and healthy old age.  I’m here to talk about how.

 

Our skeletons respond well to work.  They also, believe it or not, like gravity.  To keep our skulls smiling, we need to keep all those bones in motion, preferably with a bit of weight or impact involved.

 

The simplest way to make our skeletons happy is to lift weights.  We don’t have to get fancy or complicated.  One or two weight workouts of 20 or 30 minutes a week is enough.

 

All right, maybe that’s not the simplest way.  The simplest way might be to walk or run or play tennis or pickleball or basketball or anything where our bodies impact the ground.  (Sadly, biking and swimming, two of my favorite activities, don’t have enough impact to make a difference for bone health.)

 

The really good news is that what is good for our skeletons is good for the rest of us, too.  That weight lifting increases our lean muscle mass, boosts metabolism, and makes us look good.  The cardio improves our mood and burns calories.

 

Make your skeleton happy!

Let's just leave carrot sticks out of it...

This is an oversimplification, but basically there are two types of motivation:  carrots and sticks.  Carrots are rewards for good behavior and sticks are punishments for bad behavior (unless you hate carrots, like I do, in which case it is punishment or punishment.  I don’t hate metaphorical carrots, though, since they don’t taste bad, so I’ll continue to use the familiar terminology.).

 

Not surprisingly, I have a preference between the two.  Despite the fact that roughly half the people who walk into my studio say something along the lines of “Oh, a torture chamber!” I don’t actually punish anybody.  (I do say, “I charge extra for that.”)

 

The biggest reason for this is that punishments don’t work.  Fear and shame and all those negative emotions don’t make us want to do whatever it is that someone wants us to do; they just make us want to avoid the bad thing that will happen to us if we don’t.

 

Praise, on the other hand, and positive reinforcement makes us feel like we are capable humans, empowered to do hard things.  It draws out of us our best selves.  It feels good, maybe even good enough to make up for having to do things like burpees.  It also doesn’t make us associate our workouts with Bad Things, which is far more likely to help us want to do it again.

 

Go play, you powerful humans, you!

Monday Workout: Decisions!

This week we have options.  (Fine.  Every week we have options, but I’m highlighting them this week.)  People who would like more challenge should do the overyets and the jump squats.  People who would like slightly less challenge should stick with the kb 8s and the regular squats.  People with questionable knees are included in those who would like slightly less challenge, in case that was not clear.  Three rounds.

 

kb swings	30
kb twists	20
kb 8s or overyets	10
mountain climbers	30
renegade row pushups	20
curls	10
(jump) squats	30
1 leg deadlifts	20
v sit press	10

 

Five

Sometimes we have one of those weeks.  Here are five treats we can give ourselves that don’t involve calories:

 

1.     Nap.  Yep.  It’s good for you.

2.     Walk.  A little change of scene is helpful, as is the mood-boosting power of cardio.

3.     Bath.  Swim works, too, but I’m thinking of the luxurious feeling of soaking right now.

4.     Connection.  Call a friend or text or meet up for a chat.  We feel better when we are surrounded by people who care about us.

5.     Choose some music.  Maybe you need to chill out to some classical or maybe you want to boogie in the kitchen.  Pick something that makes you happy.

 

Enjoy!

Naturally...

Yesterday I talked a little about why I don’t use fitness photos for these posts all the time.  Here’s another reason:  nature is good for us.

 

As annoying as it is when our moms turn out to be right, it’s good for us to go out and play, especially in natural settings.  Forest bathing is a thing because it really does reduce our stress and calm our minds.  People who struggle with meditating can get a lot of the same effects by walking under trees or at the beach.

 

Please note:  nature is all over the place.  We don’t have to go far to find some, even in the city.  We have parks and gardens and even street trees.  It may be awesome to get to somewhere there’s a lot less car noise and crowding, but even a quick five-minute stroll down a tree-lined street can help us reset our brains and our bodies.

 

So for today, I will be playing the part of your mom:  don’t waste this whole beautiful day inside!  Go out and get some fresh air.

Not a fitness tree

The photos I use for these posts don’t usually have a lot of fitness equipment in them or anything.  It’s not just because fitness equipment is not always super photogenic.  Fitness is, for me, not a goal in itself; I’ll go out on a limb here and say that it shouldn’t be for most people, either.

 

Fitness is a tool so that we can do other things we want to do, like hike around and take photos of nature and flowers and stuff.  If I were a diving enthusiast, maybe more of my photos would be of fish, but the underlying condition for being able to dive and take the photos would be fitness.

 

Maybe another way to think about it is that love is an excellent motivator.  I think most of us, in the early stages of being in love with that Special Someone, have done all kinds of challenging things (you know, like combing our hair or giving up anchovies on our pizza).  When we are in love with playing with our grandkids, we’re willing to do some cardio to make that easier.  When we are fascinated with Mexican indigenous culture, we train so we can climb those pyramids someday.

 

Do the work and then go play.