Good Form!

What is good form?  Here are five questions to ask to check form:

 

1.     What are my abs doing?  They should be engaged.

2.     Are my joints lined up?  Knees should align with ankles, for example.

3.     Are my shoulders out of my ears?  This is a particularly good question to ask when lifting things overhead.

4.     Am I using the right amount of effort?  Too much is as bad as too little.  Sometimes body parts we are not trying to work keep “helping” us, which just makes us tired and tense.

5.     Am I breathing?  Holding the breath is not useful.

Be Difficult

I’m currently in the process of reading a book called Anxious People by Fredrik Backman.  (I like it so far, but I’m only 50 pages in.  Will report back when I’m done.)  Two of the characters are a father and son who are both police officers in the same station.  They don’t get along very well and on page 14 we are told, “The older man thinks the most important thing is for a police officer to do the right thing, the younger thinks it’s more important to do things correctly.”  I’m reading the book with a book group and a fair amount of discussion ensued about this part.

 

Unsurprisingly, I am difficult.  I want not just police officers but people generally to do the right thing and to do it correctly.  This applies to fitness as well as everything else.  Doing the right thing, in a fitness context, means getting in the cardio, doing resistance training, and remembering to work on balance, core, and flexibility.  Doing it correctly means paying attention to form.

 

Be difficult.  Do it all.

Change

I’m apparently feeling like Captain Obvious again today, but sometimes that’s useful.  Here’s your news flash:  if your workout isn’t changing, it’s not working.

 

All right, now that I’ve got the obvious bit out of the way, I’ll return to my usual nuance to add some detail to that statement.

 

Two things happen while we work out:  we get stronger and we get older.  Depending on which one is happening more, our workout needs to adjust to match it.  Most of the time, I think, we get stronger faster than we get older, so in general our workouts should involve heavier weights over time.

 

That said, getting older is still happening.  We may discover that we need to work out smarter and not harder, choosing fewer exercises (with those heavier weights because we are still getting stronger) so as to keep our recovery time manageable.

 

The bottom line is:  if your workout is exactly the same as it was five years ago, something is wrong.  I’m happy to help with an update. 

Monday Workout: Not Fancy

 

I’m not feeling fancy this week, so this workout just gets the job done.  Three rounds.

 

woodchoppers	30
bench press	20
Arnold press	10
squat to leg lift	30
rows	20
kickbacks	10
suitcase swings	30
flies	20
Russian twists	10

Five

(I am not a dietician or a nutritionist.  I have, however, studied fitness nutrition and it is within the scope of my practice to make general recommendations about food.  However, there are more expert experts out there and anyone with deeper needs can and should consult them!)

 

We know when we don’t feel great.  Sometimes we don’t know why.  Here are five food culprits that might be contributing to our malaise.

 

1.     Alcohol.  No, I’m not here to take away your weekly beer or that special glass of wine.  I’m just suggesting that we notice how it affects our sleep and our energy levels.  Those of us who may be menopausal might discover that we have more hot flashes when we drink.  Just think about it.

2.     Water.  This one is where we can, most of us, increase our intake to feel better.  Dehydrated people are grumpy people.

3.     Caffeine.  I know it is easier to get caffeine than sleep, but it’s worth the effort to get the sleep.  Really.

4.     Dairy.  As we get older, many of us find that digesting dairy products is not as easy as it used to be.  Plant-based substitutes may make things more comfortable.

5.     Sugar.  Empty calories.  Inflammatory.  Addictive.  Tasty, but is it worth it?

But why?

Most of us have a pretty good idea about what our less-perfect habits are.  We have that nagging little voice somewhere that keeps suggesting we might want to dust off the weights, or find our running shoes, or reconsider that second piece of pie.  Our problem is not knowing what we should do; it’s doing it.

 

While my clients are working out with me, they don’t have to find motivation.  That’s my job.  (And, really, most of my motivational skill comes from having that Mom Look.)  Sadly, fitness does not happen in a single session, or even a couple of sessions a week.  People who want to make progress need to work out when they are not with me.

 

What motivates people to do their workouts?  Depends on the person.  Some people want to look cute.  Some want to climb mountains.  Some just want to feel better when they wake up in the morning.  The other part of my motivational skill comes from having lots of ideas about where folks can find the right levers to push to get themselves to work out on their own.

 

(This is the part where I pause and strongly suggest that all of us choose positive motivations rather than negative ones.  Shame is not good for us.  Exercise is not a punishment for bad behavior.  In the long run, treating ourselves with love is a much better plan.)

 

So:  I’m here.  I have ideas.  Hit me up.

Feedback

I love food.  I also love movement.  This is good, because healthy people need to eat and exercise.

 

Like all loves, we need to avoid obsessive love of either food or exercise.  We can’t out-exercise poor eating habits and no amount of correct eating can make us fit without getting off the couch occasionally.

 

The good news is that our bodies like to give us feedback.  We do have to listen to them, though, to get the messages.  Sometimes the messages are obvious, like the day after we helped a friend move and our muscles hate us—we overdid it.  Similarly, the day after too much birthday cake, we know we have made a mistake. 

 

Other times, the messages are more subtle.  We’re a little crabby and it’s because our guts aren’t as fond of dairy as they used to be, or we’re kind of stiff and we realize it has been a few days since we remembered to stretch after our workouts.

 

Tune in.  Practice listening to the body and see what happens.