When Things Go Wrong

October was a rough month for me, for a lot of reasons.  I got a bit off track with my fitness.  It happens and I’m not going to beat myself up about it or anything.  Instead, I’m going to share what I do when I need to get back to my healthy habits.

 

The very first step for me when I’m not doing what I’m supposed to do is to figure out how to get my cardio in.  Cardio is the thing that gives me the most, fastest.  When everything is going wrong, I need cardio’s mood boost.  I need the extra energy it gives me.  I need the cognitive help.  And, yeah, I need to burn some calories.

 

While I often suggest cardio as a first step for other people for all those reasons, I would like to point out that we are all individuals and some of us might get the most benefit from starting somewhere else.  The point here is that the first step should be the one that gives us the most traction so that we can get to the second step.  (Apply this same principle to all the steps, please!)

 

For me, that second step is about what I put in my mouth.  When I am stressed, I want ice cream, mac and cheese, and all the caffeinated soda in the universe.  Sadly, this does not match up well with the list of foods that are actually good for me.  Weaning myself off the junk food helps me sleep better, ache less, and feel less irritable.

 

Step three, once the first two steps are well along toward becoming habits again, is to add just a little something.  Some days that might be some yoga.  Other days, it might be some weights.  Nothing too big or that takes too long or that feels too overwhelming.  Just a little push.  Those little pushes add up over time.

 

If I find that I’m stressing out again, I back up.  I return to the cardio.  I step away from the freezer.  I try not to add more stress about what I’m not doing.

 

What works for you?

Something Made New

Last week I did something new.  One of my friends invited me to go electric biking with her.  I don’t have an electric bike, but her husband kindly loaned me his for the occasion.

 

Was it the same as biking on my road bike or my mountain bike?  No.  But it reminded me about how much fun bikes can be.  The short version of why I don’t bike much anymore is that it hurts my body in a lot of places.  The electric bike’s geometry and the little bit of assist it gave me (I could have used more, but I have legs for a reason and I’m going to use them!) made it possible for me to go without my arms falling off and without having to suffer my way up hills.

 

There are many possible lessons to take from this, and not all of them involve shopping.  One is that finding a way to modify the things we want to do to make them workable for our bodies is a worthwhile endeavor.  Another is that getting a glimpse of success can motivate us to put in the work to get there (yes, I now want to take my non-electric bikes out for more quality time).

 

Joy is my favorite result from movement.

Monday Workout: Halloween!

So just for fun, I made a Halloween workout.  I only had to finagle a couple of exercise names to do it.  “Extend triceps” is what we usually call skullcrushers (which is an awesome Halloween name, really).  And “narrow squats” just mean that we’re keeping our feet shoulder width apart or narrower, not doing sumo squats this time.  Three rounds should do it.

 

H	high knees	30
A	Arnold press	10
L	lunge	20
L	lateral raise	10
O	oblique crunch	10
W	woodchopper	30
E	extend triceps	20
E	elbow plank
N	narrow squats	20

 

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