Peace Be With You

The holidays are basically here.  For most of us, even when the holidays are fun, there is a stress component.  Our routines are disrupted.  We eat different food.  We struggle to fit in workouts.  Here are a couple of coping techniques.

 

One is:  take the holiday.  When I say this, I am not authorizing anyone to eat fudge for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I am saying:  it is all right to relax and enjoy some treats.  Eat a vegetable once in a while over the week and please stay hydrated.  Take a stroll with the grandkids or all by yourself to get some space from the crush of family and friends, but don’t freak out if you work out slightly less.  Bodies and souls need rest as well as work.  The workouts will be there when you’re ready to come back to them.

 

The other is:  give yourself the gift of self-care.  Aunt Gertrude may not be thrilled that you turn down her famous pie, but she’ll live.  You may have to adapt the timing of workouts around family events, but if you really want to fit in a workout, you’ll manage, even if you show up late for the big family Monopoly-fest.  Or you can start or renew the tradition of the big afternoon football game for all ages prior to the feasting.

 

Whichever you choose, you are doing a great job.  Allowing ourselves the grace to choose a peaceful path through the holidays, whether we stroll along it slowly or do it with sprint intervals, is a great way to make life more carefree and less stressful.

Uncle Joe might need more than one chance

Pilates, like yoga, comes in flavors.  There is a classical repertoire, handed down by dear old Uncle Joe Pilates, but different schools and individual teachers take what he gave us and add a dash of this or that.  Some studios specialize in what I might describe as power Pilates, maybe incorporating weights.  Other studios blend more freely with yoga.  Nearly every studio adopts some of the really cool tools that have come into existence since Uncle Joe left us:  the BOSU, the Oov, and other gizmos.

 

I mention this because some people have tried one kind of Pilates and have decided that they do not like it, thanks very much.  I confess that if Pilates was purely the mat exercises, I might be one of those people:  I love my reformer and my trap table and all my other furniture.

 

Finding the Pilates class or one-on-one instructor that is right may require experimentation.  As everyone knows by now, I am a big fan of experimentation.  In other words, ask a bunch of questions and try a few different styles before you give up on Uncle Joe entirely.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: Twelve Days

It’s that time.  Tradition must be upheld.  Here is how the Twelve Days of Christmas workout works:  on day one, we do one push press.  We wipe our brows with relief.  Day one is over.  But then we move on to day two, when we do two goblet squats and one push press.  Still not so bad.  Spoiler alert:  by the end of this workout we will have done 42 burpees.  Yes, I am a terrible Santa and probably not actually the True Love.  On day twelve, we do the whole enchilada:  twelve plyojacks, eleven kettlebell swings, ten jump lunges, nine mountain climbers, eight renegade rows, seven pushups, six burpees, five deadlifts, four single leg squats on each side, three overhead presses, two goblet squats, and one push press.  We try to keep our rests to the space between the days, but rest when necessary.  Then we are safe until sometime in the summer, when we have a Hot Christmas.

 

1 push press

2 goblet squats

3 Overhead press

4 1 leg squats each leg

5 deadlifts

6 burpees

7 pushups

8 renegade rows

9 mountain climbers

10 jump lunges

11 kb swings

12 plyojacks

Amazing Stickie and the Bottom Up Kettlebell Press

The Amazing Stickie is fond of kettle bells because their shape creates opportunities to challenge her muscles in different ways.  Today, she is doing the kettlebell bottom up press.  She begins holding a kettlebell with the handle underneath and the weighty part pointing up at her shoulder.  Then, keeping the heavy part up, she presses the kettlebell overhead.  (Of course she keeps her shoulder blades down and against her ribcage the whole time!)  She lowers the kettlebell back to the starting position to complete the rep.  Five reps on a side is a good number to start with.

Brrr

Exercising when it is cold can be a challenge.  Heck, getting out of bed when it’s cold can be a challenge.  However, I have some ideas to share about how to deal with freezing fitness.

 

First of all, we need layers.  Maybe lots of them.  I was slow to adapt to the whole purpose-built fitness clothes thing, but the fabrics are worth it for the way they breathe.  We stay warm, the sweat “wicks” away, and we don’t end up dragging a fifty pound soggy t-shirt over our head at the end when it’s time to shower.  (I personally run hot these days, so I’m kind of minimalist on the layers and I take them off pretty soon, but I understand that I am at one end of the spectrum.)  Hats, gloves, and warm socks can make a huge difference, as can a layer that stops the wind/rain/weather from attacking us.

 

Second, we need to take a little longer on the warmups.  I hate warmups.  I want to get to work.  But they’re useful, especially when it is cold.  Our muscles need a chance to get used to moving.  Do a gentle cardio warmup and then some stretching before the real deal.

 

Finally, even though it is cold, we need to stay hydrated.  Drink that water.

 

Now go play.

Use Our Powers

Change can be hard.  It’s also inevitable.  (This is not one of those nasty, suck-it-up posts, I promise.)  Time passes, we get older, they discontinue our favorite brand of sports drink, our best pair of workout pants wear out.  But also, we have friends who get a new puppy, or we get a spiffy new haircut, or we finally figure out how to do pushups.

 

Given that we’re going to have to deal with change no matter what, we might as well seize the opportunity to direct the change in good ways as much as we can.  We can choose, say, working out so our bodies get stronger instead of choosing couch potatoing so our bodies get to look like maybe we need to be upholstered (no offense, flower prints…).  Stuff happens to us, of course, but we have some power.

 

Let’s use our powers for good.

Monday Workout: Still Compounding

I am, as always, really into the efficiency of compound exercises.  Deadlift to curl is the new one this week, so we need to choose a weight that is appropriate for the curl; it will probably feel pretty light for the deadlift.  Three rounds.

 

plie bend extend	30
deadlift to curl	20
pushups	10
reverse lunge twist	30
bench press	20
lateral raise	10
woodchoppers	30
skullcrushers	20
brains	10