Why is the answer never "build a blanket fort?"

Risk is inherent in life.  We may not live like Wile E. Coyote, liable to have a safe or a piano dropped on us on a regular basis with only a small pink umbrella to protect us, but the world is sometimes a dangerous place.

The answer, sadly enough, is not that we need to build a blanket fort and hide in it all day reading murder mysteries and eating popcorn (although if anybody wants a play date, let me know!).  It’s preparation.

 

I’m not talking about having an earthquake kit or a first aid kit (even though it’s a good plan).  I’m talking about working on balance.

 

What we need for the routine dangers of our lives is balance.  We need to learn how to react when we unexpectedly step off a curb.  We need our bodies to adjust, automatically, when our toddler grandchild crashes into our legs or when the dog we are walking suddenly tries to chase a squirrel up a tree.

 

Balance comes from, among other things, knowing where our bodies are in space to begin with and from having the strength to adjust to sudden changes.  We can work on improving our balance in lots of ways.  One of the easiest is to practice standing on one foot, maybe while we’re standing at the sink anyway brushing our teeth or when we’re stuck in line at the grocery store.

 

If we want to get more intense about learning balance, we can cart ourselves over to yoga class or the Pilates studio.  It’s just being a good scout:  prepared.

Friends and Workouts

When we work out with friends, it can be a lot of fun.  I’m in favor of fun and of working out, but it’s important to understand which thing is taking priority at a given point.  Let me explain.

Say my friend and I decide to go for a walk together.  What we actually do could be anything from intensive interval training where we both manage to have just enough breath available to egg each other on to a casual stroll along a shopping street looking in the windows and ending up at the café for coffee and pastries.  There is some work involved in both those scenarios, but one is focused on the work and one on the fun bits.

 

This is important:  both scenarios are totally good ones.  We don’t have to work out at our very hardest every single time.  And we do need friends for our wellbeing.

 

What we also need to do is balance.  We need to consider whether we’re concentrating too much on sweating and not enough on listening to our friend’s nasty breakup, or if we’re slacking because we really want all the gossip about the new hottie down the hall in their building.  It is possible that one of us is more fit than the other.  That can mean that one person’s tough workout is the other’s rest day.

 

Both our mental health and our physical health contribute to our overall happiness.  Give both of them the attention they need.

Monday Workout: Nasty but useful

Burpees are nasty, but useful.  When we practice them, they don’t feel quite so awful.  Three rounds.

 

leg kicks	30
bench press	20
burpees	10
squat raise	30
skullcrushers	20
Arnold press	10
mountain climbers	30
rows	20
Russian twist	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Bent Knee Opening

Today in Pilates the Amazing Stickie is working on bent knee opening.  This is a great exercise for all the stabilizing muscles of the core.

She begins lying on her back with her legs in tabletop position (thighs perpendicular to the floor, shins parallel to it, feet flexed).  As she inhales, she holds one leg still and opens the other leg to the side.  Then she exhales and returns the leg to the starting position.  The entire time, she keeps her weight even on both sides of her pelvis.  This is more difficult than it sounds.  She does five reps on one side and then five on the other.

 

When she wants additional challenge, she begins by alternating sides (i.e., opening the right leg to the side, returning to center, and then opening the left leg.).

They don't actually exist

So the Personal Training Police are probably going to come take me away for saying this, but I’m doing it anyway.  Weight workouts don’t have to take a long time.

Let’s say we have a cardio habit.  We’re good at getting in our half hour most days a week, but we’ve been struggling to find another chunk of time to get in the weights.  Just do two weight exercises at the end of the cardio.

 

Here’s how it might work.  Monday, we do our 30 minutes on the spin bike and we do two squats and bench press, two sets of ten each.  If we alternate between the squats and the bench press, we don’t have to rest much between sets because we’re using different muscle groups.  That takes maybe five more minutes and then we stretch and get out of the gym.  Tuesday we go play outside and do our thirty minutes running or hiking or walking.  Wednesday, we go back to the gym, hit the elliptical for 30 minutes and then do deadlifts and flies, again, two sets of ten each.  Thursday we go to Zumba.  Friday, we do intervals on the treadmill and then do lunges and rows.  We’ve done a balance of work on our upper and lower body and we’ve only added a few minutes to our gym time on three of our days.

 

Try it!

Might take more than one session

Recently I listened to a webinar about Pilates and self-esteem.  I do these things so no one else needs to.  The presenter was very… sincere.  She spent an hour talking very earnestly and here’s what we need to know:  Pilates can improve our self-esteem when we approach the exercises with a sense of curiosity, ready to explore what our bodies can do, rather than with an ego-driven need to succeed (whatever that means) at Pilates.

Simple enough, right?  Sure.  Park all that achievement-minded programming we’ve been receiving at the studio door.  Ignore all those messages about our bodies and what they’re supposed to look like and feel like that have been bombarding us our entire lives.  Defeat the dominant paradigm, and hey, presto!  self-esteem!

 

Well, defeating the dominant paradigm might take more than one session, but we begin with the breath.  Focusing on our breath, coming into our bodies, sensing what we actually feel:  these are the first subversive steps.  They help us let go of all those voices, those distorting mirrors.  We move.  We think about how we move.  We move some more.  And as we keep going, we do get curious.

 

It's a little bit like being a kid.  We’re stuck waiting for the school bus at some random corner of the sidewalk.  At first, we’re bored.  There’s just concrete.  But then we notice the dandelions pushing up through the cracks and the line of ants and the ladybug.  We find a cool stick.  We use the stick to poke around in the pile of last year’s leaves and find a bottle cap and a nickel.  By the time the bus comes, we’re squatted down, fascinated by the trickle of water into a storm drain, totally engaged.

 

Breathe through the boredom.  Find the little bits of interest.  Follow them.

Monday Workout: Plus

This week, we’re working plenty of compound exercises, plus some balance work.  Three rounds.

 

sumo to high pull	30
lunge twist	20
truck driver	10
kb alternating arm swing	30
kb halo	20
kb hammer curls	10
plank jacks	30
1 leg deadlift	20
brains	10