Monday Workout: A Game!

For Christmas, we’re doing a workout game.  The only equipment required is a deck of cards, although it is handy to have an exercise ball or a yoga block for the pretty princesses and those of you who want to make things harder on yourselves may want some light weights to hold for the squats and punches.

This game can be played alone or with a friend.

 

One turn involves turning over a card and doing the exercise that matches the suit (see chart below) the number of times that is on the card.  So, for example, turning over the three of clubs would mean doing three pretty princesses.  Face cards can either be counted as ten, or jacks can be 11, queens 12, and kings 13.

 

Continue as long as time and energy allow!

 

(This is a good way to wear out any kids you happen to have lying around!)

 

Cardio Poker
Suit	Exercise
Hearts	squats/jump squats
Diamonds	lunge punches
Clubs	pretty princesses
Spades	pushups

 

The Amazing Stickie and Swimming

Today the Amazing Stickie is working on all kinds of good things, including spinal extension, core strength, and shoulder mobility.  She is doing all this by doing the Pilates mat exercise Swimming.

She begins lying on her belly on the floor.  Then she extends her arms and legs away from her until they lift up off the floor.  She makes sure that she doesn’t just use her lower back to curve her spine, but also involves her middle back in the work.  From there, she pulses her arms and legs up and down as if she were kicking while swimming and whacking the water with her arms.  As she does this, she pulses her breath as well, breathing out for four counts and in for four.  Eight cycles is enough.

 

She lowers herself back to the floor and takes a rest.

Gotta do it.

As we get into the darker months and the months with more variable weather, it can be a challenge to go outside.  Personally, I think that I was intended to be a bear who slept through the winter.  Since I have yet to find a job opening in the hibernation industry, I’ll just keep on doing what I do.

Outside can be cold or dark or rainy or windy or even all of those things at once.  Unfortunately, going outside is still good for us.  We need daylight, however feeble it might be, and fresh air and trees.

 

Maybe we have to bundle up or grab an umbrella or bribe ourselves with tea afterwards, but let’s do it.  We’ll feel better and we’ll sleep better.

Them Bones

The prophet Ezekiel did not know anything about Pilates when he saw the vision of the valley of dried bones.  But, he did grasp one of the essential underlying themes of Pilates as he watched the bones knit together again:  it’s all connected.  (Sorry about the earworm about the foot bone connecting to the leg bone and all…)

This connection is good news.  It means that when we work on any part of our body, the whole body feels the effects.  Sometimes it means that it’s better to work on a part that is not the part that hurts because what’s causing the pain is not what is happening right there.  We are a holistic system.

 

That said, we often get best results when we begin with the spine.  As we get good alignment along this central part of our body, the extremities can fall into place.  If they don’t, we can work on them more afterward.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: 12 Days of Christmas

Yes, I know that next Monday is actual Christmas, but I’m not working then.  So we’re doing the 12 days of Christmas workout this week. 

For those of you who have not yet tried it out, here is how it works.  We begin doing one push press.  Day one is over!  Then, we start day two, on which we do two goblet squats and one push press.  We continue on until we have completed all twelve days.

 

It is ok to rest as needed, but we try to rest between the days rather than stopping in the middle.

 

Yes, I know that this adds up to 42 burpees by the time we are done.  I am not your true love after all.

 

Merry 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

 

The Amazing Stickie and Single Leg Kick

The Amazing Stickie likes to ensure that she has strong glutes, mobile hamstrings, and healthy knees.  One way she does this is by doing Single Leg Kick when she goes to Pilates.

She begins lying on her belly with her torso propped up on her elbows and her hands pointing straight in front of her.  She bends one knee, flexing that foot, and pulses it toward her behind as if she were trying to kick herself in the butt two times.  Then she points her toe and stretches her leg out long to return to the starting position.

 

Stickie does about five repetitions on each leg.

Speed Limit

One of the themes of my life right now is slowing down.  I am not happy about this.  But when the universe speaks, it’s safest just to listen.

I’ve mentioned that slowing down when it’s time for stretching is beneficial.  It can also be beneficial when we are lifting weights.  The concept we’re working with here is time under tension.  We get stronger when our muscles spend time under tension.

 

In practice, this means that we don’t want to lift the weights as fast as possible to get things over with.  OK, maybe we do, but that’s not the best choice.  There are circumstances under which we lift fast, like when we’re trying to develop power, but if our goal is strength, slow wins.

 

It makes sense.  When we take four counts to push up those weights on our bench press and another four counts to lower them, we are spending a lot more time with our muscles working than if we just pump those suckers up and down.  I realize that this is more work and it requires that we have some patience.  I am always the bearer of bad tidings.

 

One interesting note, though:  we can get most of the benefit of a slower tempo by just slowing down the lowering phase of the movement (the eccentric contraction, for those of us who relish a bit of fitness jargon).  That is, we lift the weights in a single count and then lower them much more slowly.

 

Try it out and see!