The Amazing Stickie and the Pilates Pushup

The Amazing Stickie knows that when Uncle Joe Pilates does a version of an exercise, it’s going to be interesting.  The Pilates pushup is a whole-body experience.

Stickie begins standing with good posture.  Keeping her weight toward her toes to keep her hips from falling back as long as possible, she curls her spine forward until her hands touch the ground.  From there, she walks her hands forward until she is in plank position.  Keeping her elbows close to her body, Stickie lowers and raises her body three times, maintaining a straight line between her head and her heels.  Then she walks her hands back toward her feet, returning to the forward bend position before stacking her spine up again to return to her starting position.  Stickie likes it that each Pilates pushup incorporates three pushups.

Look at that guy's...

Patience is one of those boring virtues.  It’s just not sexy.  No one goes, “Whoa!  Look at the patience on that guy!  So hot!”  And yet, under whatever it is we do find sexy in that guy, I am guessing there’s a fair amount of patience.

It takes patience to put in the work to get and stay healthy.  No matter how much we try, there are going to be some boring or unpleasant parts of our workouts.  (Which parts those are vary from person to person.  One person’s treadmill torture is another person’s happy place.)  And, when we start from the couch, we’re going to need to exercise our patience along with our bodies as we wait for the results of our actions to show.

 

The good news is that, much like the rest of our work in fitness, the patience we build is something we can use in the rest of our lives.

 

We can do this.

A Bulletin from Captain Obvious

Captain Obvious has some things to say today.  She would like to remind us that things that feel good in the moment are not necessarily good to have as habits, that things that feel a lot less good in the moment might make good habits, and things that hurt are to be avoided.  (It is OK to stop reading now; the rest is just unpacking this part a bit.)

So:  things that feel good in the moment.  Some of them, like massage, are fabulous habits to have.  If I ever have more money than I know what to do with after saving the world and feeding all the hungry people and all that, I’ll be getting a massage every day.  There are plenty of things in this category, like getting enough sleep and hugging people and petting puppies and hot showers.  However, there are some things that feel good in the now that are not that great long term.  I’m giving the side-eye to Haagen Dasz right now.  While I’m eating all that sugary dairy deliciousness, I feel fabulous.  Later, when my innards react to all that dairy and I’m headachy with a sugar hangover, not so much.  It is all right as an occasional indulgence, but a pint a day is just too much for my health.  When we’re stressed, it can be challenging to choose something that feels good and is good for us in the larger sense.  It’s worth trying.

 

As for things that feel less good in the now, my whole career is based on those.  My job is to get people to do stuff they don’t want to do for their own good.  Tough workouts are tough.  We may not enjoy them.  We may feel sore and grumpy afterward.  And yet, in the long term, those very workouts make us healthy and strong to live long and enjoyable lives.

 

That last category of things, the things that hurt, should be self-explanatory.  Sadly, the no-pain-no-gain crowd is way too popular.  It’s a Mean Girl of a motto, ready to abuse us at any time.  We do not need that kind of negativity in our lives.  We want our workouts to be enough work, but not so much that we actually hurt ourselves and suffer.  When I was studying flexibility and stretching, the course had to emphasize again and again that pain is counterproductive to improving mobility and flexibility.  No pain is a Good Thing.

 

Now go play.

Monday Workout: Back

This week, we’re doing a couple of things that work the back of the body.  Three rounds.

 

 

jacks	30
flies	20
bench dips	10
step ups	30
renegade row	20
1 leg squat	10
mountain climbers	30
bench press	20
plank	10

  

The Amazing Stickie and Double Leg Stretch

This week, the Amazing Stickie is working on spinal flexion and abdominal strength by doing Double Leg Stretch.

She begins curled into a ball with her head and upper back off the floor.  From there, she extends her arms and legs up toward the ceiling, maintaining her upper back and head off the floor.  She circles her arms and legs around until she is back in position with arms and legs toward the ceiling and then returns to the starting position.  She thinks it is kind of like doing elementary backstroke in swimming, except that her head and shoulders are lifted.

Not Horrible

Yesterday I wrote about horrible workouts.  Today I want to remind us all that workouts don’t have to be horrible.  We just need to find something we like or something we like about what we don’t like much.

It’s easiest, of course, if we happen to like workouts.  It doesn’t take much convincing to get me to swim or ski or bike.  I’m down to play pickleball or rollerskate or ice skate.  For some of us, this means we have to spend a fair amount of time experimenting.  We may not take to the first dozen things we try, or it might take a while to find the right instructor.

 

When we don’t love something (fun fact:  I don’t actually love lifting weights), we have to find ways to make it more fun.  Doing it with a buddy can help.  Fun music goes a long way toward making the time go by.  And never discount bribery as an option (although it might be best if the bribe was not edible, for best results.).

 

We can do this.

The Worst

Several careers ago, I had a commute.  The company I worked for bought a bunch of tapes about various business topics that we could check out.  When we returned them, we were supposed to write a paper about what we learned.  I don’t remember what benefit we got from the exercise besides learning stuff.  I listened to a lot of them because I’m that person.

It's been about a zillion years since those days, so I can’t tell you who the particular time management guru was who taught me the concept of Worst First, but I am thankful to them all the same.  It has been useful far beyond that job.

 

Here’s the gist.  When we look at the list of things we need to accomplish, one way to help us get them done is to do the most awful one first.  This avoids that procrastination thing where we spend all day doing anything we can to skip that one.  Once the horrible thing is over, the rest of the day seems lighter and better, like walking downhill instead of up.

 

I mention this because for many of us, working out is that horrible thing.  If we do it first thing in the morning, it’s done and we’re free of it and the worry about it for the whole rest of the day.  Putting it off until the evening just gives us a chance to think of all the reasons why we really shouldn’t have to do it at all.

 

In a perfect world, working out would not be horrible.  But I get it that it can be.  If it is, get it over with and then get on with life!