Happiness and Joy

Today we’re going to talk about happiness versus joy.  (My brain just imagined the two as Luchadores, but, aside from making me laugh, that’s not relevant right now.)  Happiness is a circumstantial thing.  We feel happy when things are going right, when we have cute shoes, when there is no traffic on our commute, when we get tasty snacks.

 

Joy, however, is not.  Joy is a way of being in the world, more of a mindset than something dependent on how things are going.  We achieve joy in a variety of ways, including integrity and gratitude.  Joy is a practice.

 

So what’s the connection with fitness? 

 

The most obvious connection is… connection!    That mind-body connection is a real thing.  When we tune in to what makes our body feel good, when we experience ourselves as moving beings designed to move, we open ourselves to the joy of existence.

 

Then there is that whole practice bit.  When we move with intention, we learn.  We grow.  We learn to appreciate our capabilities.  We practice being grateful for bodies that can do so many things in so many interesting ways.

 

Finally, as we move our bodies, we treat ourselves with love.  That love spills over into things like better sleep, good-for-us food, reduced pain.  All those things contribute to our sense of joy in the world.

 

Bottom line:  happiness is good and joy is even better!  Get both! 

Monday Workout: Sorry/Not Sorry

So I’m pretty sure that some folks aren’t going to like me much this week because I have made renegade rows harder by adding that pushup in there.  Sorry/not sorry.  Three rounds.

 

woodchoppers	30
bench press	20
pushup renegade row	10
1 arm clean and press	30
flies	20
front raise	10
split squat pulldown	30
kickbacks	20
butterfly crunch	10

The Amazing Stickie and Gorilla Row

The Amazing Stickie has amazing posture.  One way she maintains this level of amazingness is by working the back of her body.  Gorilla rows are a great way to do that.

She begins by squatting down with her legs fairly wide apart.  She hinges at her hips so that her back is nice and straight and parallel to the floor, her hands holding dumbbells between her feet.  From there, she lifts one dumbbell up toward her armpit (stopping before she runs into her own body!) and then lowers it back toward the floor.  She repeats on the other side.  Letting the dumbbell rest on the floor is easier than keeping it hanging, but both ways of doing the exercise are good.  Sets of ten to twenty are good, depending on how heavy the weights are.

Say What Now?

I am nothing if not a repository for random factoids.  Today’s tidbit comes from a webinar I watched recently.  It was not central to the topic of the webinar at all, but I had one of those “Wait, what?” moments when a presenter said that overuse of antibiotics is driving a rise in ruptures of the Achilles tendon.

 

That sounded fishy to me.  While I certainly do not think we should be taking antibiotics unless they’re really necessary because we don’t want superbugs out there, I did not see any inherent connection between those drugs and our tendons.  I could have just gone on with my life, but instead, I checked it out.  Internet search for the win!

 

It turns out (link here!) that certain common antibiotics do have adverse effects on our connective tissue.

 

The lesson here, besides taking antibiotics when necessary and not willy-nilly, is that we need to be open to examining things we find surprising or counterintuitive.  Science is our friend.  When we hear something unexpected or surprising, we need to evaluate what, if any, evidence there is.

 

Play smart! 

Exercise for Menopause!

At the risk of sharing TMI, I’ll just say that I seem to be fairly well along in my menopause journey.  Where exactly I am is hard to say because I haven’t had a period since my hysterectomy in 2017.  But boy, howdy, was I unprepared for the variety of changes this particular hormonal journey had in store for me.

So:  I’m going to talk about it.  Those of us who don’t expect to experience menopause can feel free to tune out, even though I’m pretty sure we all know someone who will at some point go through it and knowledge is power.  The more we know, the more we can get mad.  Just kidding.  Sort of.

 

Anyway:  menopause comes with a host of possible symptoms and effects.  Here is a link to a handy questionnaire that lists a whole bunch of them.  As is the case with everything, different people are going to have differing experiences.  Some of us will sail through with no problems and others of us will tick every box as if we wanted the full Spinal Tap reference.

 

How we deal with our personal battery of effects will vary.  It is beyond the scope of my practice to prescribe or treat or diagnose.  What I can do is let everyone know what exercise can do to help.

 

At menopause, women begin to lose bone density at a greater rate than before.  Weight-bearing exercise becomes even more important to keep our bones strong as long as possible.

 

Those of us who have sleep disturbances can improve the odds of sleeping well by getting plenty of exercise.  Ditto for fatigue, concentration problems, and mood swings.  Exercise reduces stress, which can, in turn, reduce muscular pain.  We will improve our breathing, reduce our likelihood of having headaches, and we’ll generally feel better.

 

Exercise is not the key to everything, but it can improve our quality of life.  Go play.

Monday Workout: Good Judgment

As always, we need to do exercises that work for us.  Those of us who are not jumpers should choose the side lunge over the lateral bound.  Jumpers can make the lateral bound more fun if there is a BOSU available.  No matter what we choose, we have three rounds.

 

kb alt arm swing	30
kb hammer curl	20
kb halo	10
lateral bound/side lunge	30
prisoner squat	20
Arnold press	10
mountain climbers	30
rows	20
plank up down	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Shoulder Tap Pushups

The Amazing Stickie, while having an amazing attention span, occasionally wants to change things up just a little to keep herself sharp.  This means she loves variations on classic exercises, like this one for pushups.  It’s called a shoulder tap pushup.

She begins in classic plank position (the modified pushup position would also work!).  from there, she lifts one hand and taps the opposite shoulder and then repeats with the other hand.  Then she does her regular pushup.  The whole time she uses her abdominals to keep her balance.  A set of ten is plenty.