Routine

I am a big believer in routine.  For a long time, I resisted this.  I mean, I wanted to be one of those floaty creative people who went as the spirit moved and somehow managed to be interesting and well-dressed at the same time.  Yeah, OK, I was deluded.  And not just about the part where I am ever going to achieve well-dressed.  (I’ll settle for clean.)

It turns out that, for me, routine is the thing that unlocks both creativity and achievement.  I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this.

 

What I observed, when I looked at my life, was that the things I did automatically always got done.  I, like most of us, do not forget to brush my teeth when I get up in the morning.  I have forgotten to eat approximately twice in my entire life.  Attaching other things I wanted to do to those automatic tasks eventually turned them into automatic tasks, too.  Which means that now, when I get up in the morning, I know that I’m going to get certain stuff done without devoting a lot of mental energy to it.

 

One of those things is my workout.  It just happens, along with brushing my teeth.  (Haven’t tried working out and brushing my teeth at the same time, but I don’t think it would work very well.)

 

Please note:  I am a morning person.  Attaching stuff to my morning routine is relatively simple for me.  Even making an evening routine is a struggle because I am extra stupid at that time of day.  We need to do stuff at times that work for us.

 

Try it.  Then tell me how it worked!

Monday Workout: Halloween!

The end of the month means a different workout style, which seems appropriate for Halloween week.  Costumes optional.  Three or four rounds, depending on time and energy.

 

H - high knees	30
A - Arnold press	10
L - lunge	20
L - lateral raise	10
O - oblique crunch	10
W - woodchopper	30
E - extend triceps	20
E - elbow plank
N - narrow squat	20

 

The Amazing Stickie and Plank Saw

The Amazing Stickie is working her amazing abdominals today with the plank saw.  She begins in elbow plank position, her body resting on her elbows (forearms straight in front of her, hands not touching) and the balls of her feet, a nice straight line from her heels to the top of her head.  From there, she rocks her body back toward her feet and then forward again.

A set of ten is good.

Don't Apologize

When people hear what I do for a living, they tend to apologize to me.  They tell me that they really mean to work out, but they don’t.  Or they look anxious as they take a bite of cake.

For the record, I am not the Fitness and Diet Police.  (I really hope that there is no such thing!)  While I firmly believe that our lives are better if we move our bodies and feed them good stuff, we are happier, I also understand that life is complicated.

 

I can’t (and don’t want to!) make anybody do anything they don’t want to do.  Sure, I think that we’d feel better if we moved more often.  Yes, it would probably be healthier to eat more veggies and less candy.  But the impetus to change has to come from inside.  Otherwise it just won’t work.

 

Change, my friends, is hard.  We have to know, deeply, what we want and why we want it to do it.  It also doesn’t happen in one fell swoop.  The occasional piece of pie is going to happen to all of us.

 

My job, as a human and as a trainer, is to be there when folks are ready to do the work.  I bring my skills and knowledge, my encouragement and accountability, and my clients do the hard part.

 

Workouts will always be there when we’re ready.

For the Brain

It’s not a secret that I think exercise is good for our wellbeing.  Healthy bodies make life better.  But exercising is also helpful for our brains.

Interestingly, I find that this works in two opposite ways.  One of those ways is that exercise, especially cardio, allows us to zone out.  The rhythm of walking or swimming or biking or running produces an almost meditative effect on our little monkey minds.  Our thoughts (assuming that what we’re doing does not end up focusing on “OW!”) can wander around and we don’t get attached to them.

 

The other way is that exercise can compel us to focus on just one thing:  what we are doing.  This tends to happen when we’re doing something less familiar or something where a lot of things have to come together to make the motion work.  All our worries about the past and all our compulsive plans for the future fall away leaving us with just where our bodies are in space right this minute.  We have to be present.

 

Both of these can leave us, after our workout is done, feeling more creative and sharp.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: Various Core

This week we have exercises that challenge our core in various ways.  Three rounds.

 

jacks	30
bench press	20
lateral raise	10
sumo squat to high pull	30
flies	20
renegade row	10
1 arm clean and press	30
curls	20
plank up down	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Frog Reverse Hyperextension

The Amazing Stickie loves different ways to work her body.  Today she is doing the frog reverse hyperextension on the bench.

To begin, she puts her torso on a bench, holding on with her hands, knees bent and feet together hanging off the end.  Then she extends her legs straight back behind her until she is a straight line from head to heels.  She lowers back to the starting postion to complete the repetition.  Sets of five are good.