Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Month of Gratitude: Cardio






November is a month of gratitude.  There is plenty of research out there that suggests that practicing gratitude is good for our health.  For Reasons (OK, because gratitude practice tends to backfire when my personal Depression Monster is in residence:  how can I be dealing with the DM when I have so much to be grateful for?  And we spiral from there…), I am not a Gratitude Journal kind of person, but that does not mean that it doesn’t work in the general sense; it just doesn’t work for me.  That said, I am going to practice some gratitude here this whole month.

So:  what am I grateful for today?  Cardio exercise.  When I am crabby and cranky, odds are good that some quality time on my spin bike will do the trick to fix my mood.  A walk outside has a similar effect, plus no one will hear me grumbling.

 

Even if I’m not feeling like grousing, cardio is something wonderful for me.  It makes my brain work better, increases my available energy, and burns calories.

 

Anybody else grateful for a pumping heart?

Monday, November 4, 2024

Monday Workout: They're Baaaaaack






This week, burpees are back.  Sorry/not sorry.  Three rounds.

 

mountain climbers

30

bench press

20

burpees

10

 

 

kb alt arm swing

30

kb hammer curl

20

kb halo

10

 

 

squat raise

30

flies

20

Russian twist

10


Thursday, October 31, 2024

The Amazing Stickie and Medicine Ball Rotational Toss






The Amazing Stickie knows how important it is to work in all planes, even though she herself is two-dimensional.  Today she is doing a medicine ball rotational toss.

To begin, she kneels in the proposal position, holding a medicine ball next to her back hip with both hands (i.e., twisting toward the back leg).  From there, she tosses the ball across her body.  (It is helpful if she has a partner to fetch the ball back for her between reps.)  When she has done a set on one side, she repeats on the other side.

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Halloween Hint








Today I’m just going to offer a small Halloween hint.  It is:  buy candy that you don’t personally like.  Then there is no temptation to snarf it all instead of giving it away.

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

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, October 28, 2024

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

 

Thursday, October 24, 2024

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.