Monday Workout: Happy New Year!

 

Welcome to 2022!  Let’s work out!  Three rounds!

 

squat to leg lift	30
flies	20
pushups	10
woodchoppers	30
bench press	20
kickbacks	10
jacks	30
reverse flies	20
pretty princesses	10

 

Monday Workout: Choose Your Own!

So I’m on vacation this week, but I won’t leave y’all in the lurch.  In fact, my after-Christmas present is that you get to choose your own workout using the 30-20-10 format.  Here’s how it works.  From the chart at the bottom, you will choose three exercises from the 30 column, three from the 20 column, and three from the 10 column, making sure that one of the 10s is from after the space (because we all need an ab exercise!).  Then arrange the choices into a workout and do three rounds.

 

For example, you might choose woodchoppers, jacks, and clean and press from the 30 column; lunges, deadlifts, and curls from the 20 column; and lateral raises, burpees (yeah, I’m sure everyone is going to pick those!), and pretty princesses from the 10 column.  Your workout would then look like this:

 

woodchoppers	30
lunges	20
lateral raises	10
jacks	30
deadlifts	20
burpees	10
clean and press	30
curls	20
pretty princesses	10

 

From there, you can do three rounds and get on with life.

 

If, however, you would rather be shot than do burpees, I have good news!  You don’t have to pick that option.  You could choose pushups or YTA instead!  If you hate lunges (and who doesn’t?), you can choose kickbacks or bench presses or anything else on the list.

 

Now, since I gave an example workout, there is a choice even for the decision-challenged—do the sample!  Otherwise, here is the list of choices.

 

30	20	10
woodchoppers	squats	round lunges
mountain climbers	lunges	lateral raise
jacks	deadlifts	skullcrushers
plank jacks	bench press	YTA
jump squats	fly	pushups
jump lunges	row	burpees
ball slams	kickback
overhead high knees	curls
opposite knees	reverse fly
clean and press
1 arm clean and press		Russian twist
squat to leg lift		pretty princesses
suitcase swings		brains
		femur arcs
		quadruped
		roll out abs

 

Now go play.  And have a Happy New Year!  I will not be posting again until January! 

Magic words?

Some workouts are harder than others.  We all have rough days at the gym.  Here are five things we can say to ourselves to help us get through:

 

1.     I showed up today.  That counts.

2.     I didn’t used to be able to do this at all.

3.     That shower afterwards is going to feel really good.

4.     This is terrible, but it will be over soon.

5.     This may suck, but it will help me get to my goals.

 

If none of those works, we can try bribery—I’ll do an awful lot for a burrito.

Shape of things to come

When I ask new clients about what their goals are, a lot of them say they want to get in shape.  That’s a groovy goal and all, but it’s not very specific.  To get to “in shape,” we have to figure out what “in shape” means.

 

No, I’m not just being a jerk here.  Even though we share language, we each have our own idiosyncratic interpretations of things.  One person may define in shape as a particular number on the scale.  Another might have a pair of jeans from high school lurking in the back of the closet as a visual representation of in-shape-ness.  Yet another person may think of being in shape as readiness to run a marathon.  Some of us want our blood pressure in a better range or maybe to get to the top of the stairs without feeling out of breath.

 

As we figure out what “in shape” is, we can begin to plan how to get there.  Some of us will need to focus on cardio.  Others may need more strength training.  Most of us probably need to take a look at what we’re putting in our mouths.

 

Put another way, the goal determines the path.  Where would you like to go?

A Space

Change, my friends, is not easy.  We may think we are people who resist routine and habit, but even the most free-spirited among us have our ruts.  This is true for good evolutionary reasons:  if we had to do all the things we do with full attention all the time, we’d get eaten by lions and tigers and bears before we even managed to get up in the morning.  OK, maybe not lions AND tigers AND bears all at the same time, but the point stands.

 

So how, in our largely lion/tiger/bear-free lives, do we break out of our routines to make positive changes?

 

We invest energy in paying attention.

 

Let’s say, for example, that we have been having dessert at every meal.  We finish our bowl of cereal and reach for a cookie.  We finish our PB&J and grab a piece of cake.  Spaghetti inevitably leads to ice cream.  It just happens.  We don’t think about it at all (unless we have run out of cookies!).  We have to create a space between the meal and the dessert for our conscious brain to catch up so we can decide whether we want the cookie/cake/ice cream.

 

There are lots of ways to create that space, from choosing to keep the treats at the store where we have to walk or drive to get them before we can have them to making a rule about doing the dishes before we decide about dessert.  Notice that I’m not saying that we never have dessert.  We are bringing attention to the decision.  Sometimes we will choose the cookie.  Sometimes we won’t.  But we will not automatically shove the ice cream in our faces without thinking about it.

 

The truly sneaky part?  When we create this space for choice, we build a new habit around the process.  We get used to asking ourselves if we really want the cake.  We learn to check in with ourselves.

Monday Workout: Straight Ahead

This week we’re just going straight ahead and getting stuff done before our Christmas break.  Three rounds.

 

suitcase swings	30
squats	20
kickbacks	10
clean and press	30
flies	20
renegade rows	10
mountain climbers	30
curls	20
brains	10

 

Contemplating Lunch

One of the stages of change is contemplation.  It’s the part where we are thinking about what we might like to change without doing anything about it yet.  Those of us who love New Year’s Resolutions might want to spend a little time in the contemplation phase to consider benefits, difficulties, and the like.  Since diet is a common target for those resolutions, here are a few things to contemplate shifting in the new year.

 

1.     Sugar.  It’s addictive.  It contributes to inflammation, which can make us ache.  It rots our teeth.  And it doesn’t really provide anything of value to our diet besides calories.  Reducing added sugars can be a powerful change.

2.     Alcohol.  See above comments on sugar, plus liver damage.

3.     Dairy.  A lot more of us have dairy sensitivities than we might think.  Cutting down our consumption can help us feel better.

4.     Veggies.  Eating veggies instead of other, more caloric, less-nutrient-dense foods is a great way to get more bang for our calorie buck.  Most of us don’t get enough fiber and we may not get all the micronutrients we need from our foods.  Increasing the proportion of our calories we get from veggies can help address those issues.

5.     Water.  I say it a lot:  dehydrated people are crabby people.  Also, we eat less when we are hydrated.  Our bodies work better.  Our skin feels nicer.