Yes, Maybe, No

The best blog post ideas come from my super awesome clients.  One of them asked me whether it was possible to do, say, bench press with twelve-pound dumbbells forever and have it be okay. 

There are a lot of ways to answer that question.

 

One:  yes.  The workout we are willing to do is always better than no workout.

 

Two:  maybe.  It depends on why we want to do that.  We, culturally, are under so much pressure to do more and faster and better that it’s a little bit amazing that we don’t all just blow up.  If we are trying to unplug from the competitive machine without sacrificing our desire to be healthy, exercising beings, it is perfectly all right to have a go-to workout that hits all our major muscle groups, gets our heart rates up, and gives us a chance to balance and stretch.  We do not have to do the shiny new workout of the moment.

 

Three:  no.  BORING!  Bodies and brains need different stimulation in order to prosper.  Doing the very same workout forever sounds like absolute torture to me, personally, and while I may not be entirely normal, I’m sure I’m not alone in this.  A boring workout is easy to postpone or shirk entirely.  Worse, when we’re bored, we tend not to pay attention to what we are doing and that is a good way to get injured.  From a body perspective, there are several reasons to change things up from time to time.  One is that we grow in response to challenge.  Those twelve-pound weights are going to become ridiculously easy to press after a while, so we are not providing our muscles with sufficient challenge.  Another is that, depending on our age, we need either to build up strong muscles and bones or to prevent and/or postpone the natural loss of muscle and bone that comes with aging; we do this by lifting challenging weights.

 

We need to consider why we are asking the question when we choose our answer.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: While I'm Off

I am on vacation, but y’all can still work out!  Three rounds.

 

woodchoppers	30
bench press	20
lateral raise	10
clean and press	30
1 leg squat	20
curls	10
jacks	30
flies	20
pretty princesses	10

The Amazing Stickie and the Kettlebell Hammer Curl

Today the Amazing Stickie is working on her biceps.  She could do ordinary curls, or hammer curls, but she wants a little extra challenge.  Enter the kettlebell hammer curl.  Because of the shape of the kettlebell, she has to work extra hard to stabilize the motion as she curls it.  Here’s how it works.

Stickie begins holding the kettlebell in one hand down at her side.  Keeping her upper arm next to her body and her torso still, she bends her elbow to lift the kettlebell toward her shoulder.  The ball end of the kettlebell should be pointing up at the top of the movement.  Then Stickie lowers the kettlebell back to the starting position.

 

A set of five reps on each side is a good place to start.

Goal Setting, Part 2: Aim, Process, Minimum

Yesterday we talked about where we are and where we want to go.  Now it’s time to get to the actual goals.

One way to structure goals is to make SMART goals.  That is, goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.  Instead of saying “I want to lose weight,” which is definitely a goal, we might say, “I want to lose ten pounds in the next two months.”

 

While a lot of people love SMART goals, I have a few issues with them.  For one thing, when we’re just starting out with fitness, we have no idea what is achievable or realistic in any particular time frame.  How many magazine headlines have we all seen in the grocery store offering us fifty pounds of weight loss in a month?  Maybe it’s twenty pounds in two weeks, or thirty by swimsuit season or whatever.  We don’t generally know what is sustainable and healthy.  (Note:  healthy, sustainable weight loss is generally one to two pounds per week, but some of us lose faster than others.)  My other big issue is that SMART goals say absolutely nothing about how.  Great!  I want to lose ten pounds and I know when I want it done, but how the heck am I supposed to do it?

 

I am a fan of process goals.  Process goals take a quick look at the direction we want to go and then drill down on how.  If, as in my example above, I want to lose ten pounds, I keep that aim in my mind and make some process goals like “I am going to do 30 minutes of cardio on five days this week to burn some calories” or “I am going to stop eating chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”  Process goals give us something to do rather than something to aim for.

 

That said, we might have to do some experimenting.  I may discover that 30 minutes of cardio isn’t enough, or that replacing chocolate with vanilla ice cream doesn’t actually improve the situation.  Or I may learn that after one day of cardio, I’m so exhausted that I can’t get off the couch for three days.  That is all right.  We are learning.  We are growing.  We are allowed to modify.

 

Which brings me to my final comment on goal setting.  I believe in stupidly easy goals, especially when we are starting our fitness journey or are starting to incorporate something new into our routines.  Our first goal is to build the habit of success and we do that by making it as painless as possible.  Walk five minutes every day.  The next week, we may walk six, or ten.  Do one pushup, and make it a wall pushup.  Once we have established good habits, we shift just a little bit and set ourselves minimums:  I do 30 minutes of cardio at least three days a week, or I lift weights at least once a week for 15 minutes, or I eat at least one vegetable every day.

 

Bottom line:  choose an aim, make process goals to get there, and set minimums.

Goal Setting, Part 1: Pre-Goal Data

So far this month, we’ve been going over the basics of our fitness programs.  Now it’s time to think about goals.  Today I’m going to discuss some pre-goal planning and tomorrow I’ll talk about some characteristics of good goals.

 

One of the first things I do when I meet a new client is collect a bunch of data.  (No, I don’t say, “Hi, my name is Janet and now I’m going to wrap my tape measure around you,” but it’s close…)  I do this because we have to know where we are before we start trying to go anywhere.  I’m putting the “You Are Here” mark on the map, so to speak.

 

When we’re getting ready to set goals, we want two different kinds of data, quantitative and qualitative.

 

Quantitative data, as we all probably know already, is stuff we can measure.  I collect height, weight, and circumference measures (chest, waist, hip, upper arm, thigh, calf).  I use my electrical impedance gizmo to get an approximate measure of my client’s body fat percentage.  (The gizmo also calculates BMI, but I’m not in love with that as an indicator of fitness even though it is widely used, mostly because it’s a relatively easy math problem.)  I give a step test to assess cardio fitness.  I give a flexibility test.  All of this is the Before picture, the benchmark.

 

Qualitative data is the fuzzy stuff.  I watch my new clients do a squat with arms overhead and analyze the movement to see where compensations are happening.  I ask about what they do for a living, what they like to do, and what they want, in a general sort of way, whether that is to impress the former Mean Girls at the high school reunion or to run a marathon or just to feel better.

 

I do a lot of listening.  I know a lot about the general recommendations for what people should do to be fit, but I’m not there to make someone’s goals for them.  I will choose a different workout for someone planning to climb mountains than I will for someone who wants to decrease body fat percentage and yet another workout for someone who wants to get to the top of the stairs without passing out.

 

What we want, at the end of our pre-goal-setting data collection is a picture of where we are and an idea of where we want to get.  I use my education and experience to map out areas that are going to need attention and I pay attention to what is important to my clients.  The important stuff is what gets clients to do stuff that, in the moment, is not always super fun.

 

So:  where are we and where do we want to go and why?

Monday Workout: Step on up...

This week I’m thinking about compound exercises, as usual.  I like the altitude change that step ups give us.  For more challenge, hold weights or do jump-ups instead!  Three rounds.

 

step ups	30
rows	20
(lunge to) curl	10
squat to leg lift	30
flies	20
truck driver	10
suitcase swing	30
bench press	20
pretty princesses	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Clean and Press

The Amazing Stickie is a very busy stickperson.  She likes efficient workouts so she can get on with her life.  The clean and press is an exercise that works well for her, since it works her whole body at once.

She begins holding weights at her sides.  She squats down, lowering the weights close to the floor.  Then she straightens her legs, lifting the weights up to shoulder level.  From there, she presses the weights overhead.  Then she returns the weights to shoulder level, and squats back to the floor.

 

(This version of the exercise uses dumbbells.  If Stickie has a spotter, she sometimes uses a heavy barbell instead.  In that case, she sometimes does an additional small squat to help her raise the bar from her shoulders to overhead.  Stickie, like all of us, is very cautious about lifting heavy weights and never does it all by herself.)

 

If the weights are pretty light, a set of 30 reps is doable.  As always, follow Stickie’s good example and stop if form deteriorates.