Hard

There is a difference between playing hard and playing well.  I care way more about one than the other, both for myself and for my clients.  Here’s why.

When we play hard, we are fully present.  We are investing in what we are doing.  We’re giving our best effort, even if that effort does not result in certain objective measures of success.

 

Playing well can come from playing hard, but it isn’t a given.  Some of us have more natural talent for things like tennis or swimming or skiing or football.  Some of us, no matter how hard we try, are never going to be graceful dancers or accurate basketball shooters.

 

People who play hard do tend to improve because they are focused, but they also, at some level, keep in mind that what is happening is play.  We need to take things both seriously and lightly, to strive to improve but to enjoy what we’re doing even while we suck at it.

 

Happiness comes from playing hard.

Over and over, but anew

I am a Pilates instructor, but I’m also a person with a personal Pilates practice.  I have my favorite exercises, the ones that I need to work on, and the ones that are good for me even when I don’t enjoy them.

To avoid settling into too much of a Pilates rut, I try to ensure that I cycle semi-regularly through the entire repertoire.  None of the exercises, at this point, will feel totally new to me, but every time I cycle through, I do manage to have little epiphanies.

 

There are the good kinds of realiziations, like when I notice that I’m stronger, or that something that used to be hard is just a little challenging.  There are the moments when I figure out another benefit of an exercise, or how it relates to another exercise, or how to modify something for myself or for my clients.

 

There are the less-good realizations.  Things like noticing that my lumbar spine really doesn’t want to flex and that is that.  I see the correlations between days when I sit too much and how my hips feel in motion the next day.  I remember that I really really really have to do flexibility work every day lest I become about as malleable as a brick.

 

What I love is that my attention to the same old exercises teaches me new things, over and over.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: Ring my Bell

It’s a great day for kettlebells!  Three rounds.

 

kb swings	30
kb twists	20
kb 8s	10
squat raise	30
bench press	20
curls	10
woodchoppers	30
rows	20
brains	10

The Amazing Stickie and Lunge to Curl to Overhead Press

As we all know, the Amazing Stickie doesn’t like to waste time.  When she needs to get in and out of the gym quickly, she chooses compound exercises like lunge to curl to overhead press.

She chooses the weight for this exercise based on what she uses for overhead presses because if she chooses based on what she uses for curls, she won’t be able to complete as many reps with good form.

 

To begin, she stands with good posture, holding the dumbbells at her sides.  She lunges forward on one leg making sure to keep her torso over her hips.  Then she curls the weights up to her shoulders.  She then raises the weights overhead.  As she lowers the weights back down to her sides, she also steps back to her starting position.  Then she repeats on the other side.

 

Sets of thirty are good.

New Energy

This month I signed up for tai chi classes.  Oh boy do I have some learning to do.

Which is the point.

 

My brain and my body get bored (and everyone else’s brains and bodies do, too).  I needed something to wake me up.  So far, tai chi is working great.

 

The first thing I learned, not for the first time, is that I have way too many body parts.  I’d figure out what my feet were supposed to be doing and my arm was in a totally wrong place.  Or I’d finally remember that my palm was supposed to face down only to find that I had my weight on the front foot instead of the back foot (unless that was the other way around?).  This is all good because it means I have to integrate new motor pathways.  Eventually, both my body and my brain will be smarter.

 

Another lesson?  Slow is hard for me.  I am a champion at rushing through things, but taking my time?  I have lots of up to work with on that.

 

One more:  I go big, even when I shouldn’t.  Big steps, big waves of my arms, big turns.  It will be interesting to find out if I can learn to be more subtle.

 

Not that my specific lessons are important to anyone but me.  The facts that I’m doing something new, though, and processing new ways of being and moving in my body are more widely applicable.  If I can do it, anyone can.  Novelty is good for humans.

 

Go play.  In a different way than usual!

Oilcans and Updates

I’ve talked about my set of oilcan exercises before; they’re the things I do every day to keep my body capable of moving despite my ever-increasing age and my injury history.  None of the things are particularly hard.  A lot of them involve yoga tune-up balls and stretches.  They do make a difference to the quality and comfort of my movements in the whole rest of my life. 

I try to give all my clients a similar set of oilcan exercises based on their needs and their time constraints.  (Whether they do them is up to them!)

 

However, bodies and situations change.  My personal list has shifted as I have learned new exercises that improve my mobility or reduce my suffering.  Sometimes an issue I’ve had for a while resolves and I don’t need to do the things I used to do to care for it.  This is all good, because it means I have to be present in my body, pay attention to what it feels and what it needs.  From that data, I get to experiment.

 

The best part is that doing my oilcan exercises takes at most ten minutes.  That small investment of time pays off all day long.

 

Want help figuring out your oilcan exercises?  Hit me up!

Monday Workout: Back!

We have some exercises that focus on the back of the body this week.  Remember that using abs protects the lower back!  Three rounds.

 

step ups	30
squats	20
1 leg squats	10
jacks	30
deadlifts	20
reverse flies	10
clean and press	30
flies	20
pretty princesses	10