The Amazing Stickie and Roll Up

Today the Amazing Stickie is working on her spinal articulation.  People who have osteopenia and osteoporosis should not do this exercise; Stickie has no actual bones, so this is not a problem for her.

She begins lying on her back with her arms at her sides (beginning with arms overhead is also all right).  She takes a big inhale.  As she exhales, she curls herself up until she is in a sitting position with her back straight and her arms extended in front of her in what she and I like to call Zombie Position.  She takes a big breath in and then as she exhales she curls back down to the starting position.

 

For those of us who find this too difficult, Stickie is also demonstrating the assisted version of the exercise, which begins with the legs in tabletop position.  The extra leverage from the weight of the legs helps us get our spines off the floor.

 

No matter which option we choose, three to five repetitions are enough.

Another really short one!

So if we got up feeling like not working out again this morning, I have bad news:  we need to do it.  Let’s go. 

Might be my shortest post ever!

Sometimes we get up and we just don’t want to work out.  If today is one of those days, it is all right.  We get to have one every once in a while.  Go rest.

Monday Workout: Heavy

I am on vacation this week.  So here is an opportunity to hit the gym and do a heavy workout with a buddy to spot you. 

Here’s how it works.  Begin (after the warm up) with the first pair of exercises.  Choose a weight for each that works for ten reps.  Do a set of ten of each.  Then increase the weight a little for each, reducing the numbers of reps as needed.  Continue to alternate exercises until you can only do a single rep.  Take a longer rest, drink some water, and move on to the next pair (if you have the energy.  It is totally ok to spend half an hour doing squats and bench press to the 1 rep max and then go straight to abs, SMR, and stretching.)  Continue until you run out of energy or time.  Write down the starting and ending weights for each exercise!

 

Basic Heavy Workout
5 minute cardio warm-up
	Start	Finish
squats
bench press
deadlift
flies
lunges
rows
abs
SMR and stretch

The Amazing Stickie and Arm Arcs

The Amazing Stickie likes to ensure that her shoulders function like they should.  She does arm arcs to assist her in keeping them both stable and mobile.

She begins by lying on her back with her knees bent and feet flat on the floor.  (It would also be all right for her to extend her legs long, but it’s usually more comfortable to work with the knees bent.)  She has her arms down by her sides.  For the full length of her inhale, she raises her arms until they are over her head.  Then, for the full length of her exhale, she lowers them back to the starting position.  At first, this seemed like a very slow pace, but now Stickie enjoys it.  She does a set of ten.  Then, to make things more interesting, she puts one arm overhead and one down by her hips to start.  Then she swaps their positions.  Even though her arms are moving in opposite directions, Stickie maintains her shoulder blades in a neutral position on both sides.

 

Sometimes for fun, Stickie does the same exercise lying on a foam roller (roller along her spine) or on an Oov.  It feels extra good and adds more challenge.

Water

When it is hot, we get dehydrated more easily.  We want to avoid that, because it feels bad.  Our bodies work better and we are nicer humans when we are hydrated.  (Insert quote from The Breakfast Club here, if you are old enough.)

A lot of us are not hydrated enough under normal circumstances.  A quick way to know if we are drinking enough is this:  bathroom trips should occur at least every hour.

 

There has been a bunch of debate and argument and blah blah blah about what liquids count for hydration.  The short version is:  all of them, but some are better for us than others.  Most of what we drink should be water.  It has no calories, comes clean out of the tap, and doesn’t require shopping.

 

I am not here to take away anyone’s morning coffee.  I would not survive.  And the truth is that it is probably not bad for us, as long as we aren’t drinking it by the gallon.

 

Those fancy sports drinks can come in handy when it is very hot or when we work out very hard.  They have electrolytes in them that replace stuff we sweat out.  We don’t need them unless we’re working out for two hours or more (think marathon, century ride, etc.) or unless it is so hot that we’re sweating faster than we can drink.  They won’t hurt us, so if they taste good and we don’t have to watch our calories, we can drink them in place of some of our water.  It gets expensive, though!

 

One liquid we need to be careful about:  alcohol.  Obviously, we don’t want to drink to excess for lots of reasons, but we especially want to be careful when it is hot because we get extra dehydrated from alcohol.  We need to drink more water when we drink.

 

Go play.  And take the water bottle.

Don't get me started on peas.

Most folks strongly prefer one kind of exercise over others.  Not skiing over rugby or pickleball over yoga, but more generally:  cardio or weights or flexibility.  We all have different gifts, after all, so it is not surprising that the kinds of exercise we like best vary among us.

Unfortunately, this means that we have to do the exercise equivalent of eating our carrots (you may like carrots; I do not, but I eat them because they are good for me.).  Those of us who are more than happy to spend a chunk of time with the treadmill will need to trundle over to the weight racks.  Our new friends at the weight racks will have to learn to share the weights and then try out the elliptical trainer.  All of us need to go chill out at yoga or Pilates.

 

We may never come to adore the kinds of exercise we don’t naturally gravitate toward.  Carrots may always be carrots.  But we may come to appreciate how we feel when we have a few carrots thrown in with our chicken and mashed potatoes.

 

Go play.