The Amazing Stickie and Book Opening

The Amazing Stickie enjoys twists, and not just in plots!  Today she is working on Pilates by doing book opening (see what I did there?).

She begins lying on her side with her arms stretched in front of her at shoulder level and her knees bent.  As she inhales, she lifts the top arm and arcs it over her body until it is resting on the ground.  Her lower body, however, stays still.  The end position looks like her top half is lying on her back and her bottom half is lying on her side.  Then she exhales and brings herself back to the starting position.  She usually does four or five repetitions on each side.

 

A variation of this exercise is called Around the World.  From the starting position, Stickie circles her upper arm up over her head along the floor, through the end position of the basic exercise and then down toward her feet before coming back to the start position.  As she moves her arm, she moves her head to keep her hand in view, which entails raising it off the floor as she gets to the part where her arm moves toward her feet.  The whole time, her knees stay pressed together and still.  She does two to four reps on a side.

Look! A Pretty Picture, Too!

Today I’m going to keep it simple.  If you can, when you read this, stand up and stretch for a minute.  Take a couple of deep breaths.

Feel better?  I hope so!

Go Play

I feel like I talk a lot about how good it is to try new things in fitness.  It’s also good to let old things go when they don’t serve us anymore.

I’m probably thinking about this because I’ve recently been doing my spring cleaning (yes, I know it isn’t spring, but fall cleaning doesn’t have the same ring).  I’ve been purging worn-out clothes and weird coffee mugs, craft projects that didn’t exactly succeed, kitchen gadgets I don’t like, and all kinds of other stuff.  Except books.  The books stay.  But I digress.

 

Sometimes our old fitness patterns wear out.  We find that we don’t like lifting heavy anymore and want something that focuses on endurance, or balance.  Maybe we want to dance instead.  Or maybe we loved taking ballet for years, but we find that we don’t love it now the way we used to.  It is all right to stop doing things.  Yes, even if you bought a bunch of expensive stuff to do it with.  Sell it or give it away and move on to what gives you joy.

 

Carrying the weight of guilt or of expectations does not build fitness.  It just makes us tired.

 

Go play.  At whatever you want.

Monday Workout: Sneaky

There are some sneaky core exercises in this one.  Guess where they’re hiding!  Three rounds.

 

jacks	30
flies	20
YTA	10
squat raise	30
curls	20
truck driver	10
clean and press	30
1 leg squat	20
V sit press	10

The Amazing Stickie and Dart

Today the Amazing Stickie is working on Pilates by doing dart.  This is a spinal extension exercise, so it makes her feel good.

She begins by lying on her belly with her arms down by her side.  She inhales and peels her upper body up off the floor segment by segment while lifting her arms behind her as if she were trying to touch her toes.  Then she exhales back to the starting position.  After a couple of reps like that, she inhales to the top position and then pumps her hands up and down with her arms straight a few times before lowering back to start.

 

She does as many reps as feel good.

You're Getting Sleepy....

There’s a current in our culture that glorifies hustle.  We’re all supposed to be doing productive stuff all the time and maximizing our output and streamlining our processes and whatever.  One way this manifests is that we brag about how little sleep we get.  This is not ok.

Sleep is essential to health.  Depriving people of sleep is a torture technique, y’all.  Let’s not engage in self-torture!  We deserve to be healthy and happy humans.

 

Not convinced.  Sigh.  Fine.  Getting enough sleep will make us more productive in our lives in general and will contribute to optimizing our fitness.  Weight workouts are fabulous, but our muscles get stronger when we sleep afterwards, during the repair phase.  Also, we do better in the workouts themselves if we begin well-rested.

 

Go play.  And then get some sleep.

Consent

Since I work almost entirely online, the issues around tactile cuing, for me, are pretty academic.  However, since I’m doing my continuing education on flexibility and stretching and there is a big chunk about assisted stretching, here’s the deal.

Within my scope of practice as a personal trainer and Pilates instructor, I can’t do massage or adjustments (the province of licensed massage therapists and chiropractors, respectively).  I can’t diagnose or treat injuries, and so will not feel that bump or that swelling or whatever.

 

Consent is mandatory.  If I think I can help a client with a tactile cue (say, putting a forearm along their spine and the back of their head to encourage good alignment during a pushup or plank), I will ask every time if it is all right for me to touch them.  Even if it has been all right with them the previous four hundred and sixty three times.  This time might be different.  I try to be specific when I ask for consent:  Is it ok for me to put my arm on your spine?  If it is ok with you, I am going to put my hand here by your knee; see if you can press into my hand.

 

It is 100% all right for a client to tell me no at any point.  This is true not only about touch, but about any exercise that they do not feel comfortable or confident about.  My clients trust me to keep them safe and I trust them to tell me the truth about how they feel.

 

Tactile cuing and assisted stretching can be helpful, but they’re not essential to a client’s fitness.  I have more than one tool in my chest.

 

Go play.