When it’s time to address our mental and emotional well-being, we might need or want help. That help can come from lots of places: family and friends, wellness coaches, therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, among others. Choosing who to ask will depend on the scope of the issues.
As a wellness coach, I can help my clients identify strategies to reduce stress, improve relationships, increase mindfulness, and promote joy. Talk to me if you are interested!
Almost done with the year! Go us! This final week, we’re going to take a look at mental and emotional well-being.
Taking the time to look around our lives and see how things are going in this area can be a little dicey. It can be hard to acknowledge that we’re not quite where we’d like to be. Let me just say: I see you doing hard stuff over there.
We may realize that we’re being eaten alive by stress, or that we could use a little work on our relationships, or that a pursuit that used to fill us with joy is not fun anymore. Whatever it is, the first step to change is recognition.
You can do this. And I’m here to help if you need me.
It’s the last week of the year and I’m taking time off. So it’s a great time for a benchmark workout. Grab a friend because for this one you want somebody with you in person.
Basically, what we’re doing this time is taking some of our basic exercises and seeing how far we can go. Start each of the first seven exercises with ten reps at a weight that is easy. Then increase the weight until you can only do one good-looking rep. It is really good to have a buddy to spot you for safety when you are going for your one-rep max. I mean it.
For the pushups, pretty princesses, and brains, you do as many as you can.
There are lots of ways to organize this, but personally, I am impatient, so I choose to superset an upper body and a lower body exercise to reduce the time I’m just standing around. It’s also perfectly acceptable to take one exercise and do it to the end with appropriate rest periods (at least a couple minutes between the heavy sets!) before moving on to the next exercise. You do you.
Then save the results so you can compare them with next year’s!
start | end | |
squats | | |
deadlifts | | |
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bench press | ||
fly | | |
row | | |
kickback | | |
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pushups to fail | | |
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pretty princesses | | |
brains | |
What better day than this to have a list of recovery gifts we can give ourselves?
1. Nap. For best results, keep naps to about half an hour.
2. Massage.
3. Bath. Bonus points for Epsom salts and whatever else makes it relaxing.
4. Foam rolling. Cheaper than massage and we can do it any time!
5. Yoga/Pilates/stretching. This is the kind of movement that is restorative.
6. Meditation. Reduces stress and improves focus and sleep.
7. Water. Yep. We need lots.
8. Snacks. Ideally a protein snack, like maybe some nuts.
9. Walk around the block. Nothing too intense. Just a little outside time with gentle movement.
10. Hugs. Human contact is good for us.
11. Make something. Creativity restores our brains.
12. Your favorite thing.
Sleep and recovery are a little different than the skills we’ve been working on so far. For one thing, they’re inherently pleasant. You’d think that would make them easier to prioritize, but no.
Here is your takeaway: you, you wonderful human you, deserve to rest when you are tired, to sleep when you are sleepy, and to recover as needed. Some people, some forces in our culture, will try to deny this, but they are wrong. Fight the power: go take a (short) nap.
To improve our sleep, we might have to admit that our moms were right. We need a bedtime. When we are consistent about when we go to bed and when we get up, our bodies adapt and we fall asleep more quickly. Please note: the bedtime and the wake up time need to be at least seven hours apart. Planning to be underslept is not good planning.
Setting that bedtime and wake up time can make us feel really efficient because look: we just implemented a recovery technique! Two things at once and we accomplish them in bed? Sign me up. However, our bodies do need more than sleep. We might need to think about what kind of food would help our bodies recover, or whether we’ve had enough water recently, or if massage might help.
It can feel overwhelming when we take stock of how much recovery we could use. Baby steps. Treating ourselves with love takes practice.
So: we’ve spent three weeks talking about and maybe working on various aspects of fitness. We might be tired. Time to talk about sleep and recovery.
The two are related. Sleep is a great recovery strategy. A whole lot of us don’t get enough sleep and we don’t get good sleep. How to tell? Do you wake up rested? QED.
Recovery is a broader concept. It’s all the things we do to help our bodies feel better after we work them. It includes things like nutrition and massage, foam rolling, and, a concept I would really like to introduce to my Wristy Overlord (aka Apple Watch): rest days.
We will know if we are recovering enough if we are not constantly sore.
We’ve got a bunch of compound exercises today so we’ll be working endurance and coordination along with everything else. Three rounds.
db circles | 30 |
squats | 20 |
1 leg deadlift | 10 |
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woodchoppers | 30 |
rows | 20 |
pushups | 10 |
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squat to leg lift | 30 |
flies | 20 |
windscreen wipers | 10 |
