Sick workout? Nope.

I spent a lot of last week and the weekend being sick.  Nothing life-threatening, just annoying and inconvenient.  With luck, most of us will not have to deal with too much sickness this winter—we’re all staying home as much as possible and wearing our masks, right?—but germs are really good at finding us, especially when we are stressed.  So:  here’s my guide to figuring out when we are too sick to work out.

 

If we are feeling congestion in our chests or are otherwise having trouble breathing, we want to take things really easy.  Resting is good.  Sleeping is good.  When we get stir-crazy or when lying down and sitting become more uncomfortable than moving, we can do things like stroll slowly around the neighborhood.

 

If we are throwing up, we do not work out.  It is a bad idea.  Really.  Rest.  Drink clear fluids when they stay down.  Rest more.

 

If we have a fever, same deal.  Lots of rest.  Lots of fluids.  Probably our favorite OTC fever reducing medicine.

 

No matter what kind of sickness we have, we need to remember to come back slowly.  Our bodies have been busy with another kind of work.  We work out to be healthy, after all.  When the body is fighting germy or virus-y invaders, we need to focus on that.

 

Did I mention that rest is good?  Rest.

Monday Workout: 30-20-10

This week’s workout is a pretty classic 30-20-10.  We get our heart rate up on the first exercise of each set and keep it up with the later ones.  If you don’t have any weights available for the bench press, lateral raise, dumbbell pass, and flies, improvise with water bottles or cans or heavy books.  Short rest between each set and longer rest between each round.  Do three rounds.

 

woodchopper	30
bench press	20
lateral raise	10
mountain climbers	30
1 leg db pass	20
squats	10
plyo/regular/mod jacks	30
flies	20
femur arcs	10

 

Four

We all get bored with our same old workouts sometimes.  Here are four ways to refresh our routines.

 

1.     Do the other side first.  We all have a preferred side.  Starting with the other hand or leg gives our brains a moment of shock.

2.     Do it backwards.  If we always do the upper body first, try the lower body.  If we usually do cardio first, try weights and then cardio (after a warm up, of course!).  Have a usual circuit?  Go the other way around.

3.     Do it faster (or slower).  We can challenge ourselves to go as quickly as is safe or as slow as we can manage.  One will increase our power, the other our control.

4.     Change the location.  Take it outside, or inside, or into another room.  Or just change the music so it feels like another location—beach music anyone?

 

Go play.

Two kinds of people, one task

There are a lot of ways to divide up the motivations people have for wanting to do fitness activities, but one useful way to think about why we choose to exercise is to ask ourselves if we want to do it for direct or indirect reasons.

 

A direct reason to exercise would be something like enjoying the actual process.  This tends to apply to people who play sports or who get addicted to the mood boost that comes with cardio.  Dancers and those who do expressive sorts of exercise have direct reasons.

 

Indirect reasons are for those of us who don’t really like exercising all that much.  This does not mean that indirect reasons are less important or less powerful.  People who want to keep up with their grandchildren, who want smaller jeans, who want to carry more grocery bags at once and the like are folks with indirect reasons.

 

It’s easy to get the first group of folks to go play.  They already love it.  That second group needs reminding of the connection between the thing they don’t love so much and the reason they are doing it.  It also helps if we can find some kind of exercise that is more fun in the process for those people.

 

No matter what, we can all find a way to do this.

Flexible Pilates

One of the many things I like about Pilates is that it works the body differently than straight weight training.  This means that we can fit it into our fitness schedules in multiple places.

 

On weeks with heavy weight workouts, we can use Pilates as an active recovery, focusing on the way it builds flexibility and mobility.  When we are doing more endurance-based weight training, Pilates complements that work with its focus on core and balance.  No matter what kind of other workouts we are doing, Pilates helps us refine our proprioception (our sense of where our bodies are in space), the quality of our movements, and our use of breath.

 

As with all our fitness activities, we can do Pilates in adaptable ways that suit where we are in the moment.

Monday Workout: Body Weight

Body weight is a perfectly good thing to use for working out.  So, since we all have some, there are no excuses!  If jumping is not good for your body, feel free to substitute the non-jumping versions of exercises.  Use a soft ball (tennis ball?  Koosh ball?  sock ball?) for the ball wall toss.  Three rounds should do it!

 

jump lunges	30
1 leg squats	30
pushup to side plank	10
jump squats	30
transverse punches	30
1 leg ball wall toss	10
plank	hold
superman	hold

It's a stretch

 

Sometimes we need a checklist.  Today I offer some essential stretches:

 

1.     Neck.  Tilt the head toward one shoulder.  This can be made more intense by pressing down on the head with a hand.  Repeat other side.  Some people need to be careful making neck circles, so try half circles.

2.     Shoulders.  Circle them forward and back.

3.     Chest.  Stand in a doorway.  Grab the frame with both hands and lean forward until you feel a stretch across the chest.  This can also be done one side at a time.

4.     Sides.  Stand up straight.  Reach one arm as high as possible into the air and then lean toward the opposite side of the body.  Repeat other side.

5.     Back.  Do the Olympic Salute, arms up in the shape of a Y, chest lifted toward the ceiling, abs engaged.

6.     Waist.  Lie on your back on the floor.  Bend your knees toward your chest.  Let them fall first to one side of the body and then the other.

7.     Quads.  Roll to one side.  Keep your thighs in line with each other.  Bend the top knee so that you can reach back and grab your ankle.

8.     Hamstrings.  Sit up.  Extend your legs out straight in front of you.  Reach for your toes (If you have osteoporosis, keep your back flat while doing this).  Both flat back and rounded back versions feel good.

9.     Ankles.  Circle them in both directions and then point and flex feet.

10.  Whole body.  Stand up.  Reach for the sky.  Shake it all out.

 

Feel better?