A Useful List of Unuseful Things

Usually, I focus on the positive, but every once in a while it’s good to remember what NOT to do.  Here are five things to skip:

 

1.     Comparisons.  Our workouts are our own.  There are workouts out there that are too hard for us and others that are too easy.  We need to concentrate on the one we are doing.  What that woman over there is doing is not relevant.  That guy doing whatever it is he is doing does not matter to our workout unless he literally crashes into us.

2.     Time travel.  This is sort of a subset of comparisons.  We can only do today’s workout.  Maybe we did much harder workouts when we were twenty, but that does not change what we are doing today.  In six months, we may be doing far more amazing things, but, again, not relevant today.

3.     Self-Trash Talk.  I’m all in favor of trash-talking the weights—they have no feelings to speak of—but we need to make a point of talking nicely to ourselves about how we showed up and are working.  No bitching about how slow/fat/weak/whatever we are because it does not help.

4.     Excuses.  We’re creative.  I get it.  We can come up with really good reasons to skip workouts all day long.  The thing is, we don’t get fit by talking about workouts; we get fit by working out.  This is not to say that we should never skip workouts—life happens—but that we should be very careful to make good choices most of the time.

5.     Burnout.  I know I just said we need to skip the excuses.  Scheduling rest days is not the same as flaking off.  We need to plan rest just the same way we plan workouts.

 

Now go play.

Maximums

One way to divide humans is between minimalists and maximalists, especially when it comes to fitness.  Some of us want to know how to scrape by with the least possible exercise; I’ve written plenty about how to do this, so I’m not going to go over it right now.

 

On the other end, some of us want to work out All The Time.   I get it.  I like working out, too.  But too much is not a good thing.  When we over-train, our bodies start to break down.  We get repetitive stress injuries.  We get other kinds of injuries just from being flat-out tired.  And we stop making progress.

 

Bodies get stronger and leaner and faster by cycling through challenge and rest.  We work our muscles, which makes them sore, and then they rebuild themselves stronger while we rest.  No rest means no rebuilding.

 

Our culture firmly believes that more is better and most is best.  Fight the power and get stronger by resting from time to time.  Really.

Jump!!!

Back when we were kids, jumping came naturally.  Our bodies were young, elastic, and bouncy!  Nowadays, most of us have to be more careful when we jump so we don’t get hurt.

 

Good jumping starts with our feet.  As we lift off the ground, we want to lift our heels first and toes last, articulating through our feet.  On the way down, we want to reverse that process, letting the balls of our feet land first and rolling down to our heels.  This helps our bodies absorb the shock of reconnecting with the ground.

 

Not surprisingly, knees also have a lot to do with good jumping.  We bend them to get the energy to launch ourselves in the first place, but we have to remember to bend them again as we land.  We want to come down more like rag dolls, who land softly in a lump and less like china dolls, who hit stiffly and shatter.

 

The final piece of good jumping is core control.  Core control is what keeps us from crashing inelegantly.

 

Jumping is a great way to add oomph to our workouts (jump squats!  jump lunges!  plyojacks!) and it can be fun as long as we take a moment to make it safe.  However, some of us find jumping inappropriate for our bodies—this can be because we have large breasts that don’t get adequate support or because we have gimpy knees or because our ankles dislike us (this is not an exhaustive list, of course!).  Done safely, it’s great, but it is totally all right to skip it if it doesn’t work for us.

 

Happy bouncing! 

Monday Workout: Plyo!

One way to add intensity to a workout is to add jumping.  This week, we’re doing jump squats and plyojacks to get our hearts really going.  If jumping is not appropriate in your body, do regular squats and modified jacks instead—safety is the most important thing!  Three rounds.

 

jump squats	30
flies	20
1 leg deadlifts	10
kb swings	30
kb twists	20
kb 8s	10
plyo/regular/mod jacks	30
curls	20
Russian twist	10

Drink up

Where I live, it is, in my opinion, way too hot right now.  I am drinking water, water, and more water.  This can be hard for people to manage, so here are some things that might help:

 

1.     Choose fizzy.  As a former soda drinker, this was key to my success.  Fizzy water seems slightly more festive than plain old flat water.  Obviously, if you don’t like fizzy water, choose flat.

2.     Get the right temperature.  For me, this means lots of ice, but some people find more success drinking water that is closer to room temperature.

3.     Pretend it’s a spa thing.  Throw a lemon slice or some mint leaves or a bit of cucumber in there.  Melon can also be nice.  It’s not just water:  it’s a mini vacation.

4.     Get the right container.  Some of us like straws; some of us like sippy cups; some of us are fancy and use glass; some swear by our water bottles.  Finding the right one makes a surprising amount of difference.  (Mine is insulated and has a lid that I use if I’m taking it somewhere, but leave off if I’m just hanging at home.  The cup is also red.)

5.     Set a goal.  This works for people who like to compete or folks who like to check boxes.  Make a chart and stick it on the fridge; give stickers.  Use an app to track it.

6.     Check in.  A lot of us go around slightly dehydrated.  When we succeed at drinking water, it’s useful to notice that we feel better, less crabby, sharper.

Eyerolls don't burn many calories, though

Bodies like to move.  I know some folks are rolling their eyes right now because they firmly believe that they could lie on the couch until they became one with the upholstery, but hey, rolling eyes is movement, so they just proved my point.

 

Silliness aside (who am I kidding?  I can’t leave the silliness out!), all of our bodies do, in fact, like to move.  The question is how much.  When we go too long without moving, we feel stiff and sore.  Our joints refuse to open or close as much as they used to.  We forget how to get enough air into our lungs to support dancing or running or even walking.

 

The good news is that bodies also remember.  When we give our legs a stretch or our neck a little roll, our bodies remember how to do it and reward us by making us feel better.  This is true even for those of us who have arthritis; studies recommend taking even arthritic joints through their range of motion each day so that there is no further loss and maybe even a bit of gain.  Starting slow with a few stretches or a short walk helps.

 

Go play.

Real reality

I love the gym.  It’s one of my happy places.  And, at the same time, I know that sometimes it’s really important to get out into the world because gym reality does not always match real reality.

 

What am I talking about?  Glad you asked.  Let’s say we spend a bunch of time using the weight machines at the gym and we’re feeling pretty good because we have been able to add plates.  Great, right?  But then we need to go help a good friend move some furniture and we realize a few things very quickly.  One:  objects outside the gym are not necessarily designed to be grasped easily.  Two:  moving heavy objects through crowded or narrow space bears only a slight resemblance to sliding weights along the channels of a machine.  Three:  balance is way more important than we thought.  Four:  we don’t like our friend as much as we used to and we’re too old to do this kind of work for beer and pizza.  This may not be an exhaustive list, but it’s a start.

 

Similarly, we may love the treadmill.  We may move the speed and incline up.  And then we go for a hike outside where it might be a lot hotter or colder than we’re used to and the hill doesn’t end at the push of a button.  We may hike at altitude and realize that there’s not the same amount of oxygen we’re used to having.  Also, the path may not be so smooth.

 

Gyms are not the most varied environments.  We learn a lot when we take what we learn in the gym and apply it in the proprioceptively-enriched environment of the world, doing our everyday tasks, and working with the constant variety that we find.

 

Go play.