Flexibility and Balance 101

Unfortunately, we don’t just need cardio and weight training to be physically fit humans.  We also need flexibility and balance.  I touched on this a little bit yesterday in talking about Pilates, which is a good way to improve both flexibility and balance, but it is not the only way.

 

Flexibility first.  I have bad news.  Most of us are getting less flexible all the time.  This is because we tend to skip even maintenance in this area.  How many workouts have we ended without a stretch?  I think we assume it’s not necessary because it feels good; we assume that all fitness things need to be unpleasant to be effective.

 

So how do we turn this around?  First:  exercise is not a punishment.  If it hurts a lot, we are doing it wrong.  (Sometimes it’s a bit uncomfortable, but that’s different.)  Second, we learn how to do flexibility right.

 

There are various schools of thought about stretching.  Personally, I think doing static stretches first thing in a workout is a good way to get hurt.  We want to warm the body up a bit before we stretch those muscles, which means we can do a little walking or we can do dynamic stretches (think of things like high knees, or windmills, or twists) if we want to do some flexibility work before our main workout.  There is some data to suggest that doing flexibility first reduces our weight lifting performance, but we may not care about that if we are not going for a world record.  I prefer to stretch after other workouts, when the body is good and warm.  It is best to stretch whatever muscles we have been using for our workout and science says holding stretches for 30 to 60 seconds works best.  Alternatively or additionally, we can add a flexibility practice like a yoga or Pilates class to our routines, but please note:  flexibility is one of those things that works best if we do it every day.  Five minutes can make a big difference.

 

Balance is a life skill.  We are all getting older and one of the major predictors of mortality in older people is falls.  Good balance is basically insurance against icky stuff like hip fractures.  I have good news:  balance is easy to incorporate into our daily routines, both in and out of our workouts.

 

In our workouts, we work on balance any time we do core work or asymmetrical work.  All those single leg exercises we do are for balance, as are things like single arm clean and presses and woodchoppers.  Our work on our pretty princesses and all our other core exercises help with balance, too.

 

However, we can sneak balance practice into regular life.  We all (I hope!) brush our teeth in the morning.  If we stand there on one leg, we are practicing balance.  Same deal for doing the dishes or waiting in line at the store.

 

A safety note about balance work:  start slow and easy and make sure that there is a counter or sturdy piece of furniture to hold on to if necessary.  We don’t want to fall while we’re learning.

 

We can do this.

Pilates 101

Most people I talk to are pretty clear on why cardio and strength training are good ideas, but they get more puzzled when Pilates comes up.  A lot of folks see the equipment and assume that it’s just an expensive form of torture, or they see a mat class and figure it’s just some flavor of yoga with less granola.

 

When we start Pilates, it is best to avoid the DIY route.  It makes a huge difference to have a knowledgeable and perceptive instructor to help us learn what Pilates has to teach us about our bodies.  So, unlike when I wrote about cardio and weight training, I’m not going to lay out where we should begin our Pilates journeys, but rather discuss why we might want to start one.

 

My favorite reason to do Pilates is that it makes me feel good.  The focus on the breath and on the mind-body connection is part of that and that focus is available to the very beginning Pilates student.

 

Of course I have lots of other reasons.  I like the way Pilates works synergistically with the other workouts I do.  The precision recruitment of muscles that Pilates requires refines my movement in every other part of my life.  The strength and endurance I get from my weight training and cardio help me access more of the Pilates repertoire.

 

I am not, by nature, a flexible person.  Pilates helps me lengthen my tight muscles, creates mobility in some of my stubborn joints, and makes more space in my spine.  Better, the exercises do all that without me having to hold a static stretch for a long time.

 

Then there is the core control and balance part.  Life, as we all have figured out by now, is full of surprise potholes, wayward hedgehogs, slippery floors, and other tripping hazards.  Successfully coping with all of that without falling on our behinds requires core control and the balance it enables.  Pilates gives us that set of tools.

 

Finally, there is the posture bit.  Not only does good posture make us look better, it makes us move better.  Better movement reduces pain in our bodies.  What’s not to like about less pain?

 

Interested in pursuing some Pilates?  Talk to me.

Monday Workout: Remember These?

It has been a while since we did bench dips, so I thought we’d revisit them.  They are a great exercise for triceps.  However, if there is no bench (or sturdy chair) available, kickbacks are a perfectly good substitution.  Three rounds.

 

suitcase swing	30
deadlift to curl	20
bench dip or kickback	10
(lunge) punches	30
rows	20
pushups	10
squat to leg lift	30
front raise	20
brains	10

The Amazing Stickie and Single Leg Deadlifts

The Amazing Stickie knows that working on balance is important as she gets older.  One of her favorite balance exercises is the single leg deadlift.  She begins standing on both feet with good posture.  In the picture, Stickie has her hands on her hips, but sometimes she puts her arms out to the side like airplane wings, or, if she wants more challenge, she puts them overhead.  She then transfers her weight to one foot, moving her torso and her non-standing-leg as if they were one piece until they are parallel with the floor.  Then she returns to the starting position.  Five or ten reps on a side make a good set.  It is more challenging to switch legs on each rep rather than doing one side and then the other.

Strength Training 101

Yesterday I wrote about starting with cardio.  Once we have a cardio base and an exercise habit in place, it’s time to get into our weight training.

 

Weight training is where the real changes start to happen in our bodies.  We shift our body composition away from fat and toward lean body mass.  We get stronger (of course!) and look better.  We burn a lot more calories, both while we work out and in our daily lives.  On a mental level, we also find that we feel empowered.

 

Just like with cardio, we want to start small with our weight training goals.  One weekly session that we commit to is better than two or three that we flake on.  Most of us end up with two or three sessions per week, but how many and how long depend on what our goals are.

 

While we are building the habit of lifting weights, we also want to build up our endurance.  That means we use pretty light weights and do lots of reps, about 12 to 20.  We want to make sure we do exercises for our upper body, our lower body, and our core.

 

Once our habit is built, we can, of course, continue with an endurance program, increasing the weights we lift as we get stronger.  However, we may want to work on other goals.  If we want to build big muscles, we shift our workouts to lifting heavier weights and sets of about 8 to 10 reps, making sure that the weight is heavy enough that it is hard to complete that last rep.  The fancy word for making big muscles is hypertrophy.

 

Others of us may want to lift the most weight.  In this kind of workout, after our warm-up, we lift progressively heavier weights in sets of about 5 reps until we get to the point where we can only do a single rep.  This is called the one-rep max.

 

Still not sure what to do or where to start?  Ask me! 

Cardio 101

Here we are in the new year, ready to be new people (maybe).  In fitness, that probably starts with some cardio.  I pretty much always tell folks to begin with cardio.  The benefits of cardio training in itself are many, as I keep repeating:  improved mood, better brain function, greater heart health, and the like. 

For people just starting (or re-starting) their fitness journey, cardio is a good first step for additional reasons.  First, cardio is super easily available and doesn’t have to use equipment.  Nearly all of us can go for a walk.  Because of the aforementioned mood benefits, building a cardio habit tends to be slightly easier for most of us.  When something makes us feel good, we tend to do it again.  Our very first goal on our fitness journey is building a fitness habit and we start with the simple stuff.  Finally, building up a cardio fitness base will allow us to progress faster when we get to the weight training portion of the show.

 

Now that we’ve explored why, let’s talk how.  I believe in making ridiculously easy goals and meeting them, so I suggest committing to a five minute walk seven days for a week.  We can all find five minutes, so there is really no excuse.  It is all right to do a little bit more, but here’s the deal:  we’re committing for all seven days.  We don’t get to do a 35 minute walk on the first day and call it done.  The point is to build the habit.

 

Eventually, we work ourselves up to doing a total of 150 minutes of cardio a week.  That’s the recommendation for Americans.  That works out to five 30 minute sessions a week.  However, I personally believe that to keep our habits in place we need to do something every day.  A rest day is just a day with a significantly less intense workout in it.

 

We will notice, as we go along, that things that used to be really hard get easier.  Our bodies change in response to challenge, so when what we are doing gets easy, we need to make it harder.  We have choices about how to do that.  We can, with cardio, do it for more time, do it faster, or choose a harder route (e.g., with hills or intervals).  (Note:  if swimming is your cardio of choice, it is very hard to find hills.)  What we want to ensure is that we work hard enough that we can still carry on a conversation (again, probably not while swimming), but singing is not manageable.

 

Make sense?  If not, ask me!

Monday Workout: New Year!

Welcome to the new year!  We’re starting off with work on balance, cardio, and strength!  Three rounds.

 

woodchoppers	30
bench press	20
truck driver	10
1 arm clean and press	30
1 leg squats	20
curls	10
jacks	30
flies	20
pretty princesses	10