Monday Workout: Straightforward

This is a pretty straightforward workout.  Three rounds.

 

jacks	30
flies	20
pushups	10
woodchoppers	30
kickbacks	20
reverse flies	10
clean and press	30
side lunge	20
V sit press	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Side to Side

The Amazing Stickie is enjoying Side to Side today at Pilates.

She begins by lying on her back with her legs in tabletop position.  She inhales and drops both knees to one side of her body, keeping her shoulders down on the floor.  She exhales to return to the starting position.  On her next inhale, she drops her knees toward the other side of her body.  She continues until she has done a set of ten.

 

When she desires to challenge her body more, she extends the leg that is going to be on top as she drops her knees toward the floor.  In other words, when she drops her legs to the left, she straightens her right knee.  The knee bends again as she returns to the start position.  Then she extends the left knee as she drops her legs to the right.

 

For even more challenge, she does the whole exercise with straight legs.  She begins lying on her back with her legs straight up toward the ceiling.  Both legs drop from side to side, staying straight the whole time.  If she feels any strain in her lower back doing this, she stops right away and goes back to one of the less challenging options.

Why is the answer never "build a blanket fort?"

Risk is inherent in life.  We may not live like Wile E. Coyote, liable to have a safe or a piano dropped on us on a regular basis with only a small pink umbrella to protect us, but the world is sometimes a dangerous place.

The answer, sadly enough, is not that we need to build a blanket fort and hide in it all day reading murder mysteries and eating popcorn (although if anybody wants a play date, let me know!).  It’s preparation.

 

I’m not talking about having an earthquake kit or a first aid kit (even though it’s a good plan).  I’m talking about working on balance.

 

What we need for the routine dangers of our lives is balance.  We need to learn how to react when we unexpectedly step off a curb.  We need our bodies to adjust, automatically, when our toddler grandchild crashes into our legs or when the dog we are walking suddenly tries to chase a squirrel up a tree.

 

Balance comes from, among other things, knowing where our bodies are in space to begin with and from having the strength to adjust to sudden changes.  We can work on improving our balance in lots of ways.  One of the easiest is to practice standing on one foot, maybe while we’re standing at the sink anyway brushing our teeth or when we’re stuck in line at the grocery store.

 

If we want to get more intense about learning balance, we can cart ourselves over to yoga class or the Pilates studio.  It’s just being a good scout:  prepared.

Friends and Workouts

When we work out with friends, it can be a lot of fun.  I’m in favor of fun and of working out, but it’s important to understand which thing is taking priority at a given point.  Let me explain.

Say my friend and I decide to go for a walk together.  What we actually do could be anything from intensive interval training where we both manage to have just enough breath available to egg each other on to a casual stroll along a shopping street looking in the windows and ending up at the café for coffee and pastries.  There is some work involved in both those scenarios, but one is focused on the work and one on the fun bits.

 

This is important:  both scenarios are totally good ones.  We don’t have to work out at our very hardest every single time.  And we do need friends for our wellbeing.

 

What we also need to do is balance.  We need to consider whether we’re concentrating too much on sweating and not enough on listening to our friend’s nasty breakup, or if we’re slacking because we really want all the gossip about the new hottie down the hall in their building.  It is possible that one of us is more fit than the other.  That can mean that one person’s tough workout is the other’s rest day.

 

Both our mental health and our physical health contribute to our overall happiness.  Give both of them the attention they need.

Monday Workout: Nasty but useful

Burpees are nasty, but useful.  When we practice them, they don’t feel quite so awful.  Three rounds.

 

leg kicks	30
bench press	20
burpees	10
squat raise	30
skullcrushers	20
Arnold press	10
mountain climbers	30
rows	20
Russian twist	10

 

The Amazing Stickie and Bent Knee Opening

Today in Pilates the Amazing Stickie is working on bent knee opening.  This is a great exercise for all the stabilizing muscles of the core.

She begins lying on her back with her legs in tabletop position (thighs perpendicular to the floor, shins parallel to it, feet flexed).  As she inhales, she holds one leg still and opens the other leg to the side.  Then she exhales and returns the leg to the starting position.  The entire time, she keeps her weight even on both sides of her pelvis.  This is more difficult than it sounds.  She does five reps on one side and then five on the other.

 

When she wants additional challenge, she begins by alternating sides (i.e., opening the right leg to the side, returning to center, and then opening the left leg.).

They don't actually exist

So the Personal Training Police are probably going to come take me away for saying this, but I’m doing it anyway.  Weight workouts don’t have to take a long time.

Let’s say we have a cardio habit.  We’re good at getting in our half hour most days a week, but we’ve been struggling to find another chunk of time to get in the weights.  Just do two weight exercises at the end of the cardio.

 

Here’s how it might work.  Monday, we do our 30 minutes on the spin bike and we do two squats and bench press, two sets of ten each.  If we alternate between the squats and the bench press, we don’t have to rest much between sets because we’re using different muscle groups.  That takes maybe five more minutes and then we stretch and get out of the gym.  Tuesday we go play outside and do our thirty minutes running or hiking or walking.  Wednesday, we go back to the gym, hit the elliptical for 30 minutes and then do deadlifts and flies, again, two sets of ten each.  Thursday we go to Zumba.  Friday, we do intervals on the treadmill and then do lunges and rows.  We’ve done a balance of work on our upper and lower body and we’ve only added a few minutes to our gym time on three of our days.

 

Try it!