The Amazing Stickie knows that using kettlebells challenges her in ways that dumbbells don’t because of how the weight shifts in different positions. Today she is doing the kettlebell hang, clean, and jerk.
She begins holding a kettlebell in one hand. She squats down, lowering the kettlebell toward the floor. Then she stands up straight again, lifting the kettlebell to shoulder height. From there, she lifts the kettlebell overhead. Then she returns to the start position for the next rep.
Sometimes the best way to get out of our own way in fitness is to do something we like that we are not good at.
Counterintuitive, right? I’m supposed to be telling everyone to excel or something. Actually, I’m not. I’m here to promote health. And sometimes health is about playing.
Playing doesn’t have a goal in mind. When we play, we do whatever it is we are doing for the joy of doing it. It doesn’t mean we don’t play hard, but we’re not attached to some outcome beyond the present enjoyment.
Take me and swimming, for example. I am not a great swimmer. I’m unlikely to drown, but that’s about all that can be said about my abilities. But I love swimming. I love being in the water and the feel of my body moving through it. Because I love it, I’ll do it and have a good time even if objectively I’m doing a poor job of it. My body gets to work and I get to let go of all the judgments that I might put on myself about my performance (other people who want to judge my performance can go pound sand; I’m too old for that crap.).
Of course I’ll get better at swimming over time, but I’m not thinking about improvement. I’m just enjoying what I’m doing.
Go play.
Some folks are not going to like this one. I’m okay with that. Competition is not our friend when it comes to fitness.
Sure, there are people who are motivated by contests. Who can lose the most weight? Who can win the gym’s bingo game by going to the most different classes? I’m not trying to ruin anybody’s day or take away their joy or whatever.
Here’s the thing: competition requires someone to lose. In fitness, the goal is for everyone to win. Further, because we’re all starting from different place, my win may not look anything like someone else’s win. The comparisons are useless and/or unfair.
It’s hard to do, but here’s what we’re aiming for: doing our best on a daily basis. We do this not by looking at what anyone else is doing. We also don’t need to look at what we did yesterday or what we think we should be able to do today. We just need to show up, be present, and work hard.
Go play.
Time for another shorter circuit! Four rounds full of compound exercises should be fun!
1 min cardio | |
| |
squat to leg lift | 30 |
flies | 20 |
overhead press | 10 |
deadlift to curl | 30 |
renegade row | 20 |
brains | 10 |
The Amazing Stickie has amazing-looking arms, of course. To maintain her beautiful shoulders, she often does goblet pours.
She begins standing with good posture, holding two light weights at shoulder level with the ball parts of the dumbbells pointing up and down. Then she twists her arms as if the weights were goblets and she wants to empty them on the ground. She repeats this motion about ten times.
Yesterday I talked a little about spring cleaning. Today I’m going to add some stuff we might want to pitch:
Perfectionism. The best workout is the one we actually do. Doing something is always better than doing nothing.
Negativity. It doesn’t help to focus on what we can’t do, on what is going wrong, and the like. Let that stuff go.
Other people’s opinions. Our fitness is our business. We need to work out in the ways that feel best to us. Anyone who wants to criticize our current fitness level, our choice in clothing, or our dance styles can just get lost.
Punishment. Workouts are not punitive. We don’t have to do them because we ate cake. We don’t do them to become worthy of something. We are worthy. We work out because we are valuable humans who deserve to be healthy and happy.
Go play.
We’re getting to real spring now, which means it’s time for… spring cleaning!
In the fitness sense, this means we get to stop and take a look at what we’ve been doing and see what needs to shift. Bodies like change because change promotes growth. Here are some questions we might want to consider for our spring fitness:
Is my stuff in good order? What needs some maintenance? Does the bike chain need some lube? Are our shoes wearing out? Do we have the right kind of layers for our outside workouts? Where did we hide our bathing suit?
Am I getting the results I want from what I’m doing? Do I feel good? Do I look good? Am I meeting my fitness goals? If not, it’s definitely time to change stuff up.
What would it be fun to learn? Now that it’s less cold, maybe we want to try outside workouts. Maybe we’ve always secretly wanted to take karate. Maybe now is the time to sample a different yoga class or even to try out some other kind of cardio machine.
What would make my workouts seem fresh? Maybe we just need a cool workout shirt. Maybe we need to do our workout backward from how we usually do. Maybe we just need to bring a different gym buddy with us or change up the music.
Let me repeat: change promotes growth. Where do we want to grow this season?
