Workout: Core
This week we get a little core-focused. When using kettle bells, we have to keep our core engaged to protect our backs. Roll-out abs use our core from the moment we start the roll out; the part where we pull our knees to our chest is almost secondary to the work we do just to keep balanced on the ball! Three rounds.
kb swings 30 kb twists 20 kb 8s 10 (jump) squats 30 upright rows 20 curls 10 barbell clean & press 30 lunges 20 roll out abs 10
Not Very Nice
It’s not very nice of me to talk about food in a season when many people have parties. Oh well. I guess I’m just not a nice girl.
Obviously, we all need to eat. I would argue that it isn’t just about making sure the body has nutrients; it’s also about feeding our souls and building our communities and enjoying ourselves.
Here’s the thing: we eat too much.
Choose wisely. Eat what you really want in appropriate quantities. You won’t face the morning after looking for the loosest pants you have.
More on Food
(from 2015, but still true)
Over the weekend, shockingly, I went on a bike ride. It was tougher than I expected in some ways. Afterward, I talked it over with my Bike Guru because I suspected it had to do with food.
Side note: It is really really really useful and fun to have smart friends to think things through with. Pooling experience, swapping stories, and discussing strategies for survival make everything better.
We agreed that the particular ride was challenging because of food, water, and logistics. The specifics don’t matter (although if you are interested, I will happily bore you with deep details…). I spend plenty of time discussing choosing well with food, both in quantity and quality. Usually it is a question of eating less of the former and choosing better examples of the latter. However, when we do endurance things, hard stuff, we have to eat more.
Otherwise, we can end up performing less well, hurting more, and feeling much more stupid. Lack of fuel promotes bad decision-making and crabbiness. It also makes it hard to appreciate the passing scenery, which, on my ride, included emus.
Simple Ain’t Necessarily Easy…
The culture has picked up simplicity as a buzzword. There is a whole magazine about how buying a bunch of things will make things simpler. Much is made of three-ingredient recipes, one-stop shopping, and seven easy steps to whatever.
That’s not what it is. Or at least not necessarily. We have some confusion between simplicity and optimization, between the look and the thing. We do not need separate specialized gadgets for, say, poaching eggs, making quesadillas, and cooking bacon: I do all those things with a pan.
In working out, we all have favorite toys: bikes, weights, goggles, classes. You can’t open a magazine without seeing some version of the perfect workout that uses just resistance bands, or tin cans, or park benches, or space aliens (actually, I would read the space alien one…). Do whatever works. Do what you like, what pushes you, and what your body responds to. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just move.