Fitness and Exercise

and a workout, just to be complete!

Workout: Disks

Sliding disks are another way to recruit core and work on balance because they create instability. The only exercise that doesn’t use the disks is brains, but I thought we should end with something familiar that involves lying down. Three rounds.

Sliding Discs

mountain climbers     30
lateral lunges     20
hamstring curls     10

speed skaters     30
outstretched plank     20
open close pushups     10

plank jacks     30
crisscross jacks     20
brains    10

Fitness

Fitness, shockingly enough, does not happen in the time I spend with my clients. What we do with our session contributes, I hope, to their fitness, but all the rest of the hours in the week heavily outweigh our time together. This is why I’m working on mind control. Just kidding. Mostly. It’s why I write about fitness issues in hopes of helping non-workout time become better for us all. There are two things that clients need to do for themselves in order to make the most of their fitness and of their time with me.

1. Sleep. Rest is as much a part of fitness as work. Culturally, we are sleep-deprived, to the point that many of us take pride in how un-rested we are. This is not good. Our bodies and brains need sleep and dreams and downtime. Let’s grab a nap. Let’s forgo the extra hour of television or housework or video games and go to bed on time.

2. Eat. We need the right amount of healthy food. This may require some experimentation because we are all our own personal chemistry labs. Some of us need more protein. Some of us do better without dairy. Some of us must have green things. Find the right balance.

Do these two things and we can have even more fun working out.

Exercise

What counts as exercise? We know that watching a movie doesn’t count. We know that running a marathon does. What about the stuff in between?

Like, say, gardening. Well, it depends. Sitting on our butts weeding for hours probably doesn’t count. We’ll get dirty and possibly sweaty if it is hot and sunny, but most people don’t find their pulses racing while having it out with the dandelions. If we’re digging compost into the garden beds, however, it probably does count. Hefting the bags, shoveling, turning over the dirt and everything can get us good and breathless.

Same deal for housework. Light dusting: no exercise. Spring cleaning with rug beating, Goodwill-schlepping, and forty seven trips up and down the stairs: exercise.

Bottom line: if it makes you sweaty and breathless, it counts. If you’re sore the next day, it counts. Otherwise, not so much.

That said, movement that doesn’t count as exercise is still good for us!