Tag Archives: exercise

mixing it up

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I’ve read a lot of places that it’s good to mix up your workout routine every now and then. Apparently our muscles can become complacent with the same old moves, and the workout stops being as effective. I’ve pretty much given up on running since I finished my 5K. It hasn’t necessarily been on purpose; as much as I decided I don’t love to run, I grew to appreciate its efficiency in calorie burning and covering distance. But without the structure of the training program I just really haven’t been able to make myself do it. I tried to go for a run with Andy one Saturday and only made it about half a mile before I had to call it quits. I was so frustrated with myself that I haven’t attempted it since then. I know if I eased my way back in I could do it, and I probably will eventually. But for now I’m enjoying doing whatever kind of workout I feel like doing.

A typical week has looked something like this:

  • Monday: gym in the morning, usually 35 minutes on the elliptical
  • Tuesday: Pilates on Netflix in the morning
  • Wednesday: swim in the afternoon
  • Thursday: usually nothing, if I’m honest!
  • Friday: gym in the morning, sometimes a walk/run on the treadmill with hills, or elliptical again
  • Saturday/Sunday: walking to run errands or going hiking; this is purely for fun but has the happy side effect of being exercise, too!

I’m enjoying swimming again. I’m definitely slower and have less stamina than I used to, but I swam 3-5 miles A DAY back then, so I can’t complain about that. I’ve been doing around 2000 yards each time I go (a little over a mile), broken down into whatever time and distance intervals feel nice. It’s great to have an activity where I’m not hard on myself because I know it’s good no matter what and I enjoy it so much. I might look into getting some workouts off of a website or from an acquaintance who is a swim coach…or I might just keep doing what I’m doing!

In the spirit of mixing things up, I recently checked this bad boy out from the library:

I’ve heard a lot about the 30 Day Shred and was intrigued enough to want to try it, but not intrigued enough to buy it. It wasn’t available to stream on any of my usual outlets, but the library came to my rescue! This workout absolutely Kicked. My. Butt. The DVD includes 3 20 minute workouts: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. Each one includes 2 minutes of warmup followed by 3 6 minute circuits consisting of 3 minutes strength, 2 minutes cardio, and 1 minute of abs. The strength included pushups and other various movements using light handweights. The cardio was stuff like punching, jumping jacks, butt kicks, and jumping with an invisible jump rope. The abs were mostly run of the mill crunches. Jillian Michaels is one of the trainers on The Biggest Loser, and her modus operandi is to constantly work multiple muscle groups at once. So every arm movement using weights was done in tandem with a leg movement. For example, rowing was done while doing side lunges and chest raises were done while doing squats. She says if you want to lose weight in just a series of 20 minutes workouts you can’t take any rest!

Even though I work out fairly regularly, Level 1 was ridiculously tough, which I think is a testament to the need to mix your workouts up. This mixture of strength and cardio is different from anything I do, and it worked different muscles. I was sore for several days after doing the workout. And by sore I mean, every time I got up from a chair it took me a few tottering steps to convince my legs they wanted to move. I have the DVD for one more week and want to try it again, but I had to recover first! I’m terrified of Level 2, though I might take a  look at it just for curiosity’s sake.

All that to say, I’m not necessarily a 30 Day Shred convert, and I wouldn’t want to use it for my routine workout, but it’s great to have in my pocket to throw something different into the mix occasionally. I won’t be committing to it enough to lose the 20 pounds it claims you can lose in 30 days, but it was a fun experiment. Though ask me how I feel about it again after I try out Level 2…

willpower

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 willpower is a muscle. the more you use it, the stronger it gets.

This quote has been floating around on Pinterest for awhile, and it really resonates with me. (Though, the one I’ve seen there has a skinny, scantily clad female as the image, which doesn’t inspire me to anything, so I made this one myself!) It doesn’t just sound good–the concept is beginning to be backed up by research as well.

I’ve often felt like I had particularly poor willpower. I can stop myself short of eating, say, an entire cake (because I also have a strong sense of consequences and know that would make me feel awful), but when it comes to things with less clear consequences I am less able to persist. For example, lately I’ve been trying to get up and go to the gym before work. I go into work at 10:00, so I don’t even have to get up particularly early….but so many mornings it’s easier to loll around in bed for just long enough to miss my window of available time, or to convince myself that I have things to do around the apartment instead.

Another place where I really struggle with willpower is at our team trivia games on Tuesday nights. We play at a local Mexican restaurant, so there are endless amounts of chips and salsa, and someone at the table usually orders cheese dip as well. We don’t play until 8:00 pm, so A. and I have usually already eaten dinner. I don’t love the chips, salsa, OR cheese dip there, and I theoretically am full. Yet I find myself almost every week chowing down on them as if there were no tomorrow. And I always feel guilty about it.

One week recently I ate a LOT of chips at trivia and was just disgusted with myself. (Well, perhaps that’s a bit strong. Disappointed in myself would be better to say, I guess.) But the next morning I managed to get up and go to the gym. I thought, “I might not have resisted the chips, but at least I can go to the gym today!” I know it’s not a 1 for 1 trade. It’s not like I specifically burned off the calories from the chips on the elliptical. It’s not even so much the calories that I’m worried about; I’m more worried about the fact that I can’t seem to control myself sometimes. I don’t like that feeling at all, and I find it heartening to think that I can improve and strengthen that ability!

I’ve gotten a lot better lately when the alarm goes off at reminding myself that I never regret going to the gym; rather, I only ever regret NOT going! And I think to myself that willpower is a muscle, and I can strengthen it by using it.