Physical Activity

I once had a person tell me that looking at my feet made him want to vomit. It’s perhaps a fair assessment as I was born with very deformed feet. I can’t point my toes, stand on one foot, or do ankle circles, I don’t have the correct number of toes, and I need to shop in kids shoes for a size 13 and a 1, because they are not even the same size.

I had a bunch of surgeries when I was little to make them functional with wheelchairs and crutches and braces and odd shoes. I had casts and more casts and physical therapy sessions aplenty all before I turned five years old.

To my parents credit I don’t remember feeling weird or different as my energies were channeled into sports where my arms could be power (long-distance swimming), and my time was spent developing a penchant for reading and a talent for writing. And my feet have carried me down the aisle at one wedding and numerous graduations, into the delivery room and through two pregnancies, and even through a half marathon.

Today for my workout I decided to go for a run on a late summer morning that was teasing us with fall temperatures. I took pictures, as I often do, of things that I think are beautiful and I listened to music that fed my soul.

I was only going to do a mile. But the weather had me continuing on down the trail until I realized I had run 1.5 miles. I decided to go for 2. Then a great song came on and my watch said 2.2 and, although tired, I knew it was going to be three. I’m a slow runner but it brought me such joy to move my body this morning in great weather, beautiful surroundings, and good music in my ears.

I made it 3.1 miles. I bent down, hands on knees, exhausted, in my driveway and saw my feet and smiled. They can’t be called beautiful in the traditional sense, but they had carried me through more than I thought I could do. That, I realized, is a different kind of beauty.

Moving a body-any kind of body-with joy is beautiful and is a mental health elixir. Our bodies are beautiful in how they carry our souls for as long as they are able. We demand so much from them, and spend a lot of time thinking they are less than optimal, but they still carry us and start to dance when that particular song plays, or beg to run outside, or seemingly on their own, jump to hug the ones we love the most.

There is beauty all around us, if we know how to see it. And there is a joy in moving our bodies that reflects the beauty of the soul. My feet are beautiful, and yours are too. Let’s move them with the joy they deserve today!

Some days I just need a quick workout at the gym.  I know I need to exercise for mental health as much as physical health and so the days when I am feeling not at the top of my mental/emotional health game, I am at a crossroads of needing to exercise and not being motivated to exercise.

If you have those days too, feel free to try my template that involves 4 or 6-minute movement segments using a Tabata format.

A Tabata is a form of exercise where you alternate short periods of exercise with shorter periods of rest.  For a Tabata, I use 4 minutes of exercise consisting of 8 exercises, each done for 20 seconds, with 10 seconds of rest in between.  There are lots of great Tabata timer apps for free and in general, I choose the 8 exercises to fit the pattern of lower legs, cardio, arms, side abs, middle abs, side abs, cardio, arms with legs combined

Get-It-Done-Workout

Block One: 6 minutes of cardio

For the first 6 minute block I like to do the elliptical at a steep incline and lower resistance for 1 minute, medium resistance for 1 minute, high resistance for  1 minute, and then repeat this resistance pattern at a medium incline.   The goal is just to get your heart rate up for 6 minutes.  You can run outside in intervals or even a consistant 6 minute run.  You could jump rope in a pattern of 1 minute on and 15 seconds off for 6 minutes.  Whatever you have available to do for 6 minutes

Rest 1 minute

Block Two: 2 Tabatas (8 minutes total) with 30 seconds of rest in between the first and second Tabata

Today I did the following 8 exercises: wide leg squats while holding hand weights, moutainclimbers, tricep dips, side plank with hip dips and lifts on left side, v-sit sit ups, side plank with hip dips and lifts on right side, jump lunges, legs together squats with both arm rows with handweights.  I then rested 30 seconds and repeated this Tabata

Rest 1 minute

Block Three: 6 minutes of cardio

I did the same elliptical routine that I did in Block One, but sometimes I change it up and run on the treadmill, or run up and down some flights of stairs if they are available.

Rest 1 minute

Block 4: 2 Tabatas (8 minutes total) with 30 seconds of rest in between

You can repeat the same Tabata in Block Two for today I did 8 different exercises.  I did wide leg squat with alternating side leg lifts, jumping jacks, straight front arm raises with weights, sitting russian twists holding a weight, dead bugs with weights, bicycle crunches, burpees, lateral arm flys with hand weights

 

This should get you a quick 30- 35 minute workout with plenty of variety to keep you entertained on the days that you just need to get it done!

Because this is Workout Wednesday, No-Beach-Week-Hurricane edition I decided it appropriate to head into the pool.

I was a swimmer in high school, but I haven’t been in the water recently because a friend at a dinner party told us all about what she saw at the bottom of the deep end of the pool during a recent scuba certification class. For the good of all water sports, let’s all just agree never to speak of these things. Deal? Done!

But because I ultimately really trust in the power of chlorine I headed back to the pool today.

Ready for the best part? In the middle of my workout I reached out to the woman swimming next to me to ask her to take a few photos for the blog. As she turned toward me, I realized that I knew this woman! Dr. MCO and I were emergency physicians together for years. She wasn’t just a colleague; she was a mentor and someone I look-up to in spades. I would watch her walk into a male dominated area of medicine, always bringing Oreos for the resident doctors, and run a level one trauma center and emergency department like a boss. For me, this visual action image was more powerful than any words of encouragement or talk-up speech. If you’ve been to an emergency department near here, Dr. MCO likely trained your doctor to save your life. That is her life legacy from where I sit, but she’ll just tell you about her 3 year old grand-daughter; who I’m sure is equally as amazing!

It made my morning so special to get to talk with her again. Swimming can be solitary but social at the same time which always makes a workout more fun.

My Workout in swimmer speak:

First (100 swim, 100pull, 100 kick)x3

Second (25 fly, 12 pull-ups, 25 back, 12 v-sits ) x3

Third (150 swim, 50 fly kick, 50 back kick)x 3

Workout in regular people speak:

First I did 4 lengths of freestyle swim, 4 lengths of freestyle just pulling with my arms using paddles on my hands and a bouy on my legs, 4 lengths of freestyle kicking with flippers and a kick-board. I repeated this all two more times. I was warmed up!!

Second I swam I length of the pool in butterfly stroke and then I used the starting block to do 12 pull-ups. I then swam one length of the pool doing backstroke, jumped out of the pool and did these v-sits for ab work. I did this all 2 more times!

Third I swam freestyle for 6 lengths of the pool, then grabbed my kick-board and fins and kicked butterfly kick for 2 lengths of the pool followed by backstroke kick for 2 lengths of the pool. I repeated all that two more times!

Dr. MCO gave me some tips as well including paddles for pulling that have holes in them that can be great for beginners. She also showed me a ring swim counter that you can click with each lap so that you can swim -and be in peace- while it helps you keep track of laps.

That is all for work-out Wednesday water edition for today. Keep your heart healthy…and just a little jolly!

I decided that instead of napping after lunch this week, I would take 30 minutes and add some body movement.

I am a lunch napper and so this idea is a big change for me. After I eat lunch, I love to close my eyes and catch a 15 minute nap. My dog loves to join me in our together Power Nap Time.

For a small new habit change, this week at lunch I started doing a 0.5mile walk around the block, 12 upright shoulder presses with hand weights, 12 standing tricep presses, 25 squats with bicep curls, 12 standing side bends with weights-each side, and 25 dead bugs on my back with weights.

It’s hot outside for a walk but for 10 minutes I embrace the slight sweat. Enough to move, but not enough to mess the hair is the goal. I don’t change into full workout gear or shower after this new habit because that’s not the idea. I am just trying to add movement.

I found that I don’t miss the nap! I look forward to the fresh air and the music I put in my ears. I feel energized to a greater degree than with my nap, and my dog joins with me in movement too. He is pretty convinced that it’s our play time together and this makes me smile…even as I get a large dog toy thrown at me during my dead bug abs!

What can you do mid-day to increase your movement? Join me in mine!

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