I'm going to share my thought process on fitness today. Listing workouts is kind of boring but the thoughts that cause someone to do or not do something are interesting to me. Now, anyway! My thoughts used to go something like, "...because that's what's on the schedule."
I never plan my workouts ahead of time. I don't know what the exercises will be, or the order, the duration, none of that. I think about how I'm feeling and I make up something to match it. Sometimes, I want to jump around, or go slow, or stretch, or lift heavy, or use my tiny weights. I start, and while I'm doing one exercise I think about what might be a good next one. It can be based on fun, or balancing opposing muscle groups, what equipment is in front of me, something I haven't done recently, pretty much anything.
Today, I doodled around playing Jeopardy, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and Song Quiz with Alexa until I'm sure the dog wanted to kill me. He wants to go walking and today is usually a long one because it's my day off and I have plenty of time. But there's snow on the ground and it's raining. That's such a lovely combination. We still strolled around in the slop for about 20 minutes. Since the walk was kind of a bust and I still had plenty of time and energy this morning, I did some strength training. Usually, if the walk is long or brisk I won't lift weights too, because that sucks. No thanks.
1 handstand - I usually do one of these every day just because it's fun to be upside down. 🙃
3 chin-ups - I'm too tall for my doorway pull-up bar. I had been bending my knees and putting my heels toward my butt, straightening my legs as I come up. That's hard, like really hard. It's easier to be straight or to have your legs in front of you. Lately, I've been starting pull-ups in kind of a hollow banana shape until I clear the floor. Next time, I might try it with knees tucked toward my chest.
16 push-ups - the logic was that I had just pulled so the next exercise should push. 👍
8 bent over rows on each side - back to pulling we go. I'm feeling strong today so I used a 35 pound kettlebell and planned to do 6-8 reps. Other days, I'll go a lot lighter and do more reps.
8 overhead presses each side - went heavy again due to the strong thing. I chose to do one side at a time because heavy one-sided presses are a great core exercise too. Usually, I press both sides at once and go lighter for more reps.
8 bent over rows with a single 53lb kettlebell and a narrow grip - it hits my back muscles a little differently.
16 goblet squats with the 35lb kettlebell - the kettlebell was still in the middle of the floor so it seemed like a fine first leg move. Usually, I hate goblet squats, and I really extra hate heavy goblet squats. Today, they sounded fun. I take advantage of that when it happens.
16 single-leg squats each side with the rear leg elevated - whatever those are called. My thought was, "Uh, hey, that's two quad-dominant exercises in a row." Usually, I dislike the burn of training my quads and overdo glutes and hamstrings as a result, so this quad stuff was a nice change of pace. I used a light weight and kept it fun. Making these too challenging or uncomfortable. causes my brain to go, "Nope, nope, nope.."
20 pendulum swings with the 35lb KB that was still right there handy - the logic was that I haven't done pendulum swings in ages. I like to keep it interesting.
10 Russian twists with the 35lb kettlebell - I love weighted abs. I especially love hanging abs, but that started my whole finger medical saga, so now I try to weight abs in ways that don't involve hanging my whole body weight on my finger joints for extended periods of time.
10 kettlebell pull-over crunches - same logic as above. Love me the weighted abs. The problem with weighting a crunch is that a 35lb kettlebell will pull you forward and sit you up, actually making it easier if you get momentum involved. If you go annoyingly slow, it's killer though.
That was all. One set of each exercise, resting in between, never broke a sweat, took 18 minutes, and that was my "long" workout this week. Usually, they're more like 5-10 minutes and mostly body weight.
Since it's cold and rainy, my plans now are to eat popcorn, watch TV, and possibly tip over and take a nap.
Love this! So now that I'm on this #Moderation365 journey, I need some help on the exercise front. I'm scared to just do "what I feel like" every day, since I've been following some kind of workout programming for literally years.
In the rational part of my brain, I expect the same outcome as when I started eating more moderately: the world won't end, I'll end up feeling better, and I'll build a lot of trust with myself and my body along the way. The only way to know for sure is to actually try it!