For fitness freaks like us, the primary holiday question isn’t what to get Mom (a trampoline, of course) or do reindeer really know how to fly (only if they have adequate core strength), but should you work out with a cold. This question is asked over and over again, silently and out loud by the sore throated, coughing, sneezing and wheezing. To answer quickly, if it is just a head cold (above the neck) then you are fine to do a slightly mellower version of your usual routine. If the dreaded bug has settled in to your chest or is causing you body aches then its best to take a day or two off (at least).
I suggest you use this bit of downtime to make sure your fitness plan is in balance, because getting sick (unless your other hobby is licking doorknobs) is a sign that something is amiss. So after you are sure your spouse feels adequately sorry for you, sit down and map out the week before the dreaded bug won the battle over your forces of immunity. Did you get at least eight hours of muscle repairing, immunity boosting sleep each night? Did you eat as well as you know you should? Were there any other out of the ordinary stresses that could have delivered the jab, jab, cross, upper-cut to your immune system? Did you party more than usual or suddenly increase your workout intensity or duration? Moderate workouts tend to relieve stress, while very intense ones add more stress to your immune system. If the holidays already have you sleeping less and eating more crap, it’s probably not the best time to start training for the Olympics.
If you are able to figure out what may have led to your current dilemma, then you will be able to avoid that deadly combination in the future. For example you may have had a stressful week at work, which led to less sleep and not eating well. All it would take is a killer workout and dinner with your mother-in-law to put you in the danger zone.
A cold is often your body’s way of letting you know that you aren’t focusing enough on the recovery aspects of your training. Keep in mind that you don’t get fitter while you are working out, but after when your body uses the nutrition and rest you give it to rebuild stronger and better.
So this holiday season keep your to-do list short, learn to say no nicely, keep your workouts moderate and consistent and get to bed on time. And remember, eggnog with rum is not a workout recovery drink!
The holidays can be tough on your health and fitness life. Cookies fall like rain, parties like scary clowns lurk around every corner and your to-do lists stretches out like a roll of toilet paper heading down hill. Even people with solid time management skills struggle to get in enough exercise, stress relief and nutritious food during this time of year. Add to the situation, shorter days and inclement weather and you have the potential for feeling pudgy and grumpy underneath your reindeer sweater.I dare you to imagine a different kind of Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza morning, one where you can’t wait to open a very special present. This wonder gift has the power to boost your mood, health esteem and give you a compelling outlook for the coming year. And it is not available from Macy’s.What you need:
A scrap of paper and pen
A box (small or large)
Wrapping supplies (festive if possible)
A few uninterrupted minutes to think
Use your thinking minutes to come up with one or two goals that you can achieve between now and the holiday. Remember the best goals are achievable but challenging, meaningful to you and measureable. “Looking sexy” in only a Santa hat may be meaningful, but it is difficult to measure. Fitting into a smaller Santa suit may be meaningful and measurable, but only if you are in the ballpark already, since you only have a six weeks or so to improve your dimensions. Doing ten full push-ups, achieving 2,000 minutes of cardio, keeping a food journal everyday or running a mile in under 9 minutes are better ideas.
Once you’ve got your goals, write them down twice. One version is going to go up in a place you will see everyday like a computer screen or bathroom mirror. The second goal goes into the box, which is wrapped up all festive like, made out to you from you and put with the other gifts.
Now you start moving toward that goal. Read it every morning and decide what steps you will take to achieve it that day. If you need help breaking it down, find someone who can assist. For extra accountability email your goal to a friend and ask them to hold you accountable. Keep your goal in mind as you face the holiday obstacle course; remember it as the cookies fly by and the invites roll in. Your goals and self-care is as important as any other part of the season, so learn to say no and keep your holiday dream close to your heart.
Fast forward to the big day, when it’s time to open your special present.
If you have achieved your goals, or even made significant progress toward them, opening that gift is going to be a delight. No material item will feel as good as knowing you followed through and didn’t give in to the holiday stress parade. When you open your “self-present” instead of feeling stressed, out of shape and out of control (like many of us do as the holidays culminate) you will feel calm and proud. Feel free to use this opportunity to flex newly strengthened muscles, give yourself a high five or start thinking about your next goal.
Use this technique to keep your health at the top of your to-do list even when things get hectic and you will be guaranteed the best gift of all.
If you don’t want your hair pulled, eyes’ poked or favorite socks thrown out the window then don’t pull anyone else’s hair, poke anyone else’s eyes or pull any monkey business with someone else’s socks. This is the Golden Rule and it is a very effective tool for keeping things civilized in most communal venues.
But did you know that this magical rule also works in reverse? Instead of “do onto others as you would have done onto you” try, “do on to yourself as you would do on to others”. This is especially important for women and anyone with over powering caretaking instincts, with a tendency to treat others way better than they treat themselves. Would you tell a friend to work long hours, skip exercise and eat pre-packaged cheese slices for dinner? Would you advise Uncle Jimbo to do a workout that he hates, is bored by or that just isn’t effective? How about giving the thumbs up and high sign to skipping flexibility training or doing movements without proper technique or purpose? Yet you might be doing some of these no-no’s yourself without thinking twice about it.
Take a quick inventory of your health and fitness life and jot down anything that you wouldn’t recommend to a friend, family member or well-behaved stranger. Another good way to approach this is to imagine that a friend (with remarkably similar strengths and limitations) came to you asking for health and fitness advice. How would you advise them? Most likely you would be encouraging, enthusiastic and eager to help them find creative solutions to any potential problems.
It’s seems a law of human nature that we give better, more thoughtful advice to others than we give ourselves. So how about treating yourself as well as you would a friend for once? If your friend was nervous and lacking direction in the gym you would tell them to hire a trainer for a few sessions. Of course they and their priceless health are worth the investment. And if someone told you they not excited about exercising anymore you would suggest that they try a new class or sport, pick up some fitness magazines for fresh ideas or find a buddy to workout with.
Try approaching your struggles as if they belonged to a good looking stranger instead of little ol’ you and discover just the kick in your workout shorts that you need.
Ah travel, a chance to get out of your rut and into your groove. Oh, to gander at startling horizons, take wrong turns and find surprising places and bombard your senses with the unexpected, delightful and unusual. Unfortunately, unless you’re on a yoga retreat, things are not so expansive for the major muscle groups of your lower body. Travel often involves a lot of sitting on planes, trains, Venetian gondoliers, elephant’s backs and cars.
Sitting is the world’s most popular form of hip tightening. Walking, whether up mountain trails, along the River Seine or between rides at Disneyland tends to tighten up the hips, hamstrings and calves. Though walking is still great exercise (do as much as possible to counter-balance the chocolate croissants and other traveling delights) in isolation it can cause a body to be tighty, tight, tight.
Having tight hips is the leg equivalent of fingers that are mostly stuck together and can’t move freely forward and back or side to side. Try walking with six-inch steps and you get the idea. Tight hips not only limit your range of motion, they can lead to lower back pain and injury. Tight hamstrings and calves also bring about back trouble and the feeling that you are about 30 years older than you actually are. Additionally, tight calves and inflexible ankles can cause “shuffle walk”, sprained ankles, loss of balance and an increased risk of falls.
Whether you are leading a pack llama up a steep slope, rafting down the Colorado or waiting in line at the Met losing your balance and falling over is not what you want to be writing about on your postcards.
The moral of the story is that it’s important to keep up with a basic stretching routine while you globe trot. Try spending 15 to 20 minutes in the morning or evening loosening up and reconnecting with your body. It’s a great opportunity for a little break from the maddening crowds and will keep you healthy and seeking out new horizons for many years to come.
As if it weren’t already a huge drag to be overweight in our thinness obsessed, french fry saturated culture, researches recently discovered that being obese can lead to an incredibly shrinking brain.
The study completed by UCLA professor of Neurology Paul Thompson investigated the brains of 94 people in the 70’s. The brains of the obese individuals (BMI of 30+) had eight percent less tissue than their normal weighted counter parts and their brains appeared to have aged prematurely by 16 years. People classified as overweight (BMI of 25-30) fared somewhat better with brain loss of four percent and eight years of premature aging. Brain loss was seen in key areas of the think box such as the frontal and temporal lobes used for critical planning and memory and the hippocampus, which is involved in long term memory. Researches hypothesis that being over-weight not only puts people at risk for ailments such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, but also Alzheimers and other degenerative brain diseases.
If you are currently overweight or obese and are wondering what to do with all that extra space in your head, the good news is that its possible to fill it back up with grey and white matter. Five years after the initial scans some of the study participants were able to reverse their brain loss by as much as four percent (and find their keys to that they could finally go home). It is so good to know that like bone and muscles, the brain is capable of regenerating itself. Go brain go!
The study is further evidence that ignoring the needs of the body while cultivating other lovely traits such as intelligence, compassion or the ability to play the flugelhorn is a dangerous path, because eventually you won’t even be able to find your flugelhorn. The brain body connection cannot be ignored. So go for a walk, take a yoga class or take all your big books off the shelf, put them in the kitchen and then put them back on the shelf again. Your brain will thank you.
Read more about the study at the online magazine Human Brain Mapping.
The modern workout is often more tiring for our minds and souls, than for our bodies. We slog through the reps and sets, the sets and reps, the machines you pulley-pulley and the ones you pushy-pushy; each one different, but somehow also the same. After a while a workout can become the equivalent of filing or doing your taxes, something you treat like a chore to get on to the better parts of your day.
If the above is your current predicament, you love a challenge and enjoy sports movies with inspiring training montages set to power ballads then the Mountain Challenge was made for you.
Though the Challenge only includes three movements, it will dare you physically and mentally. It’s a workout and a goal all rolled into one. While in its clutches, if don’t wonder at least once if you will be able to finish, you’re probably not doing it right (or to the safe edge of your abilities).
You will complete a total of 10 sets, starting with 10 pull-ups and working your way down to the last set which will be only 1. With each set you will do one less pull-up, but the same amount of push-ups and hold the stretch each side for 30 seconds.
The bottom of the mountain looks like this:
10 Pull-ups (with assistance if needed, lat pull-downs can also be substituted)
10-15 push-ups (full or modified)
60 seconds of the lower body stretch that you know you need the most (probably hip or hamstring lengthening. This is your time to rest, so take it. By the end you’ll have given your most needy body parts the gift of an amazing 10 minute deep stretch).
This is an intermediate to advanced workout for those with no upper body injuries who have been training for at least three consecutive months. Start with some light cardio and dynamic upper body movements to get ready for action. Do it with a friend and good music and you’ll be more pumped than a bounce house at a birthday party.
Thanks to UCSF wonder-trainer Sarah Delaney, who contributed most of this workout. You can read more of her stuff at Sarah’s Health and Wellness Updates
