gifts

    This time of year we give and we receive gifts.  Gifts of time, attention, compassion, forgiveness.  These gifts we give to those we love.  I would like you to also give these gifts to yourself.  In order to fully love and be able to give, we must be "full".

     One of my clients was struggling to get to the next level with her body and her confidence. She is busy and looks great but she wasn't "feeling it".  I gave her a very superficial and silly assignment.  I told her to go buy a lotion that had self tanner in it (I love Dove and she is very pale like me).  She used that lotion every day.  She took the time to rub it into her body and look at herself.  It is amazing how a little color SHOWS the lines of your body.  She realized how much the work she was doing was changing her body.  I know she felt better. Two weeks later, I walked in to train her and she looked amazing. Radiant and noticeably leaner.  She said "You know, after that self tanner thing, I got excited about my body. I made some small changes like smaller portion sizes and less junk.  Mainly though, I just felt lean and it worked".  

    I would like you all to give to yourselves this week.  Take the time to nurture your SELVES.  Take a good look in the mirror. Stand there and truly love your body and all the amazing things it can do. You can get into a city bus without using the arm rails. You can pass everyone on the subway stairs. You can get into and out of a car without having to "pump and pull" on the doorframe. If you start looking around you, you will be shocked at just how capable you are when you see everyone else around you. You are earning your strength, your body and your confidence.  You are giving yourself such a gift.  Celebrate that gift.

    Whatever it takes for you to feel fabulous RIGHT now. Do it. Today I want you to be exactly and perfectly happy with the body you live in.  Not 5, 19, 40lbs from now but TODAY. We are are and should strive to be better on every level every day.  The journey to mastery is an infinite one.  The start of that journey is feeling joy at where you are today.

"What else should we do?"

     Jill asked a great question. What should you do besides Liquid Strength? Obviously, we are all getting sore enough that strength training (especially lower body) is not needed.  I believe very strongly in rest days. Especially the day after class. A "recovery" day can be a spin class or a walk or cardio machines as long as you are gentle with yourselves and the focus is more on movement and not on muscular strain of any kind.  You can often ease soreness with a walk or a spin class. Basically (especially in spin) if you are "burning" in your legs, it is not productive.  The one muscle group that you can do is chest.  We brush upon chest but because we are never in the prone position (laying down), we are not working to failure.

    There has been a huge amount of research that has shown that interval training is highly effective for improved cardiovascular fitness and fat burning.  We do intervals in Liquid Strength without even thinking about it.  When you take a spin class or run or do cardiovascular machines, you want to do intervals too.  I HIGHLY advise using a heart rate monitor. 

     That being said I am going to write a little blip here addressing the question of heart rate monitors.  I use a Polar. I am not brand loyal. I use a Polar because I have several straps and monitors and they all work together.  I like there to be the function of giving an average heart rate when you are finished your training. You do not need all the "downloading" features and bells and whistles. You likely will not use them and they will freak you out when you are trying to figure out how to use the darn thing.  I get lots of fitness info and offers and I saw one recently that had a monitor for $39.95 that looked pretty good. The phone number for that offer was 1800-742-4478 and the website was sales@chponline.com   I do not know anything about this company so go online and look into it, go to Polar and compare. Get a heart rate monitor. It makes so much of a difference with your training and is really fun.

     I train very hard cardiovascularly twice a week.  I teach an hour spin class but I ride a half an hour first. In that class. I do intervals to 85%.  I believe that you must work HARD at least once a week. I recently read an article that athletes over 40 lose the ability to work at the 90th% if they do not train there regularly. As a cyclist, that made me take notice.  Once you figure out your heart rate max and target range (I will be posting more info in a separate blog entry) , you want to do intervals to 85% and recovery to 65%. (Obviously check with your doctor to make sure you are healthy enough for this kind of vigorous training.) Long intervals (up to 10 minutes) and short intervals (3 minutes) are best. I like to do both types once a week. 

     What you do (i.e. spinning, running, eliptical etc.) is purely a matter of choice.  You want to one longer workout (over an hour) and one  an hour long if possible.  

      Doing Yoga and kickboxing, taking a dance class etc. are all wonderful ways to challenge your body in new ways.  I really love for my clients to have some variety.  I love it for my own workouts too.  If something feels "comfortable" it is most likely best saved for a recovery day.

      Please keep the questions coming.  There is so much to learn and so much information that will help keep you focused and inspired.  I know writing this helps me in my day to day.  The sense of kinship and support follows me throughout the week.  I hope you are all feeling that too.