Happy January! I love the first of the year as it is so filled with potential and possibilities and thoughts of change.
As a dancer and dance teacher there have been similar patterns to my thoughts over the years at this time. I vow to decrease my sugar intake, increase my exercise and spend more time with the people I really care about – quality time – not just quantity.
Within a few weeks life gets busy and somehow my good intentions are pushed to the back recesses of my mind. I forget the importance of those simple goals… after all if you aren’t healthy you can’t be at the top of your game physically, mentally, emotionally. When your body doesn’t feel good – you don’t feel good.
It’s a challenge to keep focused on a daily basis and decide that there is nothing more important than to feel good. We know that when we feel good life works better and when we feel badly about ourselves nothing works quite as well. We forget (at least I forget) that no one else is in charge of my perspective besides myself.
I blame life…. if only I had more money… if only I didn’t have to work so many hours… if only I had more time to focus on myself.
I forget that success at anything is an inside job – that then gets reflected into the outer world of my life. It is my commitment to myself to make 2012 my healthiest and happiest year yet. Not a resolution…. a commitment.
Every now and then I’m going to use the blog to update you on my progress. Nothing like public accountability to get the juices going:) I’ve got a few different strategies that I have already begun. One is a new way to do some high intensity fitness training – easily – with my 10 pound kettle bell.
The article that inspired me can be found here. I’m all for ways to exercise and maintain health that are efficient and don’t require an hour or more out of my day. Who has time for that!
After reading the article, come back to read the rest of the post… otherwise it won’t make sense.
Here are the modifications I made since I don’t have a bench to do the various presses that are talked about in this article. I do 3 of the 5 recommended exercises. My modifications for the chest and overhead press are to take my 10 pound weight lie down on the floor for the chest press and do the very, very, very slow straightening of one arm (with weight) towards the ceiling and a very, very slow descent back down. You only need to do 4-5 reps before your arm is very, very tired! (how many times can I use very in this post?) 
Then do it with the other arm.
For the overhead press I do the same thing one arm at a time either sitting or standing, slowly pressing the 1o pound weight towards the ceiling.
You can do it with whatever amount of weight seems appropriate to your level of strength – start light – you can always increase. The tempo of the action is more important than the amount of weight in the beginning.
For the leg press I came up with a nifty variation: standing on 1 leg, in parallel, doing the slowest demi plie you have ever seen. It was amazing to me how quickly my thigh muscles felt like they were burning as I did my 4 reps on each leg.
I can then change it up and do a couple of more active interval trainings like jumping jacks as quickly as I can for up to a minute, then walking around until my heart rate has come back down to normal.
I’m curious to hear other’s responses if they try the super slow movement sequences. Feel free to post your comments below. Next week I’ll get back to answering your questions.
Hope everyone is having a good start to the new year!
Best regards,
Deborah
“Education is the key to injury prevention”