Lose the Guilt About Missing the Gym (and How to Make Up For It)

I have been spending a lot of time lately trying to leave negativity out of my life. When I get caught up in negative thoughts, it often snowballs into guilt, self-deprecation and a large amount of stress. None of these things belong in my life. And it shouldn’t belong in yours either. I have noticed how hard we tend to be on ourselves when we miss a day at the gym. We overlook what we could have been doing with that time instead of turning to social media and publicly shaming ourselves. Instead of doing mental harm about missing the gym, make up for it with these more positive actions instead.

1.     Core Work

Core work is something that can do every day and not need the gym or equipment to do so. Catching up on plank variations and isometric holds is an easy way to cancel out the guilt of missing a full strength workout at the gym. When you can’t laugh at this the next day without being feeling sore, it’s a good thing.

2.     Recovery Work

An athletic trainer friend of mine always has to remind her clients that once an injury has occurred, it will always remain with you. The point she couldn’t stress enough is that physical therapy doesn’t end when sessions end. It is something that always must be done. So when the gym isn’t on the agenda for the day, remember there is always work to be done in the tiniest amount. So get back to those ankle alphabets and shoulder Ys and Ts if staying strong without setbacks is important (which it is!).

3.     Flexibility/Stretch/Massage Work

The great thing about flexibility and stretch work is that it is an integral part of being well-rounded athlete. (More importantly keep injury away.) Load up a yoga or stretching routine from a favorite workout app.  Grab that foam roller that is collecting dust in the corner and work out the kinks in those quads and calves. After all the wincing, yelping and swearing so loud that it scares the neighbors, the amount of relief and energy that will be felt after will make anyone forget a missed gym day.

4.     Quality Time

There are times when my clients ask me for advice on their training plans, and after they give me the rundown of their jam-pack training schedule I often have to tell them to cancel a gym or training day to make room for quality time. The running joke with athletes is that their significant other/kids/cats/guinea pigs never see them and that if cats could attend games that would be the most time spent together in one sitting. There is always room for mentally recovering and keeping your life in balance. Once, when I pulled a practice off of a client’s weekly schedule she immediately responded with, “Oh! Now I can have date night!” That guy is now marrying her. (Related? Shrug. But I’d like to take credit for that.)

5.     Treat Yo’Self (to sleep and a good meal)

Now it’s time to treat yo’self. None of that cheat meal nonsense. I am talking about that hour you missed at the gym that leaves you a wide-open opportunity to cook a real meal mid-week and sit down with actual utensils instead of standing over the sink eating out of Tupperware. And the time you cut out of traveling to the gym? Wind down early and hop in bed with a book or that significant other/cat/guinea pig and get some real lovin’ on. Everyone wins.

Form Fix of the Week: Pushup

“Everyone knows how to do push ups.” NOT. Every week I remind my boot campers how to perform a push up in good form. Sometimes it is because they want to push harder or not look like the only person who can’t do a proper one. But I can’t stress this enough, a push up in bad form isn’t doing anyone favors. It also isn’t shameful to not be able to do even one, because this sucker takes a lot of practice and build up.

A push up is one of the most basic exercises that builds upper body and core strength. No equipment is needed, not even this and there are no excuses that can justify leaving it out of your workout (unless you are injured/have joint restrictions, then you are absolutely excused).

Proper Form: 3 Things to Focus On

Spine. I am a big defender of spine health. So when doing any exercise I will always mention this first. When executing an exercise from a prone position, it is best to keep your spine in a neutral position. Note that I am not saying “straight” but “neutral.” The difference is that when the spine is in neutral, it is allowed to perform as it should with the natural curves in motion. Pushing the spine into a straight position is forcing it into an unnatural state. Neutral also means not letting the spine hyperextend. When in a prone position, don’t look like your cat, stretched out over couch and under the coffee table. Only a cat can be comfortable and look cool in that position.  

Elbows. What part of the arms are pushups actually working? Pushups utilize anterior and medial deltoids (shoulders) as well as the triceps and pectorals (chest). They are a ton of variations on pushups and there are a lot of arguments on which is actually the true one, but I’ll stick to the form that I feel works best for the major muscle groups used. When lowering to the ground, keep the elbows close to the side of the body, bending 90 degrees towards the feet.

Neck. Keep the neck neutral as well. A common compensation I see in pushups is when the neck drops down and forward. A little trick to know if the neck is in the right spot is to actually look a few inches in front of you rather than straight down.

How to Build Up

Start with planks. Having stability throughout the core and shoulders is a key component. Don’t worry about lowering just yet. A proper plank is all about keeping the neck and spine neutral and the shoulders directly over your elbows/wrists. Learning to engage the core, quads and glutes will keep pushups in proper alignment rather than looking like someone is about to break out the worm.

On your knees. Don’t knock anyone doing push ups on their knees. I would rather have a client do pushups on their knees in perfect form any day of the week until they build the strength to go to the next level. (See previous.)

Halfsies. I like having my clients learning how to hold a pushup halfway before even attempting to lower all the way. This still gives the core and shoulders more control without losing form.  

Now are we ready to tackle the pushup?

Jump To It: It Takes More Than Milk to Build Bone

We generally know how to build muscle, make them bigger, stronger and so indistinguishable from one hulky guy to another, but it is rare to think about exercises that build our bones. Remember when your mom used to force you to drink milk so that your bones would grow and be strong? Now that you are a grown ass person, you still need to listen to her, it will just take more than milk to keep them strong.

Muscle vs. Bone: The Difference

When we build muscle, we think of strength training—lifting weights or using equipment—to add resistance and increase the ability to resist force as weight increases and repetition decreases. But to build bone, exercise needs to fall into the weight-bearing category to increase bone density—specifically exercises that move you against gravity in an upright position.  Think barbell squats versus jump squats.

Building Bone Density with Both High and Low Impact Exercises

The go-to exercises for building bone density usually involve high-impact to successfully increase bone mass. Some athletes here the words “high impact” and have a flee or fight moment because 1) they have had broken bones in the past and fear the pain of high impact to an old injury or 2) eat things like pain for breakfast. High impact exercises are crucial, but not meant for everyone. Especially for those with bones on the mend or osteoporosis. Lucky for us who have bad knees and flat feet, there are low impact exercises options that aid in bone growth and maintenance.

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, some high impact exercises include:

Running/Jogging

Jump Roping

Stair Climbing

Hiking

and low impact can be done on/with:

Stair Climbing Machines

Elliptical Machines

Fast Walking

Low-Impact Aerobics

Cycling or Swimming do not fall into bone-density types of exercise because they provide resistance rather than impact. These type of exercise are excellent for cardiovascular and endurance building instead.

Why bother?

As we get older, we begin to lose bone mass whether we like it or not. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases says that our bone mass peaks in the third decade of our lives and begins to decrease after, making bones susceptible to injury and breakage. Our joints also become less stable and lose the ability to help us maintain balance and prevent a fall. By adding weight-bearing exercises to our workout programs, we can keep our moving parts moving and won’t have to use creaky, achy joints to keep predicting the weather. So shake a bone and save them from getting in trouble.

Want to read more about bone density? Check out:

High-Impact Exercise Builds Bone Density
Why High-Impact Exercise Is Good for Your Bones
5 Ways to Boost the Bone Building Power of Your Workout

Form Fix of the Week: Side Plank

What is the difference between a balance exercise and a stability exercise? A balance exercise is training your muscles to achieve equilibrium, challenging different planes of motion. A stability exercise is exactly that, teaching your body to stabilize. Once your body stabilizes, it then learns to use stabilization to move your body as a whole properly.

Side planks fall under the category of stabilization, NOT balance. Most people execute a side plank by stacking their feet on top of each other and spending a lot of energy balancing (with their shoulder and ankle muscles, not their core!) and when you watch someone using this technique, most of the time it looks like they are practicing their wobble moves rather than holding a perfect plank. But a side plank is meant to stabilize, and use the muscles throughout your core—like your glutes, hips and back.

Next time you do a side plank, try this. Instead of stacking one foot on top of the other, place your top foot on the ground right in front of your bottom foot. Now instead of concentrating on trying not to tip over, you are working on engaging your core to keep your hips up and your body straight rather than trying to balance forwards and backwards.

Easy fix!

Be Healthy About Being Pissed Off

photo credit: Mike Fitzgerald via photopin cc

We’ve all done it. Gotten angry at how a game went, how the score turned out, how the ref missed a penalty or our own teammates. Getting angry can be healthy way to let off some steam—but to a point. Here are some healthy ways to be pissed off so you won’t lose your head.

Let it Out

Go ahead and say it out loud, but to yourself. Never direct your anger towards someone like a fellow teammate or coach (or even yourself). Verbal abuse is just as dangerous as punching the wall. It stings like hell and could leave scars that last a lifetime. If you can control what you say, share it, but if you can’t you are better off standing in the mirror yelling at yourself.

Sit on it, then let it go

Give yourself exactly 1 hour to let the angry juices stew in your head. Then, MOVE ON. It isn’t healthy to carry your anger around longer than that. Like a virus, the longer it stews, the faster it will spread to every healthy cell in your body and mutate you into a raging contagion that infects all around you. In derby, we used to have a saying on my team that each jam was a new chance to get it right. Treat every misstep as a mistake in the past and leave it there, so that you can move forward with a fresh start.

Reflect and Repurpose

Now that you’ve let go of your anger, go ahead and look back to learn from what happened. Review footage. Go over it in your head. Take a minute to talk to your coach and get some constructive criticism. But do so with the intent of using it as a lesson learned. Find what made you angry in the first place and figure out how to approach the problem again with a clear head. We only get better with experience, so take each lesson and use it in the future as a way to avoid getting yourself into tempermental situations that you can’t get out of. And remember the part about looking in the mirror? This time, try not to Liz Lemon yourself and say something you did right.