Strengths and Weaknesses.
Why do you come to the gym? Is it to show off how many pushups, pull-ups, and heavy squats you can do? Do you need more flexibility, mobility, agility? Or wait, you want to lose some weight!, or put some on? Hopefully your answer is yes to it all! It feels good to feel strong and fit. It’s also frustrating, and can feel embarrassing to be unable to do something. We are all human, we have all felt this.
Every decade after age 30, we lose 10% of our metabolism, balance, and bone mass. The only thing that offsets this aging dilemma is strength training. The more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolism.
Fun fact: Men generally have 30% more muscle mass than woman, so naturally even in their sleep they are burning more calories than a woman. So how do we speed that metabolism up again? Gain some muscle!
Bone density – we all know milk is a great source for vitaminD. While vitaminD, calcium, and magnesium are important for health and growth of our bones, nutrients alone won’t keep our max bone density which we reach around the age of 30. Resistance, and strength training improve blood flow and actually bend our bones which encourages bone growth! Cool!
Balance, stand on one foot, close your eyes count to 20. Can you do it without putting your other foot down? Do you have monster quads but weak hamstrings? Solid biceps, but no triceps? Balance comes in many forms in the body. When we play sports, we over-use certain muscles. The only way to counter that dominance is routine strength exercises with stretching. When else are you going to do single leg box ups!? Off the toilet!? Practicing single leg, arm, core exercises makes you wake up your micro muscles that encourage balance. Sweet!, now go get after those running jumps onto your SUP board!
And to the showing-off part! It feels good to feel strong! One of my cool gym tricks is I can do pull-ups, and I enjoy doing them. How many woman do you know that can do a pull-up all on their own? It’s not our strong suit, and that’s ok. But guess what, I have a 2.5 year post surgery knee that is still 30% weaker than my other, giving me inflammation and pain. Am I proud of that… UH Uhhhhhh. Do I favor it and can’t tell until a coach corrects me, yup sure do. Does it embarrass me? Kinda, but ultimately, I’m there, I’m working on it, and the only way to fix it is by doing the things I’m not as good at to get better. Moral of this rant! 😉 Focus on your weakness. Don’t be embarrassed because we all have them. Your coach is coaching you for your benefit, and you are there for you! And whatever your ability, we are proud to see you improving you! We all have our reasons for working out, but in case you are looking for more goals here are:
5 Fitness Goals to Reach Toward:
- 10 full body weight on toes pushups
- 10 full body weight pull-ups
- 50 full situps
- Squat your body weight
- Cardiovascular: hold 80% of your max heart rate for 20-min or more. (if you don’t know your max HR ask a coach!)
5 Balance Goals to Reach Toward:
- Stand on one foot eyes closed 20-sec barefoot
- Stand on one foot on pillow 20-sec barefoot, eyes closed
- Be able to do warrior 3-, 5-times in a row
- 10 pike planks feet on a ball
- Be able to stand up from laying on the ground not using your hands, or arms
Try these out! You may be surprised where your weaknesses or imbalances lie…
