A quick announcement! I’ll be hosting a fall/back-to-school–ish 30-day strength training challenge starting next month. I’ll have more details to share soon, but if you’re interested in learning more as soon as I have it all sorted, please fill out this form! It’ll be a great way to kickstart a new strength training habit (or get back into it) with a clear plan, helpful guidance, and light-and-friendly accountability.
Happy Sunday! It’s my birthday week! I’m often pretty in my head about birthdays (not about getting older, which I feel grateful to be doing, but more like, Am I having fun? Who didn’t text me? Does everyone hate me?) but last year I decided to toss all that noise out the window and simply INSIST on having a great day. If one of those little anxieties popped up, I’d just say to myself, “Nope! Sorry, it’s my birthday!” And you know what? It worked! If you tend to hurt your own feelings on your birthday, I highly recommend being sort of strict with yourself about not allowing it. It’s not allowed! I’ll be extremely strict about it again this year for sure so I can actually have a good day.
Anyway, let’s exercise a little, no? I filmed this workout last Tuesday, and it was spicy! And then immediately after I finished filming, I discovered that my mic had run out of battery about 10 minutes before I finished. DEEP SIGH. I opted to just record a voiceover and splice it in, which was an extremely strange experience for me, but hopefully it’s not too awkward for you as you watch and listen. Mercury evidently stopped being in retrograde the day before I filmed, but maybe a little bit of the vibes lingered?
This week, we’re exploring a fun (“fun,” lol) way to add some spice to your workout: finishing each movement with an isometric hold. You absolutely don’t have to do it, but it certainly brings a little something extra to the table if you’re interested in giving it a try. Why bother? Isometrics can improve muscle endurance and, fascinatingly, can even help reduce blood pressure. And, if you don’t have heavy weights available, they’re a great way to make an exercise a little more challenging.
If possible, you’ll want a heavyish dumbbell, and one or two sets (nice to have options!) of light to medium dumbbells. If you don’t already own weights, I highly recommend the dumbbells from Power Systems: I use them; they’re good; feel free to use that link as another way to support my work here, because I’ll get a tiny kickback from your purchase. (But truly, no pressure!)
Let’s get started!
