That's Fit

Have you been working out steadily, seeing results all the while? If so, great. Did you then hit a bit of a plateau, only to watch your results sort of reach a stand-still? Not so great. After that, did you remain on that plateau for quite some time, only to then start to actually have your results reverse a bit? Not great at all.

With regard to plateaus, they are an inevitable part of working out. They happen to me, they happen to you, they happen to just about everyone at some point or another who works out. Fortunately, plateaus are pretty easy to break through if you are willing to change your workout a bit. Because I've posted before on a few ways to do that, I'd rather now focus on the last stage that I mentioned above -- when your results start to reverse.

This can due to a couple of reasons. For one, the plateau you're stuck on really has you spinning your wheels. You're exercising all the time, but not happy with the way you look and feel anymore. Before long, you're just going through the motions and not pushing yourself as hard as you once were. This lack of motivated effort slows you down after a while, and before long, you've taken a few steps back. A second way this can happen is when you start to let your diet fall to the wayside a bit. This doesn't mean that you completely deviate from a healthy eating plan, but you instead do more "picking" than you used to. The Hershey's Kisses on the receptionists' desk, the handful of Skittles from the guy in accounting, the extra cocktail after work -- it adds up after a while.

If you feel a bit of exercise and diet burnout -- due to a plateau or otherwise -- a good move is to take a short break. A week off will not hurt you. In fact, it may be what saves you from abandoning your healthy program altogether. Before long, you'll be back on track and seeing those new results again.

I was watching TV last night, flipping at high speed through all the channels with my handy-dandy remote, when I remembered the long-ago days requiring an actual walk to the television set for a little channel surfing. It got me thinking about technology, about how the very thing that is revolutionizing the world in so many ways -- think electronic medical records, on-line banking, the fact that I'm publishing this post in cyberspace for all to read -- is also making us one lazy mass of people.

How about automatic garage door openers? Growing up, I remember hustling out of the car, often on cold and snowy days, to manually lift my family's garage door. Once our car was nestled safely inside, the door had to be yanked back down. These days are long gone. Now, I have a button in my mini-van programmed to shoot that garage door up and down at a moment's notice. I don't think I've ever even touched my garage door with my hand.

Sprinkler systems. Remember watering your lawn with a sprinkler attached to your hose and dragging it from place to place until every blade of grass got a drink? Now we have the luxury of sprinklers running on auto pilot. We also have drive-through and drive-up options at almost every restaurant around. We don't even need to exit our cars to collect our carry-out slop. And riding lawn mowers. We're not talking traditional technology here but still, it illustrates my point. I saw a neighbor plowing through his miniature-sized yard the other day on his big and burly John Deere ride-on. Could the 30 minutes it might take to manicure his entire lot of grass be so difficult?

Push-ups are by far my favorite upper body exercise. In fact, if you had to choose only one exercise to do for your upper body for the rest of your life.......you better pick the push-up. This all in one exercise works just about every muscle above your hip and then some. No other strength training exercise has the ability to work your chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, forearm, abs, erector spinae (low back), glutes, calves, anterior tibialis (over your shin), neck. and more. Not only are they the best, they're something almost everybody can do. Barring spinal injuries and rotator cuffs, unless you've specifically been told not to do push-ups.....you should do them.

Here's a bunch of fun ways to do a push-up, in order from easiest to hardest. Keep in mind, your back should always be straight, Your tushy should not sag down, or stick up. Breath, breath, breath. Suffocation is rarely useful. I normally start my clients with three sets. Do the most you can possibly do on your first, rest and repeat two times. You'll be surprised at how quickly you progress.

Level 1:

Wall push-ups. Hands on wall, feet on floor about a foot away. Push out.

On knees, butt high. Hands and feet shoulder width apart on ground, push-up.

On knees butt flat. Hands and feet shoulder width apart on ground, push-up.