by Dan | Mar 20, 2016 | Exercise, Goals, Motivation, weight lifting, Wellness/Health
Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone in order to achieve other benefits? Here I am lifting weights, working on this now for the last 15 months. I consider myself a runner, but knew the importance of weight/resistance training on my health as well. I just did not really like it. Also, I was afraid that I could hurt myself, and then may not be able to run. I also know that if I wanted to improve my running, I needed to work on my overall strength. I needed to get “out of my comfort zone”.
With everything in life, there are risk and rewards for everything we do. Sometimes, we may have to sit down and write down the potential risks in things we do, or should do, versus the potential rewards that can come about as well. Weigh your options, but at the same time, be willing to step out on a limb. You never know what other life experiences that may be available for you to experience.
Here is Rich, one of my training partners for the weight lifting. He is looking at the board for what is scheduled for us to do that day. Sometimes, we may look at things and feel overwhelmed. We may even wonder “how am I going to do that?” Even though that work out that morning seemed a little daunting, we did it…we made it…and at the same time, proved to ourselves we could do it, which leads to even more confidence in everything we do, not only when it comes to exercise, but life in general!
Evaluate those risks against the cost, whether financial or otherwise, and also the effort it is going to take. Anything worth taking a risk on is also going to take some effort. Welcome to life! There are risks involved when trying to exercise, or to stay healthy, but there are even more risks involved if you don’t exercise! Everything has a price…money, time, effort, determination, courage, risk!
Sometimes we need to flex our muscles and prove to ourselves who is the boss. Nobody said working out or trying to exercise was easy…if it was, everybody would be doing it, and there would be no challenge. Push yourselves…our minds are much tougher to push things past than our bodies are!
Here I am getting ready to do a back squat. The amount of benefit this exercise has provided me for increasing strength for running has been enormous. Yes, I got hurt doing this maneuver at one point last year, but that was more carelessness on my part than doing the actual exercise. I have to realize now I am over 50 and I can’t do what somebody younger can do, and my body let me know! But, that does not mean I cannot make an effort! I may need to make some modifications on how I do this, but that should be the way it is. I have to listen to my body, just as each of you have to listen to yours. We are all individuals, and the same time things are not equal across the board for everybody. That is what makes us unique!
Realize that we will all face risks with exercise, our health, and life in general. Plan for it, adjust to them, and even though many of those risks may be seen, there are many that are unforeseen. Adapt to them, take them on, challenge yourself. It may surprise you as to what you are really capable of doing. If you are not willing to risk going further than you have had before, you will never know how far you can go!
Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3096
by Dan | Nov 1, 2015 | Exercise, Goals, Heart Health, Motivation, weight lifting
As a physician, we do our best to take care of our patients. But, we would be totally lost without our Nurses! My current team is Linda, Melody, and Chris, of which Chris has been with me the entire 21 years I have been at Brown Clinic. My team knows my patients just like me. But, they also know me! They keep me organized and on track. It would be prudent that I listen to them! There is no question, my team takes care of me, for which I am grateful. Here is my Team:
My team has heard me thousands of times encouraging my patients that they need to watch their diet, and they need to stay active and exercise. When it comes to the exercise, they all follow this advice. Linda has run several 5k races, and Melody walks…someday I will get her to try running! Chris, though, has become a running maniac! She has been doing this now for about 3 years, and she runs and goes to races a lot with Susan, a former nurse of mine, and they are having fun. After all, this is what it is all about. Hopefully in the process, you improve your health as well.
Here is Chris, then Susan, and Shelly, one of Dr. Greg Larson’s nurses. They all participated in the Hospital Hill run this Summer.
Here is Linda after participating in one of the color runs.
I have heard excuses from them, and at times still do (Ha!) about the time and effort it takes to keep trying to exercise. Chris struggled at first, and was always worried that she was too slow! Now she does not worry about her speed, but she did get a shirt that expressed her thoughts.
As her shirt states: I Run…I’m slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter, but I Run!
Exactly! I does not matter how fast you go, or what anybody else thinks of you…It only matters that you are trying, and that you are improving your health…Improving your health to be around longer to spend time with their family. Deep down, they work on this so they will be able to spend more time being my nurses!!!! After all, I listen to everything they tell me! (No laughing!) There is no question this takes work, and that there are always other things to do that keep us busy. We need to make it a priority. It took almost 17 years to get Chris on this bandwagon, and Linda is going…I need to keep working on Melody, and eventually she will get it too. Are you listening Melody? I am not giving up getting you going more! They are all important to me, and I want them to be around helping me, and my patients, for a long time. There will always be that special bond with Chris. What can I say, she has been with me since day one of my Watertown practice. Sarah is my wife, and I have her at home to help keep me organized and on track, but I have Chris at the clinic. I love it when we can all run in a race together…and here are Chris and Sarah after the 4th of July run this Summer.
We can have fun staying active as well. Chris just signed up at Anytime Fitness so she can stay active inside when it gets cold out, but is also working on strength training as well. I was encouraging her on her first day!
Way to go Chris! Keep encouraging those people around you to keep working on taking care of themselves. There are other people who would like to have them around a lot longer too. There is no question this takes work. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it. Just remember, anything worth having is worth working for! Thank you to MY TEAM! I appreciate all you do for me! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2956
by Dan | Aug 10, 2014 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Motivation, weight lifting, Wellness/Health
There is no debate…exercise takes work. But, you can make it fun. It is also a good way to spend time with your family. We just went on vacation for a few days to Minneapolis, and everybody but Molly went with us. Sarah, Nick, Megan and I all went for a run each morning. We then spent the rest of the day doing lots of walking at Mall of America and other adventures. When we got back, Megan and I went into Anytime Fitness to get our weight workout in.
Anytime Fitness is having a selfie contest this month, so we decided to have a little fun with this. The caption I had with this was: Coach Dad…work your “bun” off! We did a lot of laughing, plus got our workout in. Megan will be going back to school in Virginia in 10 days. We are not going to be having many of these times left.
So relax…spend some time with your family, have fun, and you can still workout. Set the tone parents…your kids will follow. Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2508
by Dan | May 18, 2014 | Exercise, Goals, Motivation, weight lifting, Wellness/Health
We may not know what our future has in mind for us, but we do have a lot of control over certain things. We can choose to take care of our health better by watching what we eat, and staying active. I have been saying this for years. If it was always this easy, then why doesn’t everybody do it? We have to dig deep down inside of us. We have to find whatever it is that will “click” with us to make those changes. This takes motivation, attitude, and ability.
This is the slogan on the wall at Anytime Fitness. I can focus on this quite a bit when I am doing my weight workout. It helps me stay focused and to really think about why I am working out in the first place. Keep these points in mind when we are struggling to keep ourselves going. Working out is working! But remember, anything worth having is worth working for. Keep your head down and stay focused. Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2424
by Dan | Feb 24, 2013 | Exercise, Family, Motivation, weight lifting, Wellness/Health
Who said fishing can’t be a workout? Just got back from Mexico from a week of vacation, and went deap sea fishing one morning with Sarah, my brother Ray, and his wife Joni. In the last half hour of our time, we reeled in this Sail Fish, 91 inches long!
We had to keep trading off in order to get this fish reeled in. Talk about a workout! It made up for a boat ride that had a lot to be desired. We were all feeling sick on this ride.
Of course, my daughter would not believe us that we caught this, thinking it was just another “exaggerated fish story”…until she saw the pictures! Until this, we only caught 2 small fish that were not worth keeping. I did not have to worry about lifting weights this day. I was also glad I do some weight training as well! A fish story for eternity! I will be posting other adventures, scenes from our trip to Mexico, and show how easy it can be to have a great vacation, and still exercise and be healthy. Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 1978
by Dan | May 14, 2011 | Equipment, Exercise, weight lifting, Wellness/Health
Lunges: Rest your back leg on a ball and just bend and straighten your front knee. This is also great for balance. Either do repetitions, or hold for up to 1 minute, or what you are able to do.
Back Extensions: Do these exercises if you do not have any back problems. Rest your body on the ball and put your toes on the floor. Your hands can be behind your head, or straight at your side, and then lean forward, then straighten your back. Hold for 10-20 seconds. Relax, and then repeat.
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 1327
