For the last ten months, I’ve been experimenting with workout and diet to try to chisel out six abdominal muscles that I could then photograph and you could then admire. I’d put it on the Instagram and watch the little red hearts patter in. 52 likes! That’s a record! This is happiness, right?
To that end, I’ve been exercising almost every day for nine of the last ten months. I know. I’m impressed, too.
The trick is to make working out fun. Your body wants to do what it’s supposed to do. It doesn’t want to decay any more than you do. Talk to your body. I know it sounds weird and I didn’t quite understand it at first, but it’s about mindfulness when you’re working out.
I used to have sporadic knee pain at night. My knees would ache and squirm, keeping me up. At some point during the Year of the Body, I looked up suggestions for knee pain. One of the exercises that physical therapists recommend is simply flexing and unflexing the muscle right above the knee.
How to befriend your quadriceps muscle
1. Sit on the floor with one leg straight and the other leg bent.
Like this
2. Flex the quadriceps muscle of the straight leg (the front of the thigh) and count to ten. Be mindful when doing this.
Sometimes I would close my eyes, imagining the blood flowing through my leg, the muscle straining with the effort. I would picture the neural networks forming in my brain. Hi there, Quad. Sometimes I would open my eyes and watch the muscle move. I would put my hand on my thigh and feel the muscle shift as I flex. I tried to engage with the moment, the movement, the muscle as much I could.
3. Relax your quadriceps muscle.
4. Repeat 50 times each leg for a few days.
At least, that’s what I did.
It took time and I admit it was boring at first, but it only took a few days before I found myself talking to my quad muscles throughout the day without planning, chatting with my muscles when I walked. I’m always walking, so we’re constantly checking in with each other now.
My knees haven’t complained in months.
I replaced weekly unhappy check-ins with my knees for daily happy check-ins with my muscles surrounding my knees. Everything involved got the better end of that deal.
Let’s talk to all the muscles
Emboldened, I introduced myself to everyone.
The Year of the Body decreed that I put lotion on every day after showering. I’d flex and unflex each muscle as I slathered the moisturizer into the skin above that muscle. What’s up, my sweet darlings? Feeling them change as the months progressed was exhilarating. This is happiness.
My bicep muscles grew tighter and stronger, more confident.
September 2017
December 2017
May 2018
August 2018
I talk to my abdominal muscles, the target of my obsession, all the time. When I find myself sitting down, I correct my posture and imagine the shape of the abs in my head, each distinct section, and wiggle them in turn. Hi, guys! I can’t wait to see you.
Every once in a while, after trying a new exercise, I would discover a new muscle. Hamstrings! Hello! I’m so used to talking to Quads, I often neglect you. I’m sorry. You’re lovely, too.
So many new friends! So much goodness and spirit.
For months, I did Pilates and body weight movements and stretching and yoga. I used small weights if I had them and oh, heavy weights were even better. I celebrated and partied with my muscles regularly. This is also happiness.
Talk to your heart muscle
And I know I still have so many new muscle friends to meet! I’m regularly delighted with a new introduction. One day I ran down a mountain and felt awash in the love of the universe and met the most important muscle.
Oh, hello heart! I didn’t realize that we never talked.
Cardiovascular workouts are essential for health. I forget sometimes that the heart is also a muscle and important to train. It’s at least as important as your abdominal muscles. Teaching your heart to deal with stress through workouts teaches your heart to deal with stress through life.
Plus, all the people who have lovely bodies include cardio in their routine. This book told me dancing for an hour a day would cure most mental health problems.
Sold.
A couple of months ago, after the mountain run, I slowly started increasing my cardio from almost never to almost daily. Steady state cardio and high intensity interval training cardio. Dance cardio. Let’s do everything.
I tried to be mindful during the workout, envisioning the heart beebopping along, opening and closing various flaps and giggling joyfully as she pushed the blood through my body. Wheeee!
The heart muscle is an incredible little thing. When she’s excited, everything is excited. She wakes everything up, urging all my muscles and my lungs and my brain and my everything to hang out. Cardio reminds you that you’re alive.
There’s a certain satisfaction in lying in a heap on the floor, a sweaty mess, feeling the toxins draining out of you. Refuel with some delicious water and revel in the feeling of rebirth. Love and health. More happiness.
Befriending your muscles: a secret of life
Secret of life, my friends. Secret of life.
You can have a good relationship with the muscles in your body by acknowledging their existence and letting them show off for you. It just takes a bit of immersion and mindfulness.
I think.
It feels happy, anyway. At least as happy as the Instagram hearts.
The key to ads is lowing body fat.
A low body fat percentage does matter for abs, yeah. I’m writing another post on diet, but still experimenting.
Wow – great perspective. Love how your mind works!
I downloaded a meditation app and completed session 10 yesterday. My mind needs focus. I also have body goals as in toning up and, in my case, bulking up a little – I’m a man with the arms of a woman! lol It may be superficial for me to want a model/athlete-like body but I’ve never had that so I’m thinking why not? It’s only going to affect me and is like trying on new clothes – if those clothes were like muscles and fat :-). Approaching 40 next year and would really like to start the second half of my life in shape – it may even extend/improve my time on earth. To be honest, I’ve been lazy most of my life – not just down to laziness itself but also some anxiety/depression/procrastination/perfectionism/low self esteem – all the fun stuff. The mediation will help with the focus hopefully.
Last may I started a new job working with pacemakers! Not directly with them as in designing them but with dealing with feedback about them after they have gone to market. So we’ve learned a little bit (and hopefully will learn more as time goes on) about the biology of them and how they work.
And yes- they are magical and amazing. The Godly-like part that intrigues me is the Sinus node. This is the heart’s natural pacemaker which sends out electrical signals that cause the heart to beat. Without it, the heart doesn’t beat – so in that sense, it can be thought of as the foundation of our very life. I also had never though about our bodies actually creating electricity/electrical energy as such. I’m in awe at how little I’ve appreciated my body and taken it for granted.
edit – I meant to say learnt about the biology of the heart 🙂
I’ve read that hitting the ground running at forty slows down a lot of the aging process. Good luck! It just takes consistency and mindfulness. I think.
Thank you! Good luck to you too. Thanks for throwing out these ropes of insight to us out here in the interwebs. Keep it up 🙂
I appreciate the encouragement, kind sir.
We cyclists just say “shut up legs!” when we’re racing and going as hard as possible up a steep hill 🙂
Oooh, I try to be nice in my language to my body, so I don’t say shut up. I say, “I understand, my darlings, but now is the time to work.” Shut Up could be said in an endearing manner though. 🙂
Such an awesome post Anita! Made me smile and filled my body with warmth and gratitude from inside 😀 it’s so nice to talk to your body in this way! We often do not appreciate what we were given or what we reached! Your post is an excellent example of gratitude 😀 love it!
I’m glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
I love this idea! Imagine – so many new and constant friends to meet, even if they have been part of my support group for 73 years. Can’t wait. Thanks for a great idea!!
73! I want to be this lady. She’s 77 and can do one-handed pull ups!!
I just googled her again. Willie Murphy is now 81 and still a badass.
Mind-blown. She has bigger biceps that this late 30s man! lol
Inspirational!
What dance routine are you doing?
My current favorites are the ones by Body by Simone. They’re just hard enough to leave you tired!
Love this post. I have talked to my feet in the past – thanking them for all their hard work and giving them understanding, love, lotion and massages as gratitude. They seemed to like it. Your post has me inspired to reconnect with them and to start connecting with my other muscles and body parts too. Thank you!
I’m amazed that a little attention seems to go a long way. 🙂
Hi Anita,
Great post! So true, we all need to focus more on caring for our bodies. Looking forward to more posts 🙂
Thanks. I’ve been super lazy with my blog and haven’t even logged in in like ten days. :'(
In a way, you do the same in Vipassana, observe each cell but don’t react ….
Got any book reviews?
That’s a good idea.
Hey i had stumbled upon a few days back what you wrote, and i was not sure if i was hallucinating or just high, your post just reenforced that this is real not me day dreaming.
Thanks and all the best in your journey
You’re welcome. I think?
Hi Anita, just found your site through MMM. I really like this post about talking to your body, will try it to help with some nagging injuries not worth boring anyone about…(!) BUT, more importantly, the coolest thing about this blog post was that it reminded me vividly of the scifi classic DUNE, especially the order of the Bene Gesserit and their mind training for complete control over their bodies, called Prana-bindu (from Wikipedia: The Bene Gesserit develop their physical abilities as well as their mental abilities. A trained Sister has full control over each muscle in her body through training known as prana-bindu. This allows her to bend the last joint in her little toe while remaining otherwise motionless, bend and contort her body in ways that most would consider impossible, or put a remarkable amount of force behind a physical blow. The mental part of prana-bindu, or prana-nervature (prana stands for breath, bindu stands for musculature) is the precise control of the totality of nerves in the human body.)
This book made a big impression on me as a teenager, to the extent that even as an adult I use the Bene Gesserit invocation against fear (…Fear is the little-death…, etc.) at moments I find extremely taxing. Sorry, that’s the scifi nerd in me speaking!
Anyway, just wanted to share a cool memory. Keep up the great work!
That sounds absolutely fascinating! Thanks for sharing!!