Now that I have set the hook, I will tell you what I am on about. No, it has nothing to do with training your dragons Well I don’t think it does. As a matter of fact, no it doesn’t but just in case someone doesn’t get the reference, here is Hiccup.
Now, to get back to the subject, I am referring to exercise hiccups. Habit hiccups. Goal hiccups.
I was introduced to hiccups by one of my students during her weekly sessions, and to me, it’s probably the best description I have heard. It is only a small thing, but it can turn into such a larger issue, especially if it is not addressed. Same goes for these ones. You can’t just ride them out, they must be addressed.
How do you address them? Well, to me, it’s exactly the same way we deal with them in real life. You move through them, and with them.
For exercise hiccups, find an exercise you really love, like I love my mum. Yup. I am a mummy’s boy. It’s the bonus prize for being first born. And it’s okay if you love bacon too….
For me, that exercise would be squats. As soon I get put that bar on the rack, I know that whatever worries I have will soon be washed away by the endorphins of movement.
You just need to pick something you love. The trick is don’t go too hard. People indicate that 1 minute a day of movement is not enough to form a habit, however, if that person isn’t doing anything, then that 7 minutes per week of exercise will be better than none. And honestly, can anyone remember when they just exercises for a minute? That’s right.
The next hiccup is habit. We know that humans are creatures of habit. As soon as Noah allowed people to sit down on the cruise, and served those paleo chips and cookies, the world was a worse place. Now, before you get all excited that I am saying that sitting and chips and cookies are bad, that is not what I am getting at. I am getting at the fact that, from the dawn of time, we have relaxed. Relaxation is good. It relieves stress. Allows us to recover and to refocus our energies. But, like everything, too much of a good thing, is well, not good. So what do we do about it? Same thing as the exercise hiccup, but with the focus on a habit you like. It could be eating kale (I don’t know why, but hey, if that’s your thing, then get into it). It could be making a huge batch of fresh blueberry pancakes, or making up a batch of your favourite stir fried vegetables. You could even throw a shrimp on the barbie….
Or if you like ribs…..
We could also focus on the habit of sleep, and allow ourselves to get to sleep earlier by turning off the electronic devices. There are many ways that we drop off our habits and hiccup, but it doesn’t mean we have to stay there, continually hiccupping until we have lost all understanding of movement, exercise and food choices.
Goal hiccups are the ones that tend to get people the most riled. They set goals at the start of the year, and work towards them. It could be fat loss, or a performance goal. Week after week, measurements are taken, lifts and times taken, until all of a sudden, we seem to be going backwards. We are not making our targets, and instead of backing off and listening to our body, we push on, doing even more damage to our bodies, and more importantly our minds.
Even if you take one minute out of every day to get the brain and the body working as one, you will slowly remove the effects of the hiccup. All it takes is one minute.
Have you really sat down and wrote down what makes you happy? What does your happiness look like? Next blog post will be all about happiness, and how we can get happier.
Until then, remember strength is the secret sauce. Make sure you take your dose daily.