A Friendly Nudge - Building On Doable
...because we all could use a little encouragement!
I’m struggling a little so I hope you’ll bear with me. I don’t have a way of knowing where everyone who reads A Friendly Nudge is on their exercise journey. Some of you may be at the beginning of that journey and just standing up from a chair unassisted feels challenging, while others of you may have been lifting heavy weights for years. So when I write about lifting 90% of your 1 rep max and the importance of multiple warm up sets and working sets, that may make perfect sense to some of you and leave others either feeling overwhelmed or hopeless.
The last thing I want to do is to make exercise feel intimidating or dangerous. I want to stress the importance of patiently starting where you are and not feeling like you have to be in a hurry to get to the next stage. I’ll try to do a better job of providing different gradients of difficulty across different exercises.
If you’re new to exercise, you’re better served by doing a version of an exercise that you can do for 10-12 or even 15 repetitions with good form than trying to grind through 3 or 4 reps of a more difficult version with poor form and increased injury risk. It’s important that we give our bodies enough time and repetition or practice to learn the movements with just enough difficulty to begin driving adaptation without feeling wrecked afterwards.
When you’re new to this, a single set of 10-12 reps of an exercise is perfect. As you get more comfortable and confident with the movements and your endurance starts to improve, then you can begin adding sets. Your first goal is to build a foundation and to give your body a chance to adapt to the new demands.
There’s something sort of magical called “beginner’s gains” that’s like a biological rapid rewards program for people that begin exercising and it’s not just reserved for the youngsters. In fact, older adults can see significant increases in strength and muscle growth within the first weeks and months of beginning a strength program. It’s like our body is trying to encourage us by giving us a sneak peak of what’s possible.
My goal is to help you get there. Don’t worry about multiple sets or % of 1 rep max– none of that is important right now. What’s important is to find a cadence and a level of exertion or difficulty that’s nowhere near overwhelming, but challenging enough to where you feel like you did something. If that’s 1 exercise and a couple of walks during the week, that’s fantastic. That’s your starting point and we can build on that as you get your feet underneath you.
Meanwhile, if you’re already comfortable with the basics don’t feel like you have to dive into maxing out every lift, but you do want to gradually nudge up the intensity of your effort to challenge your growing capability. This is where multiple sets can be helpful and it’s where warm up sets start to make a difference.
Warm up sets are different from just the general warm up that you do before exercising. Think of them as sort of a biological equivalent of gear progressions. I realize this analogy may not work for folks who have never driven a standard, but if you’ve ever accidentally gone from 1st gear straight to 4th gear you immediately recognize that you screwed up. Warm up sets gives your muscles and your nervous system a chance to progressively recruit larger motor units or groups of muscle fibers as the demand progressively increases. Since I’ve started incorporating them into my lifts, I’m lifting heavier but with a lot less wear and tear on my body.
I’m going to be adding new content over the coming weeks. I’m adding some additional warm up exercises this week that should be applicable for all levels of fitness and in the coming weeks I’ll be adding more rotational work, some heavier options for those looking for some additional intensity and some exercises to help build power for rapid force production.
The important thing is to find a way to challenge yourself but in a way that’s both rewarding and sustainable.
Let’s check out this week’s meal that was inspired by a recent Washington Post salmon recipe.
Sheet Pan Salmon with Minty Peas, Orange & Fennel
I cook salmon a lot and frequently it’s just hit it with some Everything But the Bagel seasoning and roast it in a 450℉ oven for a few minutes. But I’m always on the lookout for something interesting and this recipe caught my eye. The orange zest was a nice touch and the orange slices, red onion, fennel, peas and mint worked well together. This one will definitely be making it into the rotation.
Ingredients:
1-2 pounds salmon, cut into portion sized filets
1 small red onion, sliced thin
1 medium fennel bulb, sliced thin and fronds saved for garnish
1 ½ navel oranges, 1 orange zested and the orange sliced into rounds and juice from ⅓- ½ orange squeezed over the dish prior to serving
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper
1 16oz bag of frozen peas
Handful of mint leaves
Preheat your oven to 450℉
Thinly slice a small red onion (I used ½ of a large one), zest 1 orange and slice the orange into rounds and thinly slice the fennel bulb lengthwise and save the fronds for garnish. Place the orange slices, sliced onion and sliced fennel bulb on a rimmed sheet pan and reserve the orange zest for the salmon and the fennel fronds for garnish. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and salt, toss to combine and then spread it out over the sheet pan. Place it in the oven and set a timer for 10-12 minutes or until the veggies are beginning to caramelize.
While the veggies are cooking, press the orange zest into the salmon filets and season with salt and pepper. When the timer goes off, redistribute the veggies and place the salmon on top of them and set the timer for 8 minutes.
When the 8 minutes are up add and distribute the frozen peas and set the timer for 4-5 minutes and check the salmon for your desired level of doneness.
Garnish with a little olive oil, torn mint leaves, fennel fronds, salt and pepper and a squeeze of orange juice.
Enjoy!
Now that we’ve got a tasty meal dialed in, let’s look at some exercise options for the week.
Exercise isn’t some class that if you don’t score a certain grade you don’t get credit for the course. Even a modest effort provides benefits. A couple of minutes at a time can start to make a difference. Just dialing up the intensity of every day tasks like yard or house work can matter.
This week you’ll notice an additional set of warm ups. These serve to supplement the pre-existing warm ups.
If you are earlier in your exercise journey, you may just start with the warm ups and pick a single exercise. Push ups against the kitchen counter or the wall can be a great starting point.
If you’ve been doing this for a while and you want to nudge it up just a little, consider adding a second set or increasing the number of exercises that you’re doing. Also if you’re beginning to increase the intensity of your sets, reduce your injury risks by working in some warm up sets.
With body weight exercises, a warm up set is just an easier version of the exercise (an easy set of pushups against a counter or table top before tackling a more intense set of regular push ups). When we’re doing a weighted exercise, warm up sets are just gradual increases in weight and reduction in reps prior to beginning your working sets.
Take your time and enjoy the journey.