A fitness resource for those of us who are already 42 and those of us who aspire to be.
The Don’t-Be-a-Pain-in-the-Butt-While-on-Vacation exercise program
By Jay Hiller, March 27, 2023 Do you have to be over 42 to recognize this brand? (Jersey City, NJ March 26, 2023. Photo by me.) I had a great weekend visiting family in New Jersey this week. At home, for the most part, I’m disciplined with my workouts and I avoid some foods for health reasons. On vacation, I tried to be flexible. I worked in brief yoga sessions in the morning when I woke up, took a couple of great walks with my daughter and her boyfriend and danced at a family party. I called all of that…
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Excess of things
by Jay Hiller, March 18, 2023 Photo by Julia Joppien on Unsplash I’m working steadily but slowly to reduce the amount of stuff in my home and life. Having seen two family members in the last 3 years spend enormous amounts of time and energy dealing with the possessions of family members who have died, I don’t want to leave a similar mess to my kids. All of this decluttering has made me think about the reasons I have all this stuff to begin with. Part of it is that I get enthusiastic about hobbies and start collecting the equipment…
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An unexpected dopamine hit: Buy Nothing groups
By Jay Hiller, March 17, 2023 Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash When I first joined my local buy nothing group, I thought it would be a good way to off load some stuff. It is. I’ve given away several things now that I knew I would never use again and was unsure of how to get out of my house responsibly. I would really to think that nothing of mine is floating around off the coast of Africa or in that giant dead trash heap in the middle of the Pacific ocean. The unexpected part is how much fun…
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The spring break I needed
by Jay Hiller, March 16, 2023 I kept asking myself, “Shouldn’t I want more from spring break than the opportunity to clean the refrigerator?” Shouldn’t I be traveling or something?” Yet this was exactly the spring break I needed and I’ll be traveling next weekend. It’s felt good to rest and have a chance to catch up on things. It’s not the spring break I should have. It’s the spring break I need. As I mentioned, next week I’ll be traveling and I have a whole slate of decisions to make in the coming weeks. This week I’m working out,…
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Miso vs. Movie House Popcorn
By Jay Hiller, March 15, 2023 Photo by Corina Rainer on Unsplash I’m not sure exactly why this happened. There’s free movie house popcorn at worky work every day now. Every morning, a colleague fires up the machine and it’s free. I try not to eat too much of it, and it’s tempting. I can smell it all the way down to my office. There are days when the picture above is a good representation of my daily allowance. I’ve been home for about 4 days now and I feel so much better not eating all that popcorn. How am…
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Aqua Workout
by Jay Hiller, February 26, 2023 The width of the blade across the top of these bells determines how much you drag you experience. If you look closely you can see a difference between the blue ones (widest) and the green ones (narrowest.) These are made by Aqua Logix This was new and fun After I taught my yoga classes today, I went to an aqua class taught by my friend, David. I was expecting it to be challenging. I knew it would be fun. I wasn’t expecting it to be as much fun as it was. It’s been a…
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Will workout for new exercise clothes
by Jay Hiller, February 25, 2023 A running dress. This is not me. I was listening to an interview today with a 65-year old woman who is a world champion marathon walker, Yolanda Holder. She had a lot of great things to say about staying active and open to things as you get older. And of course, the part I focused on was when she said something to the effect of You do all this work, why not look good doing it? At the time, I was working out in 15 year old yoga pants and a top that didn’t…
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Daring antics in the produce department
By Jay Hiller, February 20, 2023 Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash Like many people, I tend to get the same things over and over at the grocery store. Every once in a while though, I remind myself to try something new. Or at least a variation on something I already like. The produce department is one of the best places to do this. Vegetables contain many vitamins and minerals that support health. The fiber in vegetables is good for gut health and varying the vegetables we eat encourages the growth of a variety of beneficial gut bacteria. Yesterday in…
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The Bucket Concept
by Jay Hiller, February 18, 2023 Photo by Lucas van Oort on Unsplash We all have areas of strength when it comes to accomplishing goals. There are areas where we feel intrinsically motivated and it’s not hard to put in the time you need to to get what you want done. Exercise is like that for me . There are many other areas where there are things I’d like to do and I experience quite a bit of internal resistance around working on them. For me, I think the resistance comes from issues of self-trust. Yesterday at worky-work, I was…
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A good podcast for fitness enthusiasts over 40
by Jay Hiller, February 13, 2023 Photo by VD Photography on Unsplash For fitness enthusiasts over 60 who are looking for inspiration, Helen Fritsch’s interview with 65 year-old Crossfit World Champion Julie Holt on the Age is Irrelevant podcast makes very good listening. In the interview, Julie talks about the importance of mindset and positive self-talk, her experience as a young athlete and women’s basketball coach and her workouts. For people thinking about starting a fitness program, or any new endeavor, Julie stresses the importance of starting somewhere and being brave enough to take those first steps. Here’s the link…
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Blah Blah Blah SPLAT!
By Jay Hiller, February 8, 2023 A Yoga Nidra I like describes sleep as an infinite ocean. It sure evaded me last night. Photo by Henrik Dønnestad on Unsplash Last night I could not turn my brain off. I worried about work. I worried about stuff that happened 20 years ago. I worried about stuff that isn’t even close to happening yet. I also felt a little sick to my stomach which I blame on eating my own cooking, so I skipped lunch. I somehow made it through my work day. What a mess. The best thing about lack of…
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Cooking + Legs Day
By Jay Hiller, February 6, 2022 Photo by Calum Lewis on Unsplash I’ve cooked quite a bit the last few days, which is not like me at all. You may remember my ongoing project to cook all the dishes in the Vegan Instant Pot cookbook my daughter gave me. Yesterday I made a wild rice salad which was a lot of work. I thought it was good and judged it to be worth the effort. Tonight I made this lima bean tomato thing. It has a better name than lima bean tomato thing and it was still way too time…
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Body weight workouts can be more than enough work
by Jay Hiller, February 5, 2022 Photo by Hayley Kim Design on Unsplash “Um, this is hard,” I thought by the third time the yoga instructor on my streaming service added “just a little bit more to the sequence we’ve been doing.” It was a good practice with challenging moves that put me on my edge for sure. I enjoy weight workouts and sometimes need reminding that you don’t necessarily need all that stuff to get stronger. The weight of your body on its own can provide more than enough resistance. Another advantage is that you don’t need a whole…
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The process is what makes the whole more than the parts
By Jay Hiller, February 1, 2023 Photo by ian dooley on Unsplash I was watching a physical therapist, Athena Oden, lecture today on child development. It was pretty good, a main point being that developmentally we’re made up of systems that are all interrelated. She had this analogy that very few people would enjoy a bowl of milk with salt, sugar, an ice cube and a raw egg in it. After those ingredients are churned into ice cream, most people would enjoy them. The process, she said, is what makes the whole more than the parts, in terms of physical…
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Among a cajillion choices, there’s gotta be an exercise you enjoy
by Jay Hiller, January 31, 2023 “Honestly, the bike is so good for you,” a family member’s PT told her. My family member was excited because she had been able to do some very light biking without pain for the first time in weeks. I immediately thought to myself, I should get on the bike. I haven’t done that for a long time. The reason I haven’t biked is because I’ve been choosing other forms of exercise. I used to think I didn’t like to exercise because as a child I hated team sports. With super shaky eye-hand coordination and…
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Aging Exuberantly
by Jay Hiller, January 30, 2023 Photo by Dominik Scythe on Unsplash About a week ago, The New York Times published an article, 3 steps to aging exuberantly in which they discussed three ideas from the work of Margareeta Magnusson, an 86-year-old Swedish author and artist. The ideas come from her latest book, The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You. Unfortunately, my attempt to provide a link to the article didn’t work. I’m always interested in good role models for aging well, so here are the three ideas as I understand…
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The Quest for a Third Place
By Jay Hiller, January 29, 2023 Photo by Kris Atomic on Unsplash There’s work. There’s home. And there’s a third place, where you run into people you know and have a good time. As if life were that old TV show, Cheers. My third place used to be a yoga studio I spent a lot of time at between 2010 and 2014. And then many members of the community, including myself moved to another yoga studio and that studio was my third place for a while. I’m feeling the need for a third place now and it’s hard to identify…
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A decluttering trick that’s working for me
By Jay Hiller, January 28, 2022 Photo by Ashim D’Silva on Unsplash I’ve always been a little messy and I’ve tried to change my habits many times. They say that having a lot of clutter isn’t great for your mental health so I’m excited about this idea I’ve been trying out for about 8 days now. You mark out 30 days and on day 1 you donate or throw away one thing. On day two you donate or throw away two things, and so on….. I tried a couple of systems for doing this on my phone. Probably because I’m…
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I’m back.
By Jay Hiller, January 27, 2022 Photo by Clemens van Lay on Unsplash It turns out, all I needed was a break. Writing a blog post a day, even on a topic I like, was hard to sustain. I’m back and here’s what I’m thinking about. (Thank you, Elena, for asking about this today.) Consistent Workouts Pay Off The last 2 weeks have presented me with some emotional challenges. Making time to work out gave me some structure and a break from my own thoughts. It was good tonight to look back at the chart my app makes for me…
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I’ve said what I wanted to say or The End
by Jay Hiller, January 11, 2022 Photo by Mohamed Rishfaan on Unsplash Over the last 6 months, I’ve posted almost daily and have said all that I have to say. Exercise is good. Trying new things is good. Eating and sleeping well is good. Learning about fitness is good. Thank you to everyone who read any of my posts. Writing the blog every day was an interesting experience for me. And many thanks to my daughter for her support and encouragement. Onward!
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The importance of getting outside
by Jay Hiller, January 9, 2023 Photo by Mike Benna on Unsplash I went to the dentist this morning and was surprised when he told me he needed about 35 minutes to get my crown ready and I could take a break if I wanted to. So I took a walk at a nearby park. It felt like such a treat to get out of the dentist’s chair. The park was hopping at 9:30 in the morning with people playing tennis and a other walkers. The pool my husband and I used to go to when we were dating was…
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This birding app looks like fun!
By Jay Hiller, January 8, 2022 Having written yesterday about what how being on my phone or computer for too long can suck me into a bad mood, today I’m excited about a birding app someone showed me, MerlinBirdID.com. I haven’t explored it fully but tried it out on the waterbird I saw a few weeks ago and wrote about here. I just entered information about what it looked like and where I saw it and the app suggested that it might be the bird above. You can also record bird song or take a picture and get identification. There’s…
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How I manage my screen time
By Jay Hiller, January 7, 2023 I had trouble with this kind of screen too. Photo by Diego González on Unsplash I have a hard time unplugging from screens. It’s not hard for me to lose a couple of hours sitting on the couch looking at Instagram with my mouth open. It’s probably not good for anybody and for me social media sites have a depressing effect. I just feel lethargic and unhappy if I spend too much time on the internet. What’s helped me a lot is this guideline: I stay off Facebook and Instagram for recreation except for…
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Face Yoga
by Jay Hiller, January 6, 2023 Some of the exercises I’ve been doing look a lot like this. Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash Over the last 2 weeks or so, I’ve been dabbling in face yoga, both through my yoga streaming service and a book of exercises. I don’t know how much it’s doing for wrinkles, but it is effective for releasing tension in my face, head and neck. The exercises aren’t hard to do, don’t take long and I feel better afterward. The book I’m using is The Ultimate Guide to the Face Yoga Method by Fumiko Takatsu.…
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Early morning run followed by cooking fail
By Jay Hiller, January 5, 2023 Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash I had a nice run this morning. It’s my last few days of holiday break and I enjoyed being outside as the sun was coming up. Yesterday, a friend lent me her library book. Someone in the book taught himself to cook by going through a cookbook and cooking all the recipes in it. I can do that, I thought. Um, sort of. I’ve chosen a book of vegan Instant pot recipes that I’ve liked. Unfortunately, even though I followed the instructions in the recipe for tempeh chili,…
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A walk with a good friend
by Jay Hiller, January 4, 2022 Photo by Jacob Campbell on Unsplash The weather in Austin was great today. I met a friend that I hadn’t seen for months at Brushy Creek Park for a walk. It was a good reset for me. She’s a good listener and it was good to get caught up. Being out in the fresh air was great too. I had gotten a little lethargic and as I said, it was a good reset. Beside the walk, I did an upper body work out that included bench press, assisted chin ups, push ups, rows, and…
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Injury stinks. And it can be an opportunity for growth.
By Jay Hiller, January 2, 2023 Photo by Tom Claes on Unsplash A few weeks ago I was taking the plates off my Olympic bar and it occurred to me, fortunately, to move my foot out from under the bar. That time, I avoided dropping something heavy on my foot. Other times, I haven’t been so lucky. One second you’re feeling good, things are going well and the next something has gone wrong. I’ve had other injuries that popped up for no clear reason. In those it’s cases it’s been like working a puzzle, trying to figure out what needs…
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Happy New Year! Don’t forget to eat your black eyed peas!
Photo by Jasmine Waheed on Unsplash
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You don’t have to be a tough guy to get a good work out
By Jay Hiller, December 30, 2022 Photo by Gelmis Bartulis on Unsplash A participant in my spin class today introduced herself by saying that she didn’t spin a lot and wasn’t going to do very much. My observation was that she did a good job of pushing herself and I would bet got her heart rate up for the duration of the class. And she seemed to be enjoying herself while doing so. She told me she had. My point is that unless you’re training for the Olympics, and maybe not even then, not every workout has to be a…
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A fact about coconut
by Jay Hiller, December 29, 2022 Photo by Tijana Drndarski on Unsplash When I was a teenager, my mom told me not to eat bananas because they were fattening. A doctor had told her that when she was 20 and she passed it on to me. It’s easy to misinterpret information about food and generally I’m against putting foods in never ever eat this categories. I think it’s good to know about the nutritional properties of foods so that when you eat them, you know what you’re getting. In that spirit, I’ll share a fact about coconut that surprised me.…
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Today’s workout: Upper body and a swim at Barton Springs
by Jay Hiller, December 27, 2022 Photo by dominik hofbauer on Unsplash When I woke up this morning, my back, which had been cranky, was much much better. After we walked the dogs, I did an upper body workout. The weather in Austin was pretty today and my husband and I went swimming at Barton Springs. I’m on break from worky-work and life is good.
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Simple information that makes reading food labels clearer
by Jay Hiller, December 27, 2022 Bacon. Photo by KG Baek on Unsplash A lot of people like bacon. I’m not one of them but yesterday I had a reason to look up nutritional facts about it. I realized that if you don’t know 3 simple facts about macronutrients, it would be easy to misinterpret bacon’s nutritional information. The three facts are: each gram of protein equals 4 calories; each gram of carbohydrate is equal to 4 calories; each gram of fat is equal to 9 calories. Here’s the screenshot from my phone: At first glance it would appear that…
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Why I find New Year’s Resolutions helpful
by Jay Hiller, December 26, 2022 Photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash For I’m not sure how long, probably more than 20 years, I’ve made about 4 New Year’s Resolutions each year. I’ve gotten better at writing them over the years and most years I complete about half of them. This year, I completed one out of four, a work related resolution that was important to me for personal reasons. I got lazy about another, which was to work on improving my French and Spanish. On another, to be able to do a full range chin up unassisted, I simply…
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Happy Holidays from Santa’s B Team
by Jay Hiller, December 24, 2022 I wish this picture had come out better. They were cute. Hope everyone has a good day tomorrow, whether you celebrate or not. I’ll post again on December 26th. Happy holidays!
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Entrance hallway workout
By Jay Hiller, December 23, 2022 Photo by Point3D Commercial Imaging Ltd. on Unsplash When our family moved into our house 29 years ago, I never dreamed that the entrance hall would become one of my favorite rooms. I always lose the carpet vs. hard floor debate, so most of the house is carpeted, leaving the entrance hall as the best place for me to jump rope. Especially in this weather. It was too cold to be outside this morning. I switched out my planned run for 20 minutes of jump rope followed by a vinyasa yoga practice. Subscribe here!
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Cold front day, day off, legs day
by Jay Hiller, December 22, 2022 Three things about my day. Photo by Tony Hand on Unsplash Here are three things about today: First, a cold front blew in I proved I don’t remember how to dress for cold weather by going on the dog walk with my ankles exposed to the air and wearing too thin gloves. For my run tomorrow, I plan to wear two pairs of long long pants and two pairs of gloves. Incidentally, the warmest place in my house is the landing at the top of the stairs. I’m considering camping there. Second, no job…
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A fox and a water bird
by Jay Hiller, December 21, 2022 I wasn’t expecting to see this guy tonight. It’s been an interesting couple of days for me in terms of urban wildlife. Yesterday when I was driving home from worky-work a fox crossed the main street that runs through my neighborhood right in front of my car. Then tonight, I went to teach an outdoor meditation class by the lake. Nobody came because it’s 49 degrees so I walked around a little by myself. When I first saw this bird I thought he was yard art. He was there for over 20 minutes which…
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Shaking off the blahs: today’s upper body workout
by Jay Hiller, December 20, 2022 This is not me. Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash I felt lethargic when I got home from work this afternoon, which surprised me. I thought I could take a day off yesterday and shake things off. It would have been easy to sit on the couch today. Part of it may be the time of year. I’m not a fan of winter. To get myself going, I decided to do an upper body workout instead of a lower body workout. I did dumbbell bench presses, band assisted pull ups, rows, lateral shoulder raises,…
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Oops! Incidental-exercise-only kind of day
by Jay Hiller, December 19, 2022 Photo by Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash I’m not sure how I did this, but I got in over 11,000 steps and 113 zone minutes today. I feel like I spent the whole day in front of a computer with occasional walking breaks. I must have done more than I thought and will lift weights and jump rope tomorrow.
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A dash of something beautiful
by Jay Hiller, December 18, 2022 My kids gave this to me last year. I love it. A friend gave me a 2023 calendar that comes as separate sheets in an acrylic display box and every day you’re treated to a new piece of art. I can’t wait for it to be January 1st so that I can start enjoying it. There are beautiful things everywhere. This morning the light hit the wall in our workout room in a way that made me feel good and I took the picture above. When I went to teach yoga this morning there…
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An interesting documentary about grief, gratitude, hope and running
by Jay Hiller, December 17, 2022 Photo by Heather Ford on Unsplash This afternoon I watched a 40 minute documentary about ultramarathoner Sally McRae. The link to the documentary was sent to me by a supplement company. In spite of that, it was worth watching and the product placement wasn’t obnoxious. The name of the documentary is Choose Strong. Sally Macrae ran 5 ultramarathons in 81 days, a total of 507 miles, 1 mile for each month her mother, who died of cancer at age 43 when Sally was 14, was alive. The last 10 miles were from Sally’s childhood…
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On my reading list
By Jay Hiller, December 15, 2022 I’ve owned this book for quite a while and haven’t read it yet. I bought it because for while I was following the authors’ blog, Yoga For Healthy Aging and it was full of good ideas. The blog has since become Yoga For Times of Change. I thought they had stopped blogging and I can’t wait to follow them again. Here’s the link if you’re interested: Yogafortimesofchange.com I’m expecting to have some time off in the next few weeks and already have quite a reading list going. I would enjoy a discussion of this…
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What I do when I have a back ache
by Jay Hiller, December 15, 2022 Photo by Joyce McCown on Unsplash Back aches are not fun. I used to get them quite a bit when I was in my thirties. Over the years I’ve learned to manage them. We all have to evaluate in terms of what we know about our own bodies and of course, according to your doctor or physical therapist’s advice. However, these are some things that have helped me: Subscribe Here!
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Be grateful yoga
by Jay Hiller, December 14, 2022 Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash Today my friend Robbie asked what I would like to call the New Year’s Day yoga class I’m going to teach on, well, New Year’s Day. I thought about suggesting “Have Another Cookie Yoga,” but she might not have thought it was funny or worse, expected me to come up with a let’s-eat-cookies-and-do-yoga class. (The appalling part of that is I could do it.) We ended up with a title with the word gratitude in it. It’s a good word and a good concept. Gratitude makes everything better.…
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Klutz
by Jay Hiller, December 13, 2022 This is tragic. Photo by Sarah Kilian on Unsplash I was talking with a friend, David, on Sunday about fitness. We’re about the same age. As usual, he had a really good exercise tip for me. Then we talked about how the goal for the long game is to still be ambulatory in your 90’s, if you’re lucky enough to get there. And that made me think about what I was like as a child. I had the following characteristics: very poor awareness of where my body was in space, poor eye hand coordination…
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Late afternoon swim at Barton Springs
by Jay Hiller, December 12, 2022 Barton Springs was nowhere near this busy, today, which made it great. Photo by Alex George on Unsplash I love Barton Springs. My husband and I went there in the late afternoon. There were probably less than 50 people there. Everybody seemed to be in a good mood or maybe I was. It’s always hard to get in the water and always hard to leave. I saw a lot of fish and my husband saw a turtle. After we finished our swim I did my traditional dorky jump off the diving board. I love…
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Saturday morning run, tired mind trick
by Jay Hiller, December 11, 2022 Little trees like this one helped me with my run. Photo by Devon MacKay on Unsplash On my run Saturday morning, I noticed, not for the first time, that I always want a walking break in exactly the same spot. It happens to be the start of a long uphill. You probably remember that I’m in the stage of reviving a consistent running practice. Part of being in that stage for me is that I find excuses for walking breaks without difficulty. Today, I used a trick that I used to do when I…
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Soul-swallowing siege or creative opportunity?
By Jay Hiller, December 10, 2022 Photo by Anna Kolosyuk on Unsplash The last few months at worky-work have been challenging. I read somewhere recently that one way to deal with people making you angry is to lower your expectations of their behavior. Deepak Chopra says in difficult circumstances a good question to ask yourself is what the creative opportunity is. And in that old movie, Jerry Macguire says that work is a soul swallowing siege, which makes me laugh. It’s so apt and at the same time, so self-pitying. So who are you with, Deepak or Jerry? In the…
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I like the hex bar
by Jay Hiller, December 9, 2022 About 3 weeks ago, I had this idea that I thought would work well to squat using a hex bar. If you’re not familiar with them, you stand in the middle of them and hold onto the handles. The orientation of your torso changes whether you’re squatting or deadlifting when you use them, I learned from YouTube. Anyway, I like it. I wasn’t getting far in terms of adding weight to my squats because I felt limited to dumbbell front squats or goblet squats. (No squat rack in our home gym.) This put a…
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The value of pets
by Jay Hiller, December 8, 2022 Photo by Hannah Lim on Unsplash Seven years ago, I had a stray cat named Luna. I fed her every day for about 6 months before she disappeared. I paid a little girl on the street to feed her when I went on vacation and my husband built her a shelter in our backyard when it started to get cold. She was suspicious of me for a long time and about a month before she disappeared she approached me and let me pet her. I loved Luna. Today my dogs, Barney and Tessy greeted…
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Rain
by Jay Hiller, December 7, 2022 Photo by Nick Nice on Unsplash It’s not raining in Central Texas today but I’m thinking about running in the rain when I was a teenager. It could get really cold and windy and by the end of my run I would completely soaked. I complained about the weather where I lived all the time. Now I’m nostalgic for running in the rain. Today’s workout Jump rope intervals, bench press variations, band assisted pull ups, bicep curls, tricep extensions and lateral raises. Subscribe Here!
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If exercise were a pill….tired cliché but also true
by Jay Hiller, December 6, 2022 Photo by Marc Najera on Unsplash I considered being lazy tonight and just posting an “If exercise were a pill…” quote. I tried looking it up and it turns out there were a lot of variations of it. There’s no doubt that exercise is very very good for us. Here are some thoughts about exercise: Subscribe Here!
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Today’s legs workout
by Jay Hiller, December 5, 2022 Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash Yesterday, a friend of mine told me about this rule in a fitness class she takes. If anyone in the group says I can’t the whole group has to do 50 pushups. I tried to keep the concept of don’t-be-a-wimp in mind tonight as I went through my workout which included deadlifts, step ups, single leg Romanian deadlifts, single leg hip thrusts and crunches. It kept me going. Subscribe here:
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Out in nature
by Jay Hiller, December 4, 2022 Photo by Craig Pattenaude on Unsplash It’s a good time of the year to live in Central Texas. I taught my paddleboard yoga class and the trees on the other side of the lake were turning red and yellow. It was chilly so no boats, which was nice and only one student, which made the class much easier to teach. Later in the afternoon, as the sun was going down, I could see the same bluffs through the window of the studio where I was teaching a more conventional yoga class. My smart watch…
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Saturday morning bike ride
by Jay Hiller, December 3, 2022 Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash My daughter and her partner are visiting this weekend. They suggested that we all take a bike ride this morning. I thought it would be too cold and the weather was perfect. This was a great thing to do together. I mentioned Govalle Park in Austin a while ago. Its bike path only has a few crossings where you have to deal with cars.
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Fri-yay workout!
by Jay Hiller, December 2, 2022 Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash It was an exercise snack kind of week, meaning that a number of factors throughout the week kept me from a dedicated exercise session. I’d sneak quick walks or do bodyweight squats or kettlebell swings in my office. But this afternoon I had a little time so I got in an upper body workout: dumbbell bench press variations, dumbbell rows, band assisted pull ups, bicep curls, tricep extensions and lateral raises. We should never beat ourselves up when circumstances limit our time and we rely on exercise snacks.…
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I know it’s just a placebo. It’s making me feel better.
by Jay Hiller, December 1, 2022 Photo by Michele Blackwell on Unsplash When I had COVID, the doctor gave me a vitamin regimen. I’m not going to explain what it was, because I don’t want to even pretend to be telling people what vitamins to take. None of it was earth shaking and some of it I was already doing. There was one supplement she recommended that cost $21 for a jar and when I read up on it, after buying it I learned that it’s not readily absorbed in supplement form. I’ve been taking these two horse pill vitamins…
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If getting stressed out is a waste of energy, how do I avoid it?
by Jay Hiller, November 30, 2022 Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash I heard Deepak Chopra say on a webinar that he doesn’t get stressed out because it’s a waste of energy. I would really like to know how to avoid it. And I suspect a good start is to remember the things that are going well and that I should be grateful for. I tried it this afternoon and it was helpful. Among the things I’m grateful for is a visit from my daughter and her partner this week. Subscribe here!
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Fitness classes create community
by Jay Hiller, November 30, 2022 Photo by Amauri Mejía on Unsplash For the last eight years, except for during the global lockdown, I’ve taught a yoga class once a week after worky-work. It’s hands-down one of my favorite classes to teach. Mostly we practice in an OT/PT mat room on the campus where we all work, but at another stage of the pandemic we practiced outdoors under a pavilion. The class started as a way for me to get experience when I first started teaching. Now I value it because it’s been such a great way to get to…
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Beets: they weren’t as bad as I thought they would be
by Jay Hiller, November 28, 2022 Photo by EmmaS-Jane Hobden on Unsplash You know when you’re in the grocery store and it seems like a good idea to try a new vegetable? I bought a bunch of 3 small beets with their greens. I read up on how to cook them. (Yay, instant pot.) And I managed to get them peeled without staining anything permanently. I know they’re supposed to be good for you and they tasted….okay. It’s lucky I don’t have to love everything. Stay tuned for my report on parsnips. Subscribe here!
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Add a mental task to an exercise to improve brain health
by Jay Hiller, November 27, 2022 Photo by Priyanka Singh on Unsplash Years ago, when I did a lot of long endurance runs, I found that a lot of the endurance involved dealing with boredom. I would entertain myself by picking out random numbers and figuring out their square roots. Little did I know that by combining that kind of mental task with exercise, I was working on the health of my brain. It turns out that that combining mental tasks with physical tasks is effective for improving executive function, processing and attention. (Source Glatt, R. 2019-2021, Brain Health Trainer…
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The walls of my house are scared of me: adventures with wall squats
by Jay Hiller, November 26, 2002 Photo by Augustine Wong on Unsplash The walls in my house are scared of me and not because I’m going to dust them, wash them and paint them, a process they need badly. (And just to be clear, the plans to do those things are hypothetical and will get done by my husband, not me.) They’re scared of me because my friend, Hanna, showed me how to do a wall squat the other day. I’m bad at them and I’m also obsessed. Walls make good props. In the wall squat exercise you position yourself…
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The joy of lentil soup
by Jay Hiller, November 25, 2022 Photo by Süheyl Burak on Unsplash I don’t cook much, but I make good lentil soup. The recipe I use is from a cookbook that I initially checked out of the library 20+ years ago and then bought, Learning to Cook with Marion Cunningham (Alfred A. Knopf, 1999). Most of the time I stick to the recipe, but I’ve made good variations such as substituting blended tomatillos and lime juice for the jarred salsa. The version I made on Tuesday has homegrown mild peppers from my husband’s garden. It’s hard to mess up lentil…
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Happy Thanksgiving!
by Jay Hiller, November 24, 2022 Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone enjoys a nice meal and has a good day. Subscribe here!
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Reviving my running practice
by Jay Hiller, November 23, 2022 Photo by Patrick Mueller on Unsplash There was something about feeling better after feeling so bad for two weeks that just made me want to move. I haven’t been a consistent runner for about 7 years now. I had been marathoning and I kept injuring my lower legs. When I took time off, I got interested in other forms of exercise. That was to my benefit because running had been a main source of exercise for a long time. It was good to explore other things. Today I put on my shoes and ran…
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Thirty-second cold showers
by Jay Hiller, November 22, 2022 Photo by Chandler Cruttenden on Unsplash Cold showers are easy to take in the summer, especially in Austin. I started doing them two summers ago, when I read about the benefits. They create a state of temporary stress that turns on your longevity genes. I also got a little faster at getting into cold swimming pools, the lake and Barton Springs. Every winter, I blow it off. It’s harder to do. Of course, this would be the week, with temperatures in the 40’s, that I read about the benefits again in a book I’ve…
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Are you just afraid?
Jay Hiller, November 21, 2022 Our biggest obstacles can be our own thoughts. For me anyway, many times this is fear based. If I take a chance I could get hurt. If I try this, it probably won’t work. It’s so easy to build yourself a nice little box that’s comfortable and doesn’t challenge you. Without discomfort you can’t grow. Without making mistakes you can’t learn. You’re not as fragile as you think you are. And you’re capable of more than you think. Subscribe here!
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The Right Story
by Jay Hiller, November 20, 2022 Photo by Max Saeling on Unsplash A book I’ve been looking forward to reading, Death by Comfort by Paul Taylor, arrived in the mail today. It opens with this quote: “You’re okay the way you are” is not the right story. The right story “You’re way less than you could be.”Dr. Jordan B. Peterson What a concept that is. Even if the rest of the book stinks, and it’s not going to, this thought alone is worth the purchase price. You can apply it to health and fitness of course, which I believe is…
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Stalling on first extended post COVID workout
By Jay Hiller, November 19, 2022 Photo by Simon Hurry on Unsplash Yesterday afternoon a friend showed me an exercise. When I tried it, it was clear to me that for the last two weeks I haven’t exercised the way I had been before I got sick. When I wrote the heading for this post, I initially wrote first real workout. Then I realized that was wrong. Dog walking and brief bodyweight workouts were real workouts for me at that time. I’m feeling better now. I’m going to do an upper body weightlifting session with lighter weights than I had…
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A Yoga book for Core Stability and Back Pain
by Jay Hiller, November 17, 2022 Pathways to a Centered Body: Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain and Moving with EaseBy Donna Farhi and Leila Stuart (2017) Embodied Wisdom Publishing If you’ve ever wanted to understand how your back works, why it hurts and how to manage back pain, this may be the book you’ve been looking for. The initial chapters contain detailed information about back anatomy and physiology with beautiful illustrations. These are followed by specific simple and accessible practices to strengthen your body and manage back pain. It’s a good book.
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Two tricks for working out when you don’t feel like it
by Jay Hiller, November 16, 2022 Photo by Rostyslav Kondrat on Unsplash I’m using two tricks this evening to get myself moving, even a little bit. I’m still recovering from COVID and came back from work this evening feeling done. I don’t have any intention of triggering a relapse by overdoing it but I want to move just a little. And by want I mean I really don’t feel like it. Trick 1: Set a timer I’m setting a timer for 30 minutes and then I’m going upstairs to my workout area. Trick 2: Anchor the activity I’m stalling on…
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S-L-O-W dog walking and 9 minute body weight workouts: Post COVID fitness
by Jay Hiller, November 15, 2022 Photo by Kevin Stark on Unsplash The day after I finished my first marathon, I made my 4 year old take a walk around the block with me. She was wearing cowboy boots. She was crying and pissed off. She didn’t want to go. Her pace was perfect for me. That’s the way I feel about this weeks workouts. Nice and slow is just fine. I’m in no hurry. I’m just grateful I’m not filling up three wastebaskets a day with used tissues and I only cough occasionally. What’s the Andre Deshields quote from…
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You can’t out train a poor diet
by Jay Hiller, November 13, 2022 Photo by Madalyn Cox on Unsplash When I was in my late thirties I ran my first marathon. It was fun to build mileage in a systematic way over a period of 18 weeks. I snacked away the Sunday afternoons after my long run, doing laundry or running my kids to an activity. I felt I had a license to eat. After all I knew I had burned 100 calories a mile and I had run 16 miles that morning or 18 or whatever. I felt I had a license to eat whatever I…
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What can I do to make things better for you, Dolly Parton?
by Jay Hiller, November 13, 2022 Photo by Wes McFee on Unsplash This week I, several members of my family and several friends have had COVID. If you haven’t experienced it yet, I hope that continues to be the case. Even a mild case of COVID is not even 1 percent as much fun as everyone says it is. Yet, we’re lucky. So far, it’s been a miserable week, particularly for someone we all care for (not sure if it’s okay to talk about him in my blog) and not one hospitalization in the group. When I was waiting in…
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Hard choices make you grow
by Jay Hiller, November 12, 2022 Photo by Ales Maze on Unsplash In January someone asked me to facilitate an electronic course that had been created and taught by a friend who had recently passed away. It was an intimidating suggestion. Agreeing meant spending a significant amount of time making sure I understood the course content well enough to present it to other people and dealing with the emotions I had around the whole thing. It was a strange way to grieve and I had imposter syndrome to deal with. It took me about a month of working on it…
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Another Good Yoga Book
by Jay Hiller, November 11, 2022 The Yoga Practice Guide: Dynamic Sequencing for Home Practice and Teachers by Bruce Bowditch, ARS CIVES, 2011. If you have a consistent yoga practice already, you might get a lot out of this book. It’s designed as vinyasa sequences at foundational, intermediate and advanced levels. It also has modular sequences that you can string together to suit your own needs. And there’s a restorative yoga section, which is why I pulled it off the shelf today. The book is beautifully illustrated and light on explanation, which is why it’s probably not a good choice…
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The transitional space: we’re all in it
by Jay Hiller, November 10, 2022 Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash About a year ago, I read this book by George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo, without ever understanding what a bardo is. It wasn’t until I heard the author on a fiction podcast that I understood that a bardo is a transitional space. The time between we’re born and the time we die is a bardo. This concept is upsetting if you’re a control freak who wants to know the end and be sure that the whole journey will be safe. Of course, that’s impossible. My grandparents knew…
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While I’m too sick to do anything but think about what I wanna do
By Jay Hiller, November 9, 2022 Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash I did a pretty good imitation of a slug today, moving slowly from bed to couch and back to bed. I’m really not myself and I’m resting. Anyway, while I’m sick and don’t have to put my money my mouth is, I’ll just tell you my plan for improving my squats. Since the beginning of the pandemic I’ve been working out at home. We don’t have a squat setup so I’ve been limited to dumbbells and kettlebells. I don’t know why I didn’t think about this before–hex…
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30-40 different types of plants a week
by Jay Hiller, November 7, 2022 Nutmeg. Photo by Ian Yeo on Unsplash Some advice on keeping the gut microbiome healthy that I’m reading a lot is to eat a wide variety of plant-based foods, 30-40 different plants a week. Variety can be as simple as eating different colors of the same vegetables. My grocery store has packs of different colored varieties of carrots that I like to buy in keeping with this advice. Herbs and spices can add to the plant count too, for example adding nutmeg or cinnamon (or both) to your oatmeal. I don’t have the energy…
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The Washington Post’s Super Speedy Scientific Workout
By Jay Hiller, November 6, 2022 Photo by Jacqueline Munguía on Unsplash The Washington Post has an awesome article in the digital paper today with a link to a speedy workout. It has video demonstrations of how to do the exercises and it can be done in 10-20 minutes. If you look at the first set of videos and think that they’re too jumpy for you, scroll down. There are low impact versions at the bottom of the article. The workout doesn’t require equipment and can be done anywhere. I’ve put the link below but just in case it doesn’t…
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Bruiser Yoga Mom
By Jay Hiller, November 5, 2022 Tessy offered me some corrections here. Becoming a parent was the most important thing that ever happened to me. When my younger daughter was in middle school she made me a social media account with the handle Yoga Marathon Mom. My variation of it for an app I use to track my workouts is Bruiser Yoga Mom. (My last marathon was almost 10 years ago.) This evening when I was exercising, Tessy, pictured above, was there, um, coaching. Then my daughter and her boyfriend who are visiting from out of town came upstairs and…
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My smart watch doesn’t know much
by Jay Hiller, November 4, 2022 Photo by Dan Cristian Pădureț on Unsplash I’m not sure how I’m fooling my smart watch. It thinks I did 72 zone minutes today. I…didn’t.
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Turn the page
By Jay Hiller, November 3, 2022 Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash Today I started a new set of workouts. I change up my workouts about once a month as the online strength training club I belong to publishes new ones. Sometimes, I feel reluctant to let the current workouts go. This time it was a relief. They just weren’t that much fun to me last month. I actually thought that maybe had been doing them for 2 months and had to check my app to confirm that it had only been a month. Tonight’s workout was an upper…
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Streaming Yoga Review: glo.com
by Jay Hiller, November 2, 2022 I’ve been a yoga teacher for 8 years. I know how to plan a sequence and lead a class. I also get tired of my own ideas. My favorite streaming service is glo.com. I’ve used it for years. I like the variety of master instructors as well as the different styles of yoga available. In the last few years they’ve introduced cardio, strength and Pilates classes, which I very much enjoy. There’s a 2 week trial option for those who aren’t sure they want to make a commitment. The price per month is less…
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Next challenge
by Jay Hiller, November 1, 2022 Today my workout got left until the end of the day, because there were so many things in front of it. I didn’t have any trouble getting started this time, which can happen because I’m a morning person. I just went upstairs and kept the commitment I’d made to my own health. One more workout down, not particularly memorable and that’s the way it is sometimes. I’m glad I worked out. Subscribe here:
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Sore Neck Trick
By Jay Hiller, October 31, 2022 This picture is a hoot. We all look elegant when we’re sore. Photo by Klara Kulikova on Unsplash “This will be easy,” I thought at the beginning of the intense yoga practice. God is still laughing in that annoying tell-me-your-plans kind of way. I must have inadvertently been holding my head funny for large parts of the practice, because I woke up this morning with sore traps. Fortunately, I have a trick that works and I’ll share it with you now. When your neck is sore, wrap a towel around your neck and get…
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On my reading list: Death by Comfort by Paul Taylor
Isn’t this a great title? I can’t wait to read this book. The basic premise is that our bodies evolved to do best with a certain level of discomfort–too cold, too hot, not enough food, the need to move to get what we need. Much of modern life has taken that away and that has resulted in a great deal of preventable chronic disease. I’m hoping that the emphasis of the book will be on the preventable part. Having heard the author speak twice on podcasts I think that it will be. I’m a big fan of the library and…
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I need more jump roping in my life
by Jay Hiller, October 29, 2022 Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash Like everybody else on the planet, I have a lot going on right now. I don’t see things getting less busy for another 3 weeks. A lot of it is fun and it’s been challenging to get workouts in. Tonight I opted for a jump rope workout, alternating between 1/2-lb. and 1 lb. ropes. I felt like I got quality exercise for the moderate amount of time I put in. I need more jump roping in my life. Subscribe Here:
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Left my library book for an upper body workout
Jay Hiller, October 28, 2022 On the way home from work today, I picked up my library hold, a collection of short stories by Percival Everett Half an Inch of Water. It’s good. I had to set a timer to get myself up off the couch to work out. Upper body today–inclined bench press, alternating bench press, inverted rows, front raises, pullovers, chin ups. I’m glad I did it and I’m going to find my book again as soon as I finish writing. 100 posts! Hey, this is post 100! Thanks for reading my blog!
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A gift of bean sprouts
by Jay Hiller, October 27, 2022 A friend at work brought me a big bag of homegrown bean sprouts today. I felt so lucky. They tasted much better than the ones I get at the super market. And bean sprouts are good for you. They have high concentrations of vitamin C and are a source of protein and dietary fiber. Some potential health benefits include prevention of high blood pressure, slowed growth of cancer cells and possible protection from some eye conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (source WebMD). Subscribe here:
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Busy Day 9 minute workout
by Jay Hiller, October 26, 2022 It has been one busy day. After working my regular job and teaching a yoga class, I finished work on a contract job around 8:30 and realized that I hadn’t really exercised yet. (By the way, I realize on a 1-10 scale of hardship this gets like a 0.25. None of it was digging ditches.) So I went to the 9 minute Mark Lauren workouts I wrote about back in the summer. (Link to post below; it’s a good book if you’re interested.) The truth was, I didn’t really even feel like doing that.…
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Gadget Review: Add on change plate pairs
by Jay Hiller, October 25, 2022 I started using these add on change plate pairs last week. They’re like fractional plates, only for dumbbells. The idea is that it can be a big jump between the dumbbell weights available to you and that adding these little plates to the end of your dumbbells helps you bridge that gap, lift a little heavier and get stronger. So for example, if moving from 12 lbs to 15 is hard, you add these to the end of your 12 to make 12.5, 13, whatever. I found that they fit my conventional dumbbells, my…
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‘No,’ is a complete answer
by Jay Hiller, October 24, 2022 There are many kinds of requests. Two kinds of requests that can be made of you are things that you don’t want to do and should say no to and things that you do want to do and should say no to. The first one most of us have no difficulty identifying. The second one is trickier because with the world full of interesting things and people that we want to please it’s easy to become overextended. I’m anticipating a lot of requests of the second type over the next 6 weeks. I’m only…
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Bee Sting Yoga: Today’s Yoga Practice
by Jay Hiller, October 23, 2022 The weather was beautiful in Austin today and there was almost no boat traffic on the lake. Nobody came to my SUP class so I got to do my own practice on the lake, which went well. It was nice to be out there after traveling last weekend. I did a entry level headstand (knees supported on upper arms) for about 2 seconds. The board moves a little when you put your head down, which is affecting me emotionally. It’s different than on a floor. Anyway, I was in a lunge with my back…
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I guess I could do a post about how having good tissues makes a difference when you’re under the weather
by Jay Hiller, October 22, 2022 They do make a difference and I’ll try again tomorrow. Have a great day!
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A good yoga book, ginger tea and monarch butterflies
by Jay Hiller, October 21, 2022 Monarch butterflies and ginger tea Monarch butterflies and ginger tea are my favorite things today. I’m thrilled to see so many monarchs in my yard. And ginger tea is helping me with the congestion that’s been bugging me this week. It’s a complex recipe–take a plug of ginger and steep it in boiling water for a couple of minutes. Book Review: A Chair For Yoga: A complete guide to Iyengar yoga practice with a chair by Eyal Shifroni There is a type of chair yoga that’s a legitimate and powerful practice and is meant…
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I don’t wanna strategy: put on your exercise clothes and sit with your exercise stuff
by Jay Hiller, October 20, 2022 Quite a day at worky-work today. Thank goodness I won’t even remember most of it in 2 weeks. Nevertheless, I’m grouchy, mildly congested and I don’t feel like exercising. So I put on an obnoxiously bright pair of yoga pants and a T shirt I like. As soon as I close this blog post, I’m going to sit in the part of my home where I keep my workout equipment for at least 20 minutes. How much do you wanna bet that I’ll be moving in less than 5? There’s an even better chance…
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Do what you can
by Jay Hiller, October 19, 2022 Travel and what I hope are allergies have disrupted my fitness routine this week. Yesterday my workout was carrying my luggage all over the economy parking lot at the Austin airport looking for my car. (Why is the D section behind the B section, ABIA?) This morning I woke up 3 hours early for no good reason and developed a sore throat about mid afternoon. I did 17 minutes of upper body work tonight and decided to call it a day. It’s just like that sometimes. Off to gargle and will probably feel better…
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All the money you spend on fitness in your entire lifetime will still be significantly less than the cost of a week in the hospital
by Jay Hiller, October 18, 2022 If you’re in a situation where groceries, utilities, housing, childcare and gas are pressuring you right now, this post won’t resonate for you. There are a lot of things that can be done without spending money. Walking is free. So are a lot of streamed yoga classes. I’ve heard good things about Yoga with Adriene on YouTube from all kinds of people. However, if you have discretionary money to spend and are on the fence about classes, fitness equipment, gym memberships you may want to think about the sentiment in today’s heading. Chronic illness…
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Who am I?
My name is Jay Hiller and I’m well over 42 years old. I’m 60 and I like that I’m 60. I’m a fitness enthusiast, a yoga teacher (eRYT 200, RYT 500) and an ACE certified personal trainer. I was an overweight teenager and a survivor of elementary school dodge ball games. I have a tendency to overwork and over worry. My exercise, yoga and meditation practices have been invaluable to me in moderating those tendencies. My job as a yoga and fitness instructor has been a source of joy in my life. Even more important to me are my husband, my two adult children, my friends and my dogs.
When my children were in elementary school, their PE coach, Frank Tighe, would explain to the parents that he was teaching his students to celebrate the gift of movement. We all can benefit from using this wonderful gift and every day is an opportunity to celebrate. There’s a meme on social media, It’s not too late and you’re not too old. That’s not only true, the world would be a completely different place if everybody recognized that—and not just in the area of fitness.
Why 42?
Why is it The Over 42 Club and not the Over 40 Club or the Over 57 Club or the Older than Dirt Club?
In 2014, during my first yoga teacher training, one of the instructors asked us how many of us were over 42. Three of us raised our hands. The teacher’s point was that she had been teaching yoga longer than many of us in the room had been alive. The three of us who had been alive longer than she’d been teaching started referring to ourselves as the Over 42 Club. You don’t have to be over 42 to get something out of this blog. My hope is that as you read these posts, you’ll find nuggets of information that will help you wherever you are with your fitness. In sharing what I know, my intention is to share not just the things that I’ve been successful with, but also my past and ongoing challenges. My experience has been that the stuff that doesn’t come easily is a lot more interesting than the stuff that does. For example, a few years ago, when I hurt my wrist, I learned a lot about wrists.
Fitness Tip: Choose something to work on
We can all benefit from picking out something to work toward and doing something about getting there every day for a specific period of time, maybe a month. It doesn’t have to be for a big chunk of time each day. It could be for as little as a few minutes. Right now, I’m working on doing a full range chin up with proper form. Other goals have been wide angle seated pose, the splits, peacock pose. You get the idea. Using this method, I don’t always get to something that looks good. But I do make changes in my flexibility, strength and mobility, which is really my goal. Try it and see how it goes for you.
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