Photo: Patpitchaya (Shutterstock)

Counting is hard. Yes, when we were in kindergarten it was very easy, but fast forward a bit and suddenly you’re an adult who can’t manage to count over 10 with a weight in hand. You’re not alone! Especially if you’re doing something for higher repetitions or for more than a few sets, it’s normal to stop counting at times. Fortunately, we have a few tips to keep you updated.

Check off sets in your notebook

you have one Training diary, Law? (If not, I strongly suggest you consider one.) If your program has a certain number of sentences that you need to perform, write them down, then tick each sentence as you do it. For example, if my trainer wants me to do four doubles at 80% of my maximum, my notebook will have a line like this at the end of the workout:

4×2 @ 80% ✔️✔️✔️✔️

That way, I’m not confused as to whether I’m doing the third set or just did the third set, which is something I can easily lose sight of.

Use counters

When I do many sets of an exercise, the check marks can get out of hand. For a while I pursued a program where a typical day requires 100 modified pull-ups, 100 band-pull aparts, and 100 dips. You can do them in as many or as few sets as you like, and I generally break them up into 10 sets of 10 reps.

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Not only are there high reps to keep track of, I alternated the exercises with each other (or even practiced them between my main exercises of the day) which meant it was busy. Counters solved the problem: every set of 10 was a grade, and when I got 10 points on each line, I knew I was done with that exercise. In the end, my notebook would look something like this:

100 chin crawl

100 tape pulls creeping

100 dips creeping up

Use physical tokens

I first saw this idea in a Crossfit class when the trainer took out a box of poker chips to walk us through a 10-round workout. One chip per round, and when you have 10 in your little pile, you know you’ve completed all of your workout. I’ve used this idea since then Counting pull-ups with pebbles and kettlebell swing sets with a combination of poker chips and whiteboard tally marks:

Ten swings was one chip, six chips got me a hash mark on the wall, and five hash marks meant I was done.

I saw a clever twist on this recently: someone did a lot of kettlebell swings and before they even started they lined up a number of small items on the floor – most of them were barbell collars, I think. After every sentence he kicked you with his foot.

Keep track of things with your eyes

Now that we’ve covered some ways to count sentences when you are able to stop and use your hands, let’s look at some hands-free options. One of the things I came up with during a pesky kettlebell workout was keeping my eyes on top of things. Do you know how you end up staring at the same spot on the wall for a while? My big brain moment was, what if I look at a different spot on the wall every ten reps?

I have a whiteboard in my garage gym so I wrote a little icon for each set. I switched right and left hands every ten reps, so my board looked like this:

L – R – L – R – L

R – L – R – L – R

For each set, I kept my eyes on the corresponding letter on the wall. (Switching hands also helped me stay on top of things: if I forgot if I was in the fourth or fifth set, I could tell which hand I was using.)

Use your fingers

Alternating hands mean I have a hand free even if I can’t reach that hand to make a mark or move a poker chip. But I can count on my fingers!

For kettlebell vibrations, I would do 10 swings with my right hand, then after passing the bell to my left hand, I would count “one” with my right hand (making a fist of all but one of my fingers). After switching back, I then counted “one” on my left hand. After the third sentence, the bell would be in my left hand again and my right hand would count “two”. Basically, the number of fingers on each hand tells me how many sentences that hand has already made. The very last time I move the kettlebell from my right hand to my left, my right has five fingers open; As soon as I finish the last sentence on the left, I know I made 100.

I’ve already done that during the lap run: In the first lap, my hands are open or in loose fists. After the first round I put a finger over my thumb like a sign language letter “T”. After the second round, I do two fingers, like a letter “N”, and after the third round, I do three. By the time I finish lap fourth, I’ll know I’ve covered a mile and can start over (or mark that mile with another counting method, such as putting a pebble in a pile).

Make mental chunks

Okay, we talked about keeping an eye on the sets, but what if you step back during repetitions of a single set? There my recommendation is to mentally break it up into pieces.

If you do 20 repetitions, that’s four pieces out of five. It can be helpful to imagine that each five has their own personality or place in the universe. For example, reps 1-5 hardly count; you’re just getting started Repetitions 6-10 take you to the two-digit numbers. Reps 11-15 are the first half of an incline, and 16-20 will take you to the top. When I do a set of 25, I think of the first 20 the same way, and the 21-25 reps are a bonus because I’m so great. (Yes, I probably feel like I want to die at this point; it doesn’t matter.)

Or take a set of 10 squats, for example. I like to think of these in pairs or triplets. I’ll try to do the first three reps with the same breath (since I have to breathe and support yourself in a targeted manner between repetitions). Then the next three if I can. If the weight is heavy, I may need to breathe during this second triplet, but I will reset as soon as possible. Now I’ve done six reps and can take a few breaths while deciding if I want to split the rest into another triplet and a single, or if I want to do two doubles, or, more likely, one double and two singles. This mental math keeps me on the right track, and I find it encourages me to keep going. You are more than halfway through now, I tell myself after the second piece of three pieces. Just one more hard rep and that’s the last sauce, I tell myself after eight repetitions.

give up

This may sound like heresy, but you may not even have to count your repetitions. After all, only your lungs and muscles know how stressed they are. As long as you’ve done a good, challenging workout, you’ve done the job it needs to be done to make a profit.

That way, you don’t have to count every rep, just make sure you do enough work. One way to do this is to set a timer and just work until the time runs out. Maybe this means 30 seconds of each exercise in a circuit, or maybe you set a 7-minute timer and do as many biceps curls and triceps extensions as you can, with only as much rest as you need to keep going. Or take a page from dance classes and set your movements to music. This works especially well for cardio training – just ask anyone who’s taken a peloton class.

If you’re training for a competition that requires you to do a certain number of reps in a certain amount of time, then you definitely count! But here, too, there is a way to give your brain a break: record your sentence on video and then count the repetitions.

The past year has been tough for all of us, including our children. Many of our children are too young to be vaccinated and yet they are expected to return to classroom school in the fall, where, in addition to the normal school stressors, the added stress of dealing with last year’s events. Add in the fact that many children have had additional stressors as well, such as the illness of a family member, the loss of a parent, or a host of other pandemic-related issues, and that’s a lot.

“Some children may be hesitant or a little scared to reconnect and they may need a little assistance,” said Melissa Goldberg-Mintz, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth.

If you think your child may need additional help, there are a number of signs to look out for and resources to use.

Watch out for major changes in behavior

An important sign that your child needs help is everyone big changes in behavior. These include destructive behaviors directed against others or oneself, such as self-harm, alcohol or drug abuse, as well as disruptive behaviors such as B. Conduct in school or disputes.

Other signs include excessive worry or sadness, isolation from family and friends, changes in eating and sleeping habits, and signs of regression such as bed-wetting, tantrums, and excessive attachment.

Don’t overlook the subtle changes

Big behavior changes are a big red flag, but many children try to hide their struggles from their parents. As hard as you try, it tends to inevitably come out sooner or later.

Goldberg-Mintz likens children who hide their pain to holding a beach ball underwater. “It won’t stay under the water, it will fly up,” she said. “Not only that, it takes a lot of energy to keep it to yourself. This is what children do when they try to hide their pain, they push it under the surface. ”

It can be easy for parents dealing with problems of their own to overlook the faint signs that their child is having trouble. “Everyday life is stressful enough,” says Goldberg-Mintz. “If there isn’t any of the loud acting out behaviors, it can be easy to just get on with the status quo.”

Some of the more subtle signs may be when your child is less interested in being with their friends or participating in their usual activities. If so, it is best to be proactive so that your child can get the help they need before they reach a crisis point.

Your pediatrician and school are good resources

If you think your child needs additional help, contact your pediatrician or school first. Your pediatrician office should have a list of therapists they can recommend and suggestions for various treatment options. In the meantime, your school may have a counselor for your child to speak to and a list of therapists who can recommend them.

Parents make a huge difference

Even if you can’t protect your child from all the bad things that are going on in the world, being there for them can make all the difference. When it comes to surviving childhood trauma, parents can make all the difference, with the biggest factor in whether a child will thrive is the parent-child relationship.

“The parent-child relationship is critical to a child’s healing and thriving,” said Goldberg-Mintz. “Parents who can have warm, close relationships with their children are the children who are best.”

Being a parent means accepting that you cannot protect your child from all of the bad things in the world, including all of the stress and anxiety of the past year. But with your support, which in some cases means finding outside help, your children can thrive.

Photo: Leszek Glasner (Shutterstock)

Imagine: you are out with your friends in a park or beer garden when one of them suggests going to a bar. It wouldn’t be a big deal two summers ago, but after such a long time without the crowds during the pandemic, you might be a little nervous.

Of course, the world is well on its way to fully opening up again, and while many people are promoting their joyful return to crowded museums, restaurants, sporting events, and more, there are still a few people who are uncomfortable about getting back into the world Mix to come. Here are some tips on how to get back into the crowd after being locked.

Know science (and trust it)

Above all, we have to do one thing: Know the science, and then trust him. This vaccinated writer attended a big event last week – a big one with a lot of people. Brandon Austad, the meeting’s also vaccinated 29-year-old coordinator, had some simple advice when asked how someone at the end of a pandemic should plan to relieve or be among such a crowd.

“Follow CDC guidelines,” he said.

Let’s start there. Get involved the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Fully vaccinated individuals can now “resume activities without masking or physical distancing, unless required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidelines,” according to the CDC “.

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Know the guidelines inside and out to give yourself a little reassurance. If you’re vaccinated, let this ease your anxiety a bit, like Angela Nardello, who runs Augers Well’s East Village bar.

“I had been very cautious in the early stages of the pandemic and was initially reluctant to go back to work, but when New York opened the vaccine license to restaurant workers, I took the opportunity to get my vaccination so I could get back to work could. “and back to normal,” said Nardello. “We did our best to make both staff and our customers feel comfortable and safe and eventually I had to let go of my fear and trust the vaccine and other safety precautions that we put in place.”

Know the safety precautions

Nardello pointed out that she and her staff have taken “safety precautions” and Augurs Well is nowhere near the only facility that is doing this. You have the right to ask managers and employees what precautions they are taking and what their cleaning routines are.

Asking another person – especially a stranger – about their personal health history is an ethical no-go. So while you don’t like to ask party-goers or servers if they got the trick, you can ask event planners and managers what expectations, or rules, exactly they have for guests and staff.

Melissa P., an immunocompromised 26-year-old in Orlando, said months without other people, coupled with the mixed news of COVID even from local and state government officials in Florida, left her with fear and “anxiety” when she initially considered going out or going back to her office. She recalled that her supervisors kept wondering whether or not employees should work remotely, which didn’t help her frame of mind as she tried to prepare to spend hours a day with other people again.

Ask clear, direct questions, whether from your boss at work or the friends you’re planning a group outing with. You deserve to be informed and you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.

Just get back in

When the stores reopened, Melissa and her boyfriend started small. Before the vaccination they only dined out twice, but now they are happy to go to restaurants again and eat among the many strangers.

Nardello, the New York-based bar manager, said her advice to anyone feeling nervous is to take public outings one step at a time. She suggested eating outside or finding places that are particularly well ventilated.

“I notice that wearing the mask between drinking and eating makes a lot of people feel more comfortable,” she added.

Of course, some of your concerns may be due to months of absence from large groups, not necessarily persistent fears of contracting COVID. If you feel uncomfortable or claustrophobic around many people, you are not alone.

“I would say just start in a smaller place, like a coffee shop or an outdoor seating place that has a lot of people, but the lack of walls makes it seem less crowded, and slowly dive back into places who may see more people, ”said Johnny Marquez, a 29-year-old North Dakota bartender, who pointed out that he’s always had social anxiety and has experience fighting it.

If the relaxation doesn’t work for you, don’t be afraid to leave a party or location. Your comfort should be a priority. No matter what troubles you in a large group, you can try again as often as necessary.

Remember why you are on the go

You deserve to have fun after such a long time without others, as do the people who flock to venues and facilities by your side.

“Be empathetic. COVID-19 has caused so much sadness and burnout, “advised Melissa, who still feels a little guilty sadness while amusing herself with friends as she remembers how many people will never have that opportunity again because of the deadly pandemic . She said she trusted her friends and was grateful to hang out with them again, and suggested that you be surrounded by people who support you, yourself – or especially – if you are afraid of social reintegration.

If you feel a little uncomfortable in a large group, think about why you are there. Maybe you just want to get back in touch with friends. Perhaps you missed church or other community-based gatherings. Everyone around you is also acclimatizing and wanting the same things. That’s why they’re there.

Drema Greer, Chair of the Church Council of Unifour Church in North Carolina, recalled how much planning went into opening services to resume the real visit.

“We were careful to listen to CDC guidelines while addressing the needs of our community. We knew people wanted to meet, but what is the use of having a church if we were making people sick? ”She said. “We were in North Carolina late in our return for personal service, but we felt that the need, along with our desire to be as safe as possible, made our return possible.”

Read it again: “The need to be together.”

Sociability and communication are vital to people, regardless of location. It’ll be good for you to get out of there, no matter how strange it feels. Find your reason, find your support crew, and read this CDC page again before you head out for the big gathering. You can do it.