All right, we’ve established that it’s COLD. Fireplace, book, espresso, cuddly dogs: all boxes checked.
Which brings me to the question: why do snowmen/ladies all seem to have brooms in their hands? It occurs to me that it’s their way of telling us to get outside and give our obliques and shoulders a nice little workout.
I’ll admit that wasn’t a very graceful literary leap. I wanted to tell you how FUN it is to sweep (as opposed to shoveling) snow, when the snow is cooperative, or in other words, light and fluffy. Which it is, at least at my house, right now. To that end, I went looking for an image of snowpeople. Easily 95% of them feature brooms.
Maybe I’m wrong about the exercise message, and it’s the universe’s way of suggesting to me that I need to step up my efforts on the floors around here. We’ll just ignore that for the time being, and assume it’s the exercise thing.
Your obliques are those criss–crossy muscles that sit below your ribs and make up one of the layers of your abdominals… the ones that you use and feel when you do the twist. Many of you already know my attitude about crunches (not the winner they’re cracked up to be). However, using those obliques is always a win.
So grab your broom and a decent hat (I advise against buckets, since I haven’t found a warm or comfortable one yet), and go sweep your front walk. Your shoulders and core will thank you.