Motivate Me to Get Fit & Healthy

The reason why you want to get fit and be healthy, will be the motivation you need to move more, to exercise on a regular basis and to eat the foods that will sustain the change in behaviour and your new way of life. Start slowly. Try as many different activities as you can. Find at least one that you like to do and you can see yourself doing as you grow into the fitter, healthier you.

Friday
Jun262020

Lockdown ISO weight training

I have two current gym memberships. One is exclusively for Yoga (believe me its cheaper than paying for casual sessions), the other is for weights and cardio.

Like everyone who has a gym membership I've not been able to go for the last 3 months. 

Since the restrictions have been lifted here in Australia, my 24/7 gym has some restrictions in place - but how on earth can they cope with the rigid cleaning regime that is required I have no idea. I've kept that membership on hold until August (and now cancelled completely)

My yoga class started up last weekend, we turned up, the trainer didn't. I was not happy.

Unfortunately for me it did not occur to me to panic buy any kind of gym gear. That's right, apparently within a few days of the lockdown of gyms - the shelves had been stripped bare of any kind of weights - plates, dumbells, kettlebells etc. So I had to resort to ingenuity. 3 litre milk containers have just the right size handles, cleaned and filled with water they made useful hand weights. 

I did manage to snag a small foot peddle cycle thing early on. If I was working at home I might as well make use of telephone call times and exercise my legs - right! Even my daughter (who works at a gym and was stood down for the duration was impressed). 

On one of my scarce visits to a store I did manage to pick up a 4kg kettlebell, and a month or so later I got 2 x 3kg dumbells, so could retire my worn out milk weights.

Of course I was also doing some yoga, stretching, push ups, squats, lunges, gardening and copious amounts of home renovations between client work - writing resumes and job applications for people (www.perthresumewriter.com.au) - ripping up carpet is harder than it looks BTW, and who knew that taking up carpet grippers would be the entire body workout experience I needed to have.

One of the other constants was walking.

Mike and I walk at least twice a week - our circuit is around 4.5 / 5km depending on which variation we do. However, we had to change the route early on in the lockdown due to the absolute disregard for anyone's health by rude runners and cyclists who insisted on using the paths as their personal velodromes. Even though we have few active cases in Western Australia, we haven't gone back to the old circuit, the new one is actually better. We use the path around the Optus Stadium. That part alone is about a kilometre, and it also boasts very wide paths - and with no sport and therefore no spectators, we've had the place almost to ourselves. Bonus - We've seen some spectacular sunrises over the last couple of months.

The reality - I am actually doing far more exercise than before lockdown, and my weights gym membership may get cancelled completely (it did)

Sample exercise circuit - takes about 4 minutes - repeated at intervals (between jobs) during the day - average 5 sets, more like 6-8, but I don't usually count:

Kettlebell

  •  5 x single arm squat to shoulder press (repeat for other side)
  • 10 x kb swings
  • If floor work - also add 10 Russian Twists

Dumbells  

  • 10 x bicep curls (5 each arm)
  • 5 x chest fly
  • 5 x bent over row 
  • 5  side bends with weight
  • 5 x front shoulder raises
  • 5 x side arm raises

Floor  

  • 5 x girly pushups
  • 20 second plank
  • yoga pose - downdog to pushup position, return to start - don't move hands or feet.
  • Hip stretching maybe once a day

Cycle 

  • Whenever I am on the phone - usually to mum - several times a week for however long those calls last - usually about an hour.

Dance  

  • I also like to throw on a pumping tune every now and then and try and remember some of my dance moves... swing those hips baby. Good for core, waist and cardio strength.

And that's about it for my current favourite circuit ATM, though I did pulll out a set of other exercises from today's West Australian I might add in.

What are you doing to keep fit during this time?