Staying sane in these times of isolation is pretty tough. Gyms are closed. Group outings are off. What to do? Well, I’ve been doing creative solo workouts in my house and yard for, like, 25 years. Haven’t been to a gym in decades. So here’s what I do. It’s actually awesomely fun.
In fact, a friend and I once had a contest — hightech vs lowtech. I’d do my homestyle fitness plan and he’d do hightech online coaching and we’d see who would get the best results in XC ski racing. Well, he kicked my butt. But I was most improved! I made great gains that year. Bit off a bit more than I could chew. Mike is tough! I started doing many of my backyard routines at that time. But then I tried doing ALL of them in one bout and called them my Backyard Olympics. I found I could do 30 activities in 2.5 hrs in my neighborhood. I’d often get our kids to join in for quick sessions of 10 of them. (They were awesome lil rascals until they became teens and turned rancid.)
So we can work out in our houses. But we can also do outside stuff as long as we’re 6 ft away from others. Hard to do in the city? I dunno. Our city is usually roomy. Definitely easy to do in the country. Get outside, people! The virus hates sunlight!
Indoor fun has been neat, too — I’ve done several swingdance things. A class that I’ve always meant to drive to I finally did via livestream in my livingroom — it was good! I saved gas and finally did it, after it was all shut down. Ironic. Then there was an awesome live swing band show — with 1200 people watching! I asked if anyone was partner dancing and someone asked me to dance! I have no idea who or where they were but I said yes and away we went in our imagination! Next, I learned all about Solo Jazz! I never knew what it was before. I saw people do it now and then but didn’t understand it at all. Well, when there’s no partner dancing, there’s solo! Expert instructors around the world are giving free classes on Zoom. It’s been awesome to join in and learn this wonderful foundation to so much dance! It relates to swing, tap and hip hop! There are like 50 solo moves, alphabetized by name. They’re on Youtube also. I have 2 different national and world champion dancers personally helping me. They have live musicians on as well. There are usually a couple dozen students. We help each other get through these times! So happy to donate$ in appreciation.
I hear that the $1200 Zwift bike riding set-up is amazing. Ppl are preferring it to riding on the road! It’s interactive biking and racing. Seems cool. But I just have had enough fun the way that I’ve been. Of course, Zwift bikers come out stronger in the spring than I do. It used to be that my XC skiing had me stronger in the spring than the bikers from their rollers and misery. No more.
I hope everyone keeps chin-up in these times. Ask me crazy questions or tell me stories if you’re getting stir crazy. It’s the first in our lives for this! Let’s do it!
So, here is a list of things I do in the yard that don’t take too long but which give a wide-ranging workout:
1. calisthenics: pushups, situps, chinups, dips, jump-rope, knee bends, crab walk, bear walk, somersaults
2. weights: curls, mil-presses, squats, clean’n’jerks, bent-over rows (one arm best)
3. trail run (1 mile)
4. trail sprint (200 yards, twisty section)
5. climb tall tree
6. cyclocross a few laps
7. rollerski around block
8. boulder toss
9. spear throw (into hay bales for accuracy and also for distance)
10. archery
11. airgun (pistol and/or rifle — incl a biathlon angle by continuing to do shooting b/w the following skipping and hopping — incl archery!)
12. skipping
13. one-leg hopping in yard all around the house, each leg
14. broad jump, vertical leap
15. hill climbs — biking or running (sadly nothing big around here)
16. inline skate around block
17. mtbike ride on nearby trails
18. roadbike ride around bigger block
19. canoeing, poling (kayak rolling)
20. pull strong elastic bands attached to tree in a wide range of motions (for ski-poling/paddling/chopping training)
21. log chopping with ax, splitting with maul (or tire pounding with sledge)
22. heavy bag, 3 rounds, thai kickboxing
23. 1/4-mi. swim at the lake
24. some ballsports — drive golf balls, shoot hoops, ball throw/catch, throw smaller rocks for distance and accuracy
I’ve had this equipment for 25 years. I use it every week. Usually a couple times. I suck at official training. I never do 3 reps per exercise. I just do once per thing and do about a dozen things. Oh well! It doesn’t seem to help keep me that strong but it has to be better than nuttin. And actually I’m not bad for staying in the game against the kids.
