lockdown movements

[tei]

I'm curious what everyone's physical practices are looking like if you're mostly on lockdown due to COVID? here, it's finally gotten warm enough to be outside comfortably for activities other than running, so I've been trying to do some gymnastics-type training in the park and am considering ordering a slackline and some rings that I could hang from a tree branch.

The downside is that I really don't like people watching me. :P

Comments

[redbird]

A lot of my exercises are things I do inside anyhow, including with resistance bands and free weights, but I'm doing more walking back and forth in the driveway instead of on the sidewalk. I also did lengths of a basement hallway when I was self-isolating because I might have been exposed to the virus. That's useful as exercise, but I'd much rather be outdoors.

[tei]

Ooh, do you have a free weight setup in your living space?

[redbird]

"Setup" would be exaggerating it: I have a few relatively light weights (two each of 2, 3, and 5 pounds, and one 8-pount weight) and a bag of resistance bands with handles that I bought on the advice of my physical therapist a few years ago.

[tei]

Nice! I should at least get some resistance bands. All I have is one 8-lb weight, and I was always like "exercise equipment at home? That's what I go to the gym for!" hahaaaa, whoops.

[princessofgeeks]

I have been walking in my city neighborhood for 2 miles every day with another neighbor/friend, and we keep six feet between us. I live in a single family norman rockwell type of neighborhood with lots of room for everyone to walk their dogs, babies in strollers, etc.

Pretty lucky I know.

[tei]

Ah that sounds awesome! (Okay, completely unrelated, but whenever I see that icon, my brain for some reason assumes that the man on the left is holding an oboe. I don't know why. It's clearly something else, probably an umbrella? But my mind is like "oh look, an oboist.")

[princessofgeeks]

That is so funny because it's the three main characters from Burn Notice, and it's the actor Bruce Campbell holding a shotgun!!!

But with the black suits I can see why your mind went to "musicians".

[tei]

A SHOTGUN. Well, "oboe" and "umbrella" were close? 😂

[ewt]

I've been cycling to and from the allotment (which itself counts as state-mandated exercise), or going for walks with my spouse.

I also do strength training with a trainer, who recently figured out how to do video sessions. I'm relieved at that: maintaining my strength seems to be pretty important in keeping pain from jointcrap under control, for me.

[tei]

yeahhhh, strength is the thing I'm most worried about rn.

[ewt]

My fireman's carry with 10kg on each side is going well. (Allotment watering cans are ten litres each.)

Before my trainer sorted things out, I hooked up a sort of TRX in the back garden using furniture lifting straps and a tree.

[ivy]

I have been taking online classes from my local circus studio, and also from one in Boston. ($15 a class rather than $40 a class is way more affordable for circus than it used to be! And I can help keep them open during the shutdown.) I don't have free weights locally, I got rid of my kettlebells about a year ago because I never used them, which I now regret.

I live in the heart of a city, so the parks are packed during the day and the cops are yelling at people for not maintaining social distancing. I've been getting my walks and running in at 2 AM, since it's the only time that it's not packed. (This is what I get for living two blocks from my city's most recognizable landmark.)

[tei]

Oh man, that sounds STRESSFUL not being able to go outside at normal hours without being reprimanded by the police.

I tried out a local circus/mostly pole studio just a few days before the shutdown :( I hope they still exist by the time I can actually go there!

[sara]

Have you considered a hangboard? I mounted one over the door to my laundry room a couple of years ago to supplement my walks and like it quite a bit.

[tei]

Is that like... a thing you do pullups on? If so, SO and I were actually considering one! I was doing pullups and leg lifts in a playground for a while, but then the city mandated that all the playgrounds be shut down. If we can find one that can be delivered from a local store that would be great, because stuff is taking actual months to be delivered by post right now!

[sara]

You can do pullups, also a lot of upper body and core strengthening stuff for climbing. Here are some examples: https://www.rei.com/c/climbing-training

I have the previous generation Wood Grips board from Metolius (I got it when it was being clearanced out as the current one was introduced). I've been quite happy with it. I hang off it and bring my feet up.

[tei]

Ohhh yeah, those! I have tried those at some climbing gyms I've been to, but since climbing isn't a huge thing for me, I think introducing the limiting factor of finger strength, when what I really want is arm/shoulder/abdominal strength, would be counterproductive if I'm just going to buy once product (and I don't have room for very many in my tiny apartment, ha.)

[sara]

Yeah, the one I have has a variety of holds so I can use it for pullups, hanging, and core work, not just finger strength, which isn't so much what I'm going for either. I don't climb recreationally, I work outdoors so I try to keep in shape for that.

[thistleingrey]

I do pushups in my kitchen--aim for once a day and fail, but it ends up being 3-4 times a week. I've been doing modified bits of the Johnson & Johnson 7-minute workout app, too. At this point I can stitch together the bits I can handle without using the app, which makes it more HIIT-ish, which is what I'd like. (Hypermobile joints, so things are either very hard/dangerous for me or very easy--thus rolling my own mix.)

[fred_mouse]

Do you have opinions on the app that you would like to share? I'm also somewhat hypermobile, but I've currently got the muscle strength to be able to use my full range of movement, and I'd really like to not lose that (I've been doing a weekly ballet class for about three years, and it has been a great way for me to strengthen everything gently)

[thistleingrey]

Doing ballet weekly sounds awesome. I think it's partly that the app's easy and medium sets are a reasonable match for my subjective easy and pushing-it-somewhat, and I like being able to opt out of a specific exercise, which feels harder for me with a YouTube video.

Also, depends on one's specific issues. For me, legs are mostly strong, back is okay (though it slips), neck and hips are terrible ... so I try to do mountain climbers and very careful side planks regularly alongside other things.

What do you do to warm up for ballet?--no worries if no answer.

[fred_mouse]

That is very useful information, much appreciated.

The weekly ballet has been amazing. The teacher used to be the principal at the school my kids danced at, and I have a great deal of respect for their attitude to ballet and pedagogy (no competitions, all body types can do ballet, focus on the individual improvement not the comparisons, etc). They took a class of adults who ranged from never having done ballet, through 'did ballet as a late teen' (me), plus at least one who really knew what they were doing, started with 'this is how to stand' and has then taken us through a range of skills, always allowing for individual injuries and limitations (I'm not the only hypermobile adult in the class).

Enough rambling - you asked about warm ups. Early on, the teacher would have us all sit on the floor with our legs straight out in front of us, and warm up our feet by flexing and pointing feet, working through the foot in the way that we then went on to learn to do in the barre work. There were variations on this, but the only ones I can remember are that you start with feet touching all the way along, and then after some number of repetitions turn the hips/etc out and do it in the turned out position. She also got us doing specific small muscle isometric exercises for the ?VMO (I've forgotten the muscle name, but I think that is the abbreviation) which is just above the knee on the inside of the leg -- this helped with knee stability. For a while she then had us doing our own warm ups, so I would do gentle squats, ankle rises, other things that move the joints slowly. Lunges sometimes. When there is space, sitting with legs as wide as comfortable, and then walking hands forwards and back, and then sitting upright and tilting pelvis back and then straightening (kind of rolling very slightly back on to the coccyx) - pulling abdominal muscles to the spine.

Current warm ups are done by the teacher again, and are about core strength. Glute bridges, with a whole bunch of variations (knees together, knees holding a ball in place, tension band around knees pulling outwards). Initially, we were just doing the pelvis tilt part of that (like the above rolling on to the coccyx, but lying on the floor). Because hips are my worst joint, I had to start with modified versions of most of these, but now can do them most of the time. Also an exercise just called 'cockroaches' which I don't think I can adequately describe! Occasionally, other strength based exercises, which get blood flowing.

Oh, and for arms/shoulders anything that makes great big movements - swinging arms across the body and then out wide, big circles, rolling the shoulders. My goal there is to loosen as much of my shoulder/upper body as possible, because my shoulders are heading for being as bad as my hips (or maybe my hips have improved enough that my shoulders now register...)

the tl:dr on this: movement to get blood flowing/muscles moving a bit, appropriate strengthening work, minimal to no stretching.

[thistleingrey]

Thanks very much for the helpful details! Minimal to no stretching is ideal. I'll look up isometric exercises for knee stability--sounds really useful for me as well.

[fred_mouse]

If I understand the research correctly, stretching before activity decreases joint stability, which is bad for the average person, and worse if your joints are hypermobile. I do stretching at other times, so that I don't risk that! The other one is 'no held stretches' for hypermobile joints, because ... umm, something about stretching the wrong thing. If I can find the reference and remember why I was looking for it, I'll come back here.

[cesy]

I'm doing a lot more cycling, and also Pilates at home.

[rmc28]

I've been (attempting to) take each (of 2) child out for a walk each day for exercise and a bit of 1:1 time. Mostly the streets are quiet enough and the locals aware enough that we can do this safely and easily keep 2m from others. However, the children don't always want to come out, and I'm feeling the need for more intense exercise than walking with them gets me.

I've dug out some old aerobics DVDs and made some space in my living room in front of the TV, and I'm currently doing that twice a week when children & spouse are busy elsewhere. I started at once a week, and intend to get up to 3x a week and then work up the intensity options.

I did consider taking up running again, but I was always a bit self-conscious running in public while fat, and the additional worry about keeping distance from others is tipping the idea over from "fun" to "too stressful", whereas in my living room no-one is judging me except maybe the cat.

[syderia]

Well, I actually broke my ankle two weeks before lockdown started here, so right now I do some self-directed PT to move my ankle more smoothly, I try to get up and walk inside for 5 minutes every hour and I take a 20 minutes walk every day, give or take.
I think I'm going to try and do plank and abs starting next week too.

[seerofheart]

We're lucky enough to be allowed out as long as we maintain distance, and my family's in a quietish spot so we've been taking walks up the hills a few times a week. Partner and I used to go the same route every couple weeks and it was always dead quiet - lately we've had to pull over into the grass to let people pass at least 6 times each walk (:
I've been trying to watch yoga videos aimed at disabled folks since regular flavour ones were always hell on my joints and it's been a lot easier. It's not exactly cardio but it's stretching out my muscles and building up a little strength, I think.

[jesse_the_k]

Do you have any disabled-folk-yoga-videos to recommend?

[seerofheart]

I must preface with the admission that I'm still extremely entry-level with yoga, and even some of the videos I have found helpful I've still had to say, 'okay, my body can't hold this one for any longer even though the host's still going' so I suspect it's all quite subjective.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaekaRjij4Yl4wJcnPD4OZrn-09jrS3jS
I've been mostly using stuff off this playlist, and searching terms like 'yoga for Fibromyalgia', 'yoga for chronic pain', 'yoga for seniors', 'yoga for joint pain/arthritis' (even if they don't all apply to me, they're pulling up exercises my body is capable of) -- YMMV because I'm able to do floor exercises and move to a degree, I just can't hold many poses because my knees and shoulders are unstable/painful.
But if you can't do floor exercises, there's a fair few desk chair and wheelchair yoga videos if you search around. If you've got the time and patience, a quick skim through the video before you actually do it means you get some idea of what they're asking, and if it looks like it won't work for you, you can move onto the next one quicker.

And I've found if I'm watching something that seems promising but starts to push me past what I'm able to - I used to beat myself up over not managing it, but since I've started recognising, 'body says nope, I'll sit and wait for the next pose' I've been getting more out of these things. Plus, if a video has 3+ poses I Cannot do, I've just started being like, 'this one isn't for me'.

[jesse_the_k]

I appreciate these details a lot! Thanks.

/stumbles over to tv to try some out, o so gently

[fred_mouse]

We're on 'going out for exercise is okay'. We've been doing a walk around 'the block' (~2.8 km) most days. Interestingly, my weight hasn't budged noticeably on the scale, but my belt has tightened two notches. I'm getting significantly faster (I'm the rate limiting human on our walks), having gone from 12'30" to just under 11'30" per km in the three weeks or so we've been doing this.

We have the advantage on that that we are having a warm autumn/late change in weather, so it has been pleasant to be out. If we actually get rain, I'm not sure how it will change.

I also dragged out the roller skates (quads) the other day. What I need now is somewhere to use them.

[angelofthenorth]

mine look like 5 miles a day walking, to try and keep my mental health under control, and to keep my diabetes in the right place.

[pensnest]

My husband and I usually go to the gym four times a week, but we've been doing our best to exercise six days a week since lockdown.

I wrote down our fitness yoga routine (it looks like yoga, but makes you sweat) from our last session at the gym, and have added a few moves as I've thought of them. We do that three times a week.

After that, we have (a) some fitness bands. I've used them in class and quite like them, so they substitute for most of the resistance machines we'd use. There are good exercises for legs, arms and butt. And I've found that trackes 03, 05 and 01 of Adam Lambert's 'Trespassing' album make a great warm up! Himself did buy a couple of 6kg hand weights, which are just a bit more than I really want to use, so my only bicep work is with the bands, but my press-ups are getting impressive!

(b) My last tough cardio/toning class had two pyramids, one cardio/legs and one abs, so I wrote those down and we do those on another day. Actually, husband has found that nothing in all this gets his heart rate up like his usual Spin class, so I found a rather brutal HIIT workout for him, and last week he did that while I did the first pyramid. I am not doing burpees for 60"!

(c) we found a couple of decent fitness routines online, and go through one of those once a week.

In practice, we also like to go for walks, so we don't always do all the above in a given week. Last week, we spent an hour and three quarters walking round a nature reserve, and today I walked into town to go to the bank - about an hour and a half all told. And it is nice to get outside, both out of the house and out into the world of trees in blossom! Spring here is being incredibly kind (except to those plants that need watering), because the sunshine is making everything look so beautiful.

[jesse_the_k]

I've got a standing date with a neighbor pal: every day she strolls nearby, reporting on the progress of spring in flora and fauna, talking to me on the phone while I walk in my house on my very slow treadmill (which arrived a week before safer-in-place happened). Treadmill walking is easier because it's predictable -- I don't have to scan the path to avoid tripping on uneven ground, won't be tempted to tilt my head back to admire a cardinal (and then pass out). Last time I managed 0.31 mile (0.5 km) in 23 minutes.

I'm continuing my a 30-minute stretch-and-strengthen routine that's mostly body weight, somewhere between pilates and yoga, cooked up by my Miracle Worker PT/OT/Craniosacral therapist.

I'm SO missing my thrice-weekly swim. Miracle Worker suggested separating the swimming activity into legs and arms, while supporting myself on a 65cm exercise ball. It's something, but it's not swimming.

[yeloson]

I've been doing at-home exercising for years, mostly as a point of post-chemotherapy recovery back then and the chance of my energy dropping out at any time.

My mainstays are kettlebells, Indian clubs, and the Indian mace/gada... all of which have the advantage of not being too noisy for downstairs neighbors either.

[tei]

Indian clubs! That's a great idea, my old gym had some...

[juliet]

1.5-2 miles every day with the dog around the park (in the UK, so allowed one daily exercise-excursion). Dog is getting fitter as she gets one of these in the morning with my partner & one in the afternoon with me, whereas previously the average walk was more like a mile :)

Yoga 'with' my mum and sister (i.e. we all do it at the same time with the same yoga video person) 3 or 4 days a week. I am not mad keen on yoga but am hoping it will keep my core strength up a bit for when I can go back to climbing.

Jumping around the kitchen with my kid to loud music :)

Occasional walk/bike ride to local shops for shopping purposes either for us or for the elderly neighbour I'm keeping topped up with bread/milk/etc.

[chalcedony_starlings]

Late to the post, but due to some other circumstances colliding with this, I've actually had more of an exercise routine than I mostly had previously thus far. I've been doing little bits of something like step aerobics (improvised) and something like calisthenics (mainly attempts at sit-ups and wall push-ups, which are not amazing but seem to be helping overall; other suggestions appreciated).

Not going out for walks has put a significant dent in things—the lockdown orders here don't actually forbid it for exercise so long as you stay away from other people in the process, but it's harder to justify since my walks usually have a destination, and the situation with my clotheswasher being broken makes inbound decontamination much more costly.

Being cooped-up in general is also not having great effects on my body wrt postural stuff, but it's not a huge difference from before. The seats on the bus and stuff weren't exactly amazing either—I think the difference there is the amount of time spent on my feet, which I'm not sure how to replicate since I don't have much that I can do on my feet at home other than housework—which there's a need for, but there's other executive stuff that makes it hard.

I have a small back porch-like surface, but I haven't been using it for physical activity, though I've been opening the door to it for ventilation sometimes.