OK, I’m going crazy at home … I’m pulling out resistance bands to do whatever I can with them… and ordered a very cheap home rowing machine last night from Amazon. (Cheap = $89 – at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009QXP77I/ )
I try to avoid spending money on home exercise equipment because it is purchased with the best of intentions but ends up sitting around unused. In fact, when I was shopping on Amazon and clicked on a link to a set of resistance bands, it showed that I had already purchased that set last September - then I had to go hunting around to find them – still unopened in their original packaging. I really need to go to the gym (away from the house) to motivate/discipline myself – there is always something else to do at home, but at the gym I have no choice but to use the equipment. But alas… gym is closed.
So can an $89 rower be anything other than a piece of junk? Can 979 Amazon reviewers be wrong?
The thing will arrive on Monday… I’ll post updates if I actually figure out how to assemble and use it.
I’d add that I do NOT have much space in my house so I also need something light weight and portable – plus if I put it any place other than dead center in my livingroom, then that is an absolute guarantee it will never be used. (I mean, then I would have to get off the couch and go into a different room, right? I’m sort of an out-of-sight, out-of-mind person).
@calmom - that’s the rower I have! D bought it for my birthday in 2018 and lately I have been using it 3X / week. No, it’s not exactly like the rowers at OrangeTheory, but I like it. And it is definitely light weight and portable.
I had to be home much of this glorious day, because our front door had to be painted, but the guy had to take it to the paint store to match the color, and then paint, etc. so I couldn’t leave my house. He was done about 4:30 and off I went for about a 4 mile walk.
My husband, who is a die hard runner, is “worried” about himself, because he’s slower than normal this year. It wouldn’t have anything to do with him eating 2 sandwiches a day instead of 1 while working from home, the extra wine we’ve been drinking or anything like that… must be a medical issue.
(Of course I hope it’s not a medical issue, but he is getting older, and I think you just slow down a little as you age).
@calmom I normally don’t like pushing things, but I completely understand needing the gym for motivation/lack of distraction. You might like to try the Beachbody stuff. I love starting a program with a calendar.and the videos keep me on task and focused. Several of their programs (I think) require no equipment. And some just light weights/bands. If you don’t have light weights, you can always fill water/milk jugs to get up to 9 pounds. Screw on tops are recommended! I got on their homepage and saw they have a 14 day free trial.
I also find it much easier doing it when everyone in the house is asleep. And going outside to our shed is even better. Nobody will bother me then.
@1234mom You absolutely slow down as you age! I don’t remember the “normal” percentage per year, but it’s not insignificant. Some of it also depends on how long he has been running. People who start at 50 can still show a lot of improvement. People like me who have been running for over 40 years- well, let’s say the decline has been dramatic. And- I still feel like I’m working just as hard! I bet I’ve added almost an hour to my marathon time between age 57 and 67.
Well, I drove down to the soccer field where they had outdoor pull-up bars. The soccer field and track has all been beautifully remodeled. The City left the pull-up bars there, though the bar diameter is much fatter than a typical gym rig. I may go back tomorrow for my Friday workout, but walking from the parking lot to the pull-up bars, with barbell and plates, is a long one.
Anyway, while there, I ran 3 slow miles, but by Thursday each week, my body is worn down.
Oops! No, actually, that slipped my mind. I didn’t even think about that issue at the time. Oy!
Hopefully, I didn’t get the Corona, since I only briefly touched them a few times yesterday to check grip. If I go back today, then I’ll make sure I wipe them. Thanks for the reminder.
At this point, I can only hope that because they’re way off in a hidden-ish corner of the soccer field and since only a few people actually do pull-ups, and it rained for a few days, I won’t catch the Corona.
They have actually closed the playgrounds and batting cages etc in our town while leaving the trails and paths open.
3.1 miles this morning. Coming back from injury is very difficult, but I’m glad to be out there. I’ve wanted to jump start my fitness a little so I haven’t been careful about my heart rate and have been running too hard (not fast- but hard) and I need to back that off and force the low heart rate training even though it will mean a LOT of walking breaks.
@sushiritto That’s great you found a suitable place. Technically all of our parks and trail are closed after dark all of the time. They don’t enforce it though. But I was going to suggest that you bring some wipes before/after. I probably would do that if we didn’t get the pull-ups bar at home. And I hear ya on Thursdays. I used to say that was the worst day. It was hard to find a body part that wasn’t sore, but yet it still wasn’t Friday.
Club Coronagym Day 9/WFH Day 4 – Today was my easy day. I did the super slow 50 min jog bookended by two 1 mile walks. The video of the day was “Cardio Core.” I skip the Cardio part, as it’s all high impact bouncing moves that I worry would hurt my torn meniscus knee. I do plenty of cardio. The core exercises are fun and different. And during the cardio portion, I worked on pull-ups, chin-ups and stretching. I hope I didn’t overdo the pull-ups on my shoulder. It’s hard to believe 2 weeks will be up soon, not that I expect or want things to open back up then. It’s nice checking in daily. It’s so rare that I see a person out exercising when I’m out that it’s nice to know others are out there. I miss the gym peeps.
@ClassicMom98 Just to clarify, I do have a Rogue squat rack and pull-up bar in my home gym and I’ve been using it daily during the Coronavirus shutdown.
However, I cannot do “muscle-ups” at home, which is an advanced CF gymnastic movement, that requires me to pull myself up over the bar to my waist (not chin or chest), where my waist meets the bar. Thus, my arms are locked out with the upper 1/2 of my body above the bar. And I don’t have that kinda ceiling height in my home gym.
24 Hour Fitness is livestreaming exercise videos on YouTube – just search for 24GO Live – and there are also a bunch of these archived on the regular 24 Hour Fitness channel. They have yoga, strength, cardio, zumba, etc.
I am really trying to motivate myself to move – I talked to my daughter in NYC & she is having the same issues – it’s hard to separate out work from everything else. I’ve always been working from home - but the gym & yoga studio was working for me because I’d get in my car and go somewhere else. Now that somewhere else is not an option, the presence of work seems to subsume everything else.
Wanted to do a run this morning as early as possible since it’s starting to get hot here and the humidity makes running mid day miserable. The quickest way to get the run in is to wake up, not drive anywhere, step out the door and just do multiple loops of the 2.something miles of roads around my neighborhood.
This morning as I passed the same sweet, slow moving dog walkers multiple times, I found their reactions changed with each time I “ran” past:
I hear you @milee30 . Sometimes I wonder if my neighbors think I’m about to drop dead right in the street! Some 33 years ago when I was pregnant with my 2nd kid and still running at 8 plus months, another runner followed along behind me because she was sure I was going to go into labor right there on the path!
5.1 difficult miles this morning on the nice, flat path. My heart rate is too high and I haven’t mastered easy enough with enough walking breaks. Felt good to be out there, though. Plenty of people but they dispersed enough to make distancing easy. Shorts and a singlet!
