UPDATE #1: Katja votes in the combox for working out with heavy weights. I totally agree — if you can pull it off, do it. Since she is fitter & stronger than me, and pretty much would totally school me if I were foolish enough to try to race her.
So if there are any heavy objects lying around in Haiti, there you go. I feel sure you can find something.
UPDATE #3 Christian votes for: Run around the block, do push-ups.
Do they have blocks in Haiti? They have something. Street-like. Sort of. No? If children can be left unattended. Push-ups, though. We know they have that. You can do push-ups in the privacy of your own, spectator-free private quarters.
UPDATE #2: Some links:
A handout on dumbell excercises. A bunch of these are ones I do. Little animated pictures to show you how, plus a description. Could keep you busy for a while.
Here are some rotator cuff exercises, if you have wonky shoulders. Or just for fun.
If I find more useful links, I’ll add them. Surprisingly tricky to find ones I like.
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This is a reply to Gwen of the Mangine Many, who asks:
So. I need some functional toning exercises. Something that I can do here that will help me feel healthier and less jiggly. (Though I do understand that at this point, a moderate to high amount of jiggle is a foregone conclusion.)
If you have a good answer for her (read through her blog to get an idea of her actual life and realisitic conditions), she says:
If you have any ideas, email me at gwenn@joyinhope.org or comment on my facebook once this note imports there…
I wouldn’t mind seeing your answers, too. Since this is a topic on which I’m always looking for ideas. Combox or link to your own post, hmmn?
Meanwhile, here’s my answer:
1) I learned some weight-lifting exercises from various sources. One I found helpful was a library book, Smart Girls Do Dumbells, by Judith Sherman-Wolin. There were others, too. You can probably find some nice websites with suggestions.
2) I learned some core exercises from my PT, a few from this book: Relieving Pelvic Pain During and After Pregnancy by Cecile Rost, and others from other places too.
3) Some exercises I just made up. (And pre-latest-injury, I had some ballet and fencing odds and ends I would included in the repertoire. Lately I’ve been subbing in some shoulder exercises my GP gave me, which are rather helping my persistently weak and crotchety shoulder). There are also some good stretches/range-of-motion exercises in there.
4) I tossed out anything that my body didn’t seem to like. Didn’t matter how much the PT swore it was good for me, or some exercise guru is sure everyone can do it, there are certain movements my body just doesn’t approve. Out with them.
5) I put in a good CD, and do low-weight, high-reps. Just whatever. Start with no weight to warm up, and then go from there. Baby any body parts that need babying, make work hard any body part that is up to it that day.
–> Think of it like going for a walk, only instead of walking, you are doing bicep curls or sit-ups or whatever is on your list. Or like free-range aerobics.
Works great. Not get-ripped-quick, but over the very long term, definitely the strength and fitness has improved. You can use this, btw, to persuade a reluctant body to learn new sports. When I took up fencing, I think I spent a month doing your basic poke-someone-with-a-sword movement *with no sword*. And then the shoulder got on board and I could add some weight.
I can say that at this point, maybe four years in, people sometimes ask me if I have lost weight because I look fitter. (I have gained about twenty pounds – some of it muscle, much of it fluff.) Generally speaking people mistake me for someone who is athletic and fit and not decrepit.
So that works. And it can be done with kids around, doesn’t require space or anything expensive. Works around injuries and illnesses. Works with whatever number of minutes you have — be it five minutes here or there, or 23 minutes between when the kids are supposed to be in bed and when the spouse is ready to visit for a while. (Actually quite good for bedtime, because all that marching to the kids’ room to tell them to be quiet just adds to the fitness, eh?) Tolerates interruptions. Putting away laundry or cleaning up the bedroom makes a good warm-up.
Big vote for weightlifting from me. And I like lifting heavy. There’s something very satisfying about lifting heavy things and putting them down again.
I don’t have a book to recommend, although I’m sure there are good ones out there.
I never seem to have enough joints fully cooperative to be able to get away with lifting heavy. But I totally agree, for anyone who can, it is good.
Oh, absolutely – it took us (me & my trainer) a long time to work out the adaptions that would enable me to lift safely and effectively (I use a wheelchair due to MS).
Every time I try to up the weights (this decade) I get a joint on the hairy edge of injury. An anatomy-knowledgeable trainer would help, I’m sure. But in the meantime, current system is working pretty well. (And significantly reducing the rate of regular-life injuries, so that’s good.)
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But tell me: What sorts of adaptations did you come up with? Are you talking about equipment-wise, or in the choice of exercises? (or something else, or both . . .)
I run around the block; I do pushups. This has worked for over 25 years.
Oh yeah. That would work. (Not in my current repertoire, but in days past, yes. It was on the list.)
Sorry to be so late replying, I’ve been out of town.
Adaptions, hmmm…Part of it is definitely what exercises we choose to do. I do mostly free weights, and mostly upper body. So garden variety bench press, biceps curl, overhead press, triceps extensions and so on.
I’d say the biggest area of adaption is seating, or what the base is. It turns out that, for example, sitting on the edge of a bench and doing single arm biceps curls requires quite a lot of abdominal muscle (which I mostly have) and quite a lot of quadriceps (which I mostly don’t) for stability. So I use a bench that has that sort of foot thingie that raises up (don’t know what it’s called) and hook my feet under it. I use a gait belt to tie myself to the bench so that balance isn’t as much of an issue. My trainer puts mats on either side of the bench in case I do keel over. If my legs are really bad (I have MS, so it can vary from day to day), he has me do biceps curls from a reclined position which is more stable (and also harder, because you’re stressing a different part of the muscle).
We do some lower body exercises, but they’re very tame compared to the upper body weight lifting. I’m just starting to do some planks. I do hamstring curls (lie on your stomach, bring your heel up to your butt) with no weight at all (and sometimes I can’t do them at all). My trainer was surprised to discover that what he thought was an abdominal exercise (windshield washers) requires a lot of leg muscles, so now we put the gait belt around my knees when I do it and he sort of lifts as needed when I can’t initiate the motion, but I do what I can within the range of the movement.
Does that help?
Yes! Thank you so much for taking the time to explain all that. Very helpful.
(I had to google “gait belt”. But I think I have the general idea.)
I think someone should make a blog post sometime about all this. With photos, perhaps.
Yeah, maybe someone should. Photos, huh?
Oh yes. Definitely photos. Your readers have come to expect them. Your fault for spoiling us.