Life Cycles

It’s the struggle that makes you strong, I say. This is true physically and in every other way. Though we’re sharing a societal challenge to maintain social distancing (and sharing countless other opportunities to grow afforded by this new coronavirus), it’s not the struggle to become comfortable in isolation I’d like to address this week. It’s the challenge to stay active in isolation. You don’t need an open gym or a home gym to get and stay fit. The same planning method used in most CrossFit® gyms will work just as well at home, namely a dry erase board (or a scratch sheet of paper), with a daily workout, or WOD (workout of the day). You can call your kitchen or family room your home gym. On a pleasant day, you can make your back yard a workout space. Push-ups, sit to stands, air squats, jumping jacks, burpees, single-leg squats, sit-ups and running in place can all be done in a very small space. Dancing to your favorite music for half an hour every day, including some good old body weight plyometrics is an excellent program. Dancing that includes some skipping, bounding, jumping or hopping is great exercise. Add a few lunges, jump squats, and clap push-ups and your dancing around the house becomes a full-body workout for all ages. Write down a handful of moderate to higher intensity exercises and do each for one to three minutes (or long enough to get yourself moderately winded), then walk in place for long enough to catch your breath. By the time you’ve cycled through your exercises, you’ve gotten yourself a little HIIT (high intensity interval training). If you switch it up and rotate through a few different routines, you won’t burnout on your home-centered program. Practice some meditative exercises a few times throughout the week, too. For instance, you might do HIIT on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and dancing with some sort of yoga on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. If you aren’t sure what ‘some sort of yoga’ you might try, there’s plenty of information on the internet. Try “Find Your Match Among the Many Types of Yoga” by Jennifer Cook at the yogajournal.com. You’ll get a sampling of several. The physical basics, when it comes to yoga, are body position and breath. A focus on healthy and meaningful body positioning and full, deliberate breathing are good practices, call them what you may. You don’t have to be a professional trainer or fitness instructor to intuit what is right for you at home or anywhere else. Meet this challenge to develop a home fitness program. Although we’re socially distancing, remember we’re all in this together. We can do it! Be well.