Trump wants churches packed for Easter. I assume this means he wants to decimate those of the Christian faith.
2020-03-23 14:28
Maybe this will be the nail in the coffin of the idea that any surplus capacity is wealth that should be in the hands of the 1%, rather than an essential buffer against catastrophe.
2020-03-23 13:48
Just a little practice goes a long way! I can now do 30 seconds of jumping rope with zero misses about one-third of the time, and with only one or two another third of the time.
Missing the fitness room
Like everyplace else, Winfield Village has closed down all the “non-essential” places people might congregate, including our fitness room.
Losing access to the fitness room is particularly annoying to me because I’ve just recently—starting about seven weeks ago—gotten my act together about lifting, and been getting to the fitness room at least three times a week.
Determined not to lose this momentum, I’m trying to cobble together an adequate workout routine that I can do with just equipment I own.
I had already been including quite a bit of bodyweight exercise, but since the dumbbells were right there, I’d often use them (for dumbbell rows and for goblet squats, in particular). I also used the 45 lb kettlebell in the fitness room all the time for my HIIT workouts.
The other thing that I’m really missing is the pull-up bar. To replace that, I’ve ordered a pair of gymnastic rings that should arrive Tuesday.
About all I’ve got that I own to replace the dumbbells and the kettlebell is a 15 lb kettlebell that I purchased so Jackie could join me in my workouts if she wanted.
With the kettlebell (even in advance of the arrival of the rings) after about a week of social distancing, I’ve started to put together a routine that feels like I’m getting in a good workout.
For the core of the routine I’m doing hindu squats, hindu pushups, and goblet squats with the kettlebell. I’ve heard claims that just hindu squats and hindup pushups combine to form a pretty good, almost full-body workout. I’m adding in the goblet squats because the hindu squats seemed very focused on the anterior part of the legs, and I don’t want to lose the gains I’ve been making on the posterior parts.
My opportunities for “pulling” exercises are kind of limited until I get my gymnastic rings. I’m making do with the kettlebell to replace the dumbbells for rows. At 15 lbs, the kettlebell is kind of light for that, but on a temporary basis I can just do more of them. (The same logic applies to the hindu squats and the goblet squats: What I’m not getting in intensity I can largely replace with quantity.)
Once the rings get here I should be able to do hangs and inverted rows, and attempt to do pullups. That’ll cover my “pulling” exercises very well. I’ll also be able to attempt to do dips, which is another exercise that I haven’t found a good equipment-free bodyweight solution for.
One other piece of exercise equipment I have is a jump rope. I got it five years ago, after reading about how jumping rope is great training for running because it develops the springiness in your ankles and calves.
I haven’t made much use of my jump rope though. One year back in junior high or high school the phys ed class did one of its very few units that wasn’t focused around some team sport, and jumping rope was one included activity. I very much enjoyed the non-team aspect of it, put in the practice, and got quite good at jumping rope. Sadly, it turns out that you can’t let something like that go for 45 years and expect to just pick it back up again.
However, I figure this is a perfect circumstance for regaining my ability to jump rope. The weather is kinda crappy for running, but not so terrible that I can’t go outside at all. Yesterday I spent six minutes jumping rope, which was about as long as I wanted to spend outdoors in the cold, but also a good amount of practice for recovering the skill. I figure if I do the same every other day, by the time we start getting some nice weather I’ll be as good at jumping rope as I ever was.
I’ll use the jump rope for a HIIT workout. My HIIT workouts with the 45 lb kettlebell are off the table, and with just the 15 lb kettlebell I won’t be able to achieve the level of intensity I’m used to for my two-handed kettlebell swings. Besides the jump rope, I’m thinking I’ll do one-handed kettlebell swings with the 15 lb kettlebell. Less intensity, but the asymmetrical nature of the exercise will add a nice core workout aspect to the whole thing.
It’s come together pretty well, except that I’m not quite there with the hindu pushups yet. I need to develop both my strength and my flexibility, if I’m going to make those a key part of my workout routine. I’m close though. We’ll see.
2020-03-21 12:11
Sharing especially for my friends who do trapeze, but also for my friends who are movers, and my friends to are getting older:
Niedra casually mentioned she was “going back to trapeze again as Bob had started up an over 65s womens class”
Source: Active Ageing – SEE & DO
2020-03-21 09:43
Daily gratitude (social distancing edition): I’m grateful that Jackie is an excellent cook, and that I am an adequate one.
2029-03-18 09:04
When I first saw this sign someone was inside, having ignored it to get in a workout. Now I see Maintenance has covered the lock and removed the door handle.
2020-03-17 11:34
The government should issue every person a two-meter stick that they can use to maintain a proper social distance. Shown above, Jackie is making do with a free-market stick which is only two-thirds as long as it ought to be.
Panic buying 2020-style
Yesterday we happened to get to Schnuck’s just as they were putting out packages of toilet paper, so we snagged two big packages.
I’m really bemused by what they are and are not out of. Onions were all gone, except a small number of organic white onions. Ground beef all gone (but we snagged a pound of ground bison, which I figure will be much better anyway, at almost twice the price of beef, of course). All the other stuff we buy routinely was there.
I can’t help but wonder what someone from the 1700s would say if we told them that people were panic-buying in the face of a plague outbreak, and then showed them a grocery store where all you could get was unlimited fruit (including tropical fruit), unlimited veggies (except onions), unlimited amounts of all the premium cuts of meat, and unlimited staples like flour, sugar, rice, beans, etc.
We also got a big carton of beer and a big bottle of whiskey, in case of emergency.
2020-03-16 12:36
At least I don’t need to distance myself socially from my sloth pillow.
Our collection of giant microbe stuffies does not include a coronavirus, but it does include Ralph, our rhinovirus stuffie, the blue guy on the far right (next to Yoko, our brewer’s yeast). A coronovirus probably looks pretty similar to a rhinovirus.