With the Greater Montreal region having gone dark for a lot of last week, it presented a unique problem for a lot of gym-goers, myself included. My workplace and gym went dark for 72 hours from Wednesday afternoon at 12:40 p.m. to Saturday morning sometime.
I was, decidedly, a mess. My ‘other place’ was off-limits to me and others like me for longer than we would have liked and frankly, it sent my already-high anxiety into overdrive.
The other issue, obviously, became that I now needed a physical outlet for my stress and my anxiety – which the gym usually fulfilled.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, we went through a pretty dramatic pandemic lockdown not that long ago, so my home gym is decidedly well-equipped. For me, though, working out at home is a chore, whereas working out in the gym becomes a joy for me. Who can explain it?
Maybe someone who is smarter than me, hopefully.
So, with just a few small pieces of equipment, you can get yourself a great workout that you can do just about anywhere.
With a backpack and some books, you can go outside – or inside – and get something done just about anywhere.
Start with legs, because, well, you should. The more joints are involved in a motion, the more calories you will burn, so let’s start with 20 squats. Bend knees to ninety degrees, keep heels on the ground and your chest and chin proud and that’s a good start.
Next, we will find a step, or a stair, a curb, or an elevated surface you can safely step up to, and place our right foot on top of it. Then, we’ll step our left foot up to the surface and step back down, keeping the right foot on the surface.
Do that 10 times, switch legs and you’re good.
Next, we’ll find someplace where we can get down on the ground and do some push-ups. Start with eight or ten at a time, from your tiptoes or your knees – whichever you prefer – and rest 30 seconds between sets. Start again and do a second set.
Then, we’ll stay on the ground and get into a plank position. Again, this can be done from the tiptoes and the knees and we will place our elbows on the ground directly underneath our shoulders in order to create one post supporting our upper bodies.
Do that for 30 seconds and relax for 30 seconds and do a second set. Now, you are ready for your big finish, which will involve all of our joints moving at once.
We’ll do some push-presses next. Taking our backpack in our hands, we’ll hold it at our chests, before we squat down, and as we rise, we will push the backpack up over our heads.
Do that 20 times and I think you might actually feel like you’ve got something done.
If you haven’t, you can always repeat the circuit as many times as you need before you get tired and need a break.
I do, know, however, that you’ll feel better and the next time the power goes down, you can feel a lot better lighting candles as the sun sets. That’s because as I often write around here – movement is medicine – and there’s nothing like it.
This story was originally published in Iori:wase on April 13, 2023
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