Chris’s Workout #4

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Upper Body:

Body Bar Frontal Raise to Upright Row

Dumbbell Bent Over Wide Row

Resistance Band Bicep Curls

Triceps Dips Off Box – use sturdy dining table chair

Bicycles – do slowly

Shoulder Taps

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Lower Body:

Sit to Stands Off Box with Dumbbell – dumbbells at shoulder – can do off side of coffee table

Squat Jacks – body weight exercise

Dumbbell Donkey Kicks

Dumbbell Fire Hydrants

Toe Touches – Legs stay up

Toe Taps – can be done with your toes only – you don’t need a Bosu Ball

Chris’s Workout #3

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My old trainer who left the gym used to write out an Upper Body and Lower Body routine to alternate each week. Four sets of four exercises were listed on each workout sheet. I alternated the first two sets of the Upper Body with the first two sets of the Lower Body. Then six weeks later I alternated the last two sets of each sheet.

Remember: you have to change up the exercises you do after every four weeks or so. To challenge your muscle. To keep yourself motivated. To see the maximum benefits.

Here’s Workout #3:

Upper Body:

Push-Ups [try decline push-ups off a coffee table]

Dumbbell Russian Twists

Dumbbell Flyes to Shoulder Press

Kettlebell or Dumbbell 1-arm row off box – can be coffee table

Mountain Climbers

Jumping Jacks

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Lower Body:

Kettlebell Swings

Kettlebell Goblet Pulse Squats

1-leg Dumbbell Box Step-Up [try a Step-Up to Reverse Lunge] – use platform with risers

Dumbbell Walking Lunges

Leg Raises on the Floor

Plank Jacks

 

Chris’s Workout #2

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Upper Body:

Briefcase Row

Elevated Push-Ups [do regular push-ups when elevated are too hard]

Kneeling Dumbbell Curls

Band Bent-Over Triceps Extension

Dumbbell Alternating Lateral and Frontal Raises

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30 Second Jumping Jacks +

Ab Leg Tucks [keep legs elevated]

Medicine Ball Squat to Throw

 

Lower Body:

Dumbbell Squat with Dumbbells Held Off to Side

Dumbbell Bridge

Band Romanian Dead Lift

Disk Slider Hamstring Pulls

Dumbbell Calf Raises [on platform]

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30 Second Butt Kicks +

Ab Crunches

Jump Side-to-Side [16 jumps total] +

Russian Twists with Feet Elevated

 

How to Do the At-Home Exercises

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I don’t list the number of sets or reps. It’s up to you what you want to do.

It’s strange and true that I’m a woman and I’m obssessed with having muscle.

I would like to swat with a pocketbook every female person who is afraid to lift weights because they tell you they’ll bulk up.

Those people will make any excuse not to exercise. Then they’ll go to the supermarket to buy a 6-pack of Slim Fast to try to lose weight.

Losing weight should not be the goal you have for exercising.

Ask yourself: Why do you want to lose weight?

To feel strong and powerful. To be able to carry home bags from the market.

These are better indicators than “I want to weigh 127 pounds”–some mythical number you’ve decided you must weigh to be happy.

A person should exercise to feel good. Period. End of story. A research study revealed that women who lifted weights felt better even when they hadn’t lost weight.

So there. My personal trainers over the years have offered this advice I give to you today:

Base the number of sets and reps on how much time you have that day to work out.

Doing a shorter routine is better than not doing a routine at all.

Use foam roller to stretch before and after the workout session. Warm up before and cool down after.

Incorporate HIIT into your exercise. Perform High Intensity Interval Training. Not too easy and not too hard.

You shouldn’t be able to have a conversation with no trouble while you’re exercising. You should need to exert effort to speak to get the benefit of HIIT training from your exercise.

Have a recovery snack after the workout routine. I have a container of Fage plain Greek yogurt the full-fat kind. I mix in organic blueberries and swirl in raw honey in the yogurt.

Strange and true too is that I prefer to do fewer reps and lift heavier weights. Instead of doing more reps with lower weights.

I kid you not I’m obsessed with how cut my biceps are.

 

Dumbbell Disclaimer

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The dumbbells on the Dick’s Sporting Goods website sell out quickly.

You need to keep trying back every five days or every week to see when the dumbbells come back in stock.

Refrain from giving up. The dumbbells will come back in stock.

Chris’s Workout #1

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You can watch YouTube videos to see the correct form.

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Upper Body:

Band Chest Press

Kettlebell Row

Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extension

Band Bicep Curl

Kettlebell Upright Row for Shoulder

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Medicine Ball Slams – 16 Slams +

Band Core Rotation [Use the leg of a dining table should yours be secure]

30-Second Fast-Paced Step-Ups – I have a platform with two risers for each side +

Alternating Leg Raises Slow – 3 Sets

 

Lower Body:

Dumbbell Sumo Squat

Kettlebell Swings

Dumbbell Single-Leg Romanian Dead Lift

Farmer’s Walk with Romanian Dead Lift

Calf Raises

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30 Seconds Jumping Jacks +

Plank Tucks

30 Seconds High Knees in Place +

Alternating V-Ups

National Physical Fitness and Sports Month

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May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month.

I want to talk about getting fit and active while living indoors.

In the time of living through the pandemic the health of my body has become my number-one priority.

Good to Know:

On the Dick’s Sporting Goods website you can buy real-deal dumbbells. Refrain from buying the Made in China dumbbells sold on Amazon.com.

My 15 pound dumbbell set was delivered in only 3 days from Dick’s. The total cost was $55 dollars.

I’ve decided to post here some of the workout log exercises my personal trainers have given me to do in the last 2 years.

For one year so far I’ve lifted weights at home on my hardwood floor for 25 to 40 minutes total in each session. For mostly 2X/per week.

I only go to the gym to run on the treadmill.

My trainer at the gym creates a 2-section routine for me to use. Upper body and Lower body exercises that alternate with each other on different days.

I complete 12 sessions of the current routine. Then the trainer creates a new routine for me. And so on. And so on.

Doing this I have been fortunate to remain fit if not active living through the pandemic.

Faced with the option of talking a long walk outside [it was sunny and warm!] having to gasp for air under a bandanna I chose to life weights indoors.

In the coming blog entries I’ll give some of the exercises.

Theme for This Blog Going Forward

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My goal in this blog has become to act as a motivational speaker in print.

I envision my blog as being a safe space on the internet to promote what I value:

Living in health harmony and happiness with yourself and others.

Most likely I have written in here before that I value fitness of body, mind, spirit, career, finances, and relationships.

As I remain mostly indoors while living in the epicenter [New York City] of the pandemic I’ve decided to continue to write motivational blog entries.

I choose to cater to a target market of people coming together to honor, accept, and embrace each other’s individuality.

I choose to serve a target market of individuals who want to be healthy, wealthy, and wise in the ways that count.

I choose to use my life experiences and accumulated wisdom to educate, empower, and entertain a target market of people who seek to heal what’s not right in society:

Namely, the corrosive hate and judgment that reinforces stigma and makes it impossible to heal from any kind of ill-ness.

My focus will be on ideas I have for achieving mental and physical health.

In the next blog entry I will talk some more about the six categories of fitness talked about above.

Living in the Epicenter of the Pandemic

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I wanted to write about what it’s like to live in New York City–the epicenter of the pandemic.

1 in 5 New York City residents have been infected.

15,500 people here have died from the coronavirus.

58,000 people in the U.S. have died from the coronavirus.

1 million Americans in the U.S. have been infected.

The novel coronavirus appeared in the U.S. as early as late December 2019.

As a person who works with 100s of members of the public everyday I was at a greater risk for far longer than I should’ve been.

New York libraries shut down on March 16. It was revealed that the coronavirus appeared in New York State as early as mid-February.

I was put at risk far longer than I should’ve been. I don’t take this lightly.

Going outdoors I wear a black bandanna. I have a host of 10 red bandannas that I will alternate with the black bandannas.

You have to wash the bandannas frequently after using them.

I find myself gasping for air under the bandanna when I’m walking outside.

Screwed-up are the people who go outside and don’t wear a bandanna.

They’re putting other people at risk of getting infected.

Living through this tragedy in the form of disease I’ve come to a turning point in how I want to move forward writing blog entries here.

The pandemic has changed how I see things.

I’ve become more committed to championing mental and physical health for everyone living on earth.

Taking a Detour

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My life changed forever in one night in 1987 when I was 22.

I had to take a detour that lasted for 13 years. You got that right–13 years.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic I want to talk about taking a detour.

Let me tell you a detour is not a dead-end. It’s a pit stop along the way to a different path.

Maybe you’re not supposed to get what you want quickly and painlessly.

That is the goal as I see it–to embrace the struggle for what it is– a learning of something you need to know in order to get what you want.

I care a lot that in this pandemic everything seems to have been put on hold. A sunny day can be harder to envision.

I would say my life didn’t get better until I turned 35 and started my library job and moved to Brooklyn.

Sometimes where you start out isn’t where you should remain.

That is the ultimate purpose of a detour: to cement in your mind the one true path you must go down to be happy and fulfilled.

You don’t often figure out until you experience firsthand a setback the truth about who you are and where you should be going in life.

Again–I think of these things during the pandemic we’re living through. Of how it can seem like this is the end of everything–the end of your hopes and dreams for whatever you had hoped to achieve.

I say: use this time to engage in active reflection.  Get out a notebook and sketch out what your goals will be when the pandemic is over.

Shore up your good feelings while you shelter in place.

Remember that after things get better there’s so much life for all of us to live.