Quarantine Workout

I wanted to check in with everyone. How is everyone doing? How is your mental health? How is your physical health?

This is definitely a trying time for everyone. Some states are locked down. (Oregon is.) I’ve been working from home since March 14th or something like that. I think the last time I went to my gym was March 12th. Then it closed.

I am super grateful that our new house is bigger (it’s twice the size of our old house, which was about 1200 square feet) so we can ALL find a space in the quarantine if we need to be alone. I am definitely one of the those people that likes my alone time. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family and want to be with them, but mentally and emotionally I also need “me” time and away time and the gym was some “me time” that I don’t really have access to now (my gym closed pretty early on during the covid-19 pandemic).

When we moved into the new house last year we had space for a home a gym. This was something on our “must have” list when we were house hunting. Not so much for me because I had a gym membership, but definitely for Michael because he’s not a gym guy and likes working out at home. So our basement in the new house has a space that we’ve designated as The Gym.

A family friend gave us their treadmill (for free!!!) last summer. So that’s awesome. Michael already had a weight bench, so that’s there. We have a bunch of kettlebells of different weights. Michael set up his bike on the bike trainer. We have a big TV down there so we can watch our shows while we work out (that definitely makes the treadmill tolerable). We have fans, a bosu ball, some free weights, a medicine ball, foam rollers, a pull up bar, and various random “gym” type stuff.

The ceiling is kind of low (it’s a basement) so we can’t do things like jump rope down there–but we can do jumping jacks! I bought some foam interlocking mats that help designate the gym and make it more comfortable.

So what am I doing right now?

M/W/F/Sat/Sun are my workout days.

I alternate my days where I run on the treadmill, or I walk on the treadmill with the treadmill at an elevation and I put weights in a backpack and carry that (last time I did that it was 15 pounds in my backpack) so it’s like “hiking”.

For weights and stuff:

• Kettlebell swings
• Pushups
• Bicep curls
• Step ups (I use the basement stairs) with bicep curls
• Overheard triceps
• Triceps dips
• 1 leg Romanian Deadlifts
• Deadlifts
• Bent over rows
• Shoulder Press
• Pec Fly
• Chest Press
• Toe Touches with weights
• Bird Dogs
• Bicycles (abs)
• Glute Bridges (variations: 1 leg glute bridge, glute bridges with weights)
• Planks
• Cobra stretch
• Mountain Climbers
• Jump Squats
• Squats
• Jumping Jacks
• See Saw Press
• Side Lunges
• Reverse Crunches
• Kneeling dumbbell halos
• Clams

These are all things I can do with free weights or kettlebells, so that’s good! It’s definitely better than nothing!

Michael and I are back to doing yoga. It feels good! We bought a subscription to an app that we really like (on Black Friday) because the free videos we found online weren’t really good. Even the popular ones. But this app is GREAT! I highly recommend it. You can choose what kind of yoga workout you want to do, how long, what area you want to target, etc.

Working from home Monday – Friday and keeping a regular workout schedule has DEFINITELY helped me mentally, emotionally and physically during this shut down. When I’m stressed about all of this, I clean or workout and it helps. It distracts me, keeps me off social media, gets my endorphins going…it helps a lot. When the weather cooperates I bike or go for walks.

QUESTION: How has your fitness changed?