Sunday, January 14, 2018

Exercise for the Rest of Us-The Lazy Retiree's Fitness Routine(s)




As many of my readers know, I've greatly increased my fitness over the past year or so.  Of course, "greatly increased" is an extremely relative term! I'm not an athlete, a weekend warrior, and I'm never going to jump into extreme sports or run a marathon. But I have mainly managed to kick diabetes (my annual check is next week so we'll see if it's still kicked!), lose weight and generally be more fit-for the average still  overweight lazy middle aged gal whose primary hobbies and interests are mainly sedentary. Without sweating, hurting myself or drastically altering my retirement lifestyle. In other words, I keep getting a little healthier a little stronger and a little leaner-and that's enough for me!

For the last half year, I've been working almost entirely on strength and flexibility-and mainly at home as opposed to a gym. My family gave me some personal equipment over the holidays to facilitate this, and I've incorporated that into my otherwise "slow" January. I've posted about that more than once, I think!

Quite a few folks have asked me specifically what I'm doing, so I thought I would share my personal little routine, as simple and lazy as it is. Although I want to keep the information part as short as possible, I do need to make a couple of caveats. 

First, there are more than a few readers who are in better shape than I, do much more than I, and so on. I would love to hear what those of you do, what you think of my routine, and how you are keeping fit. With the caveat that I, and many lazy readers are not at that level, may never be, and probably don't feel the need to be. I just want to be a bit more stronger and a bit more flexible. I'm not looking to necessary lift ten pound weights, run marathons or break out a sweat daily as such to get in shape. More slowly than surely. In other words, I admire you from afar, lol!

Second, there are out of the house options to do some of this stuff. If you live near a Silver Sneakers program and it's fees and timing work for you, I encourage you to go for a couple times. Their programs are interesting and the provide the equipment. I am not ready to leave my house at the time they are offered in my area, and with few exceptions, insurance through the feds does not cover SS (a small price to pay considering the rest of the advantages).

And finally, while I again am not an expert, I was severely damaged by using machines for strength with a personal trainer, so that's not my way. I'll expand further on that if anyone is really interested.

So what does the frugal and lazy retiree do for exercise? First let me say that I own two pound weights (yes, and I used to use single pounds), the easiest, lowest tension exercise band you can buy on Amazon and a small six to eight inch ball. And my house, and my couch. I alternate between two exercise programs, one on Utube and one found online.

The one pictured above. Sit, Stand and Move, is a Utube program that is free. It's similar to a Silver Sneakers program in that it uses the bands, the ball and the weights and includes neck and arthritis helpful stretches and movements. Said program lasts forty minutes and while it has marching movements as a warm up, it is not an aerobic program. I do this at least two times a week. I should also probably mention that although it says "beginner and senior" at the bottom of that image it is very easy to expand the routine-by marching while doing the weight movements, increasing weight and band tensions and so on-you get the idea. I do this on my sofa with extra pillows to support my back during the seated portions. 




The second program I do is downloaded through a program called EldergymPlease, please, please do not ignore this one just because of the word "elder". Trust me on this. Trust me, Trust me. This program has leg strength exercises (walking is not enough), arm exercises with weights, exercises for the trunk and back, and for flexibility, and balance. I especially love the leg and the flexibility exercises and do as many as I can, even though I cannot get down to the floor (hello, firm bed), While the web page is difficult to read in that it sends you to another page for most exercises, there is a free download along with a suggested schedule. I generally do this two days a week, after some kind of walking or aerobic exercise. If you enter the web page, the first thing should see is an offer to download a free exercise Ebook. Take up the offer, and just ignore all the "elder" and "they" termiology. My daughter is a holistic health expert and she evaluated it for me and loved it. Give it a chance! Aerobic wise, they also have pages, including one for interval training!

And there you have it, the exercises I do four days a week (I don't exercise on the weekends except for getting steps as I can and one day of the week my out of the house schedule is not conducive to anything other than some walking). As a not morning person, I do this mid day on the four days I am home in order to break up my sedentary lifestyle. Just for the record, when I began these programs I did the arm movements without weights, and have now moved to two pounds. But I don't have any shoulder issues and still have been known to use weights one day and not the next-so the movements themselves had value, at least for me. And no matter what they say about using cans or water bottles or whatever you have on hand, that never worked for me. But again, that's just me.

 I also get as close to 4000 steps five days a week as as I can. I can get three thousand walking through the Super Kroger using every aisle. I have been known to be completely inefficient with house-keeping (you know, grabbing one dirty glass and taking it to the kitchen and then going back to another?). I try and walk one half an hour in our local rec facility which has a heated therapy pool at least once a week.

I also do a five minute meditation two times a day, chair yoga a couple times a week and yoga like stretches in bed.

That's it, that's all there is! The lazy retiree's exercise routine. Which may work for you. Or it may not.

5 comments:

  1. I think small steps to exercise are SO much better than no steps. I am still working (I am almost 58 and have 4 years to go before I get to be a frugal retiree!). With a high stress job exercise is essential to my mental health. I no longer run marathons but I do run 5 miles or so 4x/week, which also provides a GREAT opportunity to spend time with my running buddies who are dear friends. We have signed up for a half marathon next september so will begin adding longer runs 1 x/week. I also enjoy hikes in the beautiful parks where I live (Portland OR). I have done yoga (on and off) for almost 40 years and find it can't be beat for flexibility, strength and (for me) what I call spiritual fitness. Exercise is definitely not a one size fits all thing and I think doing even a little is hugely beneficial! My 2018 fitness goal is to (again) get more regular in my yoga practice, it slipped a lot in 2017. Happy New Year!

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  2. Thanks for all the great info. Always looking for more variety in my routines. Silver Sneakers has many online videos and webpages with different exercises and routines. I wish you great success at your doctor's visit as diabetes deserves to be put in it's place.

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  3. I'll be looking up those videos/youtubes!!I need an elder-program.Am a young at heart 64 but 30 pounds to lose, and very touchy shoulders, and I tend to overdo when I start a program,.I need to go sloooow. It sounds like you're doing plenty. I know I need to do more steps per day--I think I will pull out the pedometer my brother in law gave me when his company upgraded the ones it gave to employees.Thanks a bunch!!!

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  4. I checked out the eldergym site and got the ebook.. how do you do the videos, do you have to keep the site up on the ipad and just start each video separately instead of one video? There are around, 24? exercises. Do you do them all?

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    1. No, I dont do them all. On like the fourth page there is a suggestion for the first four weeks., which exercises, how many repitions and so on. There is not a continuous video, however, I think (I could be wrong) that many of them you will be ablet to understand without video. I had to play some of the arm movements with weights in order to understand a couple andhow they moved, but I didnt need the video for any of the leg movements in the beginning at all. I do those every single day by the way, cause I need leg strenghth!

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Thanks for stopping by! I love to hear from others, and I also love to hear all points of view.. Just leave the profanity and insults at home, OK? Thanks!!