My New Exercise Routine
Thankfully I’m blessed with a metabolism strong enough to keep me relatively svelte without having to kill myself with exercise. My Italian wife’s excellent cooking definitely keeps me honest in that department, though, and I guess playing the drums regularly works to stem the tide a bit. The net is I don’t have to exercise in order to keep from buying larger clothing every 6 months.
But I’m not getting any younger, and my body occasionally reminds me of this. I’m no dumb-dumb, and I’m at least aware that regular exercise will be good for me as I age. It may not guarantee that I live any longer than I otherwise would, but there’s good evidence to point to regular exercise maintaining my quality of life quite a bit longer, so I’ve been endeavoring to do it more… regularly.
The problem is that standing on a treadmill watching my iPod bores me to death. Inevitable as it is, death’s not really the goal we’re racing towards here, is it?
I have another issue: I’m a homeowner with a house that’s nestled nicely amongst the trees, so there’s a lot of crap to get done in the yard. Constantly. Occasionally we’ll do marathon sessions on the weekends that kill us all, and then we spend the next few weeks feeling guilty about neglecting this, that or the other until we do it again. I guess this would happen even if we had a home with no trees in sight. Homeownership is a laborious joy for all of us, isn’t it?
Thankfully, I stumbled onto a solution. I’ve recently traded in my not-quite-as-regular-as-I’d-like morning exercise routine (i.e. twice annually!) for a much more productive, kill-two-birds-with-one-stone concept of just working in the yard for 30-45 minutes a few mornings a week. It’s amazing, really, how much different yardwork feels when I’m doing it to kill time as opposed to doing it to actually accomplish something. The results are the same, but I don’t have that feeling of “oh crap I’ll never finish all of this,” because the reality is, I’m not doing it with the intention of finishing anything at all during any particular session. There’s more to do than I’ll *ever* complete, and the work regenerates, so really I think I’ve found the perfect solution. After 30-45 minutes, my heart rate’s up, I feel like I’ve used my body for more than just sitting in a chair, and I’ve actually accomplished *something* tangible around the house/yard.
We’ll see how it lasts but… so far, so good.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Even though I used to be a pretty good athlete, unlike you I’ve always had to work at it a little to stay in shape. I usually do a mix of cardio and circuit weight training. I too came upon the idea of killing two birds with one stone by using the yard work to take the place of weight training with mixed results. I basically just did the work more vigorously and often avoid labor saving steps to get more exercise
I found that yardwork can be largely asymmetrical as a work out. Even though I am fairly ambidextrous, I found that I would favor one position when doing things like raking and shoveling snow and was getting weird back cramps and unbalenced muscle strain.
So what I’ve done is mix in a little yoga and strength training on our Wii Fit when we get those extended periods when it is too crappy to work in the yard, which in Vermont is a fair amount of time. The Fit’s over emphasis on balance and symmetry seems to iron out the kinks from the yard work.
April 16th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Even though I used to be a pretty good athlete, unlike you I’ve always had to work at it a little to stay in shape. I usually do a mix of cardio and circuit weight training. I too came upon the idea of killing two birds with one stone by using the yard work to take the place of weight training with mixed results. I basically just did the work more vigorously and often avoid labor saving steps to get more exercise
I found that yardwork can be largely asymmetrical as a work out. Even though I am fairly ambidextrous, I found that I would favor one position when doing things like raking and shoveling snow and was getting weird back cramps and unbalenced muscle strain.
So what I’ve done is mix in a little yoga and strength training on our Wii Fit when we get those extended periods when it is too crappy to work in the yard, which in Vermont is a fair amount of time. The Fit’s over emphasis on balance and symmetry seems to iron out the kinks from the yard work.
May 1st, 2009 at 4:52 pm
It is so spooky that when it comes to general health and well being i am in that place too!
It is so easy to pile on the pounds (I have photographic evidence) when getting into using the Mac and all the other good stuff!
I am more modest however and now take the occasional ‘walks’ to the local store (listening to all my fav tech podcasts) and now about to purchase a decent bicycle to get some more earnest exercise.
Keep up the good work!
May 1st, 2009 at 9:52 pm
It is so spooky that when it comes to general health and well being i am in that place too!
It is so easy to pile on the pounds (I have photographic evidence) when getting into using the Mac and all the other good stuff!
I am more modest however and now take the occasional ‘walks’ to the local store (listening to all my fav tech podcasts) and now about to purchase a decent bicycle to get some more earnest exercise.
Keep up the good work!
August 11th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
I think this is a perfect plan for your lifestyle… what are you going to do in the winter months though?
August 12th, 2009 at 3:23 am
I think this is a perfect plan for your lifestyle… what are you going to do in the winter months though?
April 14th, 2010 at 11:34 am
Hi Dave, how’s that working for you a year later?
April 14th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Hi Dave, how’s that working for you a year later?