I've never walked so much in my life--every day, up to 3 hours. Any excuse to get out of the house, in any type of weather. But my upper body is so weak from neglect, I can barely lift the potato chips to my mouth.

It really is interesting to see the changes in my body. I'm getting in more steps than ever, but without strength training, it doesn't matter. My diet hasn't changed, but my muscle mass has decreased. I need to focus on repairing this.

Feathers being able to lift those chips to our mouths is very important! I found if I hold a half gallon of ice cream in each hand (preferably vanilla in one and rocky road in the other), and do arm curls, it really builds muscle. I have lived in a fantasy world my entire life though.

Marlene, you're in the running for the title Covid-15lb enabler. Keep up the good work!

I have never seen so many people out walking in my neighborhood!

terri, I noticed that as well. Maybe the US can have a competition as to which state's population can get the most steps. Between you and me, I think Oregon would win :-).

DH and I are getting out for two 2-mile walks a day! But, I don’t mind saying, I’m dying to walk with a girlfriend, on the same side of the street.

Bpath, we are in the same area, I think. I'll meet you 6ft apart for some chat!

I’m working out my stiff upper lip, but the rest of me is pretty flabby. Truth be told, the lip could still use some work too!

LOL on the ice cream curls. Did you know that you can fit almost half a carton of ice cream on one cone? That's a good workout!

The other day I was going for a walk without my dogs for a change ( they were hiding from me) and I called my best friend and invited her to walk with me. We talked over the phone during the walk. We live 2 hrs apart anyway, so I think that is enough distance to be safe.

I'm missing my gym classes a lot, but I've found a lot on you tube...barre, yoga, we have a treadmill and I do weight lifting. I do still walk with my girlfriends about once a week, but we are very careful to stay far apart. When we walk, we are to the side of each other over 6' apart and not face to face on wide trails, so I think that's pretty safe. Heck we don't even park our cars next to each other. The mental therapy we get from sharing a walk is probably more healthful to us than the physical exercise of the walk itself. The hardest part is finding trails that are still open and not crowded .... some other people are not as careful as we are about distancing. If we can't find a trail, we can always street walk as the traffic on the roads has lessened a lot....though I think our street has turned into a park lane as I see so many walkers, joggers and bikers out there now.

Can we please not talk about this? Kidding, of course. I was doing fairly well getting out for a walk every day. Unfortunately April showers and a lot of wind have kept me in the house. I started doing some exercise videos but that fell by the wayside, too. My right bicep will soon be enormous and hard as a rock from constant lifting of food to my mouth. I have to remind myself that two weeks worth of food is supposed to last two weeks, not two days.

But seriously folks, this just can’t go on. I struggle with my weight under the best of circumstances and if the virus doesn’t kill me, this slothful lifestyle will. We do have wonderful hiking trails here but I don't like going on them alone.

Did anyone catch the story of the guy who ran a marathon in his garden? I think the garden was twenty feet long, so he ran back and forth for over five hours. Maybe I’ll go out and run around the house for a few hours.

I finally found the strength (and breathing ability) to run for a half hour on the treadmill yesterday. It was hard after sitting the past few weeks out, but still felt great.

I'm doing pretty well - it's been great to finally have no snow or ice and to be able to walk outside. I don't love to exercise though and I'm sure I never will so I have to make myself do something every day - walk, exercise bike or yoga routine.

I posted my treadmill desk in the home office thread. I am doing the Zumba classes by Zoom and the weights. My step count is much better than when I was working and commuting 30 min each way. Now my productivity is another matter.

Unfortunately, I am now having mixed feelings on going out on the greenway on my bicycle. Last time I went it was around 9:30 and that was good, but now worrying about community spread, not sure it's a good idea. Also, people are still freaking clueless.

Did anyone catch the story of the guy who ran a marathon in his garden? I think the garden was twenty feet long, so he ran back and forth for over five hours.

Actually it was on his 23 foot long balcony.

And considering the average stride length of male distance runners is over 6 ft he could only run a few steps before having to turn. According to this article he did about 3,000 laps!
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/world/balcony-marathon-trnd/index.html

I saw the news segment where a guy in the UK ran a marathon in his tiny backyard and a Frenchman ran one on his balcony. For seasoned and accomplished runners, I would think they may have owned treadmills, but perhaps not.

I do not like to exercise at home. I love going to my gym, where there are like minded people to inspire me and options for equipment to use and it’s climate controlled. I don’t like classes, I’m always doing my own thing but I still prefer to be there to do it. I have been doing exercises I can do at home, every other day, and walking daily. It’s slightly better than nothing.

My bigger accomplishment is (mostly) resisting the urge to stress eat and bake. I did make an apple crumble last night but that’s fruit and nuts so how bad could it be?

Even before this all went down, I had saved a photo of little llama face cupcakes that I wanted to make. So. Cute! But now I won’t be hosting Easter, and my white cake recipe usually makes 18 cupcakes, and these have coconut (be still my heart) to make the fur, and I KNOW enough not to have those sitting around the kitchen. ☹️ I guess I’ll hold the idea to make them as my post CV-event goal. Something to live for.

Although we cannot do anything about our age and past medical histories, being fit and at a better body weight is going to be beneficial should someone get sick. Can't emphasize this enough. So, that has been my real motivation for now and for long-term.

I'm sad because I was finally into a good groove: Pilates then my gym for weight training at least 3 days per week. With my skin cancer/reconstructive stuff going on I was not able to do anything for almost 3 months. Then literally the same week I got medically cleared to go back....the pandemic hit and both my Pilates studio and wellness center closed within one day of me returning.

The amazing Pilates studio owner/trainer is doing online mat classes and adding other interesting options, so that's at least something I am keeping up with. For example, tomorrow I've got a stretching session followed by Pilates.

But otherwise like so many others, I"m not doing much exercise that i COULD be doing. I have hand weights and I found a simple 20-minute Youtube weight workout. Have I done it yet? Nope. I have a jump rope and I know how to do planks and pushups. Have I jumped rope, planked or pushed up? Nope. I have a lovely bike/walk path that runs for miles and even has a waterside deserted roadside park to stop and relax in midway on a 1 mile loop but have I done any walking on it? Nope.

I'm hoping if I put this out there I will challenge myself and can report in a week or so that I stepped up my exercise routine. Thanks for this topic!

I'm a group exercise participant and I like variety - HIIT, Barre, Step, Zumba, Body Pump, Balance (love standing on a ball for weight work) ...... I like the company and community (each class has a slightly different mix) and I need to be directed and told what to do. Even though I've been doing them for years, self motivation is not my strong suit and I do better in a class.

That said, I've been trying to get in to a rhythm here at home. I have everything I could possibly need with the exception of something for cardio other than stairs, but they work - when I do the work which isn't consistent :-/ What I don't have is good instruction. I've yet to find anything on library DVD, Youtube or Amazon that has my requirements : a motivational but not sappy instructor and most important of all, good music and a workout that uses the beat. It drives me NUTS when an instructor is not in time with the music - like fingernails on a chalkboard. I can play good music but then I wander around only halfheartedly doing stuff without instruction. Anyone know of good DVDs or online sources that have both?

Here's my workout area which is more than adequate if I use it.

And my husband's area which he uses 6 days/week with or without SAH orders. He's much more hardcore than I am obviously!

runningingplace said:

"I'm hoping if I put this out there I will challenge myself and can report in a week or so that I stepped up my exercise routine."

Ok runninginplace (I was going to type RIP but perhaps not best used during the CV period :-)). My routine is between 3-1/2 to 5 miles on the treadmill or dreaded elliptical six days a week, weights every other day. If I can do this at 72, you can get yourself motivated as well. Challenge on.

DLM that is a fantastic workout space!!

There are 3 videos on youtube of barre3 which is close to my barre class, but no barre, ball or hand weights required.

I've been walking. I also have been doing my normal gym floor work and stretching in the living room. Body weight squats and lunges. Push-ups. Kettlebell swings (with a dumbbell, because I don't actually own a kettlebell). And I broke out my stepladder to do step-ups. I have some resistance bands that I haven't broken out yet but was thinking this morning that I should for rows and the like.

But I haven't been working out as often as I should (that was also a problem when I was going to the gym...). I always intend to take a walk every day, but I'm fortunate enough to still have a full-time job working from home, and cooking and cleaning are taking up way more of my time than normal. So the days have been getting away from me. I need the structure, though, and the exercise, and the change of scenery.

I posted on a separate thread about this website/app Down Dog, that currently is free during the lockdown. You don't even have to download the app - you can access the workouts from the website.

You can choose from Yoga, Yoga for Beginners, HIIT, Barre and 7 Minute workouts. Within each of those you can choose duration of workout, level etc.

https://www.downdogapp.com/

Thanks terriks - looks good and I love how they're filling a need at this time - good vibes.

Annie thanks for that tip - scanned a couple of videos that came up on youtube with barre 3 and I like them. I was working blind trying to find things on my own and getting no where.

I watched a couple of pilates videos. I've never done it, so I wanted to see what it's all about. I didn't actually do them, I just sat on the couch and watched. But I didn't eat anything while I was watching them, does that count?

I did a MIX class online (dance, some yoga, Zumba...) I sucked at it. Honestly, the instructor kept up incessant chatter while I was staring at her feet. Not my cup o tea.

(I think the main problem is that I don't like rah-rah exercise.)

Awesome space, DLM!

Yeah, Dlm, I would have major guilt trips anout not exercising if that was my workoutbarea. Very sweet.

We generally run 2 times a week in the trails for an hour and then the third run is maybe 1 1/2 - 3 hour run and hike on Sunday (and I go to or went to the gym as well) Anyway we have no schedules to adhere to and we're bored so our runs are now all over two hours and hiking is over 3. I do have a little work out area set up but I'm not doing very well on that.

We've split up our run group to a maximum of three and we run on single track trails so we're running one behind the other 6' apart.

I don't know what I would do without my running friends.

But I need the extra running to counteract the extra baking I'm doing, or at least doing until I run out of flour.

DLM - that's a beautiful workout space. Is the gray floor paint or something 'cushioned'?

@mariagrazia thank you. I'm starting to enjoy and use it more! The gray floor - second pic - is just sealed concrete. The blue floor - first pic - is cushioned sheet vinyl.