Targeted Exercise Tips For Hayseed-Like Robustness
Most of my youth I was somewhat of an athlete. Aside from running from hangry bears and ill-mannered moose, I spent hours training and playing sports of various forms: softball, baseball, track, volleyball, basketball. It really didn't matter; I played hard.
That said, even though I am far from sedentary, I had noticed my fitness level wasn't quite up to my youth standards. Being a somewhat conscious creature, I decided to ratchet up my training regimen. With the nearest gym being miles away, I created a circuit on my farm. Here's today's fitness regimen:
Weeding a raised strawberry bed
Body parts worked: triceps, biceps, shoulders, and upper back
Duration: Repeat three times (I have three beds)
Re-stacking hay (The children stacked the oat hay on my alfalfa grass)
Body parts worked: The whole freaking thing! Every muscle group here. (I'm five foot two and these bales are taller and weigh more than me, so some nice dead-lifting happened.)
Duration: 15 minutes, I moved and re-stacked a ton, 22 bales.
Peeling posts
Body Parts worked: Abs and arms. I used a handled adze to manually peel pine poles. These things are eight feet long, and your arms and abs will be shaking by the time you get through just one of them.
Duration: hours and hours and hours
Driveway run (and sometimes walking)
Body parts worked: all of them, especially the heart and lungs.
Duration: 45 minutes. Endurance building is why I tortured myself with this added bonus.
Now, this regiment is just for my spring fitness routine. Other than shoveling snow and farm chores, winter doesn't allow for this routine at all. I found something far more irritating. Well, to my husband anyway. Everyday but Sunday from January through the end of March I did a ton of Pilates and HIIT training courtesy of Cassey Ho. Who would that be? Why the very vociferous creator of Blogilates. Anyone who can talk that much while torturing their flesh is worth listening too. Plus, my favorite thing in the whole world is to cast my Youtube playlist of her workout videos to the big TV in my room and wake my husband up with the sound of her voice. The groan and sigh that emanates from his waking form as he hears her say, "Hi Guys, Cassey here." really sets the tone for my workout. Nothing like annoying someone to give you the mental fuel needed for exercise completion. Thanks Cassey! (Seriously, this lady will kick the crap out of you, all while smiling and talking about her nails or leggings!)
On the plus side, all of this exercise is paying off. I can run like a 6th grader throughout the entire volleyball practice that I coach a couple times a week. Thanks to Cassey I can contort my body into positions that come in mighty useful when I am trying to maneuver a hay bale into a tight place, and I really think my revamped agility is going to come in handy when I start training my gelding Kula in a few weeks. You know, cause rolling, dodging, and diving might be necessary!
I'd love to see some of my fellow Steemian's applied exercise tips and moves! Throw them at me! Like a medicine ball, or in my case a spool of hotwire or a 50lb bag of hog feed!
And as always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's music playlist blaring iPhone.