Healthy at Home – Fitness in your front room! #Blog
Stephen Wundke
7th April 2020
Former Australian Cricketer and now Taste Cheshire CEO shared his tips on how to stay fit at home during the lockdown. The feature picture is him – a long, long time ago. We are confident if he tried it now he would be in intensive care! If you want to see the real thing – follow this link, it really is something worth seeing – click here
This is all a little easier now as he explains.
There is no doubting we are all sitting around a lot more at the moment than perhaps ever before, whether that be at a desk at home working or just sitting watching TV to kill the hours of the day. Whatever the reason our body just isn’t used to it and we really do need to do somethings to help it out.
Many years ago I trained with a professional runner in Australia, when he started coaching me he was the over 50’s World Champion at 100 metres. Like many top sportsmen and women he had a lot of theories, but one that has stuck with me all my life is that whatever you do exercising you don’t have to do a lot of it you just have to do it regularly and make sure that includes your core muscles – those being your stomach and lower back. He also said, concentrate initially on doing less but doing them well and then build from there. He was way ahead of his time. These days all the “gurus” talk about core and pilates and planking and joining gyms or expensive on line classes. Whilst they are mostly good they are far better at draining your bank balance and when you lose interest they get the results not you.
So at the request of the Taste Cheshire team I have put together 8 different exercises that you can do in your living room, just as I have in mine.
Let’s try and do 10 of each one but remember if 10 is too many then do what you can and do them well. It’s not a race and no one is looking. You can build the number of repetitions (they call it reps in trendo land)
- Arm flaps – this works the muscles in your shoulders and helps if you have been hunched over a key board. Stand up straight – look straight ahead, elbows in tight to your sides, hands out perpendicular at the elbow with palms facing up. No, keeping your elbows in to your sides move your hands out as far as they will go to your sides and when you get as far as they will go keep them there for 5 seconds. Repeat this 10x.
- Supermans Cape. This works the muscles around your shoulder blades in your back and helps posture. Fists in a ball and hold them in front of your face. Now stretch them apart as if you were revealing what was under your cape using those muscles in your back to pull them back and then hold them there for 5 seconds – 10 x
- Assisted Push Ups – Despite all the things written and the clever gadgets sold, a push up is still the best single exercise ever invented. However it’s not easy these days, so let’s have a little help while we do one. Using a wall or a lower mantle piece get in a push up position and then lean forward and hold your body weight for 5 seconds, then push back up. Do 10 of these to start with. The lower the piece of furniture you are leaning on the harder it is. So you decide where to start but do it properly and work all those muscles in your shoulders, arms and stomach
- Tricep Dips – or Bingo wings. Put your hands behind you on a low table or edge of a settee, something that can hold your weight. Keep your arms straight and your body as straight out in front of you as you can. Now bend your elbows, lowering your body
- Butt Squeezes – This works your lower back and buttocks. Lie on your back, hands to your side and make an a frame with your legs by bringing your feet up level with your knees. Now lift your pelvis off the ground so your body is now straight from your knees to your chin. When you do this clench your buttocks together as you lift your pelvis off the ground and then hold this at the top for 5 seconds. Do this 10 x. This works wonders over time, in all sorts of areas!!
- Back stretches – This again stretches and strengthens the muscles in your lower back. Lie on the ground, put your arms out to the sides and take one leg and roll it over the other leg as per the picture and just hold it in that stretched position for 5 seconds – then do the same for the other leg. Do these 5 on each leg.
Sit-Ups – According to Hal Thomas, my coach, whilst the core is key the most important muscles group in the body is your stomach. It helps with every other part of your body, including your digestion. So if you do nothing else then start working your stomach again. Your body will love you for it. Trust me. This is a starter sit up. On your back, knees bent, hands on your thighs and now, using your stomach muscles, not your back pull your body forward so your hands now touch your knees. See if you can 20 of these properly – if not start and ten. Do them slowly and make it so you can feel the muscles working. If you do it right you may get a muscle cramp after. Don’t panic, pull your knees up to your chest and keep them there and it will go.
I really hope that there are some of you who take this on because 20 minutes of this once a day will make a difference. The problem for most people is that it takes 6 weeks to make a difference to a muscle and we give up too soon but now there is no reason not to do some exercise. It fills in another 20 minutes in the day, its not hard and it means you can have another glass of wine a night!! Now that has to be an incentive.
Hope you enjoy doing this and don’t forget get in touch on facebook or twitter if you aren’t sure. We love to help.