In the era of COVID, we should all be doing cardio exercise if possible, and not at a gym. Here’s what’s been working for me for the past many years. This is not well optimized for perfectly working out every muscle group etc., but it is very highly optimized for convenience, practicality, and sustainability, at least for me personally in my life situation.
(This post is mostly about home cardio exercise, but the last paragraph is about jogging.)
My home exercise routine consists of three simultaneous things: {exercise , YouTube video lectures , RockMyRun}. More on the exercise below. RockMyRun is a site/app that offers music mixes at fixed BPMs—the music helps my energy and the fixed BPM keeps me from gradually slowing down the pace. The video lectures make me motivated to work out, since there’s a lot of stuff I desperately want to learn. :)
Previously I’ve done instead {exercise, movies or TV}. (I still do on rare occasions.) This is motivating when combined with the rule of “no movies or TV unless exercising (or on social special occasions)”. I’ve pretty much followed that rule for years now.
My exercise routine consists of holding a dumbbell in each hands, then doing a sort of simultaneous reverse-lunge while lifting one of the dumbbells, alternating sides, kinda like this picture. Out of numerous things I’ve tried, this is the one that stuck, because it’s compatible with watching TV, compatible with very small spaces including low ceilings, has low risk of injury, doesn’t stomp or make noise, doesn’t require paying attention (once you get the hang of it), and seems to be a pretty good cardio workout (as judged by being able to break a sweat in a freezing cold room). I also do a few pushups now and then as a break, although that means missing what’s on the screen. I’ve gradually increased the dumbbell weight over the years from 3lbs (1.4kg) to now 15lbs (7kg).
I strongly believe that the top priority for an exercise routine is whatever helps you actually keep doing it perpetually. But beyond that, I’ve found some factors that give me a more intense workout: Coffee helps slightly (it’s a performance-enhancing drug! At least for some people); feeling cold at the beginning / being in a cold room seems to help; awesome action-packed movies or TV are a nice boost, but RockMyRun with boring video lectures is good enough. (My most intense workouts are watching music videos or concert recordings, but I get bored of those after a while.)
In other news, I also occasionally jog. RockMyRun is also a really good idea for that, not just for the obvious reasons (energy, pace), but because, when you set the BPM high, your running form magically and effortlessly improves. This completely solved my jogging knee pain problems, which I had struggled with for years. (I learned that tip from here, where he recommends 160BPM. I personally prefer 180BPM, because I like shorter and more intense runs for my time-crunched schedule.)
In the era of COVID, we should all be doing cardio exercise if possible, and not at a gym. Here’s what’s been working for me for the past many years. This is not well optimized for perfectly working out every muscle group etc., but it is very highly optimized for convenience, practicality, and sustainability, at least for me personally in my life situation.
(This post is mostly about home cardio exercise, but the last paragraph is about jogging.)
My home exercise routine consists of three simultaneous things: {exercise , YouTube video lectures , RockMyRun}. More on the exercise below. RockMyRun is a site/app that offers music mixes at fixed BPMs—the music helps my energy and the fixed BPM keeps me from gradually slowing down the pace. The video lectures make me motivated to work out, since there’s a lot of stuff I desperately want to learn. :)
Previously I’ve done instead {exercise, movies or TV}. (I still do on rare occasions.) This is motivating when combined with the rule of “no movies or TV unless exercising (or on social special occasions)”. I’ve pretty much followed that rule for years now.
My exercise routine consists of holding a dumbbell in each hands, then doing a sort of simultaneous reverse-lunge while lifting one of the dumbbells, alternating sides, kinda like this picture. Out of numerous things I’ve tried, this is the one that stuck, because it’s compatible with watching TV, compatible with very small spaces including low ceilings, has low risk of injury, doesn’t stomp or make noise, doesn’t require paying attention (once you get the hang of it), and seems to be a pretty good cardio workout (as judged by being able to break a sweat in a freezing cold room). I also do a few pushups now and then as a break, although that means missing what’s on the screen. I’ve gradually increased the dumbbell weight over the years from 3lbs (1.4kg) to now 15lbs (7kg).
I strongly believe that the top priority for an exercise routine is whatever helps you actually keep doing it perpetually. But beyond that, I’ve found some factors that give me a more intense workout: Coffee helps slightly (it’s a performance-enhancing drug! At least for some people); feeling cold at the beginning / being in a cold room seems to help; awesome action-packed movies or TV are a nice boost, but RockMyRun with boring video lectures is good enough. (My most intense workouts are watching music videos or concert recordings, but I get bored of those after a while.)
In other news, I also occasionally jog. RockMyRun is also a really good idea for that, not just for the obvious reasons (energy, pace), but because, when you set the BPM high, your running form magically and effortlessly improves. This completely solved my jogging knee pain problems, which I had struggled with for years. (I learned that tip from here, where he recommends 160BPM. I personally prefer 180BPM, because I like shorter and more intense runs for my time-crunched schedule.)