theblackdostoyevsky

What are five simple exercises to do at home?

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I’ve noticed there’s a fine line between wellness and fitness. Folks embrace either one or the other, or neither, but rarely both.

Wellness, from my observations, seems to include activities like stretching, yoga, and pilates, gentle bodily exercises that focus on flexibility and mobility. Those gentle exercises are generally coupled with a holistic approach to diet and a focus on mental, emotional and physical balance. To focus on wellness is to focus on the breath, the unity between body and soul, eating to live instead of living to eat, consuming organically, embracing either veganism, vegetarianism, or at least pescatarianism, because wellness absorbs the world into its conception of itself. Ideas of oneness with the universe permeate their philosophies, and there is a strong bent towards what we call “New Age” spiritualism, which is nothing more than old age Eastern mysticism. Chakra charging, martial arts, breathing exercises, juicing, fasting, and meditation are all germane to the admittedly western idea of “wellness”.

Fitness is far more aggressive, in my estimation. Fitness has a goal and coaches the body towards it. The fitness community embraces growth more rigorously than the wellness community does. At least, the growth is measured differently. Whether increasing muscle gains, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility or athleticism, fitness is more likely to be perceived as obsessive than wellness. Two and three-hour long gym sessions are germane to the fitness focused, while wellness bleeds slowly through the entire day. Measurement tracking, calorie and macros counting, using resistance to stress the body for gain, and food as fuel are the calling cards of the fitness minded. They adhere themselves to protein, in all of its forms, some being more carnivorous than others. They are not so concerned with balance as they are reaching biological and physiological checkpoints. Fitness, by nature, is not concerned with oneness but with competition, with winning, with better and best. Sport, heart rate, intermittent fasting, calorie burn, and work/rest circuits are all facets of Western fitness.

So, when asking after five simple “exercises” that can be done at home, it’s probably wise to use elements of both approaches, you know, for the sake of balance. I’m kind of anxious to think this through right now, because I’m curious what five exercises I’ll land on. I’ve been in both camps, wellness and fitness. None obsessively, but they each create a different body type and, frankly, different levels of vigilance regarding bodily and dietary health. If I were to classify myself, I am strongly Type B, and I’m also in my early 40s, so I’m tending towards wellness over fitness these days. Nonetheless, I do want to see gains, and I understand that the more aggressive fitness has its place. But this body can’t anymore do what my mind thinks it can, and I’ve tweaked enough muscles and joints lately to know better than to bite off more than I can chew.

Enough rambling, then, five simple exercises to do at home:

JUMP ROPE:

More calories burned per minute than most any other cardiovascular activity, easier on the knees than jogging or running, unifies the upper and lower body, along with the core, plus when mastered roping includes a great variety of skips and tricks to keep it fresh and fun and challenging, and it can be done indoors, even ropeless. What’s more, it’s inexpensive. You can get a good speed rope for $11 and five or six extra cords for another $5. Skipping rope has been my primary cardiovascular activity since 2016. If the speed rope gets too easy, try a weighted rope for a more challenging session. I’ll usually burn 5-600 calories in a thirty-minute session, with a short break every thousand to fifteen hundred skips.

STRETCHING:

It was exceedingly easy in my youth to ignore stretching. Now, it’s the most consistent and important part of my exercise routine. For every two days I spend getting my heart rate up, I spend twice that amount of time stretching. Mobility, as I’ve aged, has become more important than even cardiovascular endurance. I’ve got to feel limber when I get out of bed to muster the desire to even pursue cardio activity. It’s wildly depressing for me to watch how easily children sit with their legs crossed, or squat, or lean back with their lower legs tucked under them, or do an inverted pushup, things I did with ease in my twenties that, now, cause me to break out in a full sweat. The morning after an evening stretch, I get out of bed feeling ten years younger.

BURPEES:

The ultimate full body, no equipment needed, strength and cardio building exercise. People have got all kinds of variations for the burpee. They add squat jacks and dumbbells and overhead presses and fast feet and modifications on modifications to intensify an already intense exercise. And that, my friends, is one part of the benefit of burpees. Just doing ten to fifteen in a row gets my heart rate to peak, but when I’m in peak shape, I add the modifications, which don’t add more time and don’t require more space. Burpees build both strength and endurance and are also a good dynamic stretching exercise, depending upon your pace. They’re useful as a warm-up or as the entree of your workout session. And they’re a great fitness test. How many can you do in a row?

BREATH AWARENESS:

If the life is in the blood, the soul is in the breath. Whether in peace or chaos, whether fitness or wellness focused, being conscious of and in control of your breathing is critical, vital, necessary to any and everything we do to better the state of our bodies. But because it’s involuntary, we tend to neglect it. Our muscles need oxygen as we stretch and strain them, but most of us, when under stress or strain, stop breathing. Think of the red-faced bodybuilder pushing six hundred pounds of plates off his chest, or the yoga intermediate practitioner in crow trying not to tip over. The most difficult and disciplined action to practice in those situations involve breathing and managing the breath. It’s also the most taken for granted when engaging in exercises we find routine and easy to perform. Yet, it’s as important then as ever.

Sleep:

We are a sleep-deprived humanity. Wage slavery has compelled us all to sacrifice sleep to make ends meet, which results in less efficiency, less productivity, lower wages, and higher prices. With cabal help, we’re on a hamster wheel we can’t get off of, and the real revolution is the one that prioritizes sleep. Sleep is where rest and restoration happen, where the work of the body during the day can transmute into health of the body in the night. But hustle culture has idolized grinding instead of sleeping and plate-scraping instead of pushing it away. Time is priceless. To trade an hour of your time for any amount of money is to take a loss. Only do it if you have to. Turn the TV off. Dead the phone. Get some sleep, instead.

Fin.