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digitS'
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Exercise, at Home

What are you doing, now that the gym is closed?

I never much appreciated "equipment" for exercise. There may be a possibility that could change because I have never gardened without equipment. I'm kinda looking on my tools recently as old friends. Appreciating that they are back for another season :wink: .

Exercise. I can't just sit in the lazyboy. It's not good for me! The weather is windy again today. There was a possibility that we would be looking out at snow this morning. One direction, it's a dark, cloudy sky. In the east the sky is clear and the sun is shining. I don't know what its gonna do ... rain, I guess.

Exercise. For the last few years, I have had my version of a cardio exercise that involves walking. I strapped a wrist watch on that also measured pulse. At my age, all I had to do was walk at a good pace to push my heart rate above 100, that's my target. Off on a walk for 30 minutes 5 times a week and I go about a mile plus, nothing could be simpler. Or, there is gardening.

Well, it is unpleasant weather out so I can walk in the house. The house?!? Sure.

I live in a small house. I measured :wink:. It's right at 44' on the interior that I can walk. So, I can make 60 round trips and cover 5,280 feet. Ha! That's just a coincidence. Anyway, what is stopping me from walking in my own house? I'll tell you, I've had a treadmill to use - I'd rather just walk.

One problem was that I walk too slowly indoors. The heart rate won't top 100. I came up with a solution - lift my arms about every 3rd step. Nothing to it, no weights, probably look kinda silly but DW has the other half of the house to be in. I pass 3 windows but keep the shades down on 2. The South Window is filled with plants and still some morning sunshine. I can sometimes see the neighbor's dog Tramp out there racing around his backyard. That's about it ... walking.

Steve :D

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Gary350
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I ride my bicycle sometimes 20 to 30 miles a day for exercise. I use to love hiking but my back gives me so much pain these days it is hard for me to walk 150 ft to the mail box. I was hoping to hike the Grand Canyon 1 more time stay at the bottom for a whole week but those days are over. I have a chair on each side of the garden I can work for 2 or 3 minutes then I need to set an rest my back for 1 minute then work some more over and over. I can still do all the things I use to do I'm just several times slower. I tried the gym several times it smells like sweat an its boring. I tried riding gym bicycle an watching TV but its not the same as riding the bike trail along the river watching the, animals, squirrels, rabbits, birds, fish, etc. We have had so much rain bike trail is under 10 ft of water 50% of the time.

imafan26
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I have a treadmill but I rarely go on it because it shocks me every time I touch the handle bars. I think there is a loose wire in it. I also had a stationary bicycle once, but like the treadmill it was boring to be on it after a few minutes and it seemed like it was longer than that while I was using it. The bad part of having that kind of equipment, other than the space it takes up is that it is easy to get off of it or not use it if you don't have a routine.

I learned that years ago. I learned if I went walking and just walked for 30 minutes, 15 minutes out and back. It was the best thing I could do . Walking out 15 minutes just meant I needed an ordinary watch, not a fancy one or even a pedometer. Let's face it on my best day, almost everyone can pass me. Walking out as fast as far and as fast as I could comfortably go without getting out of breath, cramping, or otherwise just feeling bad was the only reasonable way to gradually condition myself. The good thing about actually walking on the sidewalk was that I had at least a goal and some scenery along the way and I could vary my route. I made my short term goal the next fire hydrant (they are 200 ft apart). Once I was 15 minutes out, I had no choice but to walk back home. It wasn't like the treadmill where I could just quit anytime. My goal was to make it to the top of suicide hill. It is a long gradual incline about three blocks from my house. Every week I would try to make it a little farther up the hill, until I finally made it to the top. Every week, I could walk a little further than before as my conditioning got better. It did take me longer than 15 minutes to make it up the hill though.

The problem with exercise of any kind is that you do have to be committed to doing it regularly. Once, you stop, it is hard to get started again. If you stop for even a week, you have to do some reconditioning. I stopped doing that. I never really enjoyed doing it and I lost my resolve to keep doing it.

One of the reasons for me to try to keep working as long as I can. At work, I do have to stand and walk almost all of the time. I don't walk fast. I'm glad my bosses don't really expect that. I don't have enough cardiac reserve and when I carry a lot of water weight, it makes it harder for me to even walk and talk at the same time. I use a shopping cart for a walker, otherwise my hips and back would just hurt too much from the way I walk. If I did not have a job, I would not be spending nearly that much time moving around.

My doctor said working in the garden did not count as cardio exercise. My tolerance for doing gardening and housework isn't what it used to be. I have to take a lot of long breaks after I do anything because I will get short of breath or my feet will just feel very weak. Today, I pulled a few weeds out of the pots before it started raining too hard to make that feasible. Then I took a break after I did some laundry. I did clean two windows and two doors. I could only do that much because my knees can't take going up and down a ladder too many times. I plan to do another wall of windows tomorrow. It should be easier since I can clean two of the windows from the outside so I don't have to take off the screens to do that. I only have to take off two screens from the inside. I already brought up the vacuum, attachments, step ladder and buckets upstairs already, so I don't have to do that tomorrow. I can't go up and down the stairs repeatedly in a short space of time without being out of breath.
This gives you an idea of what my baseline conditioning is. Oh, my baseline heart rate is about 41. Fast for me would be about 55. I am not an athlete. Lower heart rate = reduced cardiac output. Some of it is caused by my medications. I have htn and when my BP goes up I do decompensate and it increases my work of breathing. There isn't much I can do to change this in a short time.

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digitS'
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No professional has told me that my gardening is exercise. I do usually lose about 15# through the growing season. It amounts to a fair amount of effort and between days at the garden and marketing days, is 6/week activity.

The big garden is several miles from my home. It's a drive, I have not ridden a bicycle since I lost some of the use of my left leg from a back injury, 20+ years ago. Don't know if I can still swim, afraid that I would turn like a corkscrew :wink: . That garden is 30' x 200' and there is about a 40' x 90' extension. Just "purposefully" walking around in it is some exercise. Perhaps more so for me with this awkward gait.

I have been doing the indoor walking, I think, for 5 winters. Outdoor conditions are often not favorable; there is even a skiff of snow this morning. Gardening season starts slowly because the activity is here in my backyard. I have the greenhouse but there isn't much physical involved inside. The 9' x 20' hoophouse is set up every year and that amounts to about a day's work. Some seed for Asian vegetables has already been sown in the hoophouse but I can't be too active in there.

I took 5 days off from walking the 30 minutes during a visit to my son's house over Christmas. Yes, it was an extra effort to get back in the routine once I arrived back home. It's not usually a 7 days/week thing but I really try to keep it at a 5+ routine.

Steve

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Gary350
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imafan26 wrote: My doctor said working in the garden did not count as cardio exercise. I did clean two windows and two doors.
It is hard for me to exercise if it is not fun. I don't clean windows, it would be more fun to throw mud on windows if I could get exercise doing that. I learned when we get old our skin becomes less flexible & less elastic at night while we sleep our muscles tighten up then next morning we wake up sore. Stretching exercise makes pain go area but stretching exercise is a bit painful at first, setting in a chair all day is the worse thing you can do. Gardening is excellent stretching exercise and motivating because it is fun. Anything we do fun it good for our mental health and keeps us from getting depressed. If you loose your motivation it will paralyze you no matter how fun it is it is hard to do anything if your depressed. I was skeptical about doing physical therapy but it turned out to be the best thing I every did, once I learned what causes pain and how to stop pain and I feel 15 years younger doing stretching exercises. Cardiac exercise gets you heart rate up higher I think my doctor said above 120 for 30 minutes or long is good. Find an exercise that is FUN that will make it easy. I will be poking along 7 to 10 mph on my bicycle when weather gets good again and by August I will have my speed up to 14 mph and by Nov I will be up to 18 mph. I ride 1 hr per day 10 mph = 10 mile bike ride and 18 mph = 18 mile bike ride then if I ride 1 hr 35 min I can do 30 mile.
Last edited by Gary350 on Wed Mar 25, 2020 2:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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applestar
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I would think it depends on how your are working in the garden?

Digging, hauling, chopping ... squatting every other step to plant, bending and reaching for weeds, stepping over mid-thigh high rabbit fences surrounding each garden area wearing heavy waterproof work boots, always forgetting that one more tool to bring or put away in the shed located at the other end of the property ..... LOL


I think last year during the height of the gardening season, I averaged 2000 steps per day, according to the iPhone, and that’s only when I do have the iPhone on me.


...of course right now, I’m probably at my WORST physical condition level... Haha. But in the house, I guess I get the most exercise from going up and down the stairs, scrubbing the bathroom, and sweeping the bare floor and making sure there are no hair or other debris that could tangle up BEFORE running the BaravaJet :>

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If you have a forest trail nearby then walking is a great low impact exercise that does wonders for your cardiovascular. I used to walk three hours a day and my doctor told me my cardio was like an athlete's.

I keep dumbbells by my desk and use those. Weight training also helps your cardiovascular system.

imafan26
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I do have exercise bands and some wrist and ankle weights. I don't use them often. It is really hit or miss. I used to go to yoga classes. I was called gentle yoga and it was mostly to improve flexibility. I can't go swimming anymore, bad rotator cuffs. I found out one day when I did go to the pool only to find out my arm wanted to fall off when I made an overhead stroke and nearly drowned, Even in the garden, I do the heaviest work like weed whacking, cutting shrubs and trees, and pulling the large weeds, digging or amending the garden, and thinning aloe. The rest of the time in the garden, I find I need to change to a different activity every 30 minutes or so, so I use a different group of muscles. I will do some standing lopping and hauling of branches of the trees for a while, then I will switch to pulling weeds by hand sitting on my garden rocker, and if I am not to tired. I will mix up a 5 gallon bucket of potting mix and maybe make some cuttings, plant seeds, or pot up a few plants. It would require a bit of bending, lifting, and a combination of walking a short distance from the lanai to the bench and sitting down and getting up repeated potting and reaching for the trays and pots. Just opening the lock of the pole pruner is a lot of work. I have to use a wrench now, the arthritis in my thumbs is so severe that I have breakthrough pain even with naproxen.

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digitS'
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Think about me walking in the house almost every day for 5 winters. If I would have worn shoes, there would be a tattered carpet.

It's not fun.

But, I certainly feel better for doing it aaaannd, it's only 30 minutes.

Steve

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applestar
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...hah you reminded me... how about this bike-powered corn mill for making cornmeal? Grow flour corn this year! :wink:


imafan26
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In some Asian countries, the bicycle used to be the family car. Now, it is mostly mopeds. But, I remember seeing a video where someone would use the bicycle to power a small water wheel to transfer water to an irrigation ditch. I don't think they thought about it as being good exercise, just necessity and ingenuity.

I don't like to exercise. When I did try to do it, I considered it unproductive if it is done for its' own sake. I don't really think about the health benefit as much as thinking about if I have to do an exercise, I actually would want to get something else done for all that energy that is expended. Instead of feeling refreshed and renewed, I usually just felt too tired to do anything else.

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digitS'
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I think that imafan should trade one of those cats in on a dog :D . What do you think?

I used to live in the sticks. Across my driveway, the forest began and I could walk with no fences about a mile to a mountain ... I didn't usually go too far up the mountain :wink: .

At this time, I had 2 cats and 2 dogs. The cats would follow us several 100 yards then disappear! The dogs and I were careful to come back the same way and the cats would just as miraculously reappear! And, the 5 companions would continue together on home.

I have severe hearing loss. Music was at one time quite important to me. Every now and then, I will listen to music during my 30 minutes exercising in the house. I like to go back to one of my early favorites, Booker T & the MG's :). I'm not quite sure that this would be helpful for some of you. Let's see if I can post it as an attachment. If'n it doesn't work, I'll be back to edit.

Steve



[MEDIA=youtube]3eXT60rbBVk[/MEDIA]

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TomatoNut95
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I used to ride bicycle on the dirt road but after road changed and traffic got creepier I stopped. Walking across the pasture, around in the yard and garden and housework is really my main form of exercise.

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digitS'
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“After all, we don’t see media images of men going for walks . . . we just don’t see a lot of men in our daily life who walk and are portrayed as ‘masculine.’ ”

"(I)t has been shown to yield the long-term physical, mental and emotional health benefits men (and women) need throughout their lives. Studies also have found that regular walking was associated with a lower risk of stroke, of cognitive impairment and of cardiovascular disease." Washington Post

This idea of walking as not masculine reminds me of that book in the 1960's: Real Men Don't Eat Quiche. I promptly learned how to make quiche!

I have always enjoyed walking. I'd like to know how those wimps Lewis and Clark managed to get across the Rocky Mountains 200 years ago.

Steve

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A couple of years ago, when I messed my right knee up, and had an operation, and went into an exercise rehab place, one of the early things I did there was ride a recumbent bike, and I thought, "Hey, why not move that one I have into my living room?" It was in my bedroom, but didn't get used much, even before the injury, but I figured that would be one of the things I could do at home. It's still there, and getting much more use than before!
ImageExercise bike in front of the fish tanks in the living room. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Many of the times I'm on here, I'm on that thing - not going as fast when I'm reading or texting, but better than sitting totally still. And at least once a day I try to get my heart rate up to 130, though I don't do it for extended times.

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applestar
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FUN exercise — while sitting or laying down, lift up your right foot off the ground and make CLOCKWISE circles in the air. Once you’ve got the foot going in circles, raise your right hand and draw a numeral 6 in the air. What did your right foot do? 😄

imafan26
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I really don't like to exercise. I like working in the garden and it can be a workout for me to dig, cut, weed, and haul the trash can to the curb, but my doctor said it does not count as exercise because it is not aerobic.

I told my doctor with a waking heart rate around 41 and a resting heart rate of around 44 bpm, I am tired all of the time and I have a very poor exercise tolerance. I am not an athlete, don't expect me to do anything that would just make me more tired.
Formula for Cardiac Output = Heart rate x stroke volume. If you are an athlete, or an elephant, stroke volume is very good so it is normal to have a low heart rate. For everyone else, reducing heart rate just reduces cardiac output and all you feel is tired and short of breath with exertion.

I have cats because they don't need to go outside. Walking a cat is very different from walking a dog. You have to go where the cat wants to go and they never walk in a straight line. They will start and stop, hide under things or climb or even go on strike. Well, as I remember, my dog liked to pull and when he got tired he liked to go on strike too.

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digitS'
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Looking up "stroke rate," I see that it is determined by a test by a medical professional so I guess that I won't be deciding activities on that right now. Gardening must be a good exercise choice even if not for cardiac purposes, just because of all the stretching that is involved. However, I worked with the posthole digger yesterday, getting the last of the dahlia roots in the ground. Plenty high heart rate running "the most hated tool on the farm!"

Americans surprise me a little with the clamoring going on in some quarters about getting back to the gyms (& tattoo parlors). The people with the signs look a lot like the people who have been talking about being prepared for when the SHTF with their purchases of packaged survival rations all these years. Likely, those rations don't compare with sitting down to a meal at a favorite restaurant.

Okay, for cardio - all I did several years ago was look at what the CDC had to say. They put the target heart rate out as a formula:
"your target heart rate should be between 64% and 76% of your maximum heart rate. You can estimate your maximum heart rate based on your age. To estimate your maximum age-related heart rate, subtract your age from 220."

For a 50-year-old person,
220 – 50 years = 170 beats per minute (bpm). At 64% and 76%:

170 x 0.64 = 109 bpm
170 x 0.76 = 129 bpm

For a 60 year-old
220 - 60 = 160

160 x .64 = 102
160 x .76 = 122

For a 70 year-old
220 - 70 = 150

150 x .64 = 96
150 x .76 = 114

For me, I'm content with getting the rate a little above 100. That took a little more than casual activity. Buuut, it doesn't take more than running the posthole digger at a little less than a competitive rate for 30 minutes :D .

Steve



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