Staying Fit Through The Winter Months
If you are of a mind to stay in shape Summer is, for me, the best time of year to stay active, warm weather, mostly, and long days with the time to do most anything you want, sports wise. Spring and Autumn are also pretty fair for outside fitness activities, as long as you keep an eye on the weather and dress accordingly.
Staying fit through the Winter months is a different story, less Daylight hours, frigid, life threatening temperatures, added to that, most Winter activities are either indoors or rather sedentary, bundle up and sit on a snow mobile, might be a load of fun, but it doesn’t burn many calories.
Gym Memberships are a hit and miss during the Winter months, if weather conditions are good you can make it to the Gym to do your work out, then wait in line with all the other Members who had the same plan!
On a side note, I discovered as my first, and only, Gym Membership was due for renewal that my one-hour work out took almost three hours to complete at the Gym, what, from having to wait for my turn to use equipment, or the distractions from the ladies working out. The really silly thing was, I had a full set of weights at home, a weight bench, a chin up bar, a Jacuzzi, and a swimming pool. The only thing the Gym had that I didn’t have at home were lines and distractions. I didn’t need a track or treadmill to run on, I had the whole city.
The way Gyms and Health Spas are closing their doors in this Economy it’s a good thing I invested in a Weider Crossbow® about ten years ago.
I had been using a Smith Station with about 300+ pounds of cast iron weights, two straight weight bars and two curl bars, but towards the end of my work out sometimes I would lose my grip on a weight plate, and I’ll tell you, dodging a 25 pound plate is no fun. Not only that, it’s kind of awkward to squeeze between the weight bar and the bench to do bench presses. And no Lat Tower. Although my Smith Station, not pictured, had Leg Extensions.
I felt the Weider Crossbow® was superior to the Bowflex®, both for the cost and the accessories. The Lat Tower and Leg Extension were Standard Equipment for the Crossbow®, and expensive add ons for the Bowflex®.
Something interesting to note about Lat Towers, they don’t actually work your lats the same way a Chin Up or Pull Up does, not even if you use more than your body weight. No, if you want well-defined back muscles nothing beats, in my book, Chin Ups and Pull Ups.
Not having a Pull Up bar at home I started going to the Local Elementary School turned Daycare Center to use the Ladder Bars and Jungle Gyms.
Yesterday disaster struck, I went through the Daycare Center walking the dog, one of them, and the Ladder Bars are gone. Not too much of a surprise in retrospect, I may be the only person to use them in the last two or three years.
The loss of the Ladder Bars wasn’t so bad, really, I used them more for fun than a work out, but what about my Chin Up Bar, or my Upside Down Push Up contraption?
What’s an Upside Down Push Up? you may ask. Not to be confused with a Handstand Push Up!
To do an Upside Down Push Up, can’t call them Pull Ups, different move, not a Reverse Push up either, term already taken, you hang on a wider set of Ladder Bars, hands about as far apart as when doing a regular Push Up, then swing your legs up to catch your heels on top of another bar so you are hanging Upside Down in the Push Up position, now pull your chest up to the bar, repeat.
That’s one of the challenges you face when you count on using Community Property for your Work Out, things change, priorities shift.
Reading the writing on the wall I can no longer be confident my auxiliary equipment will be there Today, Tomorrow, or if they’re gone for good, time to take proactive steps for my Physical Fitness, find another way, or another place to do that part of my routine.
Both easy fixes, anyway.
For Upside Down Push Ups a Closet Rod and a Kitchen Chair will do the trick. Lay the rod across the Kitchen counter and rest your feet on a chair. Work it.
For Pull Ups and Chin Ups I bought a Door Gym.
While they list a whole slew of additional exercises you can do with a Door Gym, they are not much more than an exercise in creativity.
Most of the other listed exercises are either obsolete, proven to be ineffective, or can be done easier and safer with a six-inch block of wood.
For Chin Ups and Pul Ups, it’s the bomb! I especially like the neutral position, palms pacing in. Previously I could only do Neutral Pull Ups sideways on the Ladder Bars, and had to be careful not to hit my head on the rungs.
Stay Fit,
Michael Cole