I just finished "working out" on my living floor, aka my home gym. Gym culture is a little new to me and very much a thing around here. I considered giving it a gander but realized for the tenth and probably final time that it just isn't who I am inside. So I do what I can/want, which is lazy exercising. And I think I've found the perfect fit. It's an app called 7-minute workout. Seven minutes, you say? Tell me more!
Well, basically it's a video of a man silently doing 30-second exercises that target various parts of the body and you can choose each little exercise and customize your own workout. There is a pleasant Aussie voice explaining the exercise for you and giving tips but the man on the screen never speaks. For the workouts, you can opt for a warm up and warm down, choose 5 second or 10 second breaks between exercises, have a 7 minute workout, or repeat your workout. Right now I opt for a warm-up, and have customized a workout I do for 14 minutes with 5-second breaks in-between, with no cool down.
Things I like about it:
- lazy exercising, like I said. A couple things require a chair, like the step-up and the triceps dip. Fortunately I have a big wooden chest full of blankets that does the job very well.
- It's so basic. No frills, and so broken down. Simple and surprisingly effective in getting me to sweat.
- To expand on that, I'm learning more about this nature of exercise. Rapid change-up of movements and target areas. I do planks and reverse lunges already, separately (whilst watching TV, for instance) but the app only has me do them for 30 seconds which is super short; I can do them for much longer and at first feel like I should. BUT, since I'm running around doing all these other things immediately before and after, I think it works. This is probably not a new concept for many people but it's new for me. For example, I'll start with high-knees, then go down to a staggered push-up, then quickly to a reverse lunge, then down to a side plank, then have to bust over to the blank space of wall for the wall-sit (my favorite), etc. It's a little frantic but effective, and also feels a little ridiculous and I want to make it into a game of sorts, like a relay game with a friend or something. I made Sean do it with me once and insisted we high five when we do the step-up.
- The exercises definitely vary in difficulty. I try to customize a
workout that gives me challenges but isn't insanely difficult so that
I'm hating life. For instance, today I swapped one out for the one-leg
push up. Oof. I can do it but let's just say I don't cozy up to the
floor so closely. Still, it worrrrrks.
- Sometimes, on the second go around, the voice-over guy (who explains the exercises and gives tips when you start out) will out of nowhere shout things like "STAY MOTIVATED!" or "KEEP GOING" and after some time of silence, it startles me and I do indeed, stay motivated, because he scared me into it. "Ahh! ok!"
- After you've finished, you choose how you feel after the workout. Was it easy? Difficult? Moderately difficult? And it records the workout you did, when you did them, and how you felt afterward, so I have a log of sorts which I can look back on should I ever have a reason to do so. I think it's supposed to be for goal-making or something or other.
- The other day I had some friends over and had my phone bluetoothed to the speaker in the main room for music. Somehow, with the phone in my pocket, the app had been triggered and a workout began and I suddenly heard my buddy shout out "shoulder rolls!" for the warm-up and everyone was confused and I was pleased. I'll see you soon, friend. See you real soon.
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