Everybody has a Home Gym

About a year ago, when I shared my exercise routine on my Nustep with a doctor friend, he suggested that I might enjoy more benefits in terms of strengthening by broadening my activities. Specifically, he suggested I put on some great music and begin to move my body in whatever ways seemed good... kinda like Jazzercize... ONLY (and here is the key difference)instead of in the living room in front of an exercise video, or at a gym with an instructor, to do it from my bed. (I need to be careful how I word this post... I can imagine the hits I might get if I'm not careful!)

And so, I bought a set of resistance bands (a mere $20 at Walmart) and started moving. Nothing fancy. Nothing scientific. Nothing that I had to learn from a trainer.

I begin by sitting on the edge of my bed and use the resistance bands to exercise my arms and shoulders. My bedroom mirror is just across the room and I love watching the muscles in my upper body as I move against the resistance. (I imagine one day being able to do a chin-up, something that I strained to do in Elementary school, but could not. Shoot, let's make that ten chin-ups!)

After about 15 minutes on my upper body, I swing my legs into bed (before, I had to lift them into bed, and with a fair amount of difficulty), and begin doing sit-ups. When I began a few months ago, I attached the resistance band to my foot and used the tension from it to help my too weak stomach muscles. I started out with about 5 sit-ups. I now do about 100 each night with my arms across my chest... which is to say, my stomach muscles are extraordinarily stronger.

Next, I recline and do what I call "Knee Crunches". With my legs together, I bend my legs at the knee and pull them towards my chest and then back towards the bed, repeat. Again, when I started, a couple of these and my stomach muscles screamed, "Stop!". Last night, I think I did about 300. (I'm not sure, I lost count. It has become so much fun just to keep moving until I am about to drop off to sleep; and I reach a point where I'm exercising in a state between awake and asleep.)

A variation on the "knee crunches": I pull my knees towards my chest and then with them in the air, open and shut my knees, kind of like wings flapping, 200 times. (My kids have learned to knock on my bedroom door. After a time or two of wandering in and seeing me in full-blown exercise mode, they've grown more cautious. Like Smeagol in the Lord of the Rings, they exclaim, "It burns us, Master!")

Next I lie flat on my back, bend my knees slightly, and with legs together, roll my hips all the way to the left until my left leg touches the mattress, and then to the right. And repeat about 200 times. (No wonder rolling over in bed has become so much easier.)

A new exercise I've added: I wrap the resistance band around both ankles, raise my legs straight into the air, and then pull my legs apart (like a "v") as far as I can and hold them there for a few seconds. I repeat this 100 times.

And I top it off with some old-fashioned leg lifts. I begin with my legs straight up in the air and lower them until they are at about 45 degrees from the bed. I hold them in that position for a few seconds and lift them back to 90 degrees. I can only do this about 5-10 tims before my left leg starts quivering. Time to stop.

Exercising in bed: It's safe, fun, relaxing, inexpensive, empowering. Highly recommended.