Keeping Up

[Ed Hurst]

Rejoice with me. In past years, I avoided outdoor workouts below 40°F, but this year I wanted to push it a bit. I'm referring to the heavy full-body workout I do at the local park. I'm pushing in part because I believe winters are going to get tougher in the US in the coming years, at least in the sense that we should expect to see more cold days on average. So I've been testing and I have found a costume that lets me push it down to about 30°F this year. Now, I'll grant you that colder temps do reduce my performance, but I'm still getting the exercise. Glory to His name!

[forrealone]

That is wonderful, Brother! My heart is happy with you.

[jaybreak]

Great news, Ed God is good.

Just curious, what do you do for your workouts?

[Ed Hurst]

It's a mixture of things that includes a few physical therapy exercises. Ride my bike a couple of miles to the park. Engage an outdoor exercise machine for decline sit-ups, toe presses and a sliding backboard for one-legged half-squats. Ride another half-mile to a place where I can do a couple of therapy exercises that require standing from sitting and stepping up repeatedly. Then another mile ride to a place where I do leg-lifts on an inclined bench. Another quarter-mile to a different exercise machine where I do assisted pull-ups, back extensions, assisted bar-dips, and some more half-squats. Then another half-mile ride to a playground where I row my body up from a horizontal position, deep push-ups on an incline (arthritis exercise) and then arm curls using the same trick with my body starting at horizontal. Ride two miles home and workout with stretch bands: overhead press, upright row and reverse curls.

The idea is to push hard, but only one set each so that I don't over-stress my aging muscles. Keep in mind that every morning (except Sunday) I do a quick set of full-body tension exercises (the old Charles Atlas stuff) as part of my wake-up.