Peter's Principles - Exercise
Conditioning Plain and Simple
Fitness is best approached plain and simple. That's especially important down at ground level, when you're not trying to win a Mr. Universe or a North American swimming title or a triathlon. All you want is to slim down, tone up and make your body start working for you instead of against you. You're trying to stay in an active state of mind, in touch with your body. The last thing you want to do is to go out and buy a high-tech gadget. Fitness is 100 percent something you are going to do for yourself. Make it simple. Make it fun. Let me tell you, for example, about three plain and simple -and cheap-ways to give yourself a workout. The first one doesn't cost a dime. The second one uses a dime-store piece of equipment that probably is sitting in your basement or attic. The third one uses a piece of equipment you can buy at the drugstore for less than $5. All three are fun. All three can easily be done by recovering couch potatoes who have never worked out. But at least two of them are also practiced regularly by champion athletes. All can be done in the privacy of your own home-or in a motel room while on a sales trip or on vacation. These are workouts that remind me, in the best of ways, of when I was getting started back in my grandmother's basement in Brooklyn. The first workout method is incredibly simple, despite its imposing name: manual resistance training. It sounds so formal, so heavy, so macho. But it's the least formal thing you ever heard of. As for macho, well, about all you need for equipment is a towel and a broomstick. No dumbbells, no barbells, no iron weights. I've done this on the TV talk shows.
Here comes a guy (me) who looks like he's been training for years with megaweights, and he's running around the stage with a towel and a broomstick and another piece of equipment that I'll mention in a minute. Hey, anything to get people thinking fitness. Before we even get to the towel and broomstick, you have to understand that there is a substitute for everything. Take two cans of tomato juice, for example, or whatever canned goods you have handy. Didn't know you had dumbbells on the shelf, did you? Start by walking rapidly in place, or jogging. Then pick up your "dumbbells," and hold them palms up with your arms straight down at your sides. Then, keeping your upper arms straight downward, raise one can up to your shoulder, then straight back down; while your left forearm is going down, use your right forearm to bring the other can up. You are now doing alternate dumbbell curls. First you did a little aerobics with your walking or jogging, then you did some resistance work with the cans. And you're starting to feel a nice burn. You say you're too shy or embarrassed to go to the gym, at least not yet? Well, who's going to tell on you? The cat? He may be a little confused at all this activity, but he won't talk. Anyway, courtesy of a couple of cans and your own creativity, you're now getting a little taste of "the pump." Take a 30- to 60-second rest while shaking out your arms. Then use the cans again, this time in a lateral movement, with your arms starting at your sides and rising-together and slightly bent-to about ear height. Do 10 or 15 of these. Then take that 30- to 60-second rest, which is something you'll be doing between exercises even if you wind up pumping iron in the fanciest gym. Then do alternate front laterals-raising one arm at a time in a forward motion. Now you're warmed up. We'll come right back to manual resistance training, but let's go for a minute to that other piece of equipment in your basement or attic. This is the one that I'm not aware of any champion athletes using, but believe me, it's one terrific form of exercise. We're talking hula hoop. This is one fad that never should have died. Put on some music or MTV. Your cat is really going to laugh at this one, but who cares? Slip that old hoop over your head and start twisting.
In case you forgot, the object is to keep the hoop above your waist. It's going to fall on the floor, guaranteed. Pick it up and twist harder. This is very tiring stuff. You are working your abdominals, your obliques, your intracostals, your back. If you are a true couch potato, tomorrow you're going to feel like you were hit by a sledgehammer-and you'll work it right back out. And if you're feeling silly at first, don't forget: I did this on TV and survived. Seriously, the hula hoop is first-class exercise. In a small way, it's a version of the cross-training (aerobic and anaerobic) that we'll talk about later. Don't try to do the hula hoop all afternoon the first time out. In fact, after taking a couple of minutes to remember how to keep the hoop up, twist your way vigorously through maybe just one song-about three minutes. You ought to be keeping a fitness diary, or log. Today you can write down something like: "Hoop: one song." Try two songs next time. Now, back to manual resistance training with a nice sweat worked up. As with any kind of exercise, you'll get the best results if you have a training partner. So why not get your spouse, or a friend, or a parent-or a grandparent-involved? He or she can use the workout, and you can use the physical resistance and the moral support. Take the bath towel and do some pulls. Remember that your partner's actions are a mirror image of your own. Whatever movements you make, whatever muscles you work, will be done on the opposite side of your partner's body. Roll the towel up lengthwise, so it's like one long, thick rope. You grasp one end, your partner the other. Plant your left foot forward, with the left side of your body turned toward your partner, towel held firmly at stomach level, right hand in back and left hand forward. Your partner has reversed all that, and is planted on the other side of the towel. Like the name of the exercise says, you pull. Pull, breath, relax, stretch while your partner pulls back; then repeat. Do the exercise to failure when you start to feel a muscle bum; then reverse positions and do it again. You don't know what it means yet, but what you are doing is kind of a mini-version of supersets for your biceps and your back. Pull for biceps; stretch for back.
Now face each other and hold the towel horizontally. You grasp it wide grip, palms under. Curl up. Meanwhile, your partner, palms above the towel with a narrow grip, pushes downward. Curl; breathe; relax. Do a vigorous set of 10. Take your 30- to 60-second rest, then reverse positions and repeat the exercise. Curling up, you're working your biceps; pushing down, you're working your triceps. You see the concept. You can clone almost any gym exercise, as long as there's resistance. Weight training is resistance training, with iron supplying the resistance. Manual resistance is very light training, and you cannot build a Mr. Universe-or even a Mr. Saskatchewan body by doing manual resistance. You can, however, burn calories and tone muscle. It is fitness plain and simple. In a way, manual resistance was made for the beginner. A 120-pound barbell will supply 120 pounds of resistance from now until doomsday. When a lifter tires, he's stuck. In manual resistance training, when you-or your partner-tires, there is less resistance. You can tie a towel to a door or a heavy piece of furniture. If you've got a long towel, you can stand on one end. It's best, however, to have a partner. If you have a partner and a broomstick, you can even replicate some specific weight-training exercises. Still plain and simple. And fun. You lie on the floor, for example, grasp the broomstick shoulder-width like a barbell and push upward breathing out at the hardest part of the exercise. It's hard because your partner, standing above , is grasping the stick and providing downward resistance. Now you're doing bench presses with no bench and no weights. All of the principles of weight resistance training-repetitions, breathing, rest, etc., which we'll talk about later-apply to these simple broomstick exercises. Remember, muscle starts to atrophy aver 12 hours of inactivity. You can't build masses of muscle doing manual resistance training, but if you have been inactive for, say, 12 years, then you will build muscle with that broomstick, that hula hoop and that towel. Now here's that third piece of equipment I mentioned. It's called the Dynaband. I'm not into touting specific brand names, but this little jewel is something special. You can buy the Dynaband at most chain drugstores for less than $5.
They look something like a bicycle tire inner tube and they come in three different colors, for three different degrees of resistance. Couch potatoes, kids, grandmothers and housewives can make good use of the Dynaband and have fun while they're at it. Pro bodybuilders use them to warm up backstage at competitions, or for a mini-workout when they can't get to a gym. I've got an old picture of Schwarzenegger and Sergio Olivia, a couple of champions, warming up together with Dynabands. I use the Dynaband myself, often. Portable? Stick it in the comer of a briefcase and you've got a gym wherever you go. There's never an excuse for not working but. Put it under your foot and do curls for your biceps. Do leg pulls for your outer thighs. Do arm pulls for your chest and shoulders. It's excellent manual resistance conditioning, as good as you can get without a partner. And, of course, you can do a Dynaband workout with a partner, too. So what's the real point of talking about towels and broomsticks and drugstore equipment that looks like an inner tube? Creativity. Fun. Lack of intimidation. A door to the active path that's open to anyone. No matter how far out of shape they are. No matter' how embarrassed they are. No matter how little money they have. No matter how little time they have. Once you become active-remember, it's a state of mind-you'll understand that exercise, and all its rewards, is right there for the taking. Instant gratification without spending big bucks. The inactive person goes down to the lake on a Saturday afternoon and looks at the water. The active person-even if he can't swim from here to the dining room-discovers that it's incredible exercise to walk or jog in knee-deep water. It burns calories and is tremendous for the legs. The inactive person watches America's Team on TV while a hired kid does the yard. The active person cuts the grass and whacks the weeds himself. He wears a hat, drinks plenty off fluids-and bums 550 calories an hour. He's in tune with his body, and he knows that he's doing more than using up an hour's time and making his neighbors happy. I love the gym. Once you reach a certain plateau of fitness, there are things you can do in the gym that you can't do anywhere else. I work out on a half-million dollars worth of equipment, and it pays off. But I also work out with my Dynaband. And one of the best exercises I do, every morning at home, is half push-ups with my feet on the bed. Zero equipment, unless you count the bedroom rug. A lot of this, of course, goes back to my grandmother's basement. And to Julie's gym, where champions were born but no awards were won for interior design. Plain and simple. One day-maybe even right now-you might be ready for the gym. But it's not the only place to get exercise. And it doesn't have to cost a dime.