Exercise For Stress Relief

I hope everyone is doing okay while in the process of self isolating and practicing social distancing.

It's definitely been a thing. The added stress of being in a strange situation while being trapped at home where the outcome is still to be decided, it can be too much. So I wanted to throw it out there that physical exertion can be an effective way to get out of your head. Exercise can be a good outlet for anxiety with the added benefit of helping you sleep.

Start out easy. Grab that jump rope that's been collecting dust. Follow along to some videos on YouTube. If you have a elliptical or treadmill, now is the time to break it out. It can be even simpler than that though, just start doing those exercises you did in P.E. when you were in middle school or high school. A few jumping jacks, squats, reverse lunges, pushups, and crunches and you'll have yourself a good workout. Just get your heartrate up and sweat a little.

Here's a couple videos I've been doing in March. I've been doing them one after the other to get a hour long workout:

A good 10 minute bodyweight workout. The six year old does this with me.

Fast paced low impact aerobics with great arm work.

I've stopped doing stairs at work since we're supposed to be avoiding close contact with other humans. And of course our gym is closed, so we picked up a used treadmill on Craigslist that needed work done on it. Works great now and we started using it this weekend.

Daily Workout, 3/3/20

Cardio
30 minutes stair sprints
45 minutes aerobics

Meals
Breakfast: 3/4 cup yogurt with 1 tsp hemp seeds. 1/2 cup oats with 1/2 cup almond milk, 1 tsp honey, 1 tbsp chia seeds, strawberry, and dried coconut.

Lunch: 1.5 cups spaghetti with zucchini, peppers, onion, mushrooms, and tofu

Dinner: 2 cups chicken vegetable soup with mushroom ravioli

Daily Workout, 3/2/20

Cardio
30 minutes stair running

Strength Training
Kettlebell 15 pounder:
36 deadlifts
36 kettlebell swings
30 renegade rows
72 single leg deadlifts
36 single leg/single arm to upright rows
36 boat crunches
36 Russian twists

Meals
Breakfast: 3/4 cup yogurt with 1 tsp hemp seeds. 1/2 cup oats with 1/2 cup almond milk, 1 tsp honey, 1 tbsp chia seeds, strawberry, and dried coconut.

Lunch: 1.5 cups spaghetti with zucchini, peppers, onion, mushrooms, and tofu

Dinner: 2 cups chicken vegetable soup with mushroom ravioli

Mini Goal: Lose 20 Pounds by June

My family is having a little family reunion for a nephew's graduation, so I thought it would be fun to time a weight loss goal with the event.

The idea is to lose 20 pounds in three months. That's close to 6.5 pounds a month which should be doable. I would still be 10 pounds away from my ultimate weight goal, but would be close enough to make me very happy in terms of success.

Diet thoughts: I'll need to double down on my nutrition which I've been very lax about this month. Back to calorie counting and making sure I have the right calories and macro ratios for fat loss, while keeping energy levels high enough for intense workouts.

I'll be doing a cutting diet, which is what weight lifters do to get lean and lose as much fat as possible while trying to maintain muscle mass. The macro ratio I'm going for is one gram of protein for pound of bodyweight, one gram of carbs for pound of bodyweight, and 0.25 gram of fat for pound of bodyweight. Within the context of my macros, I'll be aiming for 1400 calories a day but one day a week I'll go up to my maintenance calorie level of 1800 calories (probably on my rest day).

Exercise thoughts: I'm going to try to workout 60 to 90 minutes a day with one day of rest, so at least an hour a day for six days a week.

3 days a week, I'll do a 20 minute full body weight training routine, followed by 40 minutes of cardio. The other 3 days of the week, I'll do 30 minutes of stair sprints and an hour of cardio later in the day.

For the Love of Kettlebell

I had no idea kettlebells were so awesome. Man, I was missing out. They are incredibly fun and so different then strength training with dumbbells are barbells. Who knew?

Mid-December, I was debating about going out and getting some dumbbells just to get some variation for strength training, rather than just doing bodyweight exercises all the time. But I have a young kid who is very curious and likely to hurt themselves if we had dumbbells around the house. I looked it up and soft kettlebells exist. Amazing.

I started out with a ten pound kettlebell, but decided after the second week it was too light. So, got a fifteen pounder which has been magical. Feel the burn. They do make 5 pound kettlebells in the hard version if you want something lighter.

This is the kettlebell I got, not an endorsement or anything. It's the only one I could find at a local store so I could feel get a feel for it. I have little hands so I wear fingerless lifting gloves to help with gripping.

I work out with the kettlebell 3 days a week instead of doing bodyweight exercises. I usually do my kettlebell routine right before a longer cardio workout. Although, sometimes I'll do it at the end of the night but I then make sure to follow it with some good stretching.

If you're new to strength training and are sore after the very first day you start training with weights, I would make sure to workout the very next day with some cardio. Just anything that will get your heart pumping like aerobics or jumping rope, to get blood moving through your muscles and help with muscle repair. And then do some good stretching afterwards.

Here's some fun kettlebell workouts that I've been doing:

Quick Kettlebell Routine with good direction on form.

Raw Full Body Kettlebell Workout

Full Body Kettlebell Routine (my current favorite)

Very Effective Stretching Routine with great direction

Adding Strength Training to Your Workouts

Adding more strength training to your workout routine can be as simple as doing a few bodyweight exercises like pushups and tricep dips. Focusing on strength exercises for the arms and back seems intuitive for me personally, since I mostly do high impact cardio to begin with which already works the legs.

I alternate and do one set of pushups and then one set of tricep dips on the floor for two sets of 25 repetitions each. For a total of 50 pushups and 50 tricep dips. If you can't do 25 reps at a time, then start at a number you can do while still having good form, still alternate between pushups and tricep dips, but increase the number of sets or the number of reps over time.

Once you're doing so many pushups and tricep dips in a row that you're getting bored, you can do harder variations of those exercises by using a stable coffee table or chair to put your feet on for pushups or hold onto with your hands for tricep dips.

In November and December, I stopped doing two a days and just worked out longer by adding bodyweight and abdominal exercises, or HIIT routines to the end of my cardio workouts. I, also, dropped down to only working out 4-5 days a week since I was busy with holiday activities.

Different workouts I did in November and December:

Fast Paced Aerobics

Fast Paced Aerobics

Low Impact Aerobics

Low Impact Aerobics

Step Aerobics (yeah, that's Cher)

HIIT

HIIT

Memes That Perfectly Express My Weight Loss Journey

I've been on the never ending diet the past two years. This one still manages to make me laugh.

This one fits as well.