Body Worry : Daily Routine Offers Great Exercises

Summer is my favorite time on the island. The water is warm, the sky is as blue as the water, and breezes sway palms as in a pleasant dream.

Of course, it rains every once in a while, like today. A typical rain calms the sea, cools the air and leaves us quickly.

But today’s isn’t typical. A tropical depression, the start of the hurricane season, has been pouring rain on us for two days, and I am rain-bound in the house. My 14-year-old Lincoln, named Moon Cricket, picked the first drops of rain as the moment to die on me. Moon Cricket is like a smart mule: It knows when to assert its independence.

I woke up this morning, therefore, knowing my normal exercise outlets weren’t available to me. The thought itself depressed me. I can’t tell you how unusual that depression is, either.

If you had told me a year ago I would miss exercise, I would have told you to sign up with a good,non-athletic shrink. But energy and the feeling of well-being exercise brings are pretty addictive.

I don’t, and probably never will, like my aerobic exercise, either. My three 20-minute sessions of walk-jogging each week give me pleasure only in their completion, but that satisfaction is a strong one.

My weight lifting (three 45-minute sessions a week) is especially rewarding. I have always wanted to be comfortable in a gym, and am very proud of the tightness lifting has brought to my body.

Since my home isn’t exactly equipped with a jogging track or a set of weights, you may think the rain has put the Sutton Improvement Program on hold, but it hasn’t. From the moment any of us wake up, our normal daily routine presents us with plenty of opportunities to build our strength, tone our bodies and work our hearts.

Here are a few things you can do, starting in bed, that make house-bound time (or office time) more productive.

First, look for opportunities to work your muscles. Any activity that causes muscles to contract will eventually strengthen them.

Soft Flesh With No Musclew Tone

For instance, when you wake up, roll over on your back, put your hands under your rear end and do several sets of leg lifts. Keep your legs straight, and simply lift them off the bed a foot or two. Leg lifts tighten your lower stomach.

Then turn on one side and do side leg lifts, several sets. Turn on your other side and do some more. Side lifts help shape your buttocks.

When you roll out of bed, do push-ups against a wall. Do several sets of 10, and if the sets are easy, put your feet further from the wall each week. Within a month or so, actually try pushing on the floor.

Push-ups strengthen the muscles of your chest and arms and help take away the softness old age seems to bring to your flesh. Soft flesh is essentially flesh with no muscle tone.

When you talk on the phone, don’t talk sitting down and don’t stand still. Do partial knee bends (never let your rear end go below the level of your knees). With your free hand, do isometrics: push as hard as you can against a wall or a cabinet, or flex your muscles as hard as you can.

If you are working in the kitchen or the garage, pick up a couple of quart cans and work your arms in all directions. Invent your own movements but use moderate or light weight and controlled movements--it’s the repetitions that count. A couple of cans of paint or corn will give your arm muscles as much work as a $10 pair of “heavy hands” weights.

When you watch television, sit on the edge of your chair or sofa and do some more leg lifts. Then lock your hands together and pull them apart as hard as you can. Put your palms together and push as hard as you can.

As you move around the house, move faster than usual, lifting your legs as high as you can. If you don’t have steps, make one: find a sturdy box or stool, and step up and down it until you are winded.

The idea in all of this is to make your muscles, including your heart, do a little more than they normally do, so be inventive. And do you know what? Being more active really does become a habit. As we feel a little better, we do a little more, too.

While it’s raining, I plan to work out with two large cans of tomatoes. Forty reps and then spaghetti sauce.