As a child, I was very active in my growing up years. I was always using my tri-cycle to play games and run around society. As I grew up, my job required me to sit in one place for hours on end. On top of it, I stopped wearing a caliper which reduced my physical exertion even more. Sitting in my office chair or sitting in a wheelchair, was my day. Weight was never an issue for me until the thirties kicked in. I never had the will that could stand in between me and the good food. So naturally, I thought exercises were my remedy. I was always feeling tired after the office day. Where would I even find time to do exercises!! That was my attitude. I used to think that exercises were additional activities.
How wrong was I?
As I grew older, I understood that I was winding up my day very soon. Forget work but I had no energy to even enjoy a movie late at night. I understood that it was as if, I was cutting a tree with a blunt saw. No matter how much effort I was putting in, there was not much progress.
I needed to sharpen my saw.
Everything starts with energy. Energy is the soul of every day. If you have the energy, you can be focused on your goals without getting distracted. As the authors in “Make Time” book say – “with a full battery, you have the power to be present, think clearly, and spend your time on what matters, not default to what’s right in front of you”.
I was sold after reading many books emphasizing the importance of health for achieving high productivity in life.
What is expected out of the exercise?
If we don’t proactively deal with the demands of our bodies, we will end up limited by our bodies. If we don’t do the required exercise, sooner or later we will be dealing with the health problems and crises that come as a natural result of our neglect. To avoid health problems should be the secondary motivation to do exercise, and to enjoy the life to fullest should be the primary focus.
That is where I was lagging. I was not able to enjoy life. I needed to increase my endurance.
As the “7 Habits of effective people” book notes-
Endurance comes from aerobic exercise and cardiovascular efficiency, which is the ability of your heart to pump blood through your body. Although the heart is a muscle, it cannot be exercised directly. It can only be exercised through the large muscle groups, particularly the leg muscles. That’s why exercises like rapid walking, running, biking, swimming, cross-country skiing, and jogging are so beneficial. You are considered minimally fit if you can increase your heart rate to at least one hundred beats per minute and keep it at that level for thirty minutes. Ideally, you should try to raise your heart rate to at least 60 percent of your maximum pulse rate, the top speed at which your heart can beat and still pump blood through your body. Your maximum heart rate is generally accepted to be 220 less than your age. So, if you are 40, you should aim for an exercise heart rate of 108 (220 – 40 = 180 × 0.6 = 108). The “training effect” is generally considered to be between 72 and 87 percent of your personal maximum rate
Based on this, I knew that my exercise should raise my heartbeat to a minimum of 108 BPM. To be effective, the heart rate should be between 130 and 156 beats per minute. If I did this, I knew it would be effective and would help me increase endurance.
I also realized that the duration of the exercise won’t matter much as long as the beats per minute are achieved. The Make Time book suggests that as little as 7 min of intense exercise is also good.
That was it. I knew what I wanted to achieve.
Now my research started on which exercise can help me raise my heartbeats fast enough without me trying to search for a gym or a trainer.
Fired up the YouTube app and started searching keyword after keyword.
What did I do?
Well, many videos showed how to exercise at home but they were not tailor-made for me. What I needed was an exercise for a person with lower limb disability. I searched on YouTube for “exercises for wheelchair individuals” and got a lot of hits. I watched hours and hours of these videos but something was not clicking. I just did not feel excited to follow the routine shown in those videos. I understood that I was not looking for disabled-friendly exercise but in general fat-burning exercise. I then searched for all the abled-bodied fat-burning exercises and started doing whatever I could from them for my upper body. I really started to enjoy it.
Some of the sample home exercise videos are –
While searching for wheelchair-bound exercise, I found some of the cool ways to exercise sitting in a wheelchair as well-
- https://youtu.be/57kpwh4subu?si=xurd8aclwizrvwpt
- https://youtu.be/zeqskeb0bti?si=awttsnpjx1t6tcjv
- https://youtu.be/cjdi-bdytnk?si=6puvywfsncfwncow
If you are a regular reader, you might have noticed that I have a habit of exercising in my yearly goals. I was able to improve the consistency of doing the exercise in q2. I was really feeling good while doing the exercise. For some reason, if my exercise was missed, I used to feel sad.
I am currently not doing a lot but just 25 mins max per day exercise from all that I can do based on my body’s ability, something that I enjoy.
The feeling of fun motivated me. The sweet pain of the body in the morning really excited me.
So here is the result, the look wise.
Most of you might not consider this much and I agree too. I have a long way to go for looking slim and clean.
My Google Watch 2 helped me track my BPM. It is close to 110 which is being highlighted as low low-intensity workout by Fitbit. I want to push myself into the training zone of the BPMs. I want to add push-ups and planks to my current routine. Hope to see even better results in the next quarter.