Author of Be Ready for Anything and Build a Better Pantry on a Budget online course
Here are the small habits we’re incorporating into our daily lives.
- We’re drinking water before we drink other beverages.
- We’re adding a serving of fruit or veggies before each meal.
- We’re adding more movement to our day.
- We are performing 5 minutes of gentle stretches before we get out of bed in the morning.
- We are focusing on some rest or relaxation time on a daily basis.
Today’s Challenge
It’s Thursday so this means it’s a strength training day.
We’re going to do exercises that focus on your biceps and triceps today. It should be challenging but not painful by the time you get to 10 repetitions. You’ll do 3-5 sets of each exercise. Of course, you need to contact your doctor before starting this or any other exercise plan.
These exercises will take you 5-10 minutes. You could even do a set during the commercials of your favorite show, then repeat throughout the program. If you can, get the whole family involved in the workout. Kids love to exercise with you and you’re setting a great example.
For beginners, these videos are a good place to start. Even more important than the weight you lift is your form. So it’s a good idea to do this in front of a mirror.
This will work the backs of your arms.
This will work your biceps muscles.
If you are more fit, this is a harder triceps workout that requires no equipment and uses your own body weight.
And here’s a no-equipment biceps workout.
What kind of upper body workout do you do?
If you have an upper-body workout that doesn’t require equipment, please share it here! And keep on keepin’ on with the 2020 Prepper Health and Fitness Challenge!
If you’re on a farm… Well, there’s carrying hay bales (plus haying itself–tossing bales on the truck or wagon, off-loading to hay-ladder, and finally stacking in the barn. Carrying water buckets to stalls. Mucking out and taking the manure to the muck heap. Loading said muck heap onto the manure spreader a year or so later. Carrying bags of feed to the various storage points. Digging post holes and/or driving in posts. Etc. (I’m remembering a “wellness team” that was going to help all us teachers be “weller.” The preliminary questionnaire apparently was written by someone who thought all exercise could only be done in a gym–multiple choice answers, so no way to explain *my* situation–they assumed I was a flabby couch potato…)
For those not on a farm–whenever you put groceries in your car, do a few bicep curls with each bag as you lift it into the car. Carry water by bucket instead of using a hose around the yard. Anything you lift or carry, curl it a couple times before you put it down!
Just a couple of relevant tidbits:
Every movment works the antagonist (opposite) muscles a little bit; bicep curls work your triceps, leg extensions work your hamstrings etc. If you’re having trouble hitting something in particular, try it’s opposite workout.
Stretching: when you exhaust and suddenly release a muscle, it becomes momentarily paralyzed. You can use this to enhance your stretching. Its particularly useful for getting your hamstrings into shape. Prop one leg on a (short) friend’s shoulder and push down like you’re trying to drive them into the floor. Give it a good 12 seconds (12 seconds gives you about 80% of the stretch it’s possible to get, and you see significantly diminishing returns after that up to 100% stretch at around 2 minutes) on their count and when they say stop, relax and let them stand up a bit taller. Three of these and you can expect you foot to rise 2-3 inches each repetition.
Last one I’ve only read once but I haven’t found anything that discredits it: there’s a protein called GLUT-4 that normally hangs out on fat cells. It flags the cells for insulin to pack your blood sugar away. When you stress muscles, this protein migrates to the muscle tissue instead. Doing, say, a dozen squats 20 minutes before and again immediately before eating will pack fuel into the muscle cells instead of fat, giving you more reserve quick-access energy for your next workout and helping with that Chriatmas-15.