Paraphernalia

Wikipedia définition: “Paraphernalia most commonly refers to a group of apparatus, equipment, or furnishing used for a particular activity.”

When I was a kid, I had a bike.

Whenever I wanted, I leapt on my bike and went for a ride.

It was that simple.

Now it seems you can’t go for a ride unless you’ve got the right shoes and togs, preferably smeared with advertising so you look like you’re on a pro team.

And don’t forget the gel-padded gloves, the water bottle, the pump, the tinted protective glasses and the indispensable crash helmet.

Bicycle clips on your ordinary trousers are passé.

You need a special low friction, ultra high-speed, no wind-resistant pair of tights.

Whatever happened to simple?

Whatever happened to inexpensive?

Let’s take another example: fitness.

All the advertising suggests that you need an expensive gym membership to stay fit or at least have a few costly machines at home.

Not so.

Even if you have no exercise ideas of your own, the internet abounds in excellent exercise suggestions that require nothing more than willpower and a functional body to perform without any equipment whatsoever (see list at end of post).

So why are we constantly cluttering up our lives with all this unnecessary equipment and expense?

Perhaps we’re trying to convince ourselves that if we don’t have the equipment we can’t do the activity.

Perhaps we’re afraid that if there is no one to look at us, then we won’t exercise.

Ultimately, though, it’s between you and you.

The rest is just distraction.

All that equipment, all that clutter – it’s a hindrance rather than a help.

Keep it simple.

Do what you can.

Go slowly – you’ll quickly become disgusted if you overdo it.

Here are a few YouTube exercise channels that I particularly like:

Bowflex Workouts
Although this company makes fitness equipment, the workouts without any equipment at all are very interesting. The link I’ve given will take you to a series of standing abdo exercises that I’ve tried out myself, but the are plenty more videos like that. It’s a little macho with the man giving the orders and the girls doing all the work, but my goodness those girls are beautiful!

Tapp Brothers
These guys are into parkour but their exercise suggestions without equipment are really interesting and useful for anybody.

Flipping 50
Targeted at people over fifty, the lady presenter may be a little less flamboyant but her suggestions are good.

K’s Perfect Fitness
The girl has the obligatory stunning looks of a standard get fit channel, but she actually has some good exercise tips without equipment as well as with. The poor sound is a minor irritation (microphone on camera so no presence).

Very important – don’t get depressed if you don’t look like the presenters in these videos!

Hope that helps.

Have a great week.

Love

Richard

mesunglasses

Pull Ups Without A Bar

Just a heads-up about a rather amusing video from the Tapp Brothers:

In the video, one of their subscribers asks the question, “How can I do pull-ups if I don’t have a pull-up bar?”

Seems like a valid question to me. Not all of us are happy with a gym environment and not all of us have access to a bar.

So the brothers show a series of 5 basic ideas, and some variations, for doing pull-ups without a bar.

Some of the ideas are really simple and the presentation is a lot of fun.

The brothers are really Parkour adepts, but I love the way they come up with alternative solutions for exercising that are useful for anyone.

Why not take a look?

Hope you enjoy it.

Have a great weekend!

Love

Richard

mesunglasses

About Exercise (and other things….)

I wanted to give you a heads-up about this video:

I found it while reading an article about making exercise easier at:

Mercola.com

which, as you know, is a site that I really love.

The point is that Alexander Heyne, alias Modern Health Monk, is spot on about much more than exercise in this video.  The bit about money not being sufficient to motivate us in a job is priceless.

I teach English a few hours a week to a class of 15 to 16 year olds. Some of them have signed their apprenticeship contracts and feel it is no longer necessary to work in class.  I ask them what they will do when their employers give them tasks to perform in a few months’ time.

“Ah, but that’s different,” they say.  “We’ll be getting paid.”

My reply is that doing things for money will be the start of their problems, not the end.

This video indicates in the space of a few seconds why that is true.

Real progress in exercise, as in life as a whole, depends on creating healthy habits, whether we’re talking about our mind-set, work, relationships, eating or an exercise routine.  Ultimately, it’s all the same thing.

A habit, though, is not necessarily cosy and comfortable.  The best habits push us out of our comfort zone at least a little, and this is when the most progress is made.

A closing thought:

“We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”  Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Sneaky ancient Greeks!

Have a great weekend.

Love

Richard

mesunglasses

 

Air – Bed?

Moon Rossens

Apparently we don’t walk enough.

We use our mobile phones, laptops and TVs too much.

Ideally, we should stop watching screens one hour before bed, but how many of us do that?

So here’s a suggestion.

Something I’ve started to do is to walk for five or ten minutes outside in the garden before going to bed.  It’s a small garden so I can only really do about twenty-five steps along the path, so I pace back and forth a bit like an animal in a zoo.

However, this performs a number of useful functions:

  • I give myself some fresh air before bed, which helps me to sleep better.
  • It dissipates that eye-strainy, headachy, hot feeling you get after watching TV or working with a screen.
  • It helps me to mentally prepare for bed by separating me from the images I’ve been looking at (particularly valuable after a violent or disturbing film).
  • It enables me to increase the number of steps I walk for that day.
  • A little calm and pacing can help you sort out ideas and maybe even plan what you’re going to do next day.

Of course, not everybody has a garden, but you can substitute a moment on the balcony (preferably without smoking!) or a saunter down the street.  If you have a dog, you probably have to go out anyway.

Just an idea.  Try it and see if it helps.

Have a great week!

Love

Richard

mesunglasses

P.S. I forgot to say you get to see the stars and moon more often too and even an occasional creature….