No newsletters to promote, but readers (lucky enough to be) at home working might be finding things getting hectic in an enclosed space. If you move around, you’ll feel better. If you sit around all day that is bad for you. Here are a few ways to stay active I’ve found helped when WFH. I’ll keep this short(1).
Yoga:
Yoga has always been just a series of secondary exercises designed to get you in shape enough to meditate in the lotus position for 24 hours straight without your body seizing up. I am sure it has a lot of weird associations for a lot of people, but why even mention that. That’s not the truth, the exercise is the truth. It’s a service exercise, and we are in times of service. I recommend the Yoga with Adriene YouTube channel for home practice. She has like 1,000 videos. Many short, many long, one-month programs that are very well designed, one-off videos. Sometimes she raps out Michael Jackson songs while she’s doing a pose. It’s so awful. But what are you going to do, it’s free. It’s absolutely some of the best free shit out there there is, and is the best free yoga resource there is that I’ve seen. An actress, Adriene acted in a Nicholas Cage movie (Joe, 2016) and was in Everybody Wants Some!! directed by Austinite Richard Linklater. Not bad. Terrence Malick is in Austin too — maybe she was in his rock and roll flick, I’ll watch it again this week. I bet if you follow the Longhorns you need extra yoga to maintain your peace of mind. Take what you can get with this channel—there is a lot to take. If you don’t have a mat, use a towel. Or strong up your knees and go without one. Like everything in life, there are no rules, but you should treat yoga with respect, even though sometimes it is not reciprocated. https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene
Ideal workout with no equipment:
Not jogging. Someone put up Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Education of a Bodybuilder” book (incredible book… incredible) online for free. Book from 1977 with photos by Douglas Kent Hall. There is so much good stuff in this book. Everything Arnold figured out for himself about exercise 40 or 50 years ago are the far poles of knowledge on the subject. He wasn’t wrong about anything big when it came to exercising. Much of his more important teachings were ignored. Not his fault. Anyways there’s a really good section in the book about weight-free exercises, recommended as a beginner “not sissy” program that will get you in shape enough to do bodybuilding. But you can just do these. These exercises still work if you’re in shape, but are better if you’re not a gym person. It starts on page 159 in the book.
He says to do the following: push-ups, row between chairs (“place two chairs approximately five feet apart and put a broomstick across the backs”), bent-leg sit ups, leg raises, bent-over twists, air squats (in the book Arnold puts a plate under his heel… he lives and dies by the high-bar style), calf raises (“you should do calf raises standing on a book”), chin-ups (close grip)… all like 50 or 100 reps, a few times a week. If it’s good enough for Arnold, it’s good enough for anyone — form specifics are in the book. The more jacked you are the more reps have to do. Maybe wear a sack of rocks or hold 10 bottles of Pellegrino during the squats if they’re too easy.
Arnold’s workout here is a serious commitment, but you can pick and choose, and if you do any of these things you’re better off than if you don’t. It’s less about looking like Arnold (which is impossible) than about just being active. Worth reading the whole book. I don’t really give a shit about weight training anymore but the level of truth-seeking at the highest level of that sport is pretty life-affirming.
https://avidano.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/arnold-schwarzeneggereducation-of-bodybuilders.pdf
Biking:
The mayor (who is weird) last week was telling people to bike to work. I don’t know if anyone except heroes and greedy people are going in to work anymore. But it’s obviously better and safer than going on a train:
I’m not going to recommend anyone who’s just feeling a bit antsy leave the house and go for a bike ride, but man, if you absolutely need to go somewhere, it seems like biking is the ideal way, as long as you aren’t going anywhere to hang out. It’s totally easy to stay six feet from people and not come in contact with anyone. I biked down Court Street on Sunday and the streets were full? Disgusting. But if you are stressed out you can just think about going for a bike ride — it’s a pretty peaceful feeling.
Stiffness/stretching:
If you are stiff from working or gaming constantly all day long then you should stretch. Here is a good program:
This guy low-key disgusts me but he is also the man. Those are the goalposts for people who have knowledge about strength sports. It would be cool if any of them were charming but none are: why be charming when you’re a weird jacked person? Anways Joe DeFranco is a New Jersey legend who made Brian Cushing work out in a storage unit and then got him drafted. The video here is really, really good, a series of stretches for muscles that get jacked up from weight training. I’ve found the same muscle chains get stiff and balky from sitting around too. Lots of great posterior chain (back of body) work. Doing this routine (foam rolling, cossack squats, something called a rocking frog, hip stretches, piriformis work) is a before and after experience I’ve found. It’ll get you most of the way. Not much window dressing but it’s really good. I would watch the whole video. I wish it was shorter but it isn’t.
Rest in peace Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. This is a life-affirming video:
Here is a nice piece about Gen and Buddhism (halfway down). Really massive loss.
That’s it, hope this is helpful for some people. I guess the goal is to become strong enough to do good deeds once society resumes.
Thanks for reading.
Snake
also btw here’s a short list of Corona stories that helped me understand it better. If you are a media superuser you might have seen these but whatever.
The guy on the plague beat for ages for The NY Times has some nice knowledge in this YouTube vid and he hasn’t filed in six days so his next story will be something. He’s also on the Times Daily podcast chatting about it and is helpful there.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/
^Virus spread simulator, why it’s important to not hang out. Visual and easy to read, kind of a triumph of clarity, and has been shared a lot.
^Bunch of doctors on why to take it seriously.
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/81557518_gio-ponti-prototype-daybed
Not reporting but I didn’t know Gio Ponti made daybeds.
(1)I left kettlebell and weight workouts off this list since not everyone has these, and prices on kBs and shit have skyrocketed this week— and Amazon is out of their kettlebells. Less of them. Cheap(ish) kettlebells can be found on eBay, search by weight and stick to free shipping options — all told that’s the best you’re going to do.