Lockdown Post: Activity #1

March 23 2020

When the semester began, I attended Body Conditioning on Monday, Housing and Habitat on Thursday and Life Drawing on Friday so I could keep myself busy and balanced throughout the week. I managed to attend three Body Conditioning and Service sessions as well as two Life Drawing sessions before the DLP was put in place as a result of the COVID-19 virus. As of writing this, the DLP has been in place for nine days including the weekend and so has the curfew. Nonetheless, I have tried to remain active in my home. It is a trying time and I know that it is vital I am active for the time I am in curfew, as there will be no opportunities to do exercise outside my home, so I will do my best to create and stick to a reasonable, but challenging schedule and exercise routine, as well as find other activities to keep myself healthy.

In my first few days of quarantine, I had to substitute Body Conditioning with some other form of exercise. As a result, I devised a simple workout plan, however ended up doing it for several days after the time I should have had Body conditioning. In the mornings, starting at 7:00, I exercised for an hour following a workout I created, after which I prepared for my classes. The workout I did consisted of:

• 10 Squats
• 10 Push-ups
• 10 Mountain climbers (10 on each leg)
• 10 Tricep dips
• 10 Cross punch Sit-ups (5 punches with each arm)
• 10 Jumping lunges (10 on each leg)
• 10 Side plank crunches (10 on each side)
• 10 Leg raises
• 10 Bicycle crunches (10 on each leg)

I do as many sets as I can in the hour I set myself, which is currently 3 but I am working towards 4, with a 2-minute break in between each set.

After a week or so of doing this, I discovered a man called Wim Hof and the app he created to help teach and log his method for practitioners. Wim Hof is a Dutch athlete also known as the Iceman, famous for holding setting ice and cold-related world records, the most notable of which are a record for a barefoot half-marathon on ice and snow, and another for the longest full-body exposure to ice. The techniques and practices taught by Hof are meant to keep you balanced, happy and healthy.

In the past, I struggled to stick to exercise regimens for long stretches of time. While school was always something I ended up needing to spend more time on, other elements like social life and what I did at home eventually left little time or motivation to keep exercising. I want to practice Wim Hof’s teachings as they are fairly straightforward and take little time to do, but are beneficial in the long run, especially because they will help balance my physical exercise with ones more focused on controlling the body with the mind.