About a year ago my wife's niece was here visiting for a couple of days. She was always a cute girl but somewhat on the plump side. She's about forty now, so she was looking a little "matronly". At the time she was visiting, she mentioned that she and her husband had started working with a personal trainer -- something I always find amusing.
She has a couple of fairly young children, and she travels a lot with their activities as well as her business. There is not a lot of time in her schedule for working out.
We saw her again in January of this year -- about nine or ten months since we had last seen her. The transformation was astonishing. Though a forty-year-old mother of two who always had a bit of a weight problem, she now looks strong, healthy and slender.
I am a very diplomatic person and managed to compliment her on her new look without suggesting that she was a tub-butt before. I asked her how she did it. First, she said, they tried to avoid processed foods -- which I took to mean more of a paleo-diet, staying away from starches and simple sugars. The other key is exercise. She doesn't have time to do a lot of running or go to the gym. The focus of what she does is calisthenics, and her main exercise is that infamous gym class killer known as the burpee.
It is all well and good to have guns and ammo, food and water, seeds and tools, but your most important prep is good physical and mental health. Most people can do a burpee. You don't need equipment or a gym membership, special clothes or anything except a willingness to move and improve.
Drop your excuses, push away from the keyboard, and start now.
I had never heard of a burpee before. When you add the muscle-up with the overhead rings you get a pretty complete workout. Neat! I am a devotee of the squat myself, but that requires equipment. I'm not built for squats, my torso is short and my thighs are long, but that is the one lift that works the most muscles.
ReplyDeleteI'm the other way around build-wise. Squats are pretty much a natural for me. My problem any more is getting a squat bar on and off my back without a rack. So I use a front squat mostly.
ReplyDeleteThe burpees are good even without overhead rings or a pullup bar. But that does make it a very complete workout. They will get your heart rate up and are good for interval training.