Exercise in the times of Corona!

With gyms closing down, and temperature dipping way below zero, where does one get an opportunity to move and sweat? I had just gotten a trainer to finally learn to lift correctly when gyms began to close down due to the rise in Omicron in Canada – not the note I was looking to begin this year with.

Yet, I wanted to keep my resolution of a new year of staying healthy mentally and physically through exercise. So I took to stairs. I can very well do exercises of HIIT anywhere, including inside my condo unit. But now I live with my parents. I just feel that exercise is a private time. Either alone or amidst a group of anonymous strangers feel the right setting for exercising. Further, with sweat dripping around and three people in a not-so-large condo, it just becomes a mess.

So this morning, I decided to do a stairs exercise, which is simply climbing down and up the stairs. But I wanted to put my brains too to work and not do plain exercise. So, I climbed up and down in a pattern similar to alankars of Hindustani classical music.

Sa

Sa Re Sa

Sa Re Ga Re Sa

I am progressively adding a new note and marching back from the new note.

Similarly, I started with the 43rd floor. I went down to the 42nd floor and climbed back up. I then went to the 41st floor and climbed back up.

43rd

43rd 42nd 43rd

43rd 42nd 41st 42nd 43rd

But I noted the inability of the brain to remember such short-term information. Many times, when I would be coming down, I would not remember if I was supposed to climb down until this floor or the floor further down. Because the mind was regardlessly distracting. Either way, it probably did not matter much. The goal was to do this pattern till I reach 33rd. And once I would reach 33rd, I was to do 5 rounds of 43rd to 33rd and back.

As I had finished the first pattern completed one round of the next pattern, I could hear sounds which is surprising because usually, I do not see anybody on the stairs. I noted a member of cleaning staff in the staircase cleaning the stairs. I had reached the 42nd floor in the upward direction. So instantly I did a pivot in my strategy. Instead of continuing to move up, I turned around and went down till the 23rd floor this time and resumed the rest of the pattern between the 23rd and 33rd floor.

I wanted to spice up the upward climb. So on some floors, I would run and climb every stair and on some floors, I would skip alternate stairs.

Finally, as I was completing the fifth round and nearing the 33rd floor, I saw another man doing the same exercise!

I guess I ain’t the only one finding creative ways to continue to move amidst the pandemic.