Working out in the office

Last year I developed a nice little bodyweight routine. Then I got away from it. Partly that's because I wanted to get back into running. When I started working again and had to deal with time constraints, the strength routine went by the wayside. In an attempt to get things going again, I started doing pushups at work. I started with 10, then 20, then 30 at a time. Now my first set is usually 40, which I hadn't been able to do without stopping for years.

This week I wanted to incorporate some more exercises. I was inspired by an article I read that described the four basic movements: push, pull, squat, and hinge. Searching via Google brought up articles mentioning more basic movements. The squat is ubiquitous, and something that is easily done at work, so added it to my routine. But what else can I do?

I saw an article from Inc and another from Forbes. The four basic movements reminded me of Stronglifts, but I have to remind myself that it's okay to do exercises that don't work multiple muscle groups. So here's my office list so far:

Stair Climbing (But the three floors to my office aren't enough to count)
Pushups
Squats
Dips
Magic Carpet Ride
Calf Raises

Bodyweight exercises

When I was at Fort Meade, I decided to get into weight lifting. I had no idea how to go about that, so I went to the web for help, and what I found was StrongLifts. It was a simple program with only a few exercises and that worked for me. I didn't do it that long though. I kind of tapered off of my gym use, and then I moved to Korea. The first year I was there I wasn't allowed to exercise on my own. When I finally was, I eventually got back into StrongLifts. And then I had a bicycle accident and cracked a couple of ribs. That put me out for almost half a year, at which time I moved to Florida. It took me a while to get into a routine again, but eventually I established one and made some significant gains.

I was still running though, and I got to a point where I was feeling soreness that wouldn't go away. What I determined at the time was that I was trying to do too much, so I stopped lifting and focused on running only. I've thought about starting again, but now that I'm retiring from the Army, I don't want to get too attached to the gym because I'm not sure I want to pay for that in Houston. So right now my thought is to adopt a bodyweight program that gets me as close as I can get without going to the gym. If I get to the point where that isn't enough, I'll shell out the cash.

So StrongLifts has five exercises: squat, bench press, barbell row, overhead press, and deadlift. So I can squat without weights, and that can still be a workout, but I'm not sure how much. And in place of bench press, I'm pretty content to do pushups. But what can I substitute for the other exercises?

For rows, I found an alternative at Antranik, using a bedsheet and a door.

On this Reddit thread, people talked about using handstand pushups to replace overhead press. They also discussed starting with pike pushups, and progressing to one armed pushups and manna. When I googled that, I came across the Bodyweight Training Arena, which may be worth looking into more.

For deadlifts, I found this article on breakingmuscle.com that has four exercises and a video. The exercises are: back bridge, single leg deadlift, pistol squat, and back lever. I've never heard of any of these, so I watched the video. The back lever requires a pull-up type bar, but the rest of them looked doable.

So when I actually started googling, I realized I should check to see if anyone else had asked the question about bodyweight alternatives to StrongLifts. Of course, they have, and I found the answers on MyFitnessPal, which I've been using for years. Members recommended Body By You, Convict Conditioning, and You Are You're Own Gym. I googled these and found that they aren't online programs, but books. The first and last are both written by Mark Lauren, and the first appears to be written specifically for women. The second one was written by Paul Wade. I think I'll request the second and third at the library. Interesting side note, Mark Lauren apparently lives in Tampa (and Thailand).

I was going to call it good, but then I decided to just google bodyweight exercises. I pulled up three site, but only looked at the first one. It was from Runners World, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see that most of them focused on the lower body and core. The second was from greatist, and the third was from self. One thing I caught when looking at the Runner's World list is that it ended with the burpee. If the squat is the king of exercises, then the burpee is probably king of bodyweight exercises.

I need to also review what I looked at regarding sex exercises. I do remember that the pelvic tilt was key.

Urg. I keep thinking I'm done and realizing I'm not. I said I was going to come up with a plan. I don't feel like coming up with something really involved right now, so I'll just come up with something for today and tomorrow. Today I'll do glute bridges, and tomorrow I'll do pushups. I had planned to do two exercises a day, but now I'm thinking that one is better since I'll be getting out in the yard every day too. So that actually helps me out too. I can say Tuesday I'll do squats. And then Wednesday I'll do burpees.