My biggest fear initially about our Lockdown was not being able to exercise, being a twice a day walker in my suburb of Camps Bay, thereby meeting my daily goal of 10000 steps, deemed by the American Heart Association to be the minimum we need. While I have Solo danced in my home on occasion, to make up this daily goal prior to Lockdown, I had never thought it possible to do 10000 steps, let alone even up to 16000 steps, being confined to my home.

Just as Lockdown was announced I ordered a skipping rope from TakeaLot, seeing this as my only means of doing exercise. I even drove out to Montague Gardens to collect it, to make sure that I had it in time. I tried it once, and kept tripping over the rope, not having skipped in such a long time.

My next exercise option was to use our spacious basement garage, with eight bays, of which only one was occupied, for my car. I did a fast walk and even jog at times, one lap giving me 50 steps, which meant that I had to do 200 laps to reach the 10000 steps. As there is no Wi-Fi in the garage, I had to use my playlist in my phone with earphones. As the garage door was closed, it felt somewhat claustrophobic inside, despite the large space. And of course there was no view to see, and little fresh air inside.

Having such a beautiful view, and being blessed with such perfect weather during Lockdown, I started walking-dancing inside my apartment, incorporating the Terrace. I created the Bed-to-Terrace Route, 20 steps at a time, meaning I had to do 500 laps of this route to meet my step goal.

My favourite exercise has become Couch-Robics, a combination walk and dance, which I do by going around my L-shaped couch, being right at the fresh air, and allowing me to see Lion’s Head in its different colours and effects, influenced by the sunshine mist, and sunset. This circuit also consists of 20 steps, meaning 500 laps to get to 10000. I started breaking them up into 1000 or 2000 steps at a time, accompanied by very lively and beaty music from Kfm, especially in the afternoons on the Carl Wastie Show, knowing from my dancing days that I can do 1000 steps in the time of two songs, in roughly ten minutes.

As we moved into Level 4 of Lockdown, I have been blessed that I can walk every morning from my apartment to Clifton Fourth Beach and back, this distance giving me about 7500 steps. The Cardio benefit is much greater than the Couch-Robics, which I still do in the afternoons, achieving my highest number of steps earlier this week, at 17000 plus steps. There are always extra steps to be gained from a shopping walk, at 3000 steps there and back.

I am grateful to Discovery Vitality for dropping our points criteria during Lockdown to gain a Gameboard play, but I have given up understanding their system, and why it does not better reward exercise activity beyond the minimum 10000 step level.

The end result of what some would call my ‘manic’ daily step pursuit is a weight which has stayed consistent over the past 40 days of Lockdown, despite all the temptations so close by in the fridge, and that I feel fit and healthy in boosting my immune system, a defense against the Corona Virus.

 

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein