What are some effective exercises for a completely empty room?

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I whole-heartedly agree that depression is inversely proportional to exercising amount. I've exercised since I was 15 and have been blessed with very little depression in my life, and I attribute that in part to exercising. So do your life a favor. You can have a perfectly fine exercise routine in a completely empty room so no excuses, well music and a rug at least I mean. Just finished. Anyway, he mentioned teaching and I think I'm a pretty good teacher, and so I'm teaching here as well. :)
 
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1. You don't have to have a dream. But it is OK to dream.

2. Don't seek happiness. Let it find you, or just let happiness happen.

3. Remember, it's all luck. Or sometimes chance. Sometimes it's a matter of timing.

4. Exercise. Definitely.

5. Be hard on your opinions. (Remember everyone has one)

6. Be a teacher. and/or a mentor.

7. Define yourself by what you love, not what you hate or dislike.

8. Respect people with less power than you.

9. Don't rush.
 
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jackmell said:
You can have a perfectly fine exercise routine in a completely empty room

If that works for you, fine, but I can't see the point of spending time doing physical exercise, beyond what you get in "normal life".

IMO good exercise = stretching the imagination, bad exercise = jumping to conclusions.
 
For some people, "normal life" is sitting in front of a screen the majority of the time. There's a lot of research showing longevity and quality correlated with hitting target bpm's every day. There has also been correlation between exercise and neurogenesis established, as well as cognitive function.

I'm not really motivated to do exercise myself, but I know there are benefits. I used to chop wood and bicylce a lot as a necessary part of life. But now I have a bus pass and a furnace. I wish there was a motivation pill I could take.
 
jackmell said:
I whole-heartedly agree that depression is inversely proportional to exercising amount. I've exercised since I was 15 and have been blessed with very little depression in my life, and I attribute that in part to exercising. So do your life a favor. You can have a perfectly fine exercise routine in a completely empty room so no excuses, well music and a rug at least I mean. Just finished. Anyway, he mentioned teaching and I think I'm a pretty good teacher, and so I'm teaching here as well. :)

Do you have any links for a "perfectly fine exercise routine in a completely empty room"? I'm serious.
 
Pythagorean said:
For some people, "normal life" is sitting in front of a screen the majority of the time. There's a lot of research showing longevity and quality correlated with hitting target bpm's every day. There has also been correlation between exercise and neurogenesis established, as well as cognitive function.

Sources:
cognitive benefit (intervention meta-study):
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/14/2/125.short
learning and neurogenesis:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3639381/
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/25/38/8680.short
On the other side, there's also research correlating too much sitting with disease:
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/43/2/81.full

Also, a paper suggesting that it' is medically relevant to distinguish between sedentary and "without exercise", giving three classes of people, not two:
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/44/12/834
 
I'm with Pyth. I've worked as a labourer and I've worked in offices, people with the latter do not get any significant exercise in their day to day life. Walking from home to the car and car to desk is not enough
 
Bandersnatch said:
Man, Tim Minchin is my favourite philosopher.
I've known of Tim Minchin for many years now, but as a musical comedian. Indeed, he's probably my favorite comedian. But I had no idea he was so well-educated, so now the pithy insights and elegant construction of his comedic songs are more easily explained.

His musical talent on the grand piano is also quite impressive. For anyone who hasn't heard his comedic songs, or you're wondering what the guy meant when describing Tim as "offensive", then here's some links below.

But first, a caution from the man himself:
Tim Minchin said:
If you're a religious person, you might want to pop out for a few minutes...

 
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Pythagorean said:
For some people, "normal life" is sitting in front of a screen the majority of the time. There's a lot of research showing longevity and quality correlated with hitting target bpm's every day. There has also been correlation between exercise and neurogenesis established, as well as cognitive function.

I'm not really motivated to do exercise myself, but I know there are benefits. I used to chop wood and bicylce a lot as a necessary part of life. But now I have a bus pass and a furnace. I wish there was a motivation pill I could take.
One can go 'walkabout' for 30 min to one hour - for exercise and stress relief.

I have a couple of 25 lb dumbbells at my office. I periodically pick them up and do different routines - for exercise and stress relief.

At home, I have heavier dumbbells (40 lb, 60 lb) and barbells for weight training when the urge hits me. On the weekends, I ride a bicycle with my son.
 
Crake said:
Do you have any links for a "perfectly fine exercise routine in a completely empty room"? I'm serious.

I would like to know if anyone disagrees with me that calisthenics, isometrics, and martial art kata are perfectly fine exercise routines that require no exercise equipment, ergo a completely empty room.
 
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Crake said:
Do you have any links for a "perfectly fine exercise routine in a completely empty room"? I'm serious.

Let's see... most exercises are only limited by the weight/reps ratio. Here's a sample gym route with the weights set to zero:

  • Wide-stance squats (a** on the grass style for quads, glutes, inner thighs... if you don't feel it, you're going too fast) done to exhaustion ,3 sets
  • Narrow-stance squats (shorter range of motion, outer thighs, lower core) done to exhaustion, 3 sets
  • Mountain-climber (flat palms, no lock-out, hamstings, lower core) 8 - 10 reps, 3 sets
  • Half-plank (square shoulders in-line with elbows, abdominals and obliques), 30 seconds, 6 sets, center, left, and right with no break in between
  • Bicycles (proper form, no neck breaking) done until you can't breathe... seriously, I get HUGE muscle spasms from doing this exercise correctly and exhausting my entire core
  • Calf-raises (add any extra weight you can by simply holding it. For a bonus, put the balls of your feet on any raised surface like a 4"x4" board so you can get full extension in addition to full contraction) 8 - 20 reps depending upon weight, 3 sets
  • Superman! (this will start your transition from lower body and core to back and chest) I can never do this as long as I like because I have terrible form. Do this until you're done doing it.
  • Standard push-up (keep coming back to this after anything involving your chest, arms, or back) 5 - 10 reps
  • Close-grip benchpress push-up (put your hands next to each other directly under your nipple line, flat palm, push up slowly... killer tricep and upper chest exercise) 2 - 8 reps depending upon strength (but not too many, this can hurt your shoulders if done too repetitively, arch your back and stick out your chest very slightly to reduce this risk) just 1 set
  • Diamond push-up (this will destroy your triceps, follow-up with standard push ups to restore range of motion) 4 - 8 reps, 2 or 3 sets
  • Arm circles (you kind of need to add weight to this, but done correctly, this works shoulders and upper back)
  • Back contraction (standing, take the Rockem' Sockem' robots stance, and slowly contact your back muscles by moving your elbows backwards. Let your fists move towards your belly-button and keep your shoulders low... do this SLOWLY and really force your back to tighten. Flexing your chest while doing this can add some resistance.) About two minutes of this will exhaust your back. Repeat this 3 times.

Okay, I was digging deep for back and arm exercises. There are tricep dips, but they require that you have something in the room like a couch or stairs.

If you can add a pull-up bar, you can nail biceps and back super easily.

That being said... I pay my $20/month to go to Planet Fitness.

EDIT: Oh! And for cardio... uh... I don't know... just watch a scary movie. Truthfully, I get most of my cardio from hiking!

IMG_1624.JPG
 
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