Hitting Up HIIT Outdoors, Alone

With Singapore in lockdown circuit breaker mode for the month, and #covidiots abound, our hastily enacted laws dictate that we can't socialize or visit people. Gyms, pilates and and yoga studios have closed. Children's playgrounds, soccer fields, beaches, public fitness facilities, and dog runs are all out of bounds.

Our estate's gym, pool and all facilities are also closed till 4 May too (under Building and Construction Authority's instructions). I'm not optimistic that we can clear a hurdle by 4 May. Our community spread is only increasing. Realistically, this lockdown ought to continue to the end of the month to completely be in the clear.

Having a physical gym to go to is important to the man. He gets super angsty if he can't be in a gym for more than two consecutive days. The gym is his outlet for venting every emotion. That keeps his mental health on an even keel. But now, he's kinda in a funk. With a bad knee, running is out of the question for him. For some reason, he is more productive and happier in a gym environment than doing the same HIIT moves outdoors.

He needs those weights, and impact-absorbing flooring. Haizzz. Unfortunately there were no weights to be procured anywhere by the time he decided that he wanted them. He only has resistance bands to depend on; those don't provide the same kind of work out effect for him. His attitude towards them is of bewilderment, exactly like how I'm bewildered by free weights and those machines. I don't know what to do with them and he doesn't know what to do with these resistance bands. Our tiny flat's ceiling and doors can't hold the weight of ceiling bars for TRX suspension workouts. He was a bit moody for a few days trying to wrap his mind over the disruption of his usual routine.

He's slowly adapting to resistance bands and discovering how challenging they can be. I'm certainly not going to be his instructor for this sort of exercises. I might yell at him. I gave him links to view videos and told him to run it by me after he has selected a few exercises. I can tell him if it's a coherent progression suitable for his current flexibility and strength. For someone fairly strong, his core is incredibly weak. He can spend the whole month strengthening that core.

I'm thankful that pilates and gyrokinesis classes continue online, and I can pretty much do planks anywhere. Stretching out at home is fine. I miss LES MILLS GRIT™Strength A LOT. Ah well. While I also miss HIIT classes, I don't actually need the gym to do them. I can go running, but I'm really not a runner. I keep runs to twice a week, max. For fun, I do a spot of heart-racing moves when out walking the dog. I take inspiration from LES MILLS instructor Erin Maw's IG account. Focusing on form to do the reps and repeating a few sets will get the heart rate up easy. When I go outdoors, I stay in the hood, find a secluded spot farrrrr away from other humans. Then jump around like an idiot for 20 minutes, and leave; get the fuck home stat. DO NOT LOITER.