I've been working on losing weight to dance, but there's no gym available. So I've had to be a little creative in my workouts. I've been doing squats, situps and pushups at home, and dance practice for cardio. And since I live on the fourth floor, whenever I climb the stairs I try to go slowly enough to really build up my heart rate and visualize how much fat I'm burning... I know, maybe that's not a physical strategy, but the positive thinking seems to help! A month ago I was nowhere near dancing size; now I'm at probably the worst weight I've danced at, but at least that's in the range! My pants are all a lot looser and although I've still got a sizable belly, I'm substantially more hourglass-shaped than I was before.
The hardest part of strength training is finding something to do with my lats, because there's really not a calisthenic exercise I know of that will do it. So today I went to the playground at my college with rings/monkey bars (China has lots of playgrounds for adults, at adult sizes -- I think it's kinda cool!) and tried them out -- and found out just how much harder it was than when I was a kid, heh. But that's kind of encouraging, since I know I DID it as a kid, so I don't feel like it's totally out of my abilities. Perhaps this will be what finally gets me to the level of strength I would need for decent pole tricks -- I never managed it before, but thinking of it as something I can build up to on the playground somehow makes it seem a lot easier.
I'd like to hear from anyone else who's done gymless workouts and has something cool to report!




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