As I touched on in my last post, I am currently recuperating from an operation on a toe. The constraints I have are that I have to keep my foot elevated as much as possible, am confined to the house, and when I do stand or walk I have to wear a special shoe to keep me from applying any weight to the fore part of my foot and to protect the protuding K-wire.
Having worked hard before the operation to get my CV system into reasonable shape, I’m frustrated at the feeling that my fitness is slipping back down again. As I feel physically well apart from my foot, I wanted to work out some exercise I could do in the house. A further constraint is that the only weights we have at home are from an old, small set, and the biggest single weight I can assemble is 12kg.
After some experimentation, including using a footstool as a poor substitute for a swiss ball, I’ve come up with the following mini-circuit:
- single arm chest press (both sides)
- single arm bent-over row (both sides)
- sumo squat
- single arm curl to single arm overhead press (both sides)
Where the weight I have available is less than I would normally use, I increase the workload by increasing reps and slowing down the cadence. It seems to work well enough to get my heart rate up, and so far as I can tell does not involve any movements which would be dangerous. It’s a long way from being the equivalent of a full workout in the gym, but I hope this will at least make gym re-entry less painful 🙂
