My recent posting about the socially-distant World Miniature Table Tennis between me and Daisy…
…elicited several amusing items of feedback. One wag suggested that we might stream live events, while another wondered whether we had established our own private gym. Well, on that latter point, I did say in the 23 March piece…
…we’ll need to exercise and play at home for a while. I have ordered some low cost, high value gizmondry for the purpose, which should be wending its way to us as I write…
…and I’m here to tell the world that most of that gizmondry has now arrived. It aims to enhance the stretching, posture, strength and balance work that I normally do at BodyWorksWest , while Daisy of late has been doing this stuff in the comfort of her own home, since she parked her pole ambitions.
So let me talk you through the colourful array of gadgetry, for which I have laid out literally dozens of quid, adding to those items we already had:
So, the italics describe the items we already had here; now to talk you through the newly acquired and repurposed items:
- four kilogram weights atop a rather fruity-looking bottle of Rioja. No, the Rioja is not part of the exercise regime. I have been using 4kg weights to strengthen my arms for (mostly real) tennis. I felt that, without that level of weight to play with, my strengthening might go backwards. The weights will always come in handy, even after the pandemic has passed;
- atop the purple mat (with it’s additional weight on the floor by the pink doo-dah) is a Senshi forearm wrist curler. This looks like the easiest exercise on earth… until you try it. I have long-since told Lexi, Shaf and anyone else from the BodyWorks team within earshot that I feel like a right weed when doing this exercise – and indeed some of the 4kg weight movements – but they tell me that no-one cares and that no-one is looking. Well, I think I get funny looks from space cadet types at the gym when they see me struggling to do more than three or four cycles of the wrist curler thing. No more! I am wrist curling in the privacy of my own social distancing. Daisy now knows from experience that this is harder than it looks, so she doesn’t give me funny looks…at least, no funnier than usual;
- in front of Flossie, a pair of adjustable grip strengtheners. This is a cleverer idea for us than I thought it would be, because Daisy can set them for a weight that suits her – while I can switch to a heavier setting as I strengthen up for the additional grip strength requirements of real tennis;
- the pièce de résistance, though, is the wooden item, by Flossies side, propped against the sofa. At BodyWorksWest, my favourite piece of equipment is the “magic stick”, which some ill-informed members and staff imagine simply to be a broom handle. It is absolutely great for some of the standing up stretches. The device shown in the picture is slightly shorter (but long enough) and was originally designed to latch on to the loft entrance hook, to help open the hatch and start to pull down the steps. Absolutely does the job for our stretches; Daisy is enjoying using it as much as I am.
So yes, the living room can now be repurposed as our indoor gym by the simple expedient of moving the furniture around a bit. This we are doing each day.
But it is not all about such gym-like exercise. We are both mad keen on bat and ball sports – the miniature table tennis was only going to get us so far.
So, we have treated ourselves to a compact-but-decent-sized home table tennis table, which, for the time being, while Janie’s surgery is by necessity decommissioned, takes pride of place in that room, which is also (as is usually the case at the weekends) doubling as my music room:
This table will work well in the garage and/or the garden once life gets back to normal. For the time being, suffice it to say that Daisy has come to terms with this size of table far more rapidly than I have.
So will we stream the matches live? Unlikely. For that, we’d need to dress differently and take far more care in our use of language while playing. In any case, I need to get better at the game before the matches would be worth seeing (or gambling upon).
But I might experiment with some video filming and making highlights packages, not immediately but if the partial lockdown goes on for long enough.
Stay well, stay safe, stay fit, everyone.