Although the fitness club culture has taken off in Jakarta recent years, the quest for a buff body can begin at home. JP/Ricky Yudhistira
Hot, sticky, teeming Jakarta is not the most accommodating city when it comes to getting fit and staying that way. In that case, fitness begins at home.
Jakarta provides us with an endless string of excuses for being unfit. It’s always too macet to go to the gym, too polluted to go for a run, too expensive to take Pilates lessons and, no matter what, we’re always too busy anyway. The closest many of us will get to going for a walk around here is at the mall.
On the weekends, we try to squeeze in a bit of tennis or golf to help feel a little less guilty about the overindulgence that’s considered normal in this city, and during the week we’re completely useless without a big cup of strong black coffee. To top it all off, as far as diet is concerned, the more fried something is, the safer it is to eat.
But let’s face it, this is just plain lazy talk.
After looking for some state-of-the-art solution to the feeling that I was doing little more physical activity than shuttling myself between the computer and the car, I finally found that the best fitness program in the city was right under my own roof. That’s not to say that I installed a home gym, or even so much as an exercise bike for that matter (though having a swimming pool handy definitely helps). But with just a bit of creative thinking, some self-discipline and research – it’s essential to read up on safety tips and suggestions as you go – you’ll find that there are plenty of simple ways to create a personalized fitness program within the walls of your own home.
Let’s start in the kitchen. And let’s start with the most important meal of the day. This is when we can thank our lucky stars for living in the land of fruit aplenty. In case you’ve forgotten, let me remind you that there are some places in the world where a mango costs as much as a martini. At my house, there is always a plate of fruit in the fridge, heaped with whatever is in season. This makes it especially convenient on mornings when I need something for breakfast that’s easy to digest, that’s just as effective a pick-me-up as caffeine and that will give me just enough energy to get through a morning workout.
Smoothies are the perfect solution and so easy to make yourself. People pay a pretty penny for shop-made smoothies that use frozen fruits and are overloaded with sugar, even paying more for a “booster” of vitamin C, thinking that they’re getting something extra nutritious. But the only way to be sure that you’re getting what you need – and just the way you like it – is to make it yourself. It’s as easy as throwing your favorite fruits in a blender with some yogurt, juice and a few blocks of ice, adding supplements as you see fit – ginseng for that extra kick, oat bran or wheat germ for fiber, or even some peanut butter for protein – and you’re good to go.
If you start looking around your house with an eye for exercise, you’ll start to notice that you can use just about anything within reach as a means to fitness.
Why get a Stairmaster, for example, when you have a flight of stairs? Strap on your running shoes, pump the jams and get working on those buns of steel. Even household chores can be tweaked to sneak in a few exercises: arm lifts while dusting, neck circles while doing the dishes, or even crunches during ad breaks while you’re watching the tube.
Those of us who have swimming pools in our backyards have absolutely no excuse for not being in top shape. Swimming is one of, if not the best type of exercise you can do.
It’s low impact on your joints, requires regulated breathing, and builds both cardiovascular and muscle strength.
Again, let’s take a moment to remember those who live in places where it’s just too cold to go swimming, while you can almost count on the fact that there’s at least one swimming pool within a hundred meters of your house.
But swimming laps without any real goal other than to tire yourself out can quickly become boring. By surfing the web I found a schedule for a six-week program that gradually built up to completing a “swimmer’s mile” (1500 meters).
I adjusted the program to suit the length of my pool and followed a three-times-a-week regimen that regulated how many laps I could swim before stopping for a certain amount of breaths, eventually building up to swimming the whole “mile” without stopping. That was just what I needed – some rules to go by and a goal to reach.
Even if all you have in your house is floor space, don’t go thinking that you need not put it to good use. Let’s not forget that before home exercise equipment and even before workout videos, we still had pushups, crunches, squats, lunges and stretches.
And with the Internet, everyone has access to instructions and demonstrations on how to do these exercises safely and efficiently.
Of course, this goes for other forms of exercise as well: yoga, Pilates, tae-bo, aerobics, dance or whatever else that will get you moving.
I’ve found that yoga is the ideal exercise for counterbalancing life in Jakarta. If you’re one of those people who still thinks that yoga is for women only, or one of those women who thinks it is only for people flexible enough to tie themselves into a knot, then you’re doing yourself a disservice.
It’s therapeutic, both strengthens and stretches, requires little more than some allocated time and is good for your posture – something that is greatly at risk in an age of computers and television.
If you’ve never done yoga before, then it would help to take a couple of beginner’s classes first.
Chances are, however, you probably have a friend who has at least learned how to do a pose or two. Team up and get together, rotating whose turn it is to lead the session and keeping an eye on each other to make sure you are doing things right.
Like everything else, this requires doing some research and studying the dos and don’ts, but you will find that there are so many resources in the comfort of your own home, where you can take as much time as you want and focus on the parts of your body that you feel need the most attention.
So what are you waiting for? If you’re still finding it hard to get started, try a little mental exercise.
List all the reasons why you just can’t find the time or space to prioritize health and fitness in
your life right now, then start another list alongside it with ways to overcome each of those excuses. As the saying goes, where there’s a will, there is a way, even in Jakarta.
Read more articles by
Hana Miller in the August
WEEKENDER, available on Friday.
