Exercise for the Ketonian

‘Common sense’ on weight loss is the following: you have to exercise, preferably ‘at the gym,’ to ‘burn off calories.’ A more scientific approach, however, says you can’t outrun a bad diet, whether you call that diet ‘calories in, calories out’ or ‘eat less, move more.’ 

Some years ago while trying to lose weight, I tried walking every day for quite a distance on my rural road. I suppose I got a slight result. But it was at the cost of lots of time, and of the risk of wear-and-tear injuries to my joints from dragging my then-250 pound carcass down the roads. 

Now I am older, wiser in the science of diet, and am not worried about weight as much as I am reversing my diabetes and its complications. I know I don’t NEED to exercise for the keto diet to improve my health— I get better blood sugars every morning— or lose weight. But I’ve been feeling lousy for so long that I’m weaker and more out-of-shape than ever. I want to exercise for the right reason— to build up my muscles and get a little stronger.

I’m a lifelong walker, but I feel the need to add something to my walking workouts.  That something is ‘HeavyHands.’ HeavyHands is a system of exercising with special hand weights. You can use it with walking, ‘aerobic’ dance, and still exercises. By ‘pumping’ your HeavyHands weights while you walk, you are adding upper-body work to the workout your legs are getting from walking.

The HeavyHands system came out in the 1980s. Since I don’t have my original HeavyHands weights any more, I bought some on Ebay recently. The hand weights come with a strap so you don’t have to grip them so tightly. There is also a screw-off cap at either end of the hand weight, so you can screw-on additional weight amounts. I have the basic 1 pound weights, and additional weights are coming by mail.

For the past 2 days I have been walking out on my local road. My favorite route goes up and down hill and past some woods. The first day, I pumped my HeavyHands 1 pound weights as I walked. The next day, I started off with my 1 pounders, and had a 2 pound weight with me in a fanny pack. After warming up until the top of the big hill, I switched weights to the 2 pounds. I walked to the turn-around point and by then my arms were screaming for mercy, so I switched back to the 1 pounders for the balance of the walk.

I did the basic pump-and-walk mostly, but once in a while I did the arm motions ‘lateral flings’ and even ‘double ski poling’ without the usual footwork that go with that motion. I find that these more challenging arm motions actually energized me a bit when I was getting tired. 

For the winter months when walking on the road is out of the question, I can ‘dance’ in place in my house with the weights, or walk a path from my living room to my kitchen and back again.  That way I won’t get out-of-shape for the winter.

If you are thinking of trying HeavyHands yourself, besides the weights, which you can get second-hand on Ebay, you may want to buy one or the other of the ‘HeavyHands’ books by the creator of the exercise, Leonard Schwartz. The second book, ‘The HeavyHands Walking Book,’ is the more useful of the two, I think. And there are many YouTube videos that illustrate the HeavyHands exercises.

How about you? Is exercise a part of your Ketonian life? What forms of exercise do you favor?