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Week three: My quest to get fit in the age of social distancing

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In week three of trying to get fit while practicing social distancing, my phone led me in workouts from my living room, which was a bigger change than you would think.
While following someone in a recorded workout on YouTube feels more personal since they are going through it with you, it also makes you feel guilty for skipping certain workouts.
After five days working out with the Sworkit app on the free trial, I have to say that was one of my favorite features. I don’t want to think what that says about me.
A work colleague recommended the app when I was asking around for one. She and her sisters had used it for a time and liked it.
My only experience with a workout app was a pretty basic free version of one years ago that had one full body workout that kicked my butt. I did it twice more and never wanted to do it again.
With that experience in mind, I didn’t want to start too hard since I only had one week of working out my full body in a similar way. Luckily, Sworkit had a lot of options to explore.
You can see what all the exercises are going to be in each pre-set workout that focused on several styles and body parts. You can even customize your own workout with specific exercises.
You also can set the time limit for how long of a workout you wanted up to an hour long. Each exercise is demonstrated on the screen by someone and described by an electronic sounding voice.
I didn’t mess with any settings besides setting my workout timer to 10 minutes. Each exercise would cycle through in 30 second intervals with five seconds in between to get ready for the next one. The app even had built in 30 second breaks after about two and half minutes, so I would usually get three in 10 minutes.
Just like the previous week, after two easy first workouts on the weekend, I knew I would have to push myself again during the final three days if I was going to get any benefit.
I went with a standard upper body workout meant to build strength on Monday when I got home from work.
I had mostly avoided going to the ground the first two days, with most exercises taking place standing. I could not avoid it since the majority of the workouts were some variation of a pushup.
The pushup and me have a history. In my teenage football prime, I probably did thousands a year.
Our team broke out doing pushups in time with each other after every workout and practice. We did them to warm up after stretches.
Besides up-downs (down-ups, burpees, whatever your coach called them), sprints and bear crawls, doing a certain amount of pushups or holding the position for a certain amount of time also could be a punishment.
While I never tested the amount I could do all at once, I bet it would have been around 40-45 with no rest. I never even thought about doing a pushup on my knees back then.
That was me at least 12 years and quite a bit of weight ago. The few times I have done pushups since then, I have learned 10 is quite a workout and 20 will kill me.
I am telling you this as an excuse because when the workout called for about five different variations of a pushups to be done, each for 30 seconds, there was no way I could do it legit.
I even tried to start out on my knees knowing it was going to be hard, but there was only a certain amount of pushups my body could do in a short time frame and I tapped that number early in the workout.
That is when I learned to not feel guilty about working out for 15 seconds instead of the full 30 and skipping certain exercises if I felt like I either could not or would not do. The good thing was even if you skipped an exercise, the time did not go down. Each workout had plenty of other exercises for me to do to take up the 10 minutes I set for myself.
The other thing about going to the ground was getting up close and personal with my rug. My sister gifted it to me from one of her friends who apparently paid good money for it.
I like what it does to the room since I have minimal decoration, but I was not prepared for the thing to shed hair.
I did not know that was a thing rugs could do. I do not own pets, so having hair come off my rug if any area gets rubbed even a little vigorously is annoying.
I thought I was past having loose hair where I live after growing up with shedding dogs most of my life.
At the end of the arm workout, pushing against anything in the slightest the next few days brought out the deep soreness in my arms, which means it was a success.
At the end of five days, I feel good about Sworkit. If I was serious about changing my life around and getting into serious shape, spending the $10 a month to keep it going would be worth it in my opinion.
Alas, how this column works means I get to (have to) try another way next week. This time I am heading back to YouTube to find me another personality to follow.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

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covid19

President unveils plan to open up America again

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President Donald Trump on Thursday presented a three-phase plan to reopen America again, but it the decisions on how states proceed with those guidelines will remain with the state governors.
During a lengthy press conference the president called the recommendations, “the next front in our war, which is called opening up America again.” Surrounded by his pandemic task force, Trump explained the strategies will be based on hard, verifiable data and benchmarks must be met at each phase. He continued it is implementable on a statewide or county-by-county basis at the discretion of each state’s governor.
As of Thursday more than 32,000 people had died from Coronavirus in the United States. In addition, more than 22 million people have filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance during the last four weeks as the job market in every sector of the economy has been devastated by the pandemic and the resulting restrictions.
Before implementing any of these guidelines a “gating” criteria must be met by the state or the region. It includes a downward trajectory of documented case within a 14-day period or a downward trajectory of positive tests as a percent of total tests with a 14-day period (flat or increasing volume of tests) as well as hospital preparedness, which includes treating all patients without crisis care and a robust testing program in place for at-risk healthcare workers including emerging antibody testing.
The guidelines, it was reported, represent the “consensus of medical professionals,” including Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus response coordinator; Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert and Dr. Stephen Hahn, head of the Food and Drug Administration.

Click on the link below to read the full plan to reopen America.

https://bowienewsonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/guildine-to-reopen-smaller.pdf

Read the full story on the guidelines and response from Texas Governor Greg Abbott from his Friday news conference in the weekend Bowie News.

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covid19

Sunset area virus patient dies late Friday afternoon

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Montague County experienced its first death from the Coronavirus Friday as Dr. Delbert McCaig, county health authority, reported a Sunset area patient died Friday while being treated in Wise County.
McCaig said it was very sad news to report, especially in light of other patients who have now been cleared. The 68-year-old patient was taken by ambulance to Wise Regional on April 15 and died April 17. He added they didn’t even know about it until now, explaining the only address on the state report was a post office box in Sunset.
As of Friday noon the county had seen a total of six positive cases of the virus. All three patients from Nocona are now cleared and no longer contagious along with one in Silver Lakes. One case at Ringgold earlier this week turned out to be a Wichita County resident who has a farm in Ringgold and was moved to that city’s stats.
The case of a Saint Jo patient who tested positive outside the county remains open, said McCaig, as the Department of Health Services has not been able to confirm the Saint Jo case based on the address and phone number presented by the person when they went to Denton Mid-Cities for testing. It will remain open until he is found.
There are two other pending cases where patients have been taken to hospitals in Wichita Falls and Decatur for treatment and awaiting test results.

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COUNTY LIFE

One new positive case reported today at Ringgold

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COVID-19 UPDATE – Montague County added one more positive COVID-19 case today as County Health Authority Dr. Delbert McCaig said the case was reported to him this afternoon by state officials and involves a person at Ringgold. This makes a total of six cases, plus one more positive for a patient reportedly at Saint Jo, but state officials have told McCaig they have not been able to confirm the person is at the address listed and the phone number does not respond.

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