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.