Turning Drinking Games into Exercise Programs

    Rainy season is well and truly upon us now and one of the best ways to stay out of the gloom while simultaneously preparing for summer is getting a good workout. If you have a good home gym situation or a gym near you, that's great, but I have neither of these. Nevertheless, using streaming TV shows, a couple of hundred yen store dumbbells and Pinterest posts on workouts targeting my problem areas, I have developed my own home workout system that seems to be keeping me in better spirits and better shape.

    I was inspired by TV related drinking games that I never played personally, but the gist is always the same. You pick a show with predictable, repeated actions/characters/themes (i.e. the original Star Trek) and every time one of these established, reoccurring things happens (Kirk pauses mid-sentence for more than 2 seconds, Spock mentions logic, etc.) you take a drink. Less frequent things (i.e. the enterprise fires shots, red alert goes off, a space monster attacks) would require a shot instead, with even less frequent things (Spock smiling, fight to the death) necessitating a few shots of your chosen alcohol.

    What I decided to do was try this with basic exercises, making a list of commonly occurring themes/items in my chosen TV show alongside specific exercises and the numbers of reps per occurrence. This list took a bit of adapting to make it work well and still I change the number of reps regularly based on energy level and necessity.

    The show I picked is weird, but cheezy 80s horror amuses me so much that I do attest to owning VHS copies of The Evil Dead and The Evil Dead 2 and subjecting many a friend to repeated viewings of each. So when I found a way to watch Ash Vs The Evil Dead, I couldn't help but jot down a few ideas.

    This is my list. It's littered with jargon and shorthand, but it works for me. Using exercises you're already familiar with will save you the need to draw stick figures to explain. It is good to keep the items easy to remember and regularly occurring. If none of the things are happening, find a basic workout action you like and do it until one of the list items happens. If nothing on the list happens for more than a few minutes, pause and retool your list based on other common things. The goal is to stay active and work your body out for the full length of the time provided. Remember to keep a water bottle handy and stay hydrated.

    The episodes of my chosen program are usually around 30 minutes long, and when I started this, I was keep on burning all the energy in that half hour and kept my repetitions high (20 presses, 30 seconds plank) but have since started to double the episodes up while using lower reps (10 presses, 20 seconds plank) and have found it to be a better workout overall.

    However you do it, stay active this rainy season. Summer will be here before you know it.