Robin Petty - Exercise in Bed

Written and illustrated by:

Robin Petty

Copyright 2011

Robin Petty

Smashwords Edition

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Love yourself. ~ I love you.

Table ofContents

Before we get into the exercises in this plan, a fewdisclaimers. I am not a physician, personal trainer, or educatedphysical therapist of any sort. I am a person with issues that Iuse as excuses. You will be happy to hear I'll spare you themajority of them. The one that necessitated me writing this bookhas to do with exercise.

Other than reality TV weight loss programs, which area stretch physically, mentally and time-wise, for the mostmotivated of us, exercise regimes are for healthy, already thinfolks that can get down on the floor or have hours to spend in thegym or do a complicated pre-boxed cd, dvd or game box regime.

I'll admit to trying a few of these in the earlydays. Oh, okay already, even more recently. I've only found onethat I could stick with on a regular basis, but nowadays I wouldfind even that one too harsh.

If you are considerably overweight you will know theissues with running, jogging, jumping around, going to the gym, andgetting down on the floor to exercise. If you are a busy parent oranyone short on time, you will have issues with long, complicatedroutines and travel time. If you have arthritis, fibromyalgia, orpain from lack of movement from being overweight from diabetes,thyroid, menopause or overeating - for whatever reason, you knowhow easy it is to say you just can't do it. Just moving hurts.Sometimes just the enormity of the task and possibility of yetanother failure is too much to contemplate.

I created this exercise plan from my own set ofparticular needs. I dont like the smelly gym atmosphere. I havediabetes, fibromyalgia (Do they ever really diagnose this or justsuggest it?) and arthritis. I am menopausal. When I started thisplan I was considerably overweight and desperately wanted to loseover 80 pounds. If I went out to my garden to pull weeds, therewere times I didnt know if I would be able to get back up from theground. The heavier I got the harder it was to do things I wantedto do and the more unhappy I was that I just couldnt find out howI could possibly get back in shape. Life was painful, bothphysically and emotionally.

I'm writing this book to show all of you that needanother option how I am managing with the hope it might work foryou. I see it as a private, personal and self-fulfilling, I wantto feel better option. No gym fees, no hype, just some ways to getdone what you need, as easily and painlessly as you can withouttrying to find hours in the middle of your busy day to do it.

It does take some time and commitment *doh*. (I didspend some time researching those miracle pills, though.) But timeyou can afford and effort you cannot afford not to make. Exercisehelps with a lot of emotional and physical pain. It's just hard tosee that from within the pain. It is working for me. I'm hoping itwill work for you.

No one needs to know what you are doing. When theysee your success you can brush it off by saying, "Thanks fornoticing. I'm just doing the Stickman Plan". Leave the skinny onesto ponder why they haven't heard of it yet (*sigh*) and give your"I so want to know how you are doing it" friends the link to mylittle book. This is a private mission you are on FOR YOURSELF.If you take a while to get into it, no one will know but you, ifyou are able to keep a secret, that is.

Oh, by the way, I 'm no spring chicken, and I plan ondoing this as long as I live. Age isnt really a factor. Now thatexcuse is out the window too. Sorry! Just proves that old dog newtricks thing is wrong.

So, get on with it. Set aside a few minutes to readthru the plan and prepare a few things, shuffle you schedule just atad, and line up your CDs or iPod (see Hints from my Heartsection at the end of the book).

Tomorrow is a NEW day.

The Stickman Way.

The illustrations used for showing you the movesare, as you might have guessed, presented to you by my version of astickman. As simple as this may come across, I certainly have hadenough non physique-challenged people showing me how things work. Idont want to motivate you with how you will look. I want you toFEEL better, inside and out. Besides, stickman is a nice kid whosvolunteered to help me out. I just couldnt say no.

Ive given all the moves animal names. Youll seewhen you get into the routine that you have time for your mind toplay around a little. At least thats my story and Im sticking toit. First I will just describe all of the moves and stickman willprovide some visuals. Then I will give you the routine that I havefound works for me.

There are moves and there are stretches included inthe Stickman Exercise Plan, a Morning Plan and a Night Plan. Plusthere is one exercise you can do anytime, anywhere and you shoulddo it throughout your day. Youll see the plan isnt very timeconsuming and gets less so as it becomes routine for you. I feel itis essential to do them all as suggested in the beginning. I havefound that after some time, on certain days and as my muscle toneimproves, I need fewer counts for resting and a few less forstretching. But dont cheat yourself. The goal of this plan isMINIMAL PAIN during the execution of the plan and increasingly lesspain in your life overall. Both types of exercise are crucial toachieve this goal.

The only equipment you will need is two water or sandfilled soda or water bottles that fit comfortably in your hands.You dont want your hands aching because you are holding bottlesthat are too large or too small. I use a 1.25 liter bottle. Findthe size that works for you. You want them completely full so thereis no shifting of the weight while you use them. If I decide I needmore weight I might try filling them with sand.

So here are the moves, the stretches and the basicfinal stretch position.

The Chicken

Lying on your side on the bed, draw up your legs to a45 degree angle. Place your hand on your abdomen and raise yourelbow up toward the ceiling. Now lift your leg and your elbowtoward the ceiling about 6 inches at the same time.

The key here for me is to think about your elbowduring this move so your arm stays at the correct angle. Try otherarm positions too.

The Duck

From the same on-your-side position on the bed as thechicken, keep the leg that rests on the bed at the 45 degree angle,and stretch the upper leg out full length and rest it on the bed.This will both stretch the leg and hip and provide support for theduck move.