fitness
upcycling
upping your workout By Lisa Maloney
Recycling may be good for the environment, but wringing a little more life out of (mostly) un-recyclable items is even better!
4 ways to breathe new life into your old yoga mat.
first life: basketball
Second Life: Medicine Ball Slice an old basketball open and use a funnel to fill it with sand. Shake the ball periodically to settle the sand as the ball fills up. Seal the slit (Liquid Nails works well). If you’re going to do medicine ball slams, add a “belt” of duct tape that goes all the way around the ball, covering the slit, for extra insurance. A mini basketball full of sand weighs about 12 pounds.
Cut hand-width strips and wrap them around your kettlebell or dumbbell handles for extra cushioning, instead of using weight-lifting gloves. Trim to fit for the last cushioned, non-slip shelf liner you’ll ever need.
first life: dishes
Second Life: Core-training Sliders You can reuse smooth-bottomed plastic, wood or bamboo plates as core-training sliders on carpeted floors. Assume a low plank/pushup position with a slider under each hand and foot, then slowly move each limb in turn away from and back to your midline, as you maintain the plank. For hard floors, use spray adhesive to attach soft fabric scraps to the bottom of each plate. Or take a hint from Kristin Jackson, trainer and blogger at takeitoutsidefitness.com. She teaches clients to crochet long rag strips into flat discs, which slide well on hard floors.
Use large mat scraps and full mats to pad furniture when moving.
Use scraps of your mat to seal drafts behind light switches and electrical outlets.
first life: cat food can
first life: broom handle
first life: PVC pipe
Second Life: Camp Stove
Second Life: Zumba Toning Sticks
The Internet abounds with clever methods of repurposing beverage cans into alcohol-burning camp stoves. Adventure athlete Andrew Skurka trumps them all with his cat food camp stove design (found online at andrewskurka. com). All you need is a felt-tipped marker and a hole punch to make two offset rings of holes near the rim of a clean cat food can.
Second Life: Hiking Staff or Stretching Aid
If you have any PVC pipe on hand, you can make your own version of Zumba toning sticks. A 1-inch to 1-1/4-inch diameter is ideal. Use a fine-toothed saw to cut the pipe into two 12-inch lengths. Cap one end (you’ll need four rubber caps from the hardware store) and fill the pipe one-third to one-half full of coarse sand and steel shot. Cap the other end and tighten the caps or, for slip-on caps, add a dab of PVC cement for extra security.
If your old wood-handled broom or rake is ready for retirement, saw off the handle and sand the edges smooth. The remaining staff makes an excellent stretching aid, or you can turn it into a hiking staff. Wrap parachute cord around the staff to form a padded handle; the cord also doubles as an emergency resource on the trail.
Lisa Maloney is a writer and certified personal trainer who penned 50 Hikes Around Anchorage. She lives in Anchorage, AK. July - August 2011
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