A Picnic Bench + Movement Snacks - How Will That Work?

My mission

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My mission for the day was…
1. enjoy the outdoors
2. enjoy movement
3. go nowhere near gym

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I wanted to...
- move my joints top to toe
- add the loads from bodyweight alone
- practise different movement patterns & shapes
- include balance challenges

My Solution

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Solution = picnic bench + movement snacks

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I got a bit carried away. Whizz through the pictures to see my version of a full body workout.

Upper body

I started with upper body. Preparing wrist and shoulder joints, with some loads in different directions.

Then some strength work for arms. Straight arm holds are good practice for press ups, planks and dips on bars. Tricep dips take the arms behind us, which we don’t often do. They reach into the upper back and scapula (shoulder blades). A nice corrective to sitting and driving, typing or working with our arms in front.

Middle of me

Moving onto my middle - aka core or trunk…

With a seated forward fold for spinal flexion under control. (I forgot to do anything for spinal extension. I could have kneeled on the ground and reached back in a bridge shape to reach the table.)

Then sitting, leaning back, lifting legs to engage abdominal muscles. Bent legs was easier. One or two straight legs takes more work.

Lower body, hips & legs

Preparing hips with some easy stretches - figure 4 stretch, butterfly stretch and lengthening out the top of the foot and front of the hip. A flow between a lunge with knee forward, then hips back for a hamstring stretch.

Onto strength practices. Supported squats, holding the table - one to half depth, one deeper “ass to grass” as they call it. Holding on helps you get used to the deeper position and stops you feel like you will fall backwards (if your ankles aren’t yet mobile enough to manage on their own).

Sideways directions bring important variety, as many exercises track the forward-back or up-down directions only.

So, lateral lunges with one leg straight out to the side, bending the stance leg, similar to a squat motion.

And, sitting legs wide in a straddle position, hingeing at the hips to take the trunk forward for a seated Good Morning, aiming for the trunk to be neutral and not overly rounding or hunching.

Single leg focus

Single leg focus to finish. Step ups with control to the picnic bench, then balancing on one leg. I do this as part of rehab for a tricky knee tendon which is painful when I let my knee wobble around too much. Here I am stepping up onto my ‘good’ leg and my knee looks to be nicely aligned. The table next to me adds security in case I feel insecure and want to hold onto something.