NOTICE

MANUAL OF THE INDEPENDENT COUNTERTERRORIST 57
When you’re sitting within a sturdy chair
(such as I do with my favorite aged wooden
rocker), lift yourself up upon its arms. You may do
this while you’re watching television. Lift, relax.
Lift, relax. Even doing so only during nagging
commercials will keep your arms toned. If you
have a pair of small dumbbells, you can exercise
your arms with simple lifts. Twenty or thirty reps
with light weights can do more for you than a few
with much heavier weights. Slowly increase your
abilities, but always ensure that you keep a steady
repetition schedule and before you know it, your
muscles will grow with very little effort (and
money) on your part.
Another trick that I learned from Sara was
to exercise while doing mediocre chores around
the house. We all have to do boring things every
day, such as vacuuming the floor, raking the
leaves, scrubbing the bathtub, or any number of
other tasks. We can build body muscle doing these
chores that have to be done anyway. Practice
stretching when you rake leaves or vacuum the
floor. Do the “wax on, wax off; grasshopper”
routine from The Karate Kid whenever you scrub
the floor or the bottom of your moldy bathtub.
Always plan exercises when you have to do
physical activities!
If you live in a multi-story home, run up the
stairs – be careful if they’re covered with
carpeting! – and ‘high step’ your way back down.
When you come to a doorway, grip the framework
and rock your body back and forth for a few
moments or complete isometric exercises before
continuing. At the start of the day to fire up your