With the walls closing in on him in his Tokyo apartment, SoraNews24’s Go Hatori figures out a way to work his body and free his mind.

After weeks of working from home due to the coronavirus outbreak, our Japanese-language reporter Go Hatori was starting to feel out of shape. There’s really only so much exercise he can get from taking swings in the batting cage he built in his apartment out of stuff from the 100 yen store or tossing his Splat Poo Ball stress reliever against the walls.

So with his body calling out for more intense physical activity, Go went on Amazon and ordered himself a budget-priced exercise bike, called the TimeSport, for a little under 12,000 yen (US$112).

Following the instruction diagrams, Go had the whole thing assembled in about 20 minutes.

A magnetic bike that needs no external power source, the TimeSport has eight different tension settings, letting Go adjust the difficulty to suit his needs for each individual session.

But it wasn’t long until Go started looking for ways to spice up the fitness challenge. Digging through his closet, he found a pair of dumbbells and decided to incorporate them into his cycling sessions, since the bike s steady enough to pedal without holding onto the handlebars.

But there was one other piece of equipment Go needed. “When you watch workout videos, the instructors are always wearing headsets with microphones,” he explained. “It’s an absolute necessity for creating the proper mood, so I totally needed one.”

Unfortunately, Go didn’t have such an apparatus on hand. Utilizing the knowledge he’s acquired from working for some of the world’s leading techno-savvy companies (as well as SoraNews24), though, he came up with the innovative solution…

…of taping a plastic spoon onto a set of 100-yen Daiso headphones.

▼ Looking good, Go.

Now ready to kick things up a notch, Go switched to pedaling with his legs while simultaneously lifting weights with his upper body.

In keeping with his new persona as a headset-wearing fitness guru, he also started cheering himself on as he narrated his workout.

▼ “Go! Go! You can do it, Go! Go! Go!”

The results were good, but Go couldn’t help feeling he still wasn’t quite maximizing his gains. Then he remembered hearing about how some fitness clubs offer group cycling classes with music and light shows, like a night club with exercise bikes. He’d always wanted to check one out, but with the coronavirus still going around, spending an hour in an enclosed gym with dozens of other people breathing heavily on each other isn’t such a smart idea, and so Go decided to incorporate all those ideas into his at-home exercise routine instead.

Step 1 was to queue up an EDM playlist on his headphones (remember, the fake headset is essential equipment). Next, he pulled up a strobe-style visualizer on his PC, and also got out his disco ball.

▼ No one is sure why Go owns a disco ball, but considering he also owns a light-up poo on a stick (separate from the aforementioned poo stress ball), none of us are that surprised.

Then it was time to kill the house lights, hit the music, and pump those legs!

Since he was on a stationary bike, Go wasn’t actually going anywhere. In his heart, though, it was like he was riding through the cosmos, broadening his consciousness while toning his muscles.

When he finally stopped pedaling, turned on the lights, and came back down to earth, he was bathed in sweat. He’d been in his apartment the whole time, but for the 30 minutes or so he’d been pedaling, he’d felt like he was a million miles away, and now he knows what to do the next time he feels cabin fever setting in.

Images ©SoraNews24
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