Like many of you I made the transition to working out at home at the start of the pandemic. To be honest, my gym is open but I am not comfortable going so I have made the decision to continue working out at home.
After months of doing so I have a great routine that I’ve incorporated into my weeks and it seems to be working well to keep me on track. So if you’re like me (want to stay fit, but not ready to get that close to others) these tips will help you make the most of your at home workouts.
Use What You Have
At the start of quarantine, everyone went a little nuts and wiped out all of the weights and workout equipment. Kinda like they did the tissue, but that’s a whole other story. Anyhoo, if you have not been able to get weights you can still workout.
Body weight exercises
Squats
Planks
Lunges
Reverse Lunges
Crunches
Lateral Leg Raises
Glute Bridges
Skater Hops
Donkey Kicks
Froggers
High Knees
Jumping Jacks
These are just a few body weight exercises that you can do at home. When I say use what you have that means that it’s OK to get a little creative.
Household items like water bottles and canned goods can be used for bicep curls and hammer curls if you are missing using weights.
Resistance bands are still pretty easy to come by and they are a great way to add some resistance to your lower body exercises like squats, donkey kicks, glute bridges, plank jacks, and side steps squats to name a few.
A few bodyweight only workouts to try at home:
Challenge Yourself
If your workouts are feeling a little too easy try to add more reps, or increase the duration of your workouts. Incorporate supersets into your workout. Supersets are two exercises done back to back with little to no rest in between sets. For example you can superset a lateral lunge with a side step squat.
Be Consistent
If you had a regular schedule for going to the gym try to keep that schedule at home. Set the days that you know you can commit to at home workouts and figure out a time that works for you as well. At the beginning of quarantine, I struggled with this because before this all happened I woke up at 5 am to workout. When quarantine started I found myself wanting to sleep in more and then trying to find time throughout my workday to work out. This did not work well because work gets really busy and usually I’d end up skipping the workout. So learn from my mistake and find the day(s)/time(s) that you can commit to.
Focus on movements that target multiple muscle groups
Make sure you are challenging yourself by adding compound movements to your workouts. An example of a compound movement is a pushup. When you do a pushup you are engaging your core, your arms, and several other muscle groups. These kind of movements can be effective in challenging your body to push harder, build lean mass, and burn more calories.
Make it fun
Since transitioning to working out at home I try to workout 6 days a week with time for active recovery. By active recovery I mean that I still get moving, but on these days I don’t do an actual workout. One of my favorite things to do has been walking a trail that we have here in Chicago with my husband. Find things you enjoy doing and make sure to incorporate stretching into your routine. In order to see progress, your muscles need time to recover.
Full length follow along workouts:
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