What can we do when we can’t go to the gym?
In response to the growing coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, state and federal governments have closed all ‘non-essential’ services, including churches, restaurants and gyms.
This has come on top of to strict social distancing and self-quarantine rules.
It’s an unprecedented time for the entire world and our lives will be changed for the foreseeable future. But that’s why it’s so important to stay physically and mentally fit.
If we can’t get to the gym, we can at least do our best to work out at home. Letting our physical and mental health suffer will only exacerbate things.
At Life Fitness, we recently launched Digital Coach, a new on-demand, at-home workout service that works on any device. You can get started with your first Workout of the Day at https://go.lifefitness.com/wod. Access is available for free and for a limited time.
We’ve also put together a list of exercises (with some video examples) you can do at home with minimal equipment. If you have a set of dumbbells or kettlebells at home, that’s great; if not, you can still get most of these done.
Start with 3 sets of 10 and, depending on your experience level, progress from there.
It might take some time to get used to but time is something a lot of people have at the moment. Stick with it and you can still get a great workout at home.
Body part home workout
Legs
Body weight or dumbbell squats
Body weight or dumbbell lunges
Walking lunges
Dumbbell Romanian deadlifts
Chest
Push-ups
Dips between chairs
Decline push-ups (legs elevated)
Back
Dumbbell rows
Supermans
Inverted bodyweight row using table
Chin-ups (if possible)
Shoulders
Dumbbell side raises
Dumbbell front raises
Incline push-ups (upper body elevated on stairs or chair)
Arms
Close-hand push-ups
Triceps dips between chairs/benches
Dumbbell/kettlebell curls
Dumbbell/kettlebell triceps extensions
Abdominals
Sit-ups/Crunches
Planks
Swiss ball sit-ups
Cardio
Skipping rope
Walking
Running
Cycling
HIIT sprint/jog
Box jumps onto bench
Burpees
And remember, you can use these exercises with almost all of the training techniques we’ve written about elsewhere: supersets, drop sets, circuit training, cluster sets etc. Be creative and don’t give up.