Working Out Without A Gym

We are all in the same boat right now.  Gyms are closed and we are left with doing home workouts, utilizing parks, and getting out on the trails.  At the end of the day, it’s not a terrible thing to get outside more with your training – or just get outside more in general – but if you don’t have equipment at home it can be difficult to know what to do. 

Luckily, there’s options!!! 

If you have small items such as dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, or a pull up bar, great!  You can definitely utilize those.  If you don’t, no worries.  There are always options! 

So many body weight movements can be combined to create amazing workouts.  Even without being highly creative, simple movements such as body weight squats, push–ups, sit–ups, mountain climbers, and burpees can be combined in a number of ways for some brutal workouts.  And that is just a small list of the body weight movements that are possible. 

Now, let’s talk about adding resistance to your workout. 

Think about what you have in your house with a handle that has a decent amount of weight.  A couple things that come to mind are a gallon jug of water and liquid laundry detergent bottles.  These can be used to replace kettlebells or dumbbells in many different movements.  With these, you can introduce back in movements such as single arm kettlebell swings, single arm snatches or clean and jerks, shoulder press.  You could even hold them on the shoulders to do front squats or do single arm overhead squats.  So many options! 

What else do you have in your house that you can utilize?  Have any textbooks laying around?  Awesome, let’s get to work with those!  Throwing a little creativity in here, you could do some uneven pushups, with one hand on a stack of books and one hand on the floor.  You could stack them up and do some burpees over the books just like you would perform a burpee over the bar.  (I don’t suggest jumping on them…that is an injury waiting to happen!)  Now, hug them around your chest and do some good mornings or some squats to fire up the posterior chain and legs.  That’s just the beginning of where you could go when utilizing books for your workouts. 

Chairs, ottomans, and coffee tables (depending on the style) can be great for dips, feet elevated push-ups, or even modified strict handstand push-ups (if you don’t want to put your feet on your walls). 

If you have stairs, you can absolutely utilize those.  Not only can you run up and down them, but you can also do bear crawls, crab walks, and other dynamic movements on them to change things up a bit. 

And of course, you can always have fun with the kids and pets…if they will cooperate.  Perform squats while holding one of them.  Do a Devil’s Press utilizing your small child – obviously, just be more cautious and slower with this since you are holding a child rather than dumbbells or a Spartan Ram. 

Are you struggling to figure out what to do?  Need a plan to follow or someone to hold you accountable?  Let’s chat!  Schedule a call to help you figure this all out.  

These are some crazy times right now.  Don’t feel like you have to go at it alone!