Can’t go to a gym? Try these in-home workouts!
I’ve been doing a little bit of research on doing in-home workouts. There may be a day, or a couple, where you can’t get to the gym. Inclement weather, especially up here in the Northeast, where a good amount of snow is a possibility in the winter, could be a reason not to get out on the roads. So, if your body is wanting a workout, it’s time to get creative!
Sure, one can do the basics, push-ups, crunches, leg lifts, squats, etc; but, what about adding to those to make it interesting? I have heard of an in-home workout called “prison workouts”, and it looks challenging, creative and fun! Working out should not only be grueling, it should be fun! If you’re not having fun working out, then I don’t know what I could tell you to make it fun! If you’re working alone, perhaps getting a partner to push you (and you push them!) is needed. Maybe a good friend, so you both can talk about things that interest you. That topic is for another day, maybe if I ever get a partner!
Getting back to prison workouts, some exercises I found that you can do at home are push ups, crunches, pull ups, squats, squat jumps, prisoner squats, dips, hanging leg raises, and burpees. These are just a few. Of course, if there’s no outlet to do pull ups or hanging leg raises (a tree branch might work or putting a towel underneath an open door for stability, to do pull ups), just replace them with other exercises, like lunges. All of these exercises are body weight exercises, so there’s no need for buying equipment.
A deck of cards is a great way to get a workout in. If you’re wanting to do upper body one day, face cards (King, Queen and Jack) are 10 reps. Aces are 11. Number cards, do the number specified. Suits can be broke down like this:
- Spades-push ups
- Diamonds-dips with a chair (use google for a reference if needed)
- Clubs-30 second planks, any club drawn.
- Hearts-25 jumping jacks, regardless of number. If you get a face card of hearts, just do 25 jumping jacks.
These are just examples. Feel free to play around with it. Creativity is the key! If you do upper body one day, do legs the next day. The third day, rest, or do some cardio. If the weather is nice, do your workout outside, then jog a little distance after 4 cards, increasing the distance a little every jog.
The gears in my brain have been grinding to think up some exercises that you can do with things you have around the house. I’ve come up with a few.
- Got a wheelbarrow? If you answered YES, great! Load some dirt or stones in the wheelbarrow, as much as you can tolerate, and wheel it around the yard or driveway, or down your street a ways. Get to your starting point, and locate a turn around point, and get going!
- Do you have any empty buckets, of different sizes? If you do, then you can fill them with dirt or other material, and do shoulder shrugs, shoulder raises, goblet squats, to name a few exercises.
- If you have a bar stool, simply grab the bar stool by the sides of the seat, and raise it 10 times. On the 10th rep, hold the stool out in front of you for 10-15 seconds, then do 10 more raises. After you’ve done that for 3-4 sets, flip the stool over and repeat the same exercise, but with the legs. The legs should stick out a little further than the stool seat, thus, giving other muscles in your arms and shoulders a workout.
These are just a few examples of exercises you can do around the house. If you want to have an extra kick of cardio added, increase the speed of your reps, take less time between sets or how fast you push the wheelbarrow. At home workouts are a great way to use your imagination!
