OK, we’re being asked to stay at home and inside as much as possible right now. All indoor and outdoor gyms and recreational areas are now closed. This doesn’t mean you have to lose the muscles you’ve worked hard to build. You don’t need a gym to exercise at. Many of you have more time to exercise right now since you’re not spending time commuting back-and-forth to work. Now is a great time to focus on building up your muscles, even if you’ve never worked out before.
Building Muscle is Important for Many Reasons
Having a good muscle mass helps:
- Reduce body fat & stimulate the metabolism.
- Improve your mood and de-stress you, which is critical during the stressful times of COVID-19.
- Improve your posture and balance and reduce the risk of you falling.
- Strengthen your bones and joints to help combat the signs of aging.
When it comes to strength training, I love body weight training for a lot of reasons.
- It’s a convenient and versatile. I’m often on the road for business or fun, so I’m always using this training format to get my workouts in.
- This form of training is effective. After a good training session, you will feel well worked out!
- It’s cheap. You don’t need equipment or a gym membership to perform this exercise style. Your own body and a 4 x 6 foot space is all you need to get your muscles burning!
Try This 15 Minute Home Strength Training Workout
These 4 home strength training exercises target some of the bigger muscle building and calorie burning groups. You don’t need any equipment to complete them, so you’ll be able to try them at home. Perform each exercise for one minute (or 30 seconds per side) then rest for 30 seconds in between. Aim to repeat the circuit up to 3 times if you’re comfortable doing so. If you can’t do it right away, make this a goal for you to work up to in the coming weeks. I encourage most of my personal training clients to perform strength training exercises at least 3 times a week. Taking rest days in between is key to give your muscles recovery time.
- Big Arches
‘Big Arches’ is a terrific strength exercise to get your glutes muscles burning! With the increased sitting that many of you are doing during this time, building and maintaining glutes strength is crucial.
2. Windshield Wipers
The ‘Windshield Wipers’ is a terrific strength exercise for your obliques (side abdominal muscles) and the sides of your low back. Having a strong core is important to overall body health and to your posture.
3. Lifting Quad Burners
This exercise is a terrific strength exercise to get your quad muscles burning! It looks much easier than it is. I’ve surprised many of my personal training clients with how challenging this exercise move is. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
4. Up & Down Planks
This exercise is a terrific strength move for your upper body and core muscles. Because it targets so many muscle groups at once, it’s an effective move.
If you love body weight training, and you want more exercise ideas, give these more traditional exercises a try: More Body Weight Exercises
If you Want More of a Challenge…
Try holding the hardest pose of each of the exercises for 15-30 seconds afterwards for an extra challenge. Isometric hold work is the best! I love this exercise format because:
- It strengthens your muscles
- It’s not hard on your joints, so it’s a great exercise format for all fitness levels.
- You can perform isometric holds anywhere, which is important during this time of social distancing.
To Sum it up…Try These Home Strength Training Exercises
Just because social distancing protocols are in place, and all gyms and outdoor park spaces are closed, it doesn’t mean you have to put your former hard work at the gym to waste. Keep your muscles strong by practicing body weight training at home. This form of training is convenient, effective and cheap. It’s a great resistance training style. Connect with me if you’d like to give body weight training a try, but you aren’t sure how to get started.