Home Workouts: You may have heard some of your friends or family talking about the ‘COVID pounds’, or maybe it’s even something that you’ve been dealing with yourself. The term itself is pretty self-explanatory.
With the virus ensuring that all of us are at home most of the time and the vast majority of gyms being closed, exercise has for the most part gone on the backburner. And this is something that we can’t really afford.
Of course, this is not to say that the gyms shouldn’t be closed because they are arguably some of the most dangerous places when it comes to this particular virus. The way gyms were before this started was a perfect breeding ground for it.
Exertion results in heavy breathing which results in the droplets that carry the virus getting out in the air, because they’re so busy everyone is crowded around each other and everybody is using and touching all of the same equipment.
So realistically gyms should be one of the last places that we go back to when all of this is over, but we can’t just stop exercising. We need to do with fitness workouts at home, and luckily enough, there are some amazing ones.
Let’s look at 5 of the best home workouts for you to try:
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Planking
We are all familiar with planking, but a lot of us only know anything about it because of the planking challenge that infected the internet a couple of years ago. That kind of made it seem like more of a joke than it actually is.
In reality, planking is no joke whatsoever. It’s actually a massively beneficial exercise that works a large number of different muscle groups. And it’s excellent because it’s something that you can do with no equipment whatsoever.
There are so many benefits to the plank, it’s an excellent core workout, it helps your posture, can improve your metabolism and it can also help to ease back pain. Just doing a plank for 60 seconds every day can be very effective.
With then the opportunity to progress and hold the position for longer. To achieve this exercise, start on your hands and knees, then extend your legs fully and prop yourself up on your toes. Then put your forearms on the ground and hold this position with your back straight.
Squats
Another exercise that you can do with no equipment if you so choose. You can also do it while holding dumbbells or a barbell if you want to add a little extra weight but you can still get the benefits from bodyweight squats.
Having powerful legs is important. We use them to get around first of all, but any lifting should also be done using your quads so doing squats and building up those muscles will help you a lot in that regard too.
The form for a squat is to stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, and then sink your hips behind you as if you are sitting on a chair, while also keeping your back as straight as an arrow. Keep descending until your thighs are parallel with the ground.
Go further if you can. It’s a tough exercise but it doesn’t just work your legs, you also have to keep your core engaged so it’s a decent ab workout too.
Burpees
The name of this exercise is a bit odd. If you’re doing it right there shouldn’t be any actual burping involved in your burpees. Instead, you should be able to do this for a couple of minutes and feel like you’ve gone through an intense half-hour workout.
Burpees will get your heart rate up within seconds of starting the exercise which makes them great for cardio and conditioning. It’s also a full-body workout so adding burpees into your exercise regime will make you super strong.
You do burpees by starting in a standing position, then lowering into a squat with your hands on the floor in front of you. The next step is extending your legs behind you as if you’re doing a pushup and then dropping your chest to the floor.
Then return to the original squat position, straighten up and then jump. Do all of that as fast as you can, and that’s one burpee. Do a few sets of about 10 of those and you’ll be a monster in no time.
Lunges
Another great exercise for your glutes and thighs and no equipment is really required for this. The only thing that you can really use to help out would be a chair which hardly constitutes as equipment because you’ve got some in your house.
Well, you probably do, unless you’re a person who doesn’t like to sit, in which case you’re probably healthier than the rest of us anyway. But a chair is only used for balance anyway it’s not essential.
Lunges are pretty simple. The goal is to bend one leg and then extend the other one behind you so that your knee touches the floor, and then repeat the same process with the other leg. Do this as many times as you can.
Pushups
This is one of the most reliable exercises there is. Excellent for your shoulders, your chest, and your arms, and it also does some good work on your core too. And it’s also a very easy exercise to master.
You are probably pretty familiar with the form of this one already, but in case you aren’t, to do a pushup you’re on your front with your arms extended fully and propped up on your toes. Then bend your arms until your chest touches the floor and push yourself back up.
Very easy, after some practice you should be able to do quite a lot of them and it’s extremely effective too.
So there’s five that are pretty straightforward while also covering a bunch of different muscle groups and this barely scratches the surface because there are a ton of similar at-home exercises you can try.
With no end really insight for this pandemic right now, a lot of stuff has to stop, but home workouts really shouldn’t be one of them. It’s too important and there are many ways to get around not being able to go to the gym.