One of the biggest side effects of the recent, pandemic-necessitated shutdown has, of course, been that of what is sometimes known as the “Quarantine 15,” the “Pandemic Pounds,” and plenty of other euphemisms. To cut to the chase, a lot of people have been gaining weight due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Being forced to stay at home has sent people off their workout routines. Even if you worked an office job that has now become remote, you’re probably much more sedentary working at home than you would be going to your workplace. Furthermore, many gyms were forced to shut down temporarily, and some have shut down permanently. Even if you are able to go back to your favorite gym, you probably won’t want to if you’re at all worried about your health. There are a number of health concerns that would lead people to stay away from their regular gyms in this pandemic-prone environment; and some just don’t want to re-enter society fully until a vaccine is available, especially if they’re able to work remotely.
However, just because you’re staying home more than you once did doesn’t mean that you can’t stay healthy. It’s actually easier to stay healthy while staying under your own roof than you may think. A lot of it is really a matter of adjusting to a new normal, and accepting that rather than working out or going to the workout-ready places you once visited outside, you should invest in exploring basic workouts to do at home. If you do these regularly, you would be amazed by how quickly you can get back in shape, or simply maintain the level of fitness you had before settling into your post-pandemic life. No matter what, you need to figure out how to stay healthy by exercising regularly as much as you can. Keep in mind that at least two and a half hours of moderate physical activity for each adult is the average expectation, and you can easily fit this into your everyday life. Let’s look into some of the common workouts that you can do in your home, without buying any workout equipment that you probably won’t need once you’re able to go out and about outside.
1. Chair Workouts
One of the most common excuses people give for putting off the workouts that they need to engage in is that they need to work. This, of course, doesn’t go away just because you need to work remotely. Even if you can more easily work out if you aren’t being watched by your coworkers, you’ll still probably have a hard time convincing yourself to work out at first. Maybe you’re simply looking for an excuse to avoid exercising, or maybe you’re genuinely anxious about missing time because of your workout. Either way, there’s an easy solution. You can simply give chair workouts a try! Chair workouts were popular prior to the pandemic, as they give employees the ability to incorporate their office seating into exercising. You can do this at your home office just as easily, and when you go back to your regular work routine you don’t have to give up these workouts! They’re more than just basic workouts to do at home. You can take them with you virtually anywhere.
While you might feel as chair workouts will focus on the lower body, you can actually use your chair to get a full-body workout through the 15-minute full body chair workout. This workout will usually require 30 to 60 second rests between exercises, while will ultimately result in you getting two full workout sets within the 15 minute time frame. A major benefit of this type of exercise is that the chair actually allows you to maintain some level of body support, which means that it can be a great way to ease into working out after you’ve put it off for an extended period of time. Furthermore, if you’re suffering from a chronic illness that causes pain or muscle weakness, having a chair to fall back on during the workout will probably make you feel a bit more comfortable. While this may be one of the more basic workouts to do at home, you can also look into more specialized chair workouts that do focus on your lower body, often strengthening your thigh muscles and toning your legs.
2. Kitchen Workouts
Of course, you may have the exact opposite goals in mind when trying to find basic workouts to do at home. Rather than working out while literally working in your home office, you may find it easier to focus on exercising when you designate a specific part of your home for exercising. With that being said, you might be surprised to find that one of the best places to work out in your house is the kitchen. There are a number of reasons why you might want to exercise in the kitchen, even if you might initially think of it as a place where you would be too tempted to indulge in the kind of snacks you should probably avoid if you’re trying to get trim. One of the main reasons why you should consider working out in your kitchen is the way that you can utilize parts of it for your workout. If you look out it in a certain way, your kitchen could easily be turned into a personal gym.
Kitchen countertops are actually the perfect bracing points for a lot of basic workouts to do at home. The push up is probably the easiest of these moves. While a lot of us think that all push-ups have to be of the traditional variety, you can actually push off of a countertop, especially if you have shoes that can grip the floor. Let yourself sink down and touch the countertop, and then push back up and off of it. Dips are great alternatives if you’d like to tone your lower body, pushing your foot out and dipping down with your hands braced against the countertops, then pushing yourself back up with your legs. The kitchen is also a great place to do lunges and reverse lunges. Some people like to utilize a dishrag to help position their feet while they lunge, ensuring a level of evenness in the workout. And if you’re already in the kitchen, why not utilize it? The towel can be used to solidify planks in a similar way. Of course, there are plenty of other things in the kitchen that you can incorporate into the basic workouts to do at home that you may have had in mind anyway. Think about potentially filling a few pots with water and using them as weights. You may also want to do squats in your kitchen, as it probably will lack the type of carpet flooring that may make it difficult for you to be steady on your floor.
3. Chore Workouts
Think about the type of house and property maintenance that you probably need to do anyway; why not incorporate this into some of your basic workouts to do at home? You might not think that some of your chores are that labor-intensive at first. But think about how much of a sweat you typically work up when you’re doing something as simple as cleaning hardwood floors or working on your backyard. This type of workout really gives you the “two for the price of one” experience, as you’re able to really burn some calories while at the same time getting something fond that needed to be done anyway. You still don’t have to leave the house, but at the same time can get a lot of your makeshift workout.
Of course, you’ll really be able to maximize your workout if you’re doing chores outside. After all, cleaning inside is really somewhat limited in the types of basic workouts you can do at home. Outside, you can get into something as surprisingly physical as car washing. Car washing involves everything from scrubbing to sometimes climbing on top of the car’s hood if you want a really deep clean, and ultimately this can result in the type of natural full-body workout that will really have you working up a sweat. If you’re mowing your lawn or pulling weeds in your backyard, you can also work your arms to a degree that’s often hard to replicate through traditional workouts in the gym. Depending on how much of a yard you have, you may also want to think about making other improvements. If you were ever thinking of starting a garden or installing a water feature by yourself, now is probably the time to do it! Of course, when you’re working out without the aid of air conditioning, you need to stay well-hydrated and ensure that you don’t overheat.
4. Binge-Watching Workouts
There are a lot of benefits to switching from the gym to basic workouts to do at home. One of those benefits, of course, is that you can work out while at the same time engaging in some of the things that you would probably want to get done and enjoy anyway. While it’s hard to work out for an extended period of time when you’re at the gym, at home you can watch TV in the comfort of your own home, or for that matter listen to your favorite music or podcast. We have to look out the bright side during a pandemic like this, and the best way to do this is by simply enjoying the freedoms that we normally wouldn’t be able to enjoy when we had to go to a regular office job on a strict schedule. A lot of people find issues with the fact that they’re stuck at home more than they would be, but you can actually relax a lot more at home than you would in the office, or even at the gym.
There are a lot of apps that offer short-term workouts that are designed to be handled at home. And even if these aren’t your style, you can of course design your own styles of basic workouts to do at home. Try committing one episode of your favorite TV show to working out, whether you’re doing sit-ups or push-ups, or even accomplishing lunges. This is the type of thing that you can do at any point in time, even if you have a family. If you’re a parent trapped at home following the pandemic, you’re probably dealing with the fact that, after a spring semester full of homeschooling, you also need to keep your kids at home throughout the summer. You aren’t working in the office, and your kids’ summer camps are closed. So why not ask them to join you in your workout routines? You aren’t the only one who needs to exercise, and if you convince your kids to work out while watching their favorite shows, you’ll be able to ensure that your children are staying healthy while at the same time making it something that they can’t really skip or put off.
Of course, you’ll have to make sure that the workouts you engage with are the types that fit your needs and wants, and what you’d most like to get out of exercising. One of the main reasons why you should consider basic workouts to do at home is that they can be tailor-made to fit what you’re looking for specifically. Of course, if you’re dealing with certain health challenges, like illnesses or an injury, you need to think about asking your family physician about some of the more challenging workouts before you commit to them. It’s better safe than sorry, after all!
However, once you’ve found a workout that really works for you, don’t make any more excuses. Start spending this extra time in a way that is good for your health, and will have you get the most positive gains out of it possible.