Remember all those times you said you’d like to dedicate yourself to fitness if you had the time? Well now you do. We all do!
Here’s one of the workouts lifted straight from my 12-week home training programme and I’m here to coach you through it. All you need to do is follow the instructions for each exercise, watch the video demonstrations and complete all the reps and sets indicated for each exercise.
What you need
You will need a few things from around your home for this workout. A few bottles of water/ bags of rice etc will suffice for weights. A backpack full of heavy books will also help.
You’ll need around 2m x 2m space on the floor for this workout. We’ll be making use of the couch and / or chair too.
The workout is made up of 4 sections with a video for each section. The first section is a warm-up consisting of mobilisation of stiff areas and activation of certain muscles. This is more important than stretching after a workout so don’t skip this part.
The next 3 sections all contain 3 exercises each. I recommend 3 sets each as a superset / circuit with a 0-30 second rest between the supersets.
Once you complete a section, you can then move onto the next one. This is a full body session and the sections after the warm-up are divided into lower body, upper body and abs/core respectively.
Section A: The warm-up
Sun Salutations and Hamstring mobs
Perform 5 reps of sun salutes, followed by 5 x hamstring stretches as demonstrated. Keep the chest touching or as close to the thigh throughout the hamstring stretching. Even if you can’t get all the way back to a straight leg.
Deep squat
Hold for 30-45 seconds, keeping the heels on the ground, and as low as you can until your thighs are relaxed. Use something to hold onto if necessary and wiggle your knees wider from side to side using your elbows.
Cat and cow stretch
Keep your shoulders over your hands, push the floor away as hard as you can rounding the upper back towards the ceiling. Feel the shoulder blades wrap around the rib cage as you do. Try to ‘tuck’ your tail bone under and draw your abs in when you do. Hold this for 1 second. Then drop your spine the other way allowing your ribcage to drop down to the floor and arching the back as much as you can. Hold this for 1 second. That is 1 rep. Do 10 x cat and cow stretches.
Section B: Lower body
Do the following 3 exercises as a superset: 1 set of each exercise with no rest between them. Rest 30 seconds after exercise 3 only if you need to. Then repeat 2 more of these supersets. 3 supersets total.
Glute bridging on a couch
Lying on your back on the floor, put the heels of your feet up on the couch. Shuffle your butt close to the couch so your knees are just less than 90 degrees at rest. This targets the glutes, otherwise you’ll feel this more in the back of the thighs (hamstrings). Keep the tailbone ‘tucked under’ and lower your back flat as you lift - this will also help prevent you using your lower back.
Dig the heels down and think of peeling the hips off the floor and then the spine, segment by segment, until your hips are high enough that thighs are high and in line with the torso. Slowly lower yourself back down.
Do 20 reps of this movement.
Bulgarian split squat
Bend one knee and aim to lower it slowly to a cushion set just behind you. Do so by leaning forward, putting your weight on the front leg. Keep the back leg bent high to make the range more challenging. If you have knee issues or find this difficult, have the back knee bent less so your foot makes contact sooner, reducing the range.
Do 10 reps of this movement on each side.
Reach squats
Hold a weight (this is where the backpack comes in handy) close to your chest and begin to squat down, keeping the weight on your heels and your knees wider than your feet. As you drop down, push the weight away from your chest to act as a counter-weight. Bring it back in as you raise from the squat. Tense your abs strongly as you reach outward.
Do 12 reps.
Section C: Upper body
Do the following 3 exercises as a superset: 1 set of each exercise with no rest between them. Rest 30 seconds after exercise 3 only if you need to. Then repeat 2 more of these supersets. 3 supersets total.
Incline push up
Hold your spine and body dead straight with your arms under your shoulders and slowly lower your chest towards the step/bench/couch. Then push yourself back up. Keep your part of the couch or other surface at a height suitable to get at least 5 good reps done.
*Alternatively, you perform this exercise from the knees (second half of video). Do as many as possible (AMAP) with good depth and good technique. Make sure your core is engaged (belly button drawn in) and your glutes are tight throughout.
Bent over reverse fly
Keep the back straight but bent at the hips so your torso is close to parallel with the floor. As your arms hang down, retract the shoulder blades back together, then start to lift the arms out to the side keeping them straight. Lower them back slowly and relax the shoulder blades when you reach the bottom.
Do 12 reps of this movement
High plank to downward dog
Keep your belly button drawn in and tailbone tucked under in the high plank position. Lift the hips toward the ceiling maintaining a straight back and drive yourself back onto your arms. Keep your shoulders and shoulder blades active by firmly pushing the floor away. Control the shoulder blades as you return to the start position too.
If the stretch is too much on the back of your thighs, allow a small bend in the knees.
Do 12 reps of this movement.
Rest 30 secs in between the movements if you need to and repeat these 3 exercises for 3 sets each.
Section D: Abs
Do the following 3 exercises as a superset: 1 set of each exercise with no rest between them. Rest 30 seconds after exercise 3 only if you need to. Then repeat 2 more of these supersets. 3 supersets total.
Plank Matrix
In a plank position, you need your back to be straight and flat. Your belly button needs to be drawn in and tailbone tucked under.
Turn from a plank into a side plank without resting then switch to the other side. Hold each position for as long as indicated.
Use the alternate position (later in video) if straight legs are too difficult.
I recommend 20 seconds for each position for 1 minute. Do 2 minutes each round if you are advanced.
Reverse flog leg crunches
Holding a weight or support above the head, tuck the heels into the thighs, feet close together but knees wide apart. Draw in the belly button and abs as firmly as possible, curl the knees up until they are above the elbows.
Pause.
Very slowly lower to the start position by rolling each segment of the spine down the floor or bench. Ensure your lower back is still flat on the floor at the end of the movement. That is one rep. DO NOT pivot with the knees to gain momentum.
Do 10 but use a slow 4 second count on the way down.
Skipping
Skip as a conditioning exercise. If you are without a rope, pretend you have one! Skip for 90 seconds.
Rest for 30 seconds if you need to and then repeat these 3 exercises for 3 sets each.
Too easy? Try this workout for 4 rounds of each section and no rest time.
A final word on nutrition
Working out while house bound will not only help improve your fitness it will help mitigate fat-gain which most of us will experience when being stuck at home. People tend to underestimate the amount NEAT (Non Exercise Attributed Thermogenesis) adds to overall daily calorie burn. NEAT is basically the accumulated calories we burn during daily activities such as commuting, using stairs, hobbies, evenings out and everything else outside of dedicated exercise and energy used for digesting food. As NEAT will be reduced for almost all of us, we need to stay somewhat active and also adjust our calorie intake accordingly. If you record, or have recorded calories in the past, I would recommend dropping your daily calorie intake by around 15-20%.
