One of the coolest ways I’ve seen the community adapt to this COVID-19 quarantine is the amount of ideas being shared for at home workouts. Kevin and I have been doing at home workouts with very limited equipment. It has been great to get our bodies moving, but sometimes workouts just don’t feel as challenging when done with body weight. I wanted to share some extremely practical ways of making movements more challenging.

Add weight: get creative!! You have heavy things around your house, I know you do! Find ways to make them carry-able… grab a backpack and get creative with what you can throw in it.

I found a Costco bag of rice and textbooks. You can also fill water bottles with water. Bags of dog food are heavy. Cans are heavy. Just find some heavy stuff and throw it in a backpack!

How to utilize for a workout:

• Place either on your back or your front to vary the load. You can do squats, lunges, deadlifts, 1 leg deadlifts, push ups, planks, jumping jacks, sprints, step ups, dips and many other movements with this.

• Carry it: you can do squat presses, strict presses, farmers carry.

• Move it: you can do wallballs, sit ups, kettlebell swings, cleans, toss it back and forth. Whatever you do, make sure the straps are tied in so they don’t whack you in the face.

At home workout:

4 rounds

• 30 lunges

• 20 squat press

• 10 push ups

• 400 m run (weight on your back)

Jump: jumping adds an element of power and speed, both of which will challenge more than a non jumping movement. Jumping will also get your heart rate up.

How to utilize in a workout: mix in jumping and non-jumping movements into your workout. Movements that can include jumping are: squats, lunges, push ups (for some), jumping jacks, tuck jumps, high jump, broad (frog) jump, speed skaters, and box jump.

Before you add jumping, make sure you feel strong enough in the non-jumping variation (aka a normal squat). Jumping will add more force to your joints and bones, so keep that in mind if you are nursing an injury.

At home workout:

5 rounds: 40 sec work/20 sec rest:

• Squat jumps

• Plank

• Speed skaters

• Dips

• Jumping jacks

Slow Down: slowing a movement down requires control. Because your muscle is working for longer, it is required to fire more often. This is a great way to make a movement harder with just a little bit of weight!

How to utilize in a workout: You can either move slowly through the whole movement, or pick a part of the movement to move slowly through and use power and speed in the other portion (like the deadlift video). This can be done with squats, lunges, deadlifts, push ups, presses, 1 leg squats and deadlifts, and sit ups.

At home workout:

3 rounds of 12 of each movement:

• Squat (lower for 5 seconds, pause at the bottom for 3 seconds, raise up for 1 second)

• Deadlift (lower for 5 seconds, pause at the bottom for 3 seconds, raise up for 1 second)

• Push up (lower for 5 seconds, pause at the bottom for 3 seconds, raise up for 1 second)

• Sit up (lower for 5 seconds, pause at the bottom for 3 seconds, raise up for 1 second)

I was just thinking this morning that the idea of the quarantine has seemed like a fun idea… there has been a sort of novelty around it. If this continues on, I know at home workouts are going to become more and more challenging to stay motivated for. I strongly encourage you to KEEP MOVING! Exercise helps with:

• Immunity

• Triathlon and running performance

• Weight loss and weight maintenance

• Mental health

• Mood

So yes, your equipment may be limited. But push to find ways to make it more challenging and fun. You post-quarantine self with thank you for it.

If you have questions or need more ideas, please reach out!