- You can still work out at home while community quarantine is in place.
- Exercises like touchdown jacks and pendulum lunges require only ample space to be able to do them.
- It’s a crucial time to stay in good health; maintaining a balanced diet, good sanitary habits, and enough indoor activity can help your body become more resistant to illnesses.
Staying active under community quarantine
Enhanced community quarantine allows everyone to take a time-out and have a quick breather from their jam-packed schedules. However, it’s easy to fall into bad habits and develop a sedentary lifestyle when you don’t have to leave the house every day to go to work. Lucky for you, there’s no need to have access to a gym in order to keep your muscles busy. There are a lot of exercises you can do without fancy equipment, or with “equipment” you can find sitting around at home.
What exercises can you do at home?
Blast-off Push-up
- Get into a plank position.
- Bend your knees and move your body backward toward your heels, then (explosively!) swing back into a high plank.
- From the high plank, do a push-up. Your elbows should be at a 45-degree angle.
- Get back into your high plank and start again.
Mountain Climber Twist
- Start with a high plank.
- Fold your right knee underneath you.
- At the same time, bend your left arm.
- Make your right knee and left elbow touch.
- Get back into the plank and do the same with your left knee and right arm.
Plank-up to Frogger
- Get into your high plank.
- Starting with your left side, lower your body into a forearm plank.
- Now starting with your right side, rise into a high plank again.
- Once you’re there, do one frogger: keep your hands steady and jump your feet outwards, then back in.
- Start from the top, this time lowering your right side first.
Panther Shoulder Taps
- Put your hands and knees on the floor.
- Balancing on your toes, lift both knees a few inches off of the floor. Keep your legs in that position as you proceed.
- Touch your left shoulder with your right hand, being careful not to twist or move your hips.
- Put your right hand back on the ground then touch your right shoulder with your left hand.
- Do the whole thing over.
Touchdown Jacks
- Stand with your feet turned slightly outwards.
- Bend your knees until you’re in a low squat.
- Without bending your torso or shoulders forward, tap the floor using your right hand.
- Straighten up by jumping your feet together.
- Jump your feet apart again to get back into your starting position.
- Do it again, this time using your left hand to touch the floor.
Pendulum Lunge
- Stand up with your arms at your sides.
- Take a big step back with your right foot, landing with the ball of your foot, not the heel.
- Bend your knees and get into a reverse lunge, with your right knee touching the floor.
- Keeping your core engaged, put your weight on your left foot and stand.
- Immediately take a big forward step with your right foot and lunge again. Your left knee should touch the floor this time.
- With the weight on your right side, stand up again.
- Step back again right away to begin the next rep.
Stair Stepping
- Try this exercise if you have access to a straight (not spiral) staircase that has a railing. Stand on the first step of the staircase.
- Position your feet so that they’re half on the step. Your heels should stick out over the edge, hold the rail so you don’t fall over.
- Start on your toes, then lower your heels down.
- Keep repeating this movement to work out your calves.
Water Bottle Weights
- If you don’t have your own free weights, a quick fix is to fill up some water bottles, seal them well, and use them for strength training.
- You could go for the basics and start with forward raises: grasp a bottle in each hand and start with your hands in front of your legs.
- Slowly lift your arms until they’re stretched out in front of you.
- Maintaining a tight core, slowly lower your arms back down, then start over.
- For forward raises and other lifting exercises, you can adjust the weight of the bottle simply by putting less or more water inside, depending on whether you want to be challenged that day.
Sack Carry and Burpees
- For this exercise, you can use either a full sack of laundry or the bag that rice and dry pet food come in, as your weight.
- Carry your weight in your arms. Use only one arm if you can.
- Walk forward for five to ten meters.
- Put the sack down and do five burpees.
- After the fifth burpee, pick the sack up again and head back to your starting point.
- When you return to your starting point, put the sack down again and do five more burpees. Start again from the top, using your other arm this time.
Footwear Agility Drills
- Find an open area in your home and dust off five individual shoes - doesn’t matter what kind.
- Place one shoe in the middle of the space and one each in front of it, behind it, to the left, and to the right, about three meters away from the first shoe.
- Stand where the center shoe is then sprint to the one in front of you.
- Backpedal to the rearmost shoe.
- Sprint back to the middle, then sidestep to the one on the left. Keep sidestepping as you go to the right shoe then back to the middle shoe, then start over.
The benefits are the same at home
These exercises don’t just build endurance and muscle strength; they can also boost your immune system and help your body fight diseases. Now, more than ever, it’s essential for all of us to be proactive in caring for our health. We can do this by eating well, keeping our bodies and surroundings clean, and staying indoors as we pursue our fitness goals.