The home workouts that got me through lockdown

3 minute read

In the beginning of the lockdown all our lives were shifted. As the dust settled in what were you going to do with the necessities in your life? Such as homeschooling children, potential job loss/income, adaptation to a working from home situation and venturing out of your home only for the bare essentials.

Once that was all met we come to the realization that our lives were grounded. We needed to establish some semblance of routine into this unusual situation in order to curb our ambient anxiety to prevent us from going insane.

Ofcourse for me as a self-improvement junkie I still needed some kind of exercise in with limited to no equipment.

Fortunately it is like free real estate with the internet and all the online fitness gurus out there. If you are quite the athletic fit junkie watch some advice and workouts from Athlean-X! Here are some two recent videos for full body home workout with minimal or substitute equipments:

The PERFECT Home Workout (Sets and Reps Included)
15 Minute Fat Burning Home Workout (NO EQUIPMENT!)

His stuff is pretty fucking intense!

Now if those are too much of a challenge for you at the moment I wanted to share the routines I’ve developed in Quarantine!

For these exercises their purpose won’t be great for getting big muscle but trim down, stay lean or maintain the muscle and fitness you already had. Well if you were starting off in an “unfit” stage you will be working towards that.

Leg routine:

Weighted (I used a backpack filled with books)

  • Squats: 4 Sets of 25 reps
  • Reverse Lunge: 3 Sets of 12 reps per leg | Superset with 100 steps
  • Split Squat: 3 Sets of 12 reps per leg|Super set with 20 Sprinters Lunges
  • Good Mornings: 4 Sets of 25 reps
Chest routine:

*All push type body weight exercise can be done with external added weight

  • Narrow grip pushups 4 Sets of 20
  • Decline close grip push ups 4 Sets of 20
  • Dips straight arm dips 4 Sets of 10
  • Slow Wide grip push ups (5 sec down, 5 sec up) 3 Sets of 10
  • Inner chest push-ups 3 Sets of 12 per side
  • Chest fly to burn out (If you have bands or a smooth surface)
Full body dynamic HIIT routine:

Warmup for 3-5 min

Perform each pair in Super Sets for 3 sets each

Narrow grip push ups 20 reps
Reverse Lunges 12 reps per side

Pike push ups 15 reps
Back Bridges 15 reps

Side to sides 30 hops
Burpees 10 reps

Back planks hold for 1 min
Aquaman/Superman hold for 1 min

Alternating arm side planks 1 min
Wall sit for 1 min

Ab finisher round!
1 min each: mountain climbers, leg raises, oblique twists

Kettle Bell Workout: (My all-time favourite home gym equipment and exercise)

From Tim Ferris:
“Here is a great two-minute tutorial on this exercise from Karen Smith, Master SFG. If kettlebell (KB) swings are totally foreign to you, I suggest starting with this two-handed swing tutorial. I also suggest starting with light weight. This exercise forces you to do counter-rotational work and is incredible for the core and posterior chain. Put more simply, KB swings hit just about everything besides your pectorals. Add some pushups to your routine”

Perform 3 sets:

  • Two handed swings - 20 reps
  • 20 Overhead halos - 20 reps, 10 per direction
  • Chest hinges - 12 reps
  • Kettle bell rows - 12 per side
  • Shoulder Press - 10-12 per side
  • Mid section around the world - 20 reps, 10 per direction
  • Single arm swings - 20 reps
  • Chest hinges - 12 reps
  • Tricep Presses - 12-15 reps
  • Shoulder cleans - 10 per side
  • Figure Eights - 20 reps
  • Chest hinges - 12 reps
  • Two handed swings - 20 reps
    *Substitute out the chest hinges for push-ups or Kettle Bell Squats

End workout with 100 Two handed swings

That’s all folks! I hope you have gained some perspective on fitting exercise into a home-living situation besides running and pushups and learned some new movements to add into existing routines as gyms have opened up. Thanks for reading!