If nothing else, Covid-19 most certainly taught us to find ways to achieve our goals with bare minimum resources in any area of life. Workouts were one of these areas. With gyms, yoga studios and jogger’s tracks being inaccessible, home workouts took centre stage. Fitness enthusiasts innovated to continue with their daily fitness routine, even when stepping out of their homes wasn’t an option. Many of them came up with creative ways to engage in intense training with what was available at home.
A full-body workout in the confines of your home primarily focuses on strength training, which helps to burn excess calories. All you need is sufficient space to lie down and sit comfortably, along with a yoga mat to cushion the knees and forearms.
Some common intense at-home workouts that don’t need any equipment are push-ups, lunges, planks, squats, burpees, mountain climbers, tricep dips, and calf raises. However, make sure you have been trained by a qualified instructor, so that your form and posture are correct.
Some of the wonderful benefits of at-home training are as follows:
1. Convenience: You can overcome practical challenges like preparing mentally to step out, gathering equipment, driving, packing your gym bag and waiting for rush hour. You just need to set a time to get started with your workout.
2. Availability of equipment: You don’t have to wait for someone to get done and free up a particular piece of workout equipment. In fact, you can get creative with free hand exercises, while maintaining correct posture.
3. Absence of infections: Workouts often involve spilling sweat, with different hands touching various surfaces as well.One has to be careful of germ-carriers at a gym or fitness studio.. At home, you can mentally relax and just focus on your workout in peace, without having to worry about catching the flu or a cold.
4. Improved focus: Isn’t it natural to feel comfortable when you know nobody is watching over you? When you work out in private, you tend to feel lesser-conscious and focus on the exercise.
5. Comfortable environment: Whether it is the room temperature, choice of music, ambience and the activities around you, everything can be adjusted as per your comfort and choice, making exercise easier.
6. Budget-friendly: You can save a huge chunk of money every time you decide to work out from home - right from the membership fee, the parking space rent, or the trendy gym clothes you may want to show off.
7. Exercise for the brain: Working out from home means taking complete charge of your own fitness and safety. You can explore exercises that challenge you, which is excellent. You also start understanding your own physical limitations, and are able to listen to your body carefully.
8. Limits excuses: It doesn’t matter whether it’s rainy, sunny or snowy outside! Make up your mind to exercise, find a convenient time slot, and go for it.
Here are the top 7 effective ‘at-home workouts’ to begin after a 10-minute warm up:
1. Squats - This perfect body weight exercise can be mastered by imagining you are sitting on a chair. It helps tone your hips, legs and also your tummy. You can start with repetitions of 15 or 20 and work your way up from there.
2. Push-ups - This foundational exercise requires upper body strength and endurance abilities, plus lower body stabilisation. One can modify push-ups by dropping to the knees or doing them off an elevated surface.
3. Lunges - You can practice lunges in static or walking form. This primarily works out the lower body muscles, including glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves. One can try using light weights (dumbbells), but it is also effective without weights.
4. Burpees - This advanced full-body exercise gets the heart pumping while burning up those calories. The resistance can be increased by using a Bosu ball.
5. Planks - Planks work on the entire core muscles. This workout requires you to lie down on the floor, facing downwards, with elbows under the shoulders and the remaining body weight held by your toes.
6. Tricep dips - This is a very effective workout for strengthening the tricep muscles and a good exercise for overall upper body resistance training. A bench or a chair can be used for this. Sit on the edge of a stable chair or bench, with fingers pointed towards the feet and legs extended, the feet about hip-width apart, heels touching the ground, looking straight ahead with the chin up. Now, press into the palms to lift your body and slide it far enough from the edge of the bench or chair. Next, lower yourself until the elbows are bent between 45 and 90 degrees. Finally push yourself back up until your arms are absolutely straight. Continue with 10-15 repetitions.
7. Calf raises - This perfect workout to strengthen and build calf muscles also increases and strengthens ankle stability and mobility.
You can add several other workouts to your daily regimen, but if you’re a beginner, start off with the above for complete exercises to burn calories, and strengthen and tone your body.