Fitness at home: All you need is a bit of space

Here he talks us through some home workouts that you can do during the current UK lockdown.

Many people are finding it tough to do anything in the lockdown, let alone train properly. At Elevate, we are as much about the mental benefits of training as the physical and our classes are great for this, as its a group of like-minded people who help each other reach their goals.

Obviously this is a big thing missing when you are working out at home, but we are trying to make it as sociable as possible.

Our online classes are posted live on social media and we’ve started running interactive classes on Zoom, which makes it feel like a bit more like everyone is together. Seeing other people doing the same workout is a real mental boost and also helps you push that little bit harder, so if you have got someone you can do this workout with (in person or virtually) then its worth trying. If not, then its still a great way to get those endorphins going.

This week’s routine is simple yet effective. Last week Dan showed us how to work the upper body with equipment you’d have at home and this week I’ve made it even easier, as all you need is a bit of space and yourself. So no excuses!

Warm Up

The key to any good workout, we need to loosen up before getting into things.

Bodyweight strength endurance

We’ve got a couple of exercises here, one for the upper body and one for the lower. They are both simple to do but can be hard to master so its about getting the technique right on these.

We’re going to do reps of 10-15, with a 40 second rest between each round. We’re aiming for 6 to 10 rounds of each exercise.

Press Ups – 10 reps

Everyone knows them, but how many of you are getting them right? Its easy to shirk out of these, so we want to make sure that they are a full range of movement, staying locked in through the trunk. For those of you who want to scale this down, do the press-ups from your knees but make sure you’re still going through the full movement.

Air Squats – 15 reps

Standing with your feet shoulder width apart, we’re going to squat in a smooth movement. As you bring your hips down, make sure you sit back into your heels and keep your chest as upright as possible. Try to get your thighs parallel to the floor, or as far down as you can go.

EMOM

EMOM stands for every minute, on the minute. It’s a type of interval workout where you perform an exercise at the start of every minute. Its great for a high intensity hit while also pacing yourself.

We’ll be doing as set amount of reps in each minute and then using the remaining time in that minute to rest. We have 3 exercises and the reps will vary for each one – I’ve put a guide but change them up or down if you need to, just try to stick to the same reps for that exercise all the way through. This is a workout for 12 minutes total, which means we’ll be doing each routine 4 times.

Sit Ups / Crunches x 20-30

Another exercise everyone knows but its important to get the technique right for this. Lie on your back with your hands on your thighs. Roll your upper body up towards your knees, pushing your hands up your thighs and over your knees. When you get to the top of the movement squeeze your core and then lower back down gently to complete one full sit up.

Lunges x 30-40 (1 lunge, 1 leg)

From a standing start, step forward with 1 leg and lower your hips until both knees are bent at a 90degree angle. To maintain the right shape, don’t let you front knee go out past your toes and keep your back knee down towards the floor. Keep your upper body nice and upright throughout, staying strong through the trunk.

Burpees x 10-20

A favourite exercise at Elevate! These are a real workout in one. Start by standing with your feet shoulder width apart. Bend your hips and knees into a squatting position and place your hands on the floor, kicking your feet back into a plank position drop your chest to the floor.

This should all be in one fluid movement. Then when you’ve got your chest down, press up with your arms and jump your feet forward, bringing the body up and jumping straight upwards to finish the move.

Warm down

Let the heart rate come down, take on a little fluid and work yourself through some stretches that will open up all those worked muscles.

And you’re done! Hopefully that’s got the bloody pumping, there’s a bit of burn in the muscles and you’ve got a good buzz from the session. You have to work that bit harder to push yourself without equipment, but do this a couple of times a week and you’ll start to see the benefits quickly. Let us know how you got on via our social media channels and give us a shout if there are any future workouts you want to see.

If you want to see more of our workouts, either live or recorded, check out our Facebook @elevatefitnessukgym and Instagram pages @elevate_fitness_uk They’re free and available to everyone – we’ve got a great community at Elevate so come and join us!