Home Workouts: How effective are they amidst the pandemic?

COVID 19: It's embedded itself into each and every one of our lives.

The current world situation is already clear, not to mention the anxiety & unfortunate uncertainty that surrounds it. As more and more people are getting infected, and with countries re-entering lockdown, I frequently get asked the following:

"Are home workouts worth doing?"

In all honesty, this is a tricky question to answer fully. Your current ability and existing training will factor in heavily. Although the general consensus is that they do more good than harm; especially as a beginner, or if you've recently de-loaded from your usual gym routine. Home workouts will get you a sweat on. Keep reading below for advice tailored to your level.

For beginners:

When getting started, unless you've got leftover weights from the first phases of lockdown, back when thousands sold out stores in a rush, then the workouts will mainly utilize your own bodyweight. You're looking at push-ups, squats, crunches, basically anything involving yourself.

This is a good way to dip your feet in the water and ease yourself with a reliant routine you can follow from the comfort of your home. There are of course, many different platforms to check out, all with differing themes which I would recommend, but not in any order:

1. Darebee.com
2. Nike Training (App)
3. Body Project (Youtube Channel)

Now you may be tempted to just do it yourself, without any templates like the above provide. However, I do have to stress that as a beginner, it is notably easier to overwork, sprain, or even seriously injure yourself. By choosing to train guided and by maintaining correct form (which I'll go over in my next article) you're taking the more responsible choice which will end up working to your benefit.

For the more advanced:

Since you've got more experience under your belt, there's going to be a wider variety of circuits to choose from; examples being everything from Tabata-style, minimum rest workouts which keep the tension throughout, to the (if applicable) Sport-specific and more explosive ones.

Point being, you already know what works best for yourself, but may still be pondering if they can be of any use. Make no mistake when I tell you they absolutely can! While muscle-building itself is diminished, the ability to maintain isn't.

On average, it takes about a month for muscle to start deteriorating after inactivity & even less time for strength. Home workouts help stop that, while building durability along the way as slow-twitch fibers are incorporated more, rather than the usual fast-twitching ones used in a regular gym session.

Think endurance vs sheer strength.

On top of everything, there are different variables which you can use to make the exercises even harder. For example, instead of:

• Regular push-ups > Diamond push-ups
• Regular planks > Leg lifted planks
• Regular burpees > One legged 6-count burpees
• Regular crunches > Bicycle crunches

Those are just a few variations you can start incorporating right now. Quarantined or not, let's try and make the most of this situation & not let excuses get in the way.

Thank you for reading, if any of this was of any help to you, and have any questions, feel free to drop a comment and I'll get back to you ASAP :)