Do you rely on a gym for your daily exercise? For your fitness machines? What happens now that gyms and public workout spaces are closing? Thanks to lockdown and social distancing guidelines, you’ll have to become more creative with how you move your body! While it may seem ideal to just “get outside for a hike or a run”, that’s not always as easy as it sounds. And it’s not always possible for people who live in densely populated cities, or in locations where a shelter in place order has been issued. If you’ve found yourself stuck inside and struggling to stay healthy and active… today’s #QuaranTip is for you! Let’s talk about how to build a home gym during quarantine to work out from the comfort of your own home!
What Makes a Gym So Great?
There’s a lot of appealing reasons to join a gym: Convenience, Community, Motivation… but perhaps the most important is your ability to get a varied and intense workout! So what are the most important aspects of a good exercise session, and how can you replicate that in your home gym?
#1: It’s Varied
Variation is incredibly important to a successful workout regime, for both physical and mental reasons. It helps keep motivation high by keeping you from getting stuck in a rut. No one wants to do the same 5 exercises day after day!
It also benefits your body by preventing overtraining of particular muscle groups or aspects of your fitness (like the cardiovascular system). By changing up your training consistently, you give your body the chance it needs to recover and rebuild, so you can can continue to overload, increasing strength and fitness.
When building your home gym during quarantine, consider how you will change up the kinds of exercises you’re doing! Make sure to incorporate both upper and lower body workouts, and vary the amount and type of resistance you use. An easy way to do this is to buy a set of dumbells and resistance bands! With these two simple sets of equipment, you can create many variations on basic functional exercises like squats, curls, lifts and jumps. It’ll keep you from getting bored, and allow you to focus on different muscle groups every day!
#2: It Makes Cardio Easy
Going to the gym can be appealing because it allows you to get your daily fix of cardio training, rain or shine! But let’s be honest… is plodding along on a treadmill really that exciting? Building your home gym is a great chance to experience a whole new type of cardio workout… one that can actually be exciting! This is one of our favorite parts of working out on the Skier’s Edge. It’s a great way to incorporate variation (see point #1 above) into your cardiovascular training to keep it fun and entertaining.
It’s also the perfect option for a home gym, because unlike a treadmill or elliptical, it’s compact and transportable. Easy to tuck into a corner and pull out for a 15-minute session. Just 14 minutes on the Skier’s Edge burns as many calories as 45 minutes of running! It’s efficient, effective and non-impact, so you can also enjoy your cardio workouts without pounding on your joints and bones.
Check out this cool video clip to see some of the equipment that Tony Horton (Founder of P90X, BeachBody and more!) uses in HIS home gym, and how he incorporates the Skier’s Edge into his training!
#3: You Can Incorporate Heavyweight Exercises
This may be one of the biggest benefits of going to a gym for those looking to increase strength and hypertrophy. Both of these require exercises at moderate to low repetitions, at the high end of your strength range. When deciding how to build a home gym during quarantine, it’s important to take into account your goals.
Do you want to focus on strength? Then you might have to start getting creative with your home gym. You may be able to fit a squat rack or barbell into your space, and that’s great! But what if you just don’t have the room? Props can come in handy here! Start thinking about things you might have laying around the house and yard. Water jugs, bags of potting soil, tires, boxes, rocks and more can all be used as stand-ins for gym weights! Get creative (but make sure to stay safe!)
#4: Convenience of Combining Workouts
Do you want to focus on conditioning? Then maybe you should build your at-home training program around high intensity, high repetition circuit training.
Combining bodyweight strength exercises with resistance (see point #1 for tips on bands and dumbells) as well as high-intensity cardio intervals to keep your heart rate up (see #2 to understand how the Skier’s Edge is great for this!) can be a great way to build fitness and endurance. It’ll give you the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to time spent exercising.
One of our favorite ways keep training interesting is to create a HIIT circuit with the Skier’s Edge. This can mean alternating strength exercises (see #3 above) with short intense bursts on the the Skier’s Edge. Or, you can change it up even more and start incorporating props into your Skier’s Edge intervals! We love how Jason Demers has created an exercise to help improve balance, strength, and endurance all at once.
The Do-It-All Home Gym Machine
Let’s face it, most of us don’t have the space or finances to buy everything you can find in a commercial gym. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get a workout that’s just as effective! When deciding how to build your home gym during quarantine, it’s important to get the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to exercise equipment. We’ve designed the Skier’s Edge to be compact, easy-to-use, and versatile to cover all your home gym needs! Whatever your sport or fitness goals, it will provide a fantastic all-around workout, even if you just have 15 minutes to spare. Perfect if you’re busy working from home!
By getting creative and incorporating items you already have around your house, as well as a few versatile pieces of equipment, you can easily replicate the convenience and effectiveness of a commercial gym from the comfort of your own home!
Check out the Skier’s Edge today to get started building your quarantine home gym!
For more ideas on how to stay healthy and fit, check out the first post in our #QuaranTips series here!
Subscribe to our blog and stay tuned to get more tips as we continue the series throughout the month, and health and fitness information into the future!