Your Home Workout Plan

Home workouts are open while gyms are closed!  Whether you love or hate the gym, you surely realize the importance of exercise.  Let this time be a glaring reminder of the value of our health and the priority our health should be.  We have had to drastically shift our health practices to doing at home workouts. This may give you additional anxiety as you fear how you’ll still reach your goals with the gyms being closed.  Now is the time to keep your eyes on the long game and know those four walls will expand again soon.

We all want to be in the gym but we just can’t right now.  It is out of our control.  We can’t control what we can’t control, right?  We simply have to work with what we’ve got!  As fitness professionals, we are used to modifying programs at the snap of a finger.  This is a time to step back, reassess from the big-picture-perspective and adjust accordingly.

Yes, we have to adapt our exercise regimen to home workouts.

NO, we do not have to give up our fitness and health goals!

Yes, we may need to do exercises at home without equipment or with limited equipment.

NO, it is not impossible to continue to progress!

Home workouts are about YOU!  There is no doubt that having access to the large amount of equipment that most gyms offer make for more substantial results because we have more tools in our toolbox.  However, it is important to remember that a sound program is about more than equipment.  An effective program puts the equipment work not the other way around.

There are many factors we take into consideration when designing a customized fitness regimen.  We have multiple components of fitness that we address in order to have the most comprehensive design.  We still consider these when curating home workouts.

1. Muscular strength & endurance
2. Cardiovascular output and stamina
3. Mobility
4. Flexibility
5. Healthy body composition

These are big rocks of the regimen and we then determine the next layer – how often each week is each particular component needed?  We speak to many people looking to lose weight and tone up so it’s likely that Sally (the thrifty Karn’s shopper minding the directional arrows) needs to exercise 4-5 times per week in total.  She may resistance train 2-3 times per week, perform cardio 4-5 times per week, and incorporate mobility and flexibility daily.  Sally may also need formal nutrition coaching or she may just need a little accountability and direction in that area. Sally’s home workout is still detailed with rhyme and reason.

Finally, the details of each of our big rocks can be filled in which include:

1. Muscular strength & endurance
   • exercises/drills to perform – barbell squat or leg press?
   • order of movements – compound movement or isolation movement?
   • total volume (sets, reps, weight) – heavy load with fewer reps or higher reps with lighter load?
   • time under tension – how long will it take you to perform each rep?
   • rest periods – what’s the ideal time to recover between sets and why?
   • movement variations – which grip do we choose, unilateral or bilateral, what progression or regression of the exercise is needed?
2. Cardiovascular output & stamina
   • exercise type – low impact vs. high impact, etc.
   • intensity – aerobic vs. anaerobic systems
   • duration – how long should each session last
   • frequency – how often each week is each cardio session required
3. Mobility
   • is the body not able to move within its naturally intended range of motion (ROM) – where is it restricted and why?
   • exercise selection – which drills will address that ROM
   • mobility drill frequency –  we usually prescribe it as a dynamic warm up
4. Flexibility
   1. is the soft tissue (muscle, tendons, ligaments) able to fully and completely lengthen or is it over lengthened?
   2. exercise selection – which dynamic and static stretches will target our imbalances or which to avoid
   3. frequency – we usually prescribe it as a cool down
5. Healthy body composition
   1. what is an ideal body composition for the sex, age, gender? – body composition is different than BMI
   2. what is the activity level of that person to determine their dietary needs? – sedentary, active, very active?
   3. what is the foundational need for them to gain, lose, maintain their weight and ideal body composition?

Let’s think of your exercise regimen like a meal prep recipe.  You shop for the particular ingredients you need for the meal and won’t simply buy out the store with everything “just in case”.  We’re on lock-down so it’s a great time to make a meal from what you already have in your pantry and fridge.  So, let’s design a fitness program based on what’s already accessible to you right now!

       

Body – ✔     Floor – ✔     Chair – ✔   Wall – ✔      Let’s make the tools work for us! 

Here are two basic home workouts that you can do using ONLY the tools we just ✔ed off!

THE SLOW 5 WORKOUT 

Single Leg Step Down – 5 reps per side (5-10 second eccentric) 

Wall Angel – 5 reps (5 -10 second isometric)

Negative Push-ups – 5 reps (5-10 second eccentric)  

Body V / Hollow Body – 5 reps (5 seconds per position)  

REPEAT THE ENTIRE SEQUENCE 5 X THROUGH

*exercise descriptions at the far bottom*

 

DOWN THE LADDER WORKOUT

Squat Jumps – 15 reps

Prone Y Reach & W Pull – 10 reps (repeat for 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps through series)

Chair Dips  – 10 reps (repeat for 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps through series)

Hip Extension w/ Knee Extensions -10 reps (repeat for 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps through series)

Low:High Plank W/ Slow Mountain Climber 10 reps (repeat for 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps through series)

Wall Sit – 0:30

REPEAT SEQUENCE 9 more times. (always performing 15 squat jumps to start and 0:30 wall sit to finish, adjusting the # of reps for the middle 4 exercises to climb down the rep ladder)

*exercise descriptions at the far bottom*

The body will adapt to stimulus it is exposed to regularly.  Consistency is going to more for you than any piece of equipment on its own.

Once the gyms reopen, we’ll have all the wonderful equipment we’ve missed so much and a greater appreciation for those tools and the place of hard work and effort 🙂

Single Leg Step Down

• Start standing on the chair (a chair that places your thigh parallel to the ground is ideal, mine is higher)

• Keep weight pushed back as you descend (hips push back, knee bends so the toe does not drift too far over the toe)

• 5-10 second eccentric means it takes you that long to lower as far as you can

Wall Angel

• Stand 6 inches out from the wall and place your butt, upper back, upper arms (in a T position), back of head, hands to the wall

• Pull your belly button toward your spine & feel your low back press into the wall

• Push all initial 5 touch points and your lower back into the wall as hard as you can for 5-10 seconds)

Negative Push-ups

• Begin on toes or knees as appropriate with hands under chest (not shoulders) just outside of body frame

• Elbows should bend to a 45 degree angle

• Keep tip of head to ground point (knees or toes) at flat as possible, core engaged the entire time

• Ways to vary position:  on toes, on knees, hands on chair, feet on chair

• 5-10 seconds to lower all the way to the ground & climb back up to starting position

Hollow Body / Body V

• Start in a V position (chest up, back flat, lower core engaged)

• Lay out to a hollow position (legs extended as able, arms over head as able, low back pressed into the ground)

• Hold Body V position for 5 seconds then hold Hollow Body position for 5 seconds)

Squat Jump

• Stand with feet slightly wider than hip width

• Keep eyes on focal point

• Jump up and give with the landing

• Land on the balls of the feet but the heels do touch down

• The landing is the pre-stretch for the next jump

Prone Y Reach / W Pull

• Lay face down on the floor

• Squeeze your butt & push your toes into the ground

• Keeping your arms lifted off the ground, reach out into a “Y” and pull arms into a “W”

• Act as if you’re pushing resistance out and pulling resistance in

Chair Dips

• Sit on the edge of the chair with the heels of your hands on the edge

• Keep the elbows close to your body & shoulders down as you drop your body weight into the dip

• Keep your hips close to the chair as you drop the body weight down

Hip Extension w/ Knee Extensions

• Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor

• Lift the hips by squeezing the glutes and hold the top of the movement so you can extend the left leg completely then the right before you lower the hips

Low:High Plank w/ Slow Mountain Climbers

• Start in a low plank (forearms) position

• Push up to your high plank (hands) position

• Pull the left knee to the left elbow then the right

Wall Sit

• Stand about 16 inches away from the wall so your feet are flat and knees are bent to 90 degrees with your back flat to the all

• Low up to upper back and shoulders and back of the head are pressed to the wall

• Legs and core squeeze during the entire hold

You can check out some other workouts on our Facebook Page.