From home office to home gym – Effective workouts at home

AUTHOR:

IBS Publishing Team

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Gyms closed? Separated from your training buddy? The current situation requires that public facilities remain closed. But that is by no means an excuse to let training go completely and ruin your training progress. These three workout exercises will show you how easy it is to set up a home gym within your own four walls!

Our apartments are more multifunctional than ever before: Working in the home office until the afternoon, exercising in the home gym in the evening, and in between, normal everyday life. This is where a talent for improvisation is needed to create enough variety and balance. Thankfully, furniture and other everyday objects can be converted into equipment for effective workouts in the home gym in no time at all.

1. Chair push-up

Grab two chairs from the dining table and set them up with the seats facing each other. There should be enough space between the chairs to put yourself in a push-up position. The weight is on your hands, pressed against the seat. Continue as with a normal push-up: The body is stretched and straight, abdomen and buttocks are tensed. Then you have to push yourself up from the seat at regular intervals with regular breathing. This strengthens your arms and simultaneously trains your trunk and balance.

2. Walking lunges with groceries

If you don’t own dumbbells, you can simply carry shopping bags. It may sound funny, but this exercise is highly effective because it requires a lot of muscle groups at the same time. For this exercise you need two shopping bags, each filled with the same weight. Bottles, milk cartons, cans or similar are particularly suitable for this exercise. Of course you have to adjust the weight to your individual standard. Take hold of your improvised weights and perform standard lunges. Lunges are especially effective if you stay at the lowest point of the movement for a moment.

3. Arm circles with books

Books train the grey cells and now also the muscles. Find two books that are about the same weight and fit well in the palm of your hand. Dictionaries or other thick hams are perfect for this. Now your legs must be hip-wide apart. The arms are stretched out sideways, with elbows and wrists stretched through. The books lie on the palms of your hands and, with circular arm movements (one repetition forwards, then backwards), provide the optimal weight for trained upper arms and shoulders.

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Here is a 30-minute workout for at home including a warm up. (Source: YouTube / Self Magazine)

Statement

YouTube offers an extensive collection of home workout videos that should cater to every taste. From 3-minute short units for in-between or extensive 60-minute HIIT workouts, everything is included. This is the ideal companion for training in your own home gym!

Source cover image: iStock / yacobchuk



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