10 Home Workouts To Help You Stay Fit If Your Gym Closes.

There is a good chance that many gyms will close over the next few months due to the Covid-19 Virus.

That doesn't mean you have to give up your fitness routine.

To help you stay fit, I have put together this collection of workouts for you to stay fit if your gym closes.

Good luck and email [email protected] if you are really stuck with certain exercises and I can suggest alternatives.

Before you view the workouts - here is how I would lay it out week to week.

Option 1:  5 Day Training Week:

• Monday: Bodyweight strength session / Circuit.
• Tuesday: Home Cardio.
• Wednesday: Bodyweight strength session / Circuit.
• Thursday: Home Cardio.
• Friday:Bodyweight strength session / Circuit.
• Weekend: Rest - stretch and walk.

You can flip that around and do three cardio and two weights. Pick your preference.

Option 2: 4 Day Training Week.

• Monday: Bodyweight strength session / Circuit
• Tuesday: Home Cardio.
• Wednesday: Rest / Walk.
• Thursday: Bodyweight strength session / Circuit.
• Friday: Home Cardio.
• Weekend: Rest - stretch and walk.

Option 3: 3 Day Training Week.

• Monday: Strength / Circuit.
• Tuesday: Rest.
• Wednesday: Strength Circuit.
• Thursday: Rest.
• Friday: Strength / Circuit
• Weekend: Rest / Walk / Stretch.

Flip it around and choose cardio instead or perform 2 strength and one cardio or 2 cardio and one strength session.

Personally, I would choose 3-4 workouts and stick with them for 2-4 weeks to see improvement and then change the workouts to mix it up and keep challenging yourself.

The Workouts.

1. Home fitness and fat loss workout. (CIRCUIT)

It is a circuit style workout where you perform each exercise back to back.

Each exercise is performed for 40 seconds. You then take 20 secs rest  after each exercise and keep going until you have completed the 5 exercises.

You then take a rest for 60-120 seconds depending on your fitness level and repeat the circuit.

Perform 3-5 rounds of the circuit.

It is fast, effective and can be tailored to any fitness level.

The video below shows you the beginner and advanced versions of each exercise. Choose what is suitable for you.

To warm up I suggest doing each exercise at an easy pace for 30 secs each. Then go into your workout.

2. Home bodyweight strength workout for muscle toning.

It is a simple program with 6 exercises divided into 3 pairs.

Perform each pair of exercises for the number of sets prescribed in the video below.

You can make this program harder by adding a backpack full of books to add extra weight to your body or you can add repetitions to each set of exercises.

It is tough to do back exercises without any equipment at home so the choices are limited.

I would encourage you to purchase a suspension trainer or set of resistance bands for future workouts.

You can warm up by performing each exercise for 10 repetitions for the upper and lower body exercises and for 15-20 secs each for the core exercises.

See the video below for the exercises and the program.

3. EMOM Home fitness workout. (CIRCUIT)

EMOM stands for Every Minute On The Minute.

Basically you perform a series of two to three exercises and whatever time you have left in the minute is your rest period.

You repeat that for the desired time range. In this workout, we have two rounds of ten minutes with three exercises in each round.

The Warm Up:

• Perform one to two rounds of each of the 6 exercises.

The Workout:

• See the video for exercise demonstrations.

The Cooldown:

• Cool down by stretching or walking for 3-4 minutes.

Progressions.

You can progress this workout by adding an extra minute to each 10 minute round.

Or you can perform more reps of each exercise. For example:

• Week 1: 5 Push ups - 10 Squats - 20 Sprints per leg
• Week 2: 6 Push ups - 11 Squats - 21 Sprints per leg
• Week 3: 7 Push ups - 12 squats - 22 Sprints per leg
• Week 4: 8 Push Ups - 13 Squats - 23 Sprints per leg.
• Week 5: Change workout.

Give the workout a go and comment if you need exercise alternatives.

4. 100-10 Home Workout Challenge: (CIRCUIT).

The idea is to work downwards in numbers from 100-10.

Set a timer and see how long it takes and try to beat your time when you repeat the workout again.

You still have to perform the exercises with perfect technique regardless of how fast you go.

If you feel really fit you can work back up the numbers during the same workout.

See the video at the bottom for all the exercises and demonstrations.

The Warm Up.

• Skip for 30-60 Seconds.
• Perform each of the exercises for 5-10 repetitions each to warm up all the muscles that are going to be used in the workout.

The Workout:

• Perform the exercises in the order shown.
• Do not move on to the next exercise until you finish the current one.
• Return through the exercises if you have the fitness.

The Cool down:

• You can stretch the major muscles used to cool down.

How To Progress This Workout.

You can progress this workout by performing it faster and trying to beat your time. 

You can go down the reps and then back up the reps.

5. Home HIIT Workout

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Workout.

It means that each exercise is performed at a high level of intensity alternated with short periods of rest.
Think of yourself as working hard and then recovering and then going again.

There are only 5 bodyweight exercises.

This means that you can perform this workout anywhere.

You perform each exercise for 2 minutes, but within that 2 minutes you perform the exercise at a fast pace for 20 seconds and then you rest for 20 secs and you repeat that cycle 3 times.

Each full round takes 10 minutes.

You can then rest for 1-2 minutes and repeat the cycle 1-2 more times depending on the time you have available or your current level of fitness.

This is a great little workout to rapidly boost your fitness and the great thing is, it can be performed anywhere at any time. You do not need equipment and you can get a fantastic cardio workout.

Please see the video below for the exercise demonstrations.

Cool down with some stretching or light walking.

6. Quick And Effective Home Cardio Workout.

You can perform as many rounds as your fitness allows. I have programmed for 3-6 rounds with this option.

Warm up with 30 seconds of each exercise for two rounds to raise your body temperature, get your joints lubricated and the body prepared for what is coming.

Follow the instructions in the video to complete the workout.

7. Home Cardio Fitness Challenge.

Here is a short cardio fitness challenge that can be performed at home or in the hotel room when travelling for work.

It consists of 4 exercises performed back to back with no rest.

Then you rest for 60-120 seconds and repeat the exercises again.

Try and perform 2-4 rounds depending on your fitness levels.

It's a good little endorphin boosting sweaty workout.

See the video below for descriptions of the exercises.

8. Dynamic / Static Home Strength Workout.

For this workout I have decided to combine the dynamic and static versions of each exercise to challenge your strength, endurance and mental toughness.

There are 5 main exercises.

See the video below for demonstrations of each exercise.

Complete all 5 exercises before resting for 60-120 Seconds and then repeat 3-4 more times.

For example:

• Dynamic = Squat
• Static = Squat Hold
• Dynamic = Push Ups
• Static = Push Up Hold

Warm Up:

• Perform each exercise for 5-10 reps and perform the static version for 10 seconds each.
• This should be enough to warm up all the major joints and muscle to be used in the session.

The Workout.

• Perform each exercise with minimal rest between each exercise.
• There are 5 in total.
• Rest for 60-120 Seconds depending on your fitness level.
• Repeat for 2-4 more rounds.

Cooldown:

• Stretch all major muscles used.

How do I progress this workout?

There are a few ways to progress this workout to ensure you are constantly getting fitter.

1. Perform the exercises for 30 seconds in week 1, 35 seconds in week 2, 40 seconds in week 3 and 45 seconds in week 4.

OR

2. Perform more rounds. Week 1 could be 2 rounds, week 2 could be 3 rounds, week 3 could be 4 rounds and week 4 could be 5 rounds.

This should be enough to keep you challenged and motivated which is the key to getting results with your fitness.

9. Home Conditioning Workout.

This workout has four strength exercises and two quick conditioning exercises to get your heart rate elevated and work up a good sweat.

The video below has demonstrations of each exercise but here is how to perform the workout.

Warm Up:

• Perform each strength exercise for 5-10 reps.
• Perform the conditioning exercises for 20 seconds each.

Workout:

• Perform the exercises in pairs for 2-4 sets each depending on your fitness levels.
• Make sure the strength exercises are performed through a full range of motion and using complete control with no momentum.

Cooldown:

• Stretch all major muscles used for 30 seconds on each side.

10. 20 Minute Full Body Home Workout

This is brilliant for working a lot of muscles and getting a whole body workout.

Warm Up:

• Jog on the spot for 60 seconds
• Warm up by performing 10 repetitions of each workout

The Workout:

• Set your timer for 20 minutes.
• Round 1: Perform the 4 exercises one after the other for 10 repetitions each.
• Rest if needed.
• Round 2: Perform the 4 exercises one after the other for 11 repetitions each.
• Rest if needed.
• Repeat for 13, 14, 15 or whatever you can do with perfect form for 20 minutes.

Cooldown:

• Stretch all the major muscle groups used.

How to progress the workout.

I usually don't like to increase the speed of repetitions for strength workouts as it encourages inertia and momentum to perform the exercises and this leads to poor form and injury.

The best way to progress this home strength workout is to add in one extra exercise for 2-3 workouts and then potentially one more exercise.

Or, you could increase the length of time for the workout as you get fitter. For example 20 minutes for 2 weeks, 25 minutes for 2 weeks and 30 minutes for 2 weeks.

​Hope you enjoy the workout.

Well, there you go.

That should be enough to keep you busy for 4-8 weeks.

I hope you enjoy the workouts. Feel free to reach out and let me know how you got on.

Feel free to share the link to this page and help people keep up their fitness routine during these crazy times.