Lounge
5 great home workouts for rainy days
Summary
Can't go to the gym because it's pouring outside? No problem, we have five great workouts from home for you
Rainy season is here, and that’s not yet another excuse to not go to the gym. But a really good one, totally legitimate. However, if you plan to skip the gym, earn the right to do so with a home workout.
This month’s workouts are not meant to be easy, they are meant to keep you chasing your goals and meeting them. They are within the 20-60 minute bracket, and some are combinations you can do one after the other.
Most can be scaled to your levels of fitness as well, and this could be in terms of a different exercise, different load or fewer reps and higher rest times. To do some of these, you will need equipment like resistance bands or a wall. Or maybe stairs.
Also Read 4 reasons why you need to get off your chair and move
20-minute fat burning cardio and abs: If I can’t go to the gym for some reason, I like to offset it by doing a workout that is fully focussed on the core. This is because we hardly ever incorporate core-only days in the gym. Working out your core at home not just makes you feel like you did something worthwhile, but it makes you feel like you did something that you could only have done at home.
In his channel The Body Coach TV, Joe Wicks has a routine which keeps the heart racing as it teams up exercises like jumping squats with static planks in a 35 seconds on, 25 seconds off pattern for 20 minutes. This is a great way to pair up a fat-burning workout while also focussing on the abs. More than 5.6million people have seen this video so it must be very rewarding after a sudden cancellation of gym plans.
Also Read Meet the woman cyclist going on a record-breaking ride around the world
60-minute full body isometric holds workout with Caroline Girvan
I’m going to put one of my favourite online workouts right in the top two of this list because once again, it brings novelty to a routine.
It’s incredibly unlikely one would do an isometric hold workout if they made it to the gym so why not try it at home? Girvan’s workout is based on 40-second holds and 20 seconds of rest time, and challenges every muscle group without repeating exercises. Isometric holds are fantastic for stabilisation and time-under-tension for your muscles. The effect of doing these regularly will be felt in all the lifts in the gym.
Also Read How to be the fastest runner in an ultra marathon
40-minute full body workout routine with Bully Juice
This is a really interesting workout from the reliable YouTube channel with 8.55million subscribers. The channel had a similar workout posted three years ago, but this is surely an upgrade posted last year. The workout includes a warm-up and a cool-down and operates on a mixed 30-second-on, 30-second-off pattern, with a lot of active rest involved.
“Active rest is sometimes referred to as active recovery, which is like going for a swim the day after a tough workout. In the context of this article, active rest means you are improving your body and recovering during the workout, not just after," states a Builtlean.com article titled. Active Rest Between Exercises Can Make A Big Difference. So you will be either stretching, or just moving in a spot, or taking a full hydration break depending on the follow-along.This is a great starting point for longer follow-along workouts and needs zero equipment.
Also Read What is the 12-3-30 workout?
30-minute leg workout with Tiff x Dan
I like leg follow-along workouts because they usually don’t need equipment and guarantee the good burn. This one with Tiff x Dan has a unique approach but feel free to tinker with it. The exercises are done for a minute which is divided into 40 seconds of controlled or slower reps, and 20 seconds of the same exercise in an AMRAP (as many reps as possible). There is a 30-second rest after this before the exercise changes again.
Given that you train for an entire minute, there are a lot of unilateral moves like the staggered squat and single-leg calf raises. There is a choice to use a dumbbell even though Dan does use 30lbs in the video.
Also Read How a Ladakhi mountaineer climbed Mout Everest without oxygen
30-minute resistance band arms workout
ACHV PEAK’s arm workout is one of a kind, allowing for enough time to build the fatigue required for growth and strength, using just resistance bands. It can be annoying to induce this with bodyweight exercises and to be honest, doing arm workouts without any resistance or weights is not as much fun.
The workout includes three sets each for a biceps burnout, a triceps burnout and a combo biceps and triceps burnout — the last part being 45-seconds-on and 15-seconds-off. The first two sets are 30-seconds-on and 30-seconds-off. It’s a challenging workout but has some quality exercises you can add to your arm day at the gym too. Just using a light resistance band would be enough for this one.
Pulasta Dhar is a football commentator, podcaster and writer.
Also Read 4 ways hiking is good for your health
