Best home fitness tips, gear, and apps to keep you feeling your best - Android

Among the many inconveniences associated with being trapped in the house, loss of gym access is right up there. Home fitness is just not the same. It significantly reduces the amount of equipment available to you, and it means trying to make use of a cramped space. You’ll naturally be walking much less, and lack of sunlight can leave you drained.

But different doesn’t mean worse! You now have two choices: submit to the situation and watch as your fitness deteriorates, or embrace the challenge and find new ways to develop and grow your body.

This is the perfect opportunity to experiment with some other aspects of your fitness, and there are countless tools and resources out there to help you do just that.

My hope is that once you’re done reading this article, you’ll feel inspired about the possibilities home fitness can offer!

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Explore different training modalities

Losing access to the gym sucks if you’re used to squatting 250kg, running the rack on the dumbbells, hitting the cable machine, or tearing up the treadmill. Those types of training are hard to recreate at home. But there are plenty of other styles of training that are far better suited to your new situation. Many of these can mimic the benefits of those other methods, or help you improve your fitness in other areas.

Studies show that we can maintain muscle with minimal activity.

Taking time off your usual workout actually doesn’t do as much damage as you might think. Studies show that we can maintain muscle with minimal activity, while factors such as gene expression and satellite cells help us regain any lost strength more quickly. So why not take this opportunity to add to your mobility, your cardio, or your rotational strength?

That said, if you just want to stay lean and toned, there are plenty of fun ways to train at home. 

Kettlebell training

Kettlebells are essentially oddly shaped dumbbells. The unique shape offsets the weight in relation to the handle, which in turn changes the angle of resistance. The real power of the kettlebell, though, is that it can be swung. This puts the body under all kinds of pressure, as it fights against the torque and momentum. This can develop ballistic strength and amazing strength endurance.

Kettlebells are also a good replacement for a barbell when it comes to certain compound movements. You can grab two 36kg kettlebells and perform some squats or clean and snatches and you’ll develop the same kind of explosive power you would with a barbell. Most people will be better starting with two 10kg or 20kg bells.

For those just wanting to stay lean and maybe tone up their buttocks, light kettlebells swings are the perfect at-home resistance cardio.

Yes4All Vinyl Coated Kettlebells

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Calisthenics

Take a look on YouTube and you’d be forgiven for thinking that everyone has suddenly become a calisthenics expert!

That’s no bad thing: training with bodyweight is a fantastic way to develop relative strength, as well as greater control and awareness over your own body.

Bodyweight training can take two forms. Either you use high repetitions of simple bodyweight moves (like push ups and pull ups), along with tougher variations that isolate the muscles to build work capacity and muscle size (non contractile hypertrophy, mostly); or you train for calisthenics skills like the handstand push up and planche. The latter won’t change your physique as quickly, but will develop incredible mobility, agility, and straight arm strength.

Of course, you can always combine the two.

One of the great things about bodyweight training is that you actually don’t need any equipment at all. However, there are a few items that can help you to get a better workout more easily and you should at least pick up a pull up bar.

Perfect Fitness Multi-Gym Doorway Pull Up Bar and Portable Gym System

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ProsourceFit Dip Stand Station

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Movement training

Movement training is quickly gaining popularity in the fitness community, and there are several different approaches to choose from. Animal movements involve quadrupedal patterns like crawls among other modes of locomotion, often strung together as “flows.”

Essentially, this type of training allows you to move freely between different positions, as a way to build core strength along with mobility. It’s fun and expressive, though a little obtuse and difficult to wrap your head around if you’re a beginner.

Bodybuilding

Bodybuilding often uses slightly higher rep ranges combined with lighter weights. You can then use a number of intensity techniques in order make this more difficult — such as drop sets, pyramid sets, cheats, and burns.

The main aim of bodybuilding is to build size and aesthetics, and this is something you can do with relatively light weights! Get yourself a set of adjustable dumbbells and you’ll be good to go.

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HIIT

HIIT is high-intensity interval training. This form of training essentially replaces or supplements low-intensity steady state cardio (LISS) in order to torch fat and improve fitness in a short period of time. You’ll be alternating between periods of all-out intensity (sprinting on the spot, or pounding the heavy bag), and periods of active recovery (gentle walking). There’s a lot of science that goes into explaining how this works, but suffice to say you’ll burn more calories in less time. It’s trendy, and it’s ideal for intermediate fitness from home.

Tip: Combine with kettlebells for an intense workout.