How does a powerlifter recommend staying fit without access to a gym? Here’s how he works out at home.
Working out, staying healthy — whatever you want to call it — is important, especially for those of us confined indoors/at home. Canadian pro bodybuilder Jeff Nippard has some specific recommendations for training at home despite everything that’s going on.
“There’s no need to panic about losing your gains,” said Nippard. He’s somewhat joking, but the sentiment is there. Make sure you’re working out, even if it means changing your routine, and you’ll be fine.
In the first 3 minutes or so, Nippard talks about WHO and CDC resources as well as fitness and diet myths related to COVID-19 circulating online. (You can skip all this and get straight to the workouts at minute 4.)
The following workouts require no equipment except your own body weight (and maybe a couch, table, or chair if you want to get creative).
Recommended Routine
- Do 3-5 full-body exercises per week
- Try 3-4 sets per exercise
- Diversify: Include leg exercises, push exercises, pull exercises, and isolation exercises
- Create a circuit
- Push yourself
Recommended Workouts
Nippard’s video provides two to three exercises in each muscle/exercise category. Choose the ones that work best for you. (Nippard runs through the exercises in the video pretty quickly but still provides a bit of instruction on each.)
- Jogging in place or any warmup cardio
- Pushups (weighted and unweighted)
- Wide pushups
- Wall or vertical pushups
- Elevated split squats
- One-legged squats
- Hip thrusts (weighted and unweighted)
- Wall sits
- Pullups
- Inverted rows (weighted and unweighted)
- Calf raises (weighted and unweighted)
- Bicep curls
- Tricep extensions
- Crunches and planks
If you have access to this equipment, feel free to incorporate it: a pullup bar, band, and free weights. And like Nippard says, the exact number of reps for each exercise doesn’t really matter. Using your own body weight, there’s less resistance, so rep counts may be higher. Also, the benefit of these exercises is you can modify them to fit your personal needs.
So if you find yourself looking for ways to adjust or amp up your training routine, follow these workouts at home.
