Workout solutions for at home or on vacation!

         Ever find it hard to get the time to get all the way to the gym?  Better yet, ever been on vacation or away on buisness and find it difficult to find a gym?  Well here are a few of my favourite at home or on the road workouts that can be done with just some open space.  I should mention, should you have the opportunity to get yourself resistance bands or have a hotel with many stairs, you should incorporate these into your workout to help give you a much greater variety of exercises.

        The first is a former crossfit workout that I love.  I find this one is awesome because it puts you at your own pace, and allows you to challenge yourself on future workouts!

Circuit 1:

       Consists of 3 exercises for a total duration of 20 minutes.  Feel free to play around with the time depending on your fitness level.  You will try to get as many sets done as possible in the set time frame of the following 3 exercises:

Followed by 3 x Planks as long as you can with 1 minute rest in between.

Push Ups:  For push ups I recommend your hands directly below your shoulders.  If this hurts your shoulders move your hands outwards (NOT ALL THE WAY!) and continue.  Fun fact: The further out your hands are the more you work your chest and the closer they get together the more you work your triceps.  Keep your back straight and your bum down.  These can also be done on inclines or on your knees if you need to make them easier!

Leg lifts:  You start laying on your back.  I find it easiest to place your hands under your bum so your tailbone isn't on the hard ground.  You then pull your shoulder blades off the ground (the rest of your back can be flush) and don't pull your neck up to look at your feet as this can cause neck pain.  Your goal now is to not let your heels or your shoulders touch the ground again.  You then lift your legs off the ground until they point as close to the ceiling as possible.  UPGRADE: lift your bum off the ground as well to get added strain on the abdominals.

Body Squats - keep your posture straight and don't let your knees go over your toes.  Make sure it is a sit down stand up motion.  Squats are not just trying to get low, you want to mimic sitting down and standing up.  One easy way I use when teaching younger athletes is, if you were going to poop at the bottom of your squat you wouldn't want to poop on your shoes!

Plank:  The plank is the staple of any good ab routine.  It does a fantastic job at completely fatiguing the abs as well as build lean muscle without bulky muscle.  You want your elbows directly below your shoulders and nothing but a straight line from your shoulders to your heels.  Make sure you do not let your bum sag down or lift up and maintain a flexed core throughout the movement.  By not flexing your abs some of the tension will be transfered to your lower back and can lead to pain or injury.  UPGRADE: I put my toes on a bench and my elbows on an exercise ball.  This added lateral instability leads to a harder hold for the abs.

or

Circuit 2: 

           You will complete this circuit below 2-3 times with around 3-4 minutes of rest in between sets.  Each exercise will be done for 1 minute followed immediately by performing the next exercise.  This will be 8 minutes of hard work and can be done in as little as 20 minutes (2 sets).

Alternating Lunges- Keep your hips in line and your posture upright.  Only go as low as you feel flexible too, and don't let your knees go over your toes.  Is it too easy? Pick up something heavy around the house in each hand!

Push Ups:  For push ups I recommend your hands directly below your shoulders.  If this hurts your shoulders move your hands outwards (NOT ALL THE WAY!) and continue.  Fun fact: The further out your hands are the more you work your chest and the closer they get together the more you work your triceps.  Keep your back straight and your bum down.  These can also be done on inclines or on your knees if you need to make them easier!

Bicycles: These are also sometimes called 1,2,3's and are awesome at getting nice obliques (just outside your central abs) and serratus anterior muscles (those little abs up by your lats and chest).  What you do is again keep your heels off of the ground.  From there you bring your right elbow to your left knee by rotating and twisting the core around.  Don't reach with your arms, remember to bring your elbow to your knee by using your abs to both stabilize and perform the lift. You then follow by doing this to the opposite side.  Some people like to hold every 3rd one to make sure the motion stays slow and the abs are fatigued  I normally do not include the pause but I make sure each rep takes around 3-4 seconds.  This slow movement will increase tension.  Additionally fast twisting movement put a lot of torque and strain on your lower back and can lead to injury, so remember to slow down and use your abs.  Don't pull on the back of your head either, this can strain your neck.

Body Squats - keep your posture straight and don't let your knees go over your toes.  Make sure it is a sit down stand up motion.  Squats are not just trying to get low, you want to mimic sitting down and standing up.  One easy way I use when teaching younger athletes is, if you were going to poop at the bottom of your squat you wouldn't want to poop on your shoes!

Chair dips: Spread your hands out just beside your hips while sitting on a bench or chair.  Lift yourself up off the chair and put your feet flat on the ground (unless at the max length).  The further our your legs go the harder they will get.  Keep your back straight, breath, and only go as deep as you feel flexible too.

V sits: For v sits you start in a similar position as leg lifts however you are not sitting on your hands.  For v sits you hold your shoulder blades up or a weight over your head with your heels off of the ground.  You then move from this hold slowly into a V position.  This should be done slowly and controlled for the most strain on the abs.  This one can be a little tough for beginners so I included an alternate exercise called flutter kicks.  For flutter kicks remain in the leg lift position and keep your heels off the ground, you then kick your feet while keeping your legs straight and your toes pointed.  Your heels never touch the ground again until the kicking is done at the end of 1 minute.  UPGRADE: Do them on the end of a bench so that your legs can go into a negative horizontal angle for a wider range of motion!

Wall Sit: This one can be difficult and was taught to me by a personal trainer called the butcher when I was only 10 years old at hockey camp.  You sit up against the wall with your knees at 90 degrees and you hold that position.  Make sure your bum is in line with your thighs and that your feet are directly underneath your knees.  Try to keep your arms crossed on your chest and hold.

 Plank:  The plank is the staple of any good ab routine.  It does a fantastic job at completely fatiguing the abs as well as build lean muscle without bulky muscle.  You want your elbows directly below your shoulders and nothing but a straight line from your shoulders to your heels.  Make sure you do not let your bum sag down or lift up and maintain a flexed core throughout the movement.  By not flexing your abs some of the tension will be transfered to your lower back and can lead to pain or injury.  UPGRADE: I put my toes on a bench and my elbows on an exercise ball.  This added lateral instability leads to a harder hold for the abs.

Try these out guys! They can be done almost anywhere!

Cheers!

Ryan Trueman

Ryan.Trueman@dal.ca