Get Your Butt Moving Again

Here we are. Day 1,234,293 of a global pandemic. You still don't feel comfortable going back to a gym, but you know you need to start moving again and get back into shape. You don't own any workout equipment and you've looked online, but everything is either still sold out or marked up 500%. You don't want to run because running is boring and it hurts your knees. You don't want to cycle because drivers are idiots and you don't want to end up as a hood ornament while someone checks a text instead of paying attention to the road. What should you do?

The good news is you have a body, bodies have mass, and anything with mass is subject to the laws of physics. For the purposes of this blog post, more specifically Newton's Law of Gravity. Don't worry, I am not going to take you back to high school physics. I am, however, going to take you back to high school gym class.

So what should you do? There are a few basic movements that can be adapted to make them harder, or easier, depending on where you are currently from a fitness perspective and how you progress as you start moving your body again. I have hyperlinked all of them below for basic "how to" videos on proper form. I will preface this by saying, if you ever feel like you are doing an exercise incorrectly, or you feel any pain that doesn't just feel like muscle soreness from starting to workout again, STOP.

Basic Movement #1: The Push Up (Upper Body):

Who doesn't love a good push up? It is so versatile and can be manipulated in so many ways to work different muscle groups and add or decrease the difficulty. You can move your hands farther apart to focus the effort on the chest and front of the deltoid. You can move them closer together and focus more on the triceps. You can place your hands on an elevated base (like a hand rail, or the back of your couch) or start with your knees on the floor to regress the exercise and make it easier if you are just starting out. I could go on and on about push up variations, but it is great exercise that can be done anywhere, and because there are so many variations, you can mix it up to keep your workouts from being boring.

Basic Movement #2: The Air Squat (Lower Body):

For a lot of people who are stuck sitting at home at their kitchen tables or other random work spaces, this is going to be a life (and hip) saver. Done correctly, you are are going to hit your quads (front of your thighs), glutes (your ass) and hamstrings (back of your thighs), while also increasing your range of motion in your hips. You can do them slow, which is definitely where you want to start, but you can increase the speed at which you do them to increase the cardiovascular benefit as you get more proficient with the movement and stronger. When you get really comfortable and good with them, you can progress them into jump squats. This is an awesome exercise with a lot of bang for your buck.

Basic Movement #3: Bicycle Crunches (Core):

I really had to think about the abdominal recommendation here. Core strength can be a tricky area for trainers, especially when working with beginners, but I picked an exercise that I felt was not too technically difficult. I like bicycle crunches because they work the upper and lower abdominals, as well as the obliques. The good news about the abdominals in general is that there are a TON of exercises that require no equipment what-so-ever. If bicycle crunches aren't your jam, spend 3 minutes on google or youtube and find a movement you are comfortable and familiar with and start there.

Basic Movement #4: Mountain Climbers:

I love these for many reasons. It is a good core exercise, you get some shoulder and arm stability added in, and for a bonus, you can get your heart rate up a lot with them. They are not a technical exercise, per se, but you can screw them up easily if you aren't focusing on the intent of the movement. If you need to regress them and make them a little easier while you work up to having your hands on the ground, use a bench or the back of your couch and start slow. Focus on the movement and body control. As you get better at them, you can use a progressively lower base for your hands until you get to the ground.

Okay, cool, I have four exercises I can do, but how should I use them? If you are just getting back into working out, we can make this pretty simple.

1.) Push Ups - as many reps as you can do right up until proper form starts to fail. That may be 5, or it may be 25. Write down how many you got on a note pad, or keep a simple Excel spread sheet.

2.) Air Squats - as many reps as you can do right up until proper form starts to fail. Again, that may be 5, or it could be 25 or more. Write down how many you got on the same sheet as you used for your push ups.

3.) Bicycle Crunches (or a different core exercise of your choosing) - same as above. Go up until you cannot perform the movement with proper form. Write down the number.

4.) Mountain Climbers - this will vary for a lot of folks, but for this, I would use time vs. number of reps. Try to start with :15 seconds. If that is too easy, go up in :05 second increments until you cannot maintain form. That's your base line target.

Perform one set each, in order, with as little rest in-between each exercise as possible. After your set of mountain climbers, rest for :45-:60 seconds, then start back at the top with push ups for another round of one set each, in order. Do this for three rounds. If you can perform more sets, go for it, as long as your form is not suffering. If you are doing more than five rounds, you should probably consider adding an additional exercise or two. This is really meant as a, "I just need to start moving my body again, but have no idea what to do" type recommendation.

Before your next workout, review how many reps you did the previous workout and try to beat your reps while maintaining proper form. I can't stress the proper form part enough. This is about quality, not quantity. If you regressed any of the movements to make them easier in the previous workout, try to progress to a more difficult position and match your number from the previous week. If you have been doing this for a few weeks and three rounds is getting too easy, add a fourth.

This recommendation is not meant to take the place of a properly designed workout program. It is, however, a not-overly-intimidating start to moving your body again, without the need for equipment, in order to jump start your way to something more. You'll work up a little sweat and get your heart rate up. My hope is that because it is simple, it will be easy to carve out the 15 minutes or so needed to complete it and you will stay consistent with it for a few weeks. If you do, you will start to see that you can do a few more push ups, a few more squats, or that you couldn't do a strict push up before, but now you can. I hope that you will see some progress and be inspired to do more. This is where a personal trainer, online or in-person, can become extremely beneficial. They will be able to take this foundation, new found enthusiasm, and confidence and continue to help you create new lasting healthy routines and push that progress further.