HOW TO TRAIN WHILE YOUR GYM IS CLOSED

[qbkilla]

I don't want to spread #fakenews. This is NOT anything confirmed. I have no secret inside knowledge. But I predict this will go on for 8 weeks. 60 days minimum of gym shut downs. This includes restaurants, bars, or anything related to public social gatherings. That 60-day number keeps resurfacing in reports... I think it is to soften the blow. As with anything in life we HOPE for the best, but PREPARE for the worst. Since I am proactive, I am prepping for at LEAST 60 days. As a matter of fact, I am so confident in a 60 day minimum gym shutdown, I intend to revisit this post and HOPE/PRAY that I was wrong.

This, id say a minimum of 8 weeks, I I had to just guess, September gyms may open if we are lucky. For guys who care about their body, if you have the $, I would say invest in plates, olympic bar, add as you go when you see this thing is long term. Ive spent about 300 already.

 

[qbkilla]

Any opinions on these type dumbbells?

The Best Adjustable Dumbbells

After months of lifting, we recommend the compact, easy-to-use Core Home Fitness Adjustable Dumbbell Set for at-home strength training.

thewirecutter.com

 

[Fit2Serve]

I bought a set of bowflex adjustable dumbells. they go from 5 lbs up to 52.5 lbs. Also bought a swiss exercise ball to use as bench and to do abs on etc.
Wife and I are going to workout on our deck. its big and open and should be a nice change to being inside a gym. not that I would know, haven't been in the gym for months lol but I was JUST about to get back to it and get rid of this dad bod then bam freaking coronavirus happened.
I think I can make some significant improvements with just dumbells, swiss ball and a exercise mat.
-F2S

 

[qbkilla]

what is a decent price on those DB's? are they $1 per lb like most dumbbells?


Does anyone know if a simple pulley can be made for tricep press downs? Im sure it can't be hard to build. I am an idiot when it comes to building things unfortunately lol.

 

[xpoc]

This guy is pretty inspiring: https://johndoebodybuilding.com/working-out-through-the-corona-virus/

 

[Fit2Serve]

what is a decent price on those DB's? are they $1 per lb like most dumbbells?


Does anyone know if a simple pulley can be made for tricep press downs? Im sure it can't be hard to build. I am an idiot when it comes to building things unfortunately lol.

crazy bizarre but I found the boeflex adjustable dumbells for $58 but on amazon they are like $250 or something!?
hope the site I ordered it from is legit lol
I will post here or pm ya if/when they show up
but 5-52.5lbs for $58 is a steal
I am old and on trt so 50lbs is plenty for me lol. legs will be a prob tho… will do what I can. lunges will be a staple I am sure. maybe put the wife or kiddo on my back and do squats.....
-F2S

 

[Big Beef]

Tomorrow will be my first home workout in a long time. Pretty pumped about it actually. It's either that or I'll take my push-up bars & a heavy band to the local track. They have bleachers there too. Sprinting up those bleachers is killer cardio! Sometimes I'll use them for lunges too.

 

[fitzchivalry]

crazy bizarre but I found the boeflex adjustable dumbells for $58 but on amazon they are like $250 or something!?
hope the site I ordered it from is legit lol
I will post here or pm ya if/when they show up
but 5-52.5lbs for $58 is a steal
I am old and on trt so 50lbs is plenty for me lol. legs will be a prob tho… will do what I can. lunges will be a staple I am sure. maybe put the wife or kiddo on my back and do squats.....
-F2S

Let me know, because I saw those today and after looking up reviews it appears to be a scam site based on the limited information. It would be awesome if it wasn't.

 

[BoredStiff]

Did first push workout with just bands. I've got some heavy bands, I thought it was going to be high rep, nope, could barely get past 12-15. Push will be easy to do at home, I got a crazy pump and am sore as hell.

Legs.... those are gonna suffer, just no way to get enough tension, but it is what it is.

 

[qbkilla]

If anyone finds youtube videos about some workouts to do at home (bodybuilding stuff not p90x bodyweight exercises) please post. Im trying to figure out how to hit rear delts. I guess you can use a barbell and do rear delt rows and use dumbbells for reverse flies. But I really loved face pulls and reverse pec dec.

Hamstrings???

 

[jeroendebleser]

Bought myself a set of resistance bands (the ones they are advertising all over social media right now, at least here in Belgium) with 5 levels that when combined goes up to about 100 lbs (45 kg). Should make for fun high rep workouts. I'm going to do full body workouts daily as soon as it arrives.

I just hope my door holds (it's with a door anchor)

 

[MyNameIsJeff]

I'm planning to do the resistance band workouts in one of those calisthenics parks we have all over town. Lot of bars at different heights that can be used for fixing bands. A playground might do the trick, too. Will probably go just before sunrise, so that I'll be the only one there.

 

[johnjuanb1]

It looks like I’ll be doing a lot of push ups. I have bands for arms and delts. Back is one of my favorite muscles but I don’t think I can safely do pull ups since I’ve had lat tears at the insertion point. My legs are screwed up from nerve damage and knee issues. I guess walking is about all I can do. I can’t squat down with even the bar so that’s out. At the gym I can do horizontal leg press and all versions of leg curls. Traditional leg press caused one knee to shift outward and the other to just about hyper extend so I can’t do that at all. I love doing calves. I’ll do one legged calve raises.

 

[BoredStiff]

If anyone finds youtube videos about some workouts to do at home (bodybuilding stuff not p90x bodyweight exercises) please post. Im trying to figure out how to hit rear delts. I guess you can use a barbell and do rear delt rows and use dumbbells for reverse flies. But I really loved face pulls and reverse pec dec.

Hamstrings???

Not the biggest fan of the guy but have a look at Marc Lobliner's youtube page, he is doing daily videos with full bro-split workouts using just bands.

For hamstrings, if you can get a BOSU ball and have anything you can hook your feet under, you can do glute-ham raises. I actually do them this way all the time at the gym, they are brutal. I place my knees just at the edge of the BOSU ball so my thighs fall over the ball like they would on the pad of a GHR (sorry, I suck at describing this).

If you have a dumbbell or kettle bell, single-leg romanian deadlifts don't require very much weight due to the stabilization difficulty.

pull-throughs are great and you can do them with a heavy band attached to something, another one that doesn't require that much resistance but great posterior chain movement.

 

[TheOtherOne55]

If anyone finds youtube videos about some workouts to do at home (bodybuilding stuff not p90x bodyweight exercises) please post. Im trying to figure out how to hit rear delts. I guess you can use a barbell and do rear delt rows and use dumbbells for reverse flies. But I really loved face pulls and reverse pec dec.

Hamstrings???

Do you have any bands. Band pull aparts are one of my go-to rear delt exercises.
And today I hit legs and did some Sliding Ham Curls lying on the ground. Towel under my heals and pulled them to my butt. 3 sets of 10.

Did a Leg Day today in the garage. I basically had only loaded my legs (for the past year or so) with heavy leg presses or hack squats. Nothing else. So this shit is totally new stimulus.

5 min warmup of supersetted lunges/bw squats
Lying Towel Ham Curls - 3 sets of AMRAP
Bulgarian SS - 3 sets of AMRAP. Last set should be heavish with holding something or band.
BW Squats - 3 sets of AMRAP. Deep and pause at the bottom. 1 set to failure, rest 30 secs, 2nd set to failure, rest 30 secs, 3rd set to failure.
BW Lunges - 2 sets and log the distance.
Standing Sissy Squats - 2 sets of AMRAP.
Standing Calf Raises - 4 sets. 5 reps, 5 sec hold at contraction, 5 reps, 5 sec hold at contraction, go until you cant get anymore.
Extreme stretching

all of this done mostly with BW and it was still challenging and not a super high rep WO.
Log everything. If you start with BW youll be able to progress with reps THEN add some additional weight or bands. Pretty easy progressive overload type WO.

 

[w8tlifterty]

Do you have any bands. Band pull aparts are one of my go-to rear delt exercises.
And today I hit legs and did some Sliding Ham Curls lying on the ground. Towel under my heals and pulled them to my butt. 3 sets of 10.

Did a Leg Day today in the garage. I basically had only loaded my legs (for the past year or so) with heavy leg presses or hack squats. Nothing else. So this shit is totally new stimulus.

5 min warmup of supersetted lunges/bw squats
Lying Towel Ham Curls - 3 sets of AMRAP
Bulgarian SS - 3 sets of AMRAP. Last set should be heavish with holding something or band.
BW Squats - 3 sets of AMRAP. Deep and pause at the bottom. 1 set to failure, rest 30 secs, 2nd set to failure, rest 30 secs, 3rd set to failure.
BW Lunges - 2 sets and log the distance.
Standing Sissy Squats - 2 sets of AMRAP.
Standing Calf Raises - 4 sets. 5 reps, 5 sec hold at contraction, 5 reps, 5 sec hold at contraction, go until you cant get anymore.
Extreme stretching

all of this done mostly with BW and it was still challenging and not a super high rep WO.
Log everything. If you start with BW youll be able to progress with reps THEN add some additional weight or bands. Pretty easy progressive overload type WO.

Following Jewett's stuff? Some of the best I've seen posted thus far...

As for me, this marks year 20 in the gym w almost zero breaks. My last vacation was in 08 and I took 6 days off. I had a motorcycle accident in '14 that forced me out for a week. Other than that, 3 days off here and there were the most I've been away as like many of us here... I just need it. BUT, as hard as i try, these home workouts just arent cutting it and I'm honestly curious to see how much my body will change and I am strangely not worried. I have 3 or 4 nagging injuries that haven't allowed me to train pain free in several years. Maybe those will heal? I have been getting up at 3am and jogging and/or doing sprints and that feels fucking great after not running in YEARS. Talk about a high, feels as good as the pump in the gym.

Taking Alfresco's advice and stretching, eating less and just chilling out. Im a DC guy from the early days and have been pounding protein for the vast majority of those 20 years so I think my stomach and mind just need a break as well. 5'8, 220 but very lean. Cut my trt down to 8mg a day and just gonna try to stay healthy, keep my 6 year old up on her studies and enjoy this forced break of sorts.

That said, this marks day 6 away from squatting and my legs are literally twitching begging to break parallel w some wgt on my back (or maybe that's just the multiple pinched nerves). Either way, I'm forcing myself not to touch any sort of resistance and see if I can survive not being a meathead for this time period. I guess I will find out just how much of my psyche is tied up in all this....

I hope all my brothers in iron stay healthy.

 

[Fit2Serve]

Let me know, because I saw those today and after looking up reviews it appears to be a scam site based on the limited information. It would be awesome if it wasn't.

DAMMIT! I knew it, sigh.... hope they show up but yeah I did think it looked a bit shady
-F2S

 

[Matsuo Munefusa]

what is a decent price on those DB's? are they $1 per lb like most dumbbells?


Does anyone know if a simple pulley can be made for tricep press downs? Im sure it can't be hard to build. I am an idiot when it comes to building things unfortunately lol.

definitely you can build a pulley for pressdowns. Its a simple mechanism. I'm sure you can figure it out. Just need something to anchor into thats solid and not too close to a wall (or the weight would drag up the wall). Then the line rated strong enough and thin enough that can flow through the pulley easily. And a handle of some kind (scrap of thin PVC would work).

Could do facepulls off it too, which is one of the most underrated lift I think for injury prevention and lower trap development.

 

[xpoc]

I am in the minority since I have access to a gym at my work and I still go to work 4x per week. It is a very small gym so I am employing a minimalist approach. I started 2 days ago and had 2 great workouts. Thank you Phil Hernon for the idea as I have dabbled before but I am now committed until my real gym opens.

Full Body Workout Every Day I can train
10 exercises per day.
1 exercise per body part.
1 working set until failure.

Yesterday was:

1-Bent DB rear delt raise
2-Side DB lateral raise
3-Bar Dips
4-Pull Ups
5-Barbell Pullover Style Skull Crusher
6-Seated DB Curls
7-RDL * technical failure
8-Squat *technical failure
9-Ab wheel
10-Farmer Walks for 10 rounds 30 on, 60 off

Depending on the exercise I hit failure anywhere from 12-25 reps.

I have enough equipment to vary it a bit. For example I could do a variety of bench press movements, I could do DB rows, I could do barbell curls, I could do pullovers etc. So I have plenty of variety available.

 

[nidnoy]

This thing has thrown me off routine in more ways than one. Diet was poor this week and that needed to tighten not loosen. Did no training as gym gone for now. Today did first at home, 100 bodyweight squats, do as many as I can, rest 10 count, change foot position, repeat till hit 100. Push-ups same way. 75 skul crusher type things, kind of cross between that and close stance push up. Then 100 aside raises and 100 crunches. Must say it had me sweating and out of breath. Finished in 30 minutes. Will do same type thing tomorrow. May do lunges instead of squats, dips instead of push ups. Kind of fun. Will do circuit type a different day. I will enjoy going back to gym but this is kind of cool. May keep this in routine as I have feeling circuit type would be good cardio as I was winded a little doing today’s. Also back on diet.