Student Stories: Staying in Shape

Even in quarantine, there is no excuse for people not to take care of their physical health.

Building muscle has always been a struggle for me until recently when I started lifting weights. Everything was going fine, however due to the current coronavirus pandemic, gyms across the nation have shut down forcing people to do stay-at-home workouts. This can be challenging to those who are new to working out or to those who are used to weight lifting exercises. I have devised an effective at-home workout plan that does not require any weights or equipment.

This workout plan is separated into two categories: Workout A and Workout B. Workout A takes place on Mondays and Fridays, while Workout B takes place on Wednesdays. It is important to remember to rest on the days you are not working out in order to avoid muscle damage. After each exercise, I take a one-minute break and I do each set of workouts twice in one day.

I begin Workout A focusing on the lower body, starting with one-legged squats, an exercise where you squat alternating one leg in the air. I tend to go for 25 reps in two sets. From there, I move on to normal leg squats. For this exercise I do the most I can before I get tired. The next part of Workout A is the upper body. I start out by doing two sets of 30 normal pushups with a 30 second break in between sets. I then do 40 reps of diamond pushups, which is a more tricep oriented exercise. In order to workout my biceps, I do two sets of 25 back hand pushups. After the upper body, I move on to my core. I do three planks for three minutes with 30 second breaks in between. After planks, I will do one set of 35 sit ups and after a 30 second break, I will do as many sit ups I can in one minute.

Workout B once again begins exercising the lower body. I start out with three sets of 20  alternating lunges, which targets the quadriceps and hamstrings. I finish the lower body by doing jump squats until I get tired. From there, I move on to my upper body by doing 20 handstand pushups, which is a shoulder orientated exercise. From there, I take a broom stick and place it on top of two chairs and use it as a pull up bar. I then do two sets of 25 pull ups. The final upper body exercise is a pull in and can be done by gripping a door frame and pulling yourself in. I tend to do 20 of these for each arm. For the core I again do three minute planks three times with a 30-second break in between each. After that, I lay on my back and do bicycles each side 10 times.

Working out takes a lot of time and discipline. If you are consistent and willing to put the work in then you will see great results in the end.