This morning I am snowed in!! I think it’s safe to assume that much of Denver is snowed in and will be for the next few days. If you are fitness minded and have no equipment available to you, you might be a little disappointed to have to miss a few workouts…. Well, I have good news for you. With a little creativity, you can properly challenge your muscles and keep up with your routine with little or no equipment. Try these exercises; I know you’ll love them.1. Dips: find a chair, table or stool to hold on to. Sit on the edge of it with your hands close to your body. Extend your legs in front of you and shift your bottom forward to hang off the side of your support device. Keep your buttox close to the edge of the support and bend at the elbows until they are flexed to a 90 degree angle. Pause, then push up and mindfully contract the muscles in your arms.
2. Push-ups: Any variety will do. You can prop up on your toes or your knees with your hands directly below your shoulders. Keep your back in a neutral alignment… no sagging. Draw your abs in and contract your glutes to support your core. Bend at the elbows until your chin is about 2 inches from the floor, then push back up to starting position. To add a new dimension to it, as you push up, rotate your body to be perpendicular with the floor and your arm extended toward the ceiling. Push your hips up to feel your obliques contract. Hold that position for two seconds before returning to starting position. Alternate side rotations.
3. Body weight Squats: Stand with your feet hip width apart, toes pointed forward, abs drawn in, and neutral spinal alignment. Crouch down like you were going to sit in a chair, keeping your back straight. When your knees are bent to 90 degrees, push up through your heels and back to standing position while contracting your quads and glutes. For variety, stand with your feet together or stand with your legs spread wide and toes pointed outward. You can also do these on one leg.
4. Static lunges: Stand with a staggered stance with feet a little wider than normal step. Kneel down to make sure that both knees are bent at 90 degrees. Stand up, centering your weight evenly between your legs. Keeping your back straight, kneel until your forward leg is bent at 90 degrees (back knee in NOT touching the ground). Push up from your front heel and your back toe to starting position. For variation try with feet a little closer to isolate the quads more, or with feet farther apart to isolate the glutes more.
5. Floor Bridges: There are two variations. One with both feet on the floor and one on one leg. Try with both feet first and if it’s not challenging enough, do them on one leg. Lie on you back with your arms along your sides, palms down, knees flexed, feet flat on the ground. Draw your abs in, push up through your heels to raise your buttox toward the ceiling. Contract your glutes and hold the up position for two seconds before slowly lowering to starting position.
5. Crunches: All varieties… regular, oblique, reverse, leg raises, bicycle crunches… you can do most core exercises without equipment. Just remember to draw your belly button in towards your spine to activate the deep fibers of your core muscles.
6. Stair walk: if you have stairs, take them two steps at a time. This will get your heart rate up and strengthen your legs.
7. Jumping Jacks: Just another classic way to sneak in some cardio training. Try sets of 20-50 jacks.
8. Running in place with high knees: while jogging in place, bring your knees up as high as you can (above your belly button). This will work your hip flexors as will as core.
9. Locate the archived fitness video and do come aerobics!!
Think body weight exercises. There are numerous ones not mentioned above that can be done in place of the gym.
Another thing to consider is nutrition. If you are stuck at home, in a hotel… or any confined space, your steps will be limited. In other words you will not expend as much energy as you would normally. This means that you do not need to intake as much energy (food) as you normally would. A good estimation of maintenance calories on a snow day is about 150- 200 less than a normal day.
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