The Official Workout Thread

[DianneW]

I use to run for the Croydon Harriers based at the Croydon Arena near South Norwood, do not think it is there anymore, likely a housing estate...came 3 rd once for the whole of Surrey.thought that was good at the time.haha. was about 14 years when I stopped and then carried on with netball until I had to move on to Swimming as age calls for changes..C'est la vie...

[Mindfulness]

Started lifting again, not much, just doing as many reps as I can until sore and then repeat.

[adidasss]

We are under lockdown again for 3 weeks, which means all the gyms are closed. And I am just not very motivated to do home exercises. A bit dispiriting but there are worse things happening currently. Will try to maintain some level of fitness at home. Chest is more or less doable, but back and legs, more difficult.

[grindy]

Not really that difficult actually.
Unless you are extremely fit and strong it shouldn't be difficult to challenge yourself.
Do you have a pull up bar or any weights?
If not you can probably utilize some heavy stuff you have at home.
I'd also recommend buying bands. Pretty cheap, don't take up much space and you can train almost everything with them.

[adidasss]

Unfortunately I don't have any home equipment, which is why I'm saying it's difficult.

I know I can do stuff at home, I have done it before, but it's obviously not possible to maintain the same level of fitness you achieve at the gym with more or less bodyweight exercises and a few bands.

[grindy]

Not really.
If you are an elite bodybuilder, with each muscle honed to the max, then yeah, you'll decline a bit. For a normal gym goer not so much.
It might be somewhat difficult to grow a lot of new muscle when working out from home without any equipment.
But maintaining the muscle you have for three weeks is no issue at all.
You don't even start losing muscle for about a week without any weight training and even then it's pretty slow at first.
If your muscles get stimulated decently you won't lose any during three weeks.
If you aren't motivated that's another thing but it's absolutely not an issue if you really try. (Back might actually be more difficult than legs.)
And don't knock bands, you can totally destroy yourself (in a good way) with bands.

[adidasss]

Yes really. I'm far from being an elite bodybuilder but I lift (somewhat) heavy shit. I also know how to do home bodyweight (or improvised weight) exercises. Like I said, I've done it for previous lockdowns. And I always noted a loss of strength. Not huge but some.

I don't see how you can maintain the same level of power if you're not lifting the same weights. I lift about 140kg on a deadlift. If I don't have a bar and weights at home, and least of all 140kg to lift in proper deadlift form, I'm not gonna maintain that strength. It's gonna drop. Same for squats. Somewhat easier to do but I don't have the weight. Etc etc.

But yeah, bands help, I have and use them...

[grindy]

You're right about losing a bit of strength and yes, the big three lifts are indeed hard to replace.
I thought you were more worried about losing muscle which is the usual concern for non-athletes.
At least for squats you can do one-legged versions with higher reps and some intensity techniques. Not the same but not bad at all. One can do banded deadlifts with higher reps but it does feel weird and doesn't translate that we'll.

[Cuthbert]

One legged squats are great, give you DOMS for several days.

Underrated exercise.

[grindy]

Which type are you doing?
I'm doing Bulgarian split squats additionally to normal squats. Really ****s me up.
I heard that pistol squats are also pretty hardcore but I'm too inflexible and have too little balance to do those.