What quick and effective workouts should you do when you don't feel like going to the gym?
The benefits of going to the gym are well known, but at this time of year we find it hard to go. We look for quick and effective workouts to spend as little time as possible, but to be honest, laziness takes over on these cold days and leaving Netflix and our blanket aside seems like an impossible mission.
That's why it's always good to have an ace up your sleeve. Or rather, several. Have alternatives planned for those days when we know that training will do us good but we don't feel like taking the plunge. There are certain workouts that we can do at home. Others will require going out, but they will motivate us.
Mobility work
Sometimes, what we need is not a HIIT session where we end up sweating and exhausted. Sometimes, we simply need to move and get rid of stiff muscles. Thus, mobility training will be very effective because, in addition, it will also be a complement to our gym routine, allowing us to improve our mobility.
It is best to do it first thing in the morning, as soon as we get up, as it will help us start the day on the right foot and move in the right way in the different activities we carry out.
Some of the most effective exercises are: the cat-cow posture, deep squats with openings, shoulder circles or hip rotations. In just 15 or 20 minutes we will feel more relaxed and better.
Strength training at home
If we want to train without having to leave our living room, we can try to do strength training without equipment . We just have to try to be really focused, not have distractions and take care of our technique. An example could be the following:
- Push-ups .
- Squats.
- Abdominal crunches.
- Pistol squat or Bulgarian squat.
We will have to do between 12 and 15 repetitions of each exercise and 4 series, resting 1 minute between each one.
A group class
The problem with training at home is that we often lack the motivation to do it. We find it hard to get started or, sometimes, when we start the session, we lose energy along the way and leave it halfway. In these cases, it is good to consider alternatives for quick and effective training outside the home, but that do not involve training on our own in the gym.
This is where group classes come into play, and nowadays the variety of them is endless. We can opt for functional training or more intense ones, such as functional HIIT sessions, like those at gyms like Square Fitness . These are high-intensity interval training sessions that combine mobility, strength and cardio work in full-body sessions , in order to obtain a varied and effective routine, but also fun.
We can go alone or with friends, but we are sure to have such a good time that the time will fly by.
Cardio or power training
To work on your cardio, you don't have to go out for a run or spend hours on the elliptical. You can also do it at home, with simple exercises like mountain climbers, burpees, squat jumps, jumping jacks, side steps or even skipping rope. If you don't want to complicate things, you can do each one for one minute and rest for another minute.
If, on the other hand, we prefer to work on this ability together with power , plyometric training will be our best allies, because it is intense but does not require any equipment. However, they are somewhat more complex exercises, so it will be essential to learn their techniques well and allow time for our body to recover.
We can do:
Depth jumps ; that is, jumping from an elevated surface.
Jumping over small obstacles in a straight line. We can place small fences, but if we don't have any, we can always use other obstacles we have around the house, such as a milk carton, a notebook, a pair of shoes...
Box jumps.
This is just proof that there are quick and effective workouts that don't have to involve going to the gym or working out on our own. And you? Which one do you prefer?
(via GQ Spain)