Being an avid gym goer, I’ve never invested in home gym equipment. My schedule has allowed me the flexibility to clock some time in the gym every day, even when we travel. This shelter-in-place quarantine business during the COVID 19 Pandemic has got me in a craze over how to get a good workout in.
I’ll be honest, I felt scared and anxious when I received an email that our gym would be closing. I understand that sounds insane, since a gym temporarily closing is no big deal in comparison to the thousands of lives affected by this illness. But having my work schedule unchanged (nurses are still working!), life during this pandemic has really felt somewhat normal up until this lifestyle change. Not being able to go to the gym every morning made this COVID quarantine much more real for me.
My anxiety aside, I can’t do anything about the gym closures, other than get creative in how I can break a sweat at home! Yesterday, I shared a lower-body focused 30 minute HIIT at home that really got my heart pumping! Today, I searched through the house to find a few items I could use for an awesome upper body circuit. One of my biggest concerns was not having any weights to lift during this quarantine.
If you already own some at-home gym equipment like light to medium hand weights, you’re one step ahead of me!
In our garage, I found a wood 4×4 that was leftover from our patio farm table project. This was about the length of a barbell, weighing 8 lbs. I also found two 5-quart jugs of motor oil, each weighing 10lbs. This gave me few sweet options to build an upper body workout. I’m thinking lighter weight, more reps!
I’ve put together a circuit with the wood “barbell” and another circuit with the oil jug “dumbbells”. Complete both circuits back to back, and repeat for a total of 4 rounds! My biceps and shoulder were burning in the 4th round!
Save to your phone, turn on some tunes, and get it done! Comment your at-home dumbbell substitutes below, I’m curious what else we can use! #newcottonblend #newcottonblendfit
