Keeping Fit and Safe at Home for €0

Staying (or getting) fit on a budget

Due to recent events, many people who would normally exercise, in one way or another, multiple times a week have found themselves cut off from any facilities they may have used. Most people are now living even more sedentary lives due to the nature of restrictions and work from home procedures. Most think that, without expensive equipment, they cannot stay sufficiently fit and thus, do not really try, aside from the odd run on a warm day.
It is important for people to realise that they have every ability to stay fit over this period without spending exorbitant amounts of money. Most students don't have access to this money anyway and used gyms on their campus which, depending on their college, may have been free. This option is currently not available and so many have been left at home while their fitness levels fall. What this blog aims to do is help you minimise muscle loss as a result of the current environment and build new muscle safely.

A number of years ago, the discipline of Calisthenics resurfaced in popularity. It primarily involves strength training, however it relies more on bodyweight exercises than the use of large equipment. You certainly will be familiar with some of the exercises under the Calisthenics heading, such as push-ups and squats as they are now very common movements. The traditional form of Calisthenics differs from the "Freestyle" kind. This form of exercise is popular in organisations such as the marines and other large groups as they can be done together and can promote cohesion, they can also be done mostly without issue alone.

All that is really required to stay fit at home is a certain amount of space, be that a garden with a wall, a garage or even an open space in your house. The most important element of this is to set out a REALISTIC regime for yourself. Saying you will do x or y one week is no good if you cannot repeat the program the next week. There must be a consistency to this, especially in the chaotic environment at home.

When it comes to picking what exercises will encompass your periodic regime, I will make no effort to give a blanket plan, it must suit each individual who takes it up in order to minimise your injury risks, which will be touched upon later. Many people follow "influencers" who will give workouts that are made for themselves, not for the vastly different fitness levels of their followers. For this reason, I will instead outline a sample of what a single week regime may look like, giving example muscle groups and such.

These exercises are only to illustrate some of the potential workouts someone may choose in building their personal own schedule, because I must reiterate the importance of doing it to your own abilities and style. Telling someone to do an exercise they hate is very likely to lower the chances they actually continue the workout.
Upper body exercises may seem limited but it must be understood that the push-up is the best bodyweight exercise for chest development and with slight modifications to form and duration, it can target other muscle groups. There are near endless variations you can do.
Notably there are so many different aerobic and anaerobic exercises available to you even with a minimum space requirement that I could not list them all here for fear of taking up the whole page. These ones specifically should be tailored towards the individuals preferences as some can be very demanding.

It is important to be safe here, it may be dangerous to use homemade weight and other contraptions. Sticking to bodyweight may initially seem too limited, there are however many people who don't touch weights and instead focus entirely on Callisthenic style exercises.

Many exercises have a dizzying array of different forms you can do them in which affect the main muscle group in use. I have listed only a few exercises here, there are many more which may be more applicable to other individuals.
If you have a few euro that you are willing to spend on some cheap equipment, some of the best things to buy would be workout mats, a medicine ball or yoga ball. Many exercises can be augmented with very small purchases.

All Aerobic/Anaerobic and Leg exercises can be completed with no equipment, although a comfortable surface may help in some regards. For Upper body, some items, such as a chair or raised surface can help in exercises such as dips and push-up variations.

Example weekly rota:

Day 1:
Upper Body (Chest) Strength - 3 Exercises

Day 2:
Aerobic/Anaerobic Fitness
(Distance Run or Circuit training)

Day 3:
Upper Body (Shoulder) Strength - 4 Exercises

Day 4:
Aerobic/Anaerobic Fitness
(Distance Run or Circuit training)

Day 5:
Distance Run or Circuit training
Rest

Day 6 :
Lower body (Legs) strength - 4 exercises

Day 7:
Rest

The above gives a framework for someone trying to get back into shape or even for a beginner. If you desire something more substantial, take a look at this

This can be used in conjunction with the list of exercises or added to by you to personalise your regime along with exercises that you like.

For the more seasoned athlete, a more comprehension plan is required. Building on the framework used above, I would add 2 extra aerobic days where possible. It is of the utmost importance however that you remember the 80/20 rule. That is, 80% of training should be low intensity, while 20% should be done in a high intensity environment. This is mainly to do with areas such as running.

One final mention is something that I generally never see attached to fitness related information which is injury prevention. Sure, people will tell you how to "do it right" but they focus almost entirely on the exercise or single workout as if you were doing it in a bubble. They take no account of the stress you put your body under and how this compounds over time. There is a direct correlation between the amount of exercise you do and the likelihood of injury i.e. the more you do the greater the chance of injury. This is the total load, the number of times you exercise and the strenuousness of those workouts. The prevailing solution to this is consistency.

"Consistency is key" is a common phrase but even more so when it comes to injury prevention. If you are hoping to get back into sports as soon as lockdown is lifted, you may be in for a shock when you injure yourself after your first few sessions back. This is possibly the most important reason to start or restart your training as soon as possible. The 10% rule, which states that athletes should increase their weekly workloads by only 10% at max week on week to maximise performance and minimise injury. According to Gabbett (Gabbett, T. 2016) there is a sweet spot between high training loads and low training loads. This is a function of the "Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio) and depicts the optimum level at which athletes should train to maximise performance and minimise injury risk. I highly recommend reading the paper in full. There are many resources and much development in this subject area.

This ratio can be calculated by summing your weekly workload over a running period of weeks. The acute figure would be the total workload divided by the number of periods (weeks) and the chronic would be the total workload for the most recent week.

For someone accustomed to heavy lifting in the gym, it may seem a trivial notion that one could injure themselves performing bodyweight exercises but this is possible and should not be underestimated. Stretch before and during your workouts, I know it can be time consuming and altogether boring, but something even more boring is sitting on the sidelines injured.
There are numerous resources available on the internet in relation to everything mentioned here, there are few excuses bar laziness at this point for one's own failure to stay fit. Only you can put a plan into action.

Most people a program or plan but cannot finish it, they lose sight of their goals. This is particularly obvious in new gym registrations around this time. In order to ensure that you continue on despite the difficulties and challenges, I recommend setting a few things in motion.

1:
Set a long term objective, If you have never ran a 5k race before, I recommend planning to sign up to the first race you can once this pandemic passes. This is your internal goal which ideally you hold yourself to. If you are already relatively fit, set another goal, like being the fittest on the team when training recommences, etc.

2:
Tell your friends about your long term goal. This creates a sort of social pressure on yourself. Now, it is extremely important not to overburden yourself with this type of social pressure as people can really beat themselves up mentally over it. If you are serious about meeting your goals however and feel the need for more motivation, this is one way I believe you can push yourself harder. Making this goal a social thing is why things like spin classes or group workouts are so popular, the social environment makes people push themselves harder than they would if they were alone.

That is my advice, in the hopes of helping just a few people get in shape.