Try This at Home

After a slow day at work, I felt like kicking off the evening with a customarily balls to the wall workout. However, I wasn’t too keen on running as the ‘feels like’ temperature was a cruel -8°F/-22°C and I am of course not a member of a gym. Not a problem, as I devised a beast of a room workout. Why not try this at home?

Warm Up: Running home from the train station (it was too cold to walk). Dynamic stretching.

3 sets of the following circuit. No rest whatsoever, except for quick sips of water.

1. Push-up position with your bum in the air, then drive legs to chest in a kind of running motion. I know these have a name, what is it? – 50 reps (one leg going forwards = one rep)
2. Push-ups – 20 reps
3. Lunges – 8 reps on each leg
4. Lying flat on your back, legs straight and 6 inches above the ground, raising each leg alternatively, keeping them as straight as possible. I should probably give these a name. 15 raises of each leg.
5. Tricep dips – 25 reps¹
6. Squats – 15 reps²
7. Side plank – 1 minute each side
8. Single leg good mornings – 8 reps on each leg³
9. Sit-ups, punching once to each side when you are up – 30 reps (up, two punches, and back = one rep)
10. Triangle push-ups– 10 reps⁴

¹ A sofa can be used to dip from
² In place of a barbell, use a Swiffer, broom, or ideally (as I had, but I can understand if you don’t) – one of those cardboard cylinders that posters come in
³ Use your two heaviest books - one in each hand and lower them towards the ground – to help balance
⁴ On the third and final set, keep going until your arms give way, causing your chest to crash down to the floor in triumph

It was a cracking workout that exercised the whole body, with little equipment and conveniently located in my own apartment! To help push myself to the max, I blasted some raucous music (At the Drive-In, Motorhead) and imagined that I was being filmed for a training montage. To those brave enough to try my workout at home – good luck!