My Home Workout

[lyorn]

I've talked about wanting to create a short home workout routine for days when I can't or won't go to the gym. Here it is. I would love to hear comments or suggestions, as I am new at this.

My goals are:
- upper body strength (because it's awesome)
- core strength (because I need it)

I want to be able to do a full push-up before autumn, and a chin-up some time this year or next.

Ingredients:
- one sturdy dinner table
- one kitchen counter, 90 cm high
- one chest in the hallway, 40 cm high
- two stable chairs on a non-slip carpet
- an alarm clock with a large analog display
- a mat
- two confused cats who bring plush mice because human on the floor means that human wants to play (optional)

Current sets/reps:
- 15 kitchen counter push-ups
- 4 planks on elbows at 20 seconds each, 10 seconds in between
- 4 dinner table chin-ups (lie with head under table, grab edge of table from below, pull up)
- 6 vertical leg crunches
- 4 chair dibs
Then repeat, with the kitchen counter push-ups replaced with 3 chest-in-the-hallway push-ups.

Not in the workout for now:
- I had planned to add bicycle crunches, but as I always end up with shoulder blade of the lower arm on the floor, I'm leaving those for later.
- I would also like to add a sun salutation as soon as I can straighten my legs and do full push-ups.
- Then there's a resistance band (don't know how strong it is, it feels medium light) I found in a drawer. There has to be some use for it.


Notes:
- Repetitions are the max of what I can do at the moment. If this goes as planned, they will go up.
- Kitchen counter too high, chest in the hallway too low :-(
- Maybe wear bicycle gloves for the table chin-ups, because that's one sharp edge there.
- For the crunches, cannot get legs vertical and straight without lots of pain, so I leave them un-straight.
- Got very localised back pain after the second time I did this, which might be connected or not. Needs observation.
- Need to figure out that breathing thing.

Any comments or suggestions?

Comments

[sophiap]

What about a twisting exercise for your obliques? It would complement your crunches rather nicely. There's a description here, and there's also a link to a bent-leg version, which looks less excruciating.

Then there's the prone cobra to hit your back.

My cat is also fascinated whenever I am at floor-level, and thinks that walking under my stomach while I'm struggling to hold plank position is great fun.

[rydra_wong]

I would also like to add a sun salutation as soon as I can straighten my legs and do full push-ups.

You don't need to be able to do a full push-up to do a sun salutation; it's perfectly normal to modify it by dropping your knees to the floor before you go into chaturanga.

(I actually found yoga very helpful in getting me to a full push-up.)

In case you haven't already found the DW yoga comm, sun_salutation, they have some nice resources on getting started.

ETA: Then there's a resistance band (don't know how strong it is, it feels medium light) I found in a drawer. There has to be some use for it.

Many! This will give you some ideas of how you can use it for upper body stuff:

http://exercise.about.com/cs/exerciseworkouts/l/blbandworkout.htm

If you decide after a while that it's way too light, try folding it in half (if it's long enough) to double it up.

Got very localised back pain after the second time I did this, which might be connected or not.

It might be connected to the crunches. I've found I can't do any crunch-type exercises without making my lower back very unhappy with me, so any isolated ab work I do has to involve keeping my back straight and stabilized.

This may not apply to you at all, but it's worth keeping an eye on how your back responds to various abs exercises.