People rely on the gym for many reasons. They help people with anxiety, feel fit, and just to get out of the house. The closure of the gyms due to the coronavirus concerns may leave you on the couch and eating junk food, but exercising at home can help you get through this pandemic with no gym. There are some unique exercises that you can do at home to help you stay active. One of the most common things to help you work out is things around your house that have weight to it.

Do you have gallons of water laying around your house? If so, you’re in luck. Some people are using water gallons as dumbbells. You can use them for curling to workout your core and biceps. If you really want to get creative and you have even more materials around, I have seen other people make their own barbells by only using a strong metal pipe, two buckets, water, and one bag of cement. What you do is take a bucket, put some dry cement in, add some water, and then mix it. Then you put the one side of the metal pipe in the bucket and let it dry. After that, you repeat the steps for the other side of the pipe. Now, not everyone has cement lying around; however, if you do, this is a great way to create barbells.

Some other exercises you can do at home are the basics: lunges, pushups, planks, side planks, squats, burpees, situps, and glute bridges. You can create your own workout intertwining all of these exercises into a daily routine.

Do you have a jump-rope or a rope of a similar length lying around your house?  This will help with your breathing, increase your coordination, and burn major calories. Even if you don’t have one you can pretend to jump rope and that actually still burns the same amount of calories as if you had a jump rope.

Resistance bands are also a good tool to use if you have them. When you’re pushing against a resistance band during an exercise, your muscles have to engage to fight the tension. There are plenty available on Amazon for less than $20. You don’t have to do these alone though. If you’re a kid doing these exercises, get your parents involved, and ask them to do it with you. Likewise, if you’re a parent, get your kids involved. These are all easy 20-minute workouts that you can do in your house, driveway, or even your garage.

There are many exercise apps that can also help you stay fit during this pandemic. Some of those apps come at a price but since we are in the middle of a pandemic, a lot of fitness companies are offering a free 90-day trial. Some of those apps are running apps, for example, the Nike Run Club, The Map My Run by Adidas, the Zombies Run, and the C25K 5K Trainer app. Right before your run you hit the start button which starts your run and it tracks how many miles you’ve run, the calories you’ve burned, and how many steps that you took.

There are also yoga apps like Yoga For Beginners, Lotus Yoga, and Simply Yoga. Then there are just regular fitness apps like a 7-minute workout which is the number one fitness app in 127 countries. Peloton, Fitton, Map my fitness by under armor, JEFIT, and Sworkit are also exercising apps that can be used at home.
After our school baseball season was canceled my baseball coach sent out a list of exercises every day to help with staying in shape. I regularly follow my workout routine, but other times I simply go outside and do sprints up and down the sidewalk. Some of the exercises that I do at home are planks, side planks, pushups, jumping jacks, lunges, and situps.

I know this coronavirus pandemic is making you go stir crazy, and it is hard to stay active, but why not get active and try to be productive during this time? I know all you want to do is just sit on your couch and do nothing. Trust me that’s all I want to do as well, but just take 20 minutes a day to help you pass the time but still stay 6 feet away from others.