Indoor Workouts for When You’re Stuck Inside

When we’re stuck at home, a lot of us just want to bury ourselves under our blankets where it’s warm and cozy. On days like this, exercising can seem like a lot of work, so you end up using the living room as an excuse not to work out. After all, it just doesn’t compare to the gym, right?! However, you can get in a great workout without stepping foot outside. Here are some easy indoor workouts you can do when you can’t get to the gym.

Jogging in Place

If you’re just starting and don’t exercise regularly yet, jogging in place is a great way to get moving! First, find a spot clear of obstacles – it doesn’t need to be a very big space. Then, plug in your earphones and listen to some motivating music or an audiobook while jogging in place. Soon you’ll get your blood flowing, your body will warm up, and you’ll feel your leg muscles getting a workout. Try this for 10–15 minutes.

After about a week of this, add some interval work. Here’s a sample interval routine you can try: Jog for 20 minutes. At the start of each minute, do 10 squats, 10 left leg lunges, and 10 right leg lunges, then jog the remainder of each minute.

Want to add some upper body movements? Here’s another variation: Jog for 20 minutes. At the start of each minute, do 5 push-ups and 15 squats, then jog the remainder of each minute.

Jumping Rope

Another fun and easy exercise is jumping rope. All you need is your jump rope and space where you can jump around. Be careful not to trip or slip on anything while doing this. This exercise is great because you work your entire body. It improves coordination and reflexes, burns calories, and some studies show that it can even make you smarter! So, you’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose by doing this.

Dancing

Dancing is one of the best and easiest ways to exercise! It’s good for your physical health and fitness, as well as your mental health. While dancing, you do both aerobic and anaerobic movements, which enables you to get a full-body workout and burn more calories. It gets your heart pumping, and what’s more, you don’t have to follow a routine. Just put on some fun music and work that body.

Hula Hooping

You might think hula hooping is just for kids, but you can certainly enjoy it just as much as an adult. This fun game can give you a good waist workout. According to a study by the American Council on Exercise, you could burn around 210 calories during a basic 30-minute hooping workout.

It’s pretty easy to learn, and fun too, and all you need is a hula hoop. To make it more challenging, you can get a weighted hula hoop. If you have any waist pain, chronic back pain, slipped disc, or health issues concerning your waist and back, make sure you talk to your doctor first before doing this.

Yoga

On those days when you want a less intense workout, roll out your mat and do some yoga. It’s a great way to work on your flexibility and strength. It’s also a good stress reliever and can help improve your posture. Beginner yoga can be relatively easy to learn, as well.

Where can you start? There are several apps you can use to learn how to do yoga. Daily Yoga and 5-Minute Yoga are a couple of examples, and there are countless resources online.

Workout Videos & Apps

You can also exercise along with workout videos from the comfort of your home. Technology has made it incredibly accessible, so you can easily find tons of workout videos on YouTube, even from top fitness trainers!

There are also workout apps to guide you through your workouts, such as TreadR, PEAR, Fitbit Coach, Aaptiv, and more. If you want to take it easy and meditate or do yoga, Fabulous and Headspace are great apps to look into.

Exercise with Small, Portable Equipment

You don’t need a full gym set up to get a good workout from home. While a treadmill or a weight set would be nice, it’s certainly not necessary. You don’t need that much to exercise well at home.

A set of small and medium dumbbells or medicine balls can be used in multiple ways and are reasonably affordable. You could even DIY and create yours from everyday home items (Need inspiration? Click here!) And you can do quite a lot with the stairs in your home/building – tricep dips, step-ups, box jumps, and incline push-ups, to name a few.

You Don’t Have to Leave the House

You can get a great workout right there in your home! As you can see from the ideas I’ve shared, there are several exercises you can do. At the very least, you can run up and down the stairs for a few rounds or roll out the mat on your floor and do some stretches. As long as you get your body moving, any activity you choose contributes to staying healthy & fit.

What’s your favourite indoor exercise? Let me know in the comments!