Don’t let the lack of gym equipment stop you from maintaining your workout routine — do your workout with household items instead. Here are 5 to try.
While we stay at home, it’s normal we feel more tempted to skip on our workout routine. After all, we are feeling cosy, and since we are not leaving the house, we don’t face the urge to hit the gym. Plus, we don’t have the necessary gym equipment to perform our workout.
While all this might be true, there are always other options. For instance, have you tried one of our bodyweight workouts part of our Raw Gym live classes at home? We can also get creative and use random house objects. You read that right — these objects may have another purpose, at least different from the one we usually give them. Here are some of them.
Workout with household items: 5 objects that double as gym equipment
1) Towels
You usually use a towel for drying yourself, but this household item can be much more than that. Think resistance band. Yeap, you can use it to help you stretch. It can also help you do a highly effective leg workout. One example? Knee tucks. In a plank position, place a towel under your feet. Engage the lower abs and pull both knees towards the chest at the same time — the towel will slide through the floor. Extend the legs again and complete as many reps as you want.
2) Chairs
A firm chair can be more than just a basic piece of furniture — just make sure it doesn’t have wheels. You can use it to perform some tricep dips, for example. Another good exercise to make is a reverse lunge with a chair. With your back turned to the chair, place one of your feet on the chair while keeping your back straight. Descend into lunge. Repeat and then change legs.
3) A pillow
They are not just to lay down and rest on it — they can also help you improve your core strength. Place a pillow between your feet. With your lower back touching the floor, extend your legs and arms. Bend your knees and bring them to your chest. Hold the pillow with your hands, extend your arms overhead, stretch your legs and touch with the pillow on the floor. Return to the V-position and repeat.
4) Laundry detergent jugs
We mentioned these jugs, but you can use water bottles, soup cans or milk packs, for example. The goal is to have some homemade weights to work on those muscles, a kind of domestic dumbbell. You can use these to perform some tricep kickbacks, overhead presses, bicep curls or front raises.
5) Toilet paper
One of the most controversial topics of the last few weeks, toilet paper can also become part of your workout. Use it for some dynamic planks. Start by stacking 4 or 5 rolls of toilet paper on top of each other. Descend into plank position and make sure the toilet paper is on one of your sides. Use the hand on that side to take the rolls, one by one, and stack them again on the other side. Repeat.
