Working out from home an alternative to going to the gym

Getting off the couch and to the gym is hard enough when it’s nice outside, but by the time… Getting off the couch and to the gym is hard enough when it’s nice outside, but by the time winter rolls around, it’s nearly impossible to get motivated for that walk to the Petersen Events Center or any other gym on campus.

The excuses are endless, and Pitt sophomore Mike DeAngelis, an avid gym user, can come up with more than one reason to stay at home.

“Cold weather, having to walk up that hill, or just a long night the day before,” DeAngelis said.

So, once you make the decision to stay in, you need to find a way to workout at home. People all have different routines, but DeAngelis keeps it pretty basic.

“Lots of push-ups, pull-ups and crunches,” DeAngelis said. “Our roommate Chris has a door-jamb pull-up bar, so I use that sometimes too.”

To keep up with their workouts, many students are resorting to in-home activities. For this reason, at-home workouts such as Bowflex, P90X and the Insanity Workout are all more popular than ever. Surprisingly, getting a good workout at home isn’t as difficult as you might think. With some cheap purchases, you can be right on your way.

Door-jamb Pull-Up Bar – A pull-up bar can cost anywhere from $20 to $80, but they’re all relatively the same quality. Most bars have a 300-pound weight limit and can be installed into any door jamb. Once the door jamb is installed, you can get a few good workouts in:

—Pull-ups: Pull-ups are perhaps the toughest workout you can do. With the backs of your hands toward your face, try pulling yourself up over the bar and then reaching full extension on your way down, and then pull yourself back up.

This workout is great for forearms, core and shoulders. Once an expert, you can try to do one-handed pull-ups. This is when you take your off hand and grip your own wrist on the hand holding the bar, while using one arm to pull yourself up.

—Chin-ups: Chin-ups follow the same logic that pull-ups do, only you have your palms facing your face. This is still good for your forearms, but focuses more on your biceps, core and chest. After a few months of work, you could also give the one-handed chin-up your best shot.

—Jumping Pull/Chin-ups: This is a bit more advanced, but some athletes use the jumping pull/chin-ups to simultaneously work cardio, calves, core, and upper body. The idea is simple: Jump into your pull/chin-up and after getting your chin over the bar, extend back to your start position and let your feet touch the ground only to jump again (letting go of the bar). This is a good way to end either a pull-up or chin-up workout because it is easier on your arms and core but gives you a good cardio and calf workout.

Elastic Bands: The quality and intricacy of these bands varies widely. At the top end, you can get up to 388-pound resistance with instructional DVDs for a little under $130. On the lower end, you can get some reliable bands with up to 100 pounds of resistance for around $15. The exercises you can do with these bands are basically unlimited. A simple example of one workout is the bicep curl.

Take the band, holding one end in your right hand and the other in your left. Then, step down on the middle of the band with your right foot, left foot or both feet. Once the band is on the floor under your feet, you can perform simple bicep curls just like you would with a free weight. One big selling point of these bands is that studies have shown them to be less stressful on your bones and joints while focusing more on the muscle belly. This makes them a great choice for an everyday workout for people of all training levels.

P90X: Probably the most popular of the new chain of at-home workouts, P90X is a workout based purely on the body with no weights or equipment involved. On the P90X website the system normally runs for about $120; however, it isn’t unheard of to find it online for free, and some people resell it used for cheap. The workout is based on something called “muscle confusion.” Essentially, the idea is to keep changing the workouts so rapidly and with such variety that you never plateau or become used to any one workout. In this way, P90X is rumored to be one of the best and most challenging fat burning workouts on the market.

Insanity: As if to one-up the P90X, the Insanity Workout is a more recent concoction that promises amazing results over a 60-day period rather than a 90-day period. The workout, led by Shaun T, is supposed to be as hard as it gets. Here is a snippet from its website:

“Your personal trainer Shaun T will push you past your limits with 10 workout discs packed with plyometric drills on top of nonstop intervals of strength, power, resistance and ab- and core-training moves. No equipment or weights needed. Just the will to get the hardest body you’ve ever had.”

Exercise Mat: A decent exercise mat can run anywhere from $17.95 to $40.00. This is by far the most economically sound choice for a good at-home routine. Most people could figure out workouts for an exercise mat based off things learned in a high-school gym class. With the mat, you can do anything from crunches to push-ups, yoga, plyometrics and much more. The key is finding safe and challenging workouts without any extra equipment. Here are two good examples:

Blake Griffin Push-ups — Patented by the Clippers forward Blake Griffin, these push-ups involve changing the position of your hands to attack different parts of your chest.

The positions are pretty simple:

Regular push-up, wide-stance push-up, diamond push-up (thumb and index fingers touching forming a diamond), right hand high and left hand low push-up, left hand high and right hand low push-up. Do these consecutively (five total push-ups) and that is one rep.

Try to do five sets of three reps or reps until exhaustion.

Nine-Minute Abs — this might require either a partner or just a stop watch. Essentially, you’re doing one abdominal workout for one minute, changing the workout eight times and trying to keep your feet off the ground throughout.

0:00 – 1:00: Regular Crunches

1:01 – 2:00: Side crunches on left side

2:01 – 3:00: Side crunches on right side

3:01 – 4:00: Bicycle kicks

4:01 – 5:00: Scissor kicks (keeping feet 6 inches off the ground, cross legs repeatedly in scissor motion).

5:01 – 6:00: Russian Twists (balancing on your tailbone, keep feet crossed in front of your body off the ground and rotate your shoulders to touch both hands to the ground on your right and then your left)

6:01 – 7:00: Side planks — left side

7:01 – 8:00: Side plans — right side

8:01 – 9:00: Front planks

Overall, finding a good way to work out without going to the gym is not as hard as you might think.

Another popular program is CrossFit. CrossFit is growing in poplularity because it is a no-cost, easily accessible program. Sophomore Ryan Walter is familiar with CrossFit and appreciates its simplicity.

“There is just a website you go to every day,” Walter said. “You can just check the blog for a workout each morning.”

The blog is free and you can get a lot of information off the group’s website, www.crossfit.com. But don’t underestimate how challenging it can be.

“CrossFit is as challenging as lifting,” Walter said. “When I finish I’m always dizzy and exhausted.”

DeAngelis also uses CrossFit regularly, up to five times a week, and has learned to respect the pace of the program.

“It’s basically doing a lot of exercises in a short amount of time,” DeAngelis said. “No rest. It’s tough.”