In the wake of the current coronavirus pandemic, chances are that your gym is now closed or is going to close here soon for at least 2 weeks and possibly even longer than that. We don’t know how long all of this madness will last, but to add insult to injury, now you’re probably afraid of losing all of your hard-earned gains due to not having a gym.

But don’t worry. You can still have a very effective workout at home using your own bodyweight and minimal equipment – some of which you might already have laying around.

In this article, I’ll show you how to do so using solid evidence-based fitness principles on a small budget.

Home Workout Equipment

You’ll most likely get discounted on your gym membership for all the time that they’re closed, so instead of paying your monthly fees there, you can use your funds to pick up some minimal equipment to get in a good workout at home.

In any case, this stuff is good to have on hand just in case your gym is closed or you need to get a good home workout in the future when you’re short on time, so don’t fear spending a little cash on some tools that’ll help you barrel through the current situation and any future ones. And if you want to go that route, you can always upgrade and get more equipment in the future to have a more complete gym at home in a spare room, out on the patio, or in the garage.

At minimum, here are the basics you should look into getting:

• Doorway pull-up Bar
• Set of adjustable dumbbells and free weights
• Backpack to fill with weights
• Chair/Bench/Couch/Bed (you already have one of these I hope)

A great back can be built off of a steady diet of pullups and very little else. Pull-ups will also target your biceps and rear delts very effectively, so a good pullup bar will do you a lot of good. I recommend getting yourself a doorway pullup bar. These can be found for $20-40 bucks at your local big box store like Walmart or Target or sporting goods store like Academy. If this isn’t an option for you, you can go to your local playground and use the monkey bars. Disinfect them with disinfectant wipes and wear gloves if you want to play it super safe. And if you’re not strong enough to do full pullups on your own yet, you can just do dumbbell rows using the equipment I’ll cover next:

Some muscle groups are hard to stimulate effectively without adding weight or using some dumbbells, so I recommend getting some of these. I prefer ones where you need to change out the weights on it yourself that are held in place by clips rather than buying yourself a full set of dumbbells of various weights. Plus, you can use the free weight plates to add to your backpack if you need extra weight on pull-ups or pushups like I’ll cover in this article. The cost of this all will run you $40-60 If you’re REALLY short on money, then you can just use bags filled with books, gallon jugs, etc to fill in as weights. Use your home scale to see how much they weigh for reference.

Lastly, I recommend getting a backpack to fill with weights. If you’re strong enough, you might find that your own bodyweight isn’t enough when it comes to some calisthenics exercises. A sturdy backpack that can support up to 25-50 pounds without tearing (depending on how strong you are) can be helpful here. A chain weight belt can be nice for pullups, but for pushups and other exercises, not so much, so a backpack reigns supreme here. Chances are, you have this already, so no need to buy another one.

So in total, you’ll be looking to spend $60-$100 at most. If you go the pullup bar only option, you are looking at less than $40. If you use the playground, make your own weights, and already own a backpack, you can get by without a gym for a stretch for $0.

Exercises to Do at Home

Many people freak out when they realize they don’t have access to a gym, but the truth is, your muscles don’t care whether you’re using fancy equipment, your own bodyweight, or some make-shift or store-bought weights in the comfort of your own home. All they know is STRESS, and as long as you’re pushing yourself in your workouts, you’ll be just fine.

High reps can be just as effective for muscle growth as low reps – yes, even doing pushups – and muscle doesn’t disappear overnight. It can take weeks to lose any appreciable amount of muscle when you stop working out altogether, and since you’re doing home workouts, you don’t necessarily have to lose any. In fact, you can keep on MAKING gains if you push yourself.

Here is a list of at home exercises you can use to get a great workout:

Upper Body

• Pushups (with or without weighted backpack): Chest, Triceps, Shoulders, Core
• Elevated pushups (with or without weighted backpack): Chest, Triceps, Shoulders, Core
• Pullups/Chinups (with or without weighted backpack): Back (Lats, mostly), Rear Delts, Biceps
• 1 Arm Row (If Not Strong Enough for Pullups)
• Lateral Raises: Lateral Delts
• Rear Delt Flies: Rear Delts
• Biceps Curls: Biceps
• Triceps Extensions (Overhead, Skullcrushers Style): Triceps
• Dips: Triceps (if no dumbbells)

Pushups are a forgotten hero of muscle growth. We quickly get too strong for them, but with high reps and adding weight, they can be a powerful exercise that trains your pushing muscles and trains your serratus and promotes healthy shoulder function through scapular movement. As stated, pullups are fantastic for back and bicep growth, and any other upper body gaps are easily filled through lateral raises, rear delt flies, and dedicated curls/triceps extensions.

Lower Body

• Split Squats: Quads, Glutes
• Lunges: Quads, Glutes
• 1 Leg Romanian Deadlifts: Glutes/Hams
• Hip Thrusts (1 Leg): Glutes
• Hip Abductions (Dumbbell on leg): Glutes
• Calf Raises (on a curb or stairs): Calves

People really worry about losing their leg gains with home workouts, but even that doesn’t have to be the case. Split Squats will leave you feeling it for days if you’ve never done them before and have you taking back what you said about home leg workouts being stupid. 1 Leg RDLs are the only good hamstring exercise you can do with minimal equipment, but they’re far from ineffective with a set of DBs and will strongly target your glutes too.

Sample Home Workouts

Based on those exercises, it’s not hard to organize things into an effective home workout. You should easily be able to maintain – or yes, even GAIN – while doing these at home workouts.

You’ll notice that I won’t mention how many reps to do. That’s because I want to make this as flexible as possible for people who aren’t able or willing to follow my recommendations of buying some adjustable dumbbells and weight plates. Shoot for at least 8 reps on every exercise you do and a maximum of 30 if using pure bodyweight only. I recommend you stay between 8-20, but if you have no other option, just do as many reps as you can with what you have approaching failure as you’ll see in my next point. Effort is more important than weight when it comes to muscle growth.

For each of these exercises, remember to push yourself to 1-3 reps shy of failure to ensure you’re working hard enough. If you’re just looking to maintain, stay on the low end of the set numbers. If you want to gain, stay on the higher end.

Rest at least 2-3 minutes between exercises – or as long as you need to in order to feel recovered enough for your next set. You can superset or do paired sets for exercises that won’t interfere with each other like Pushups and Situps (if you want to do ab exercises), or Curls and Triceps Extensions to save time.

Lastly, don’t forget to push for progression in your workouts to ensure you’re challenging yourself and making gains. By adding weight and reps where you can. For more info on this, see my guide on Progressive Overload. 

Push/Pull/Legs

Elevated Pushups x 2-4 sets
Pushups x 2-4 sets
Lateral Raises x 1-3 sets
Triceps Extensions or Dips x 1-3 sets

Wide-grip Pullups x 2-4 sets — remember you can sub 1 arm DB rows with these if you can’t perform pull-ups/chinups yet
Chin-ups x 2-4 sets
Biceps Curls x 1-3 sets
Rear Delt Flies x 1-3 sets

Split Squats x 2-4 sets
1 Leg RDL x 2-4 sets
Lunges x 2-4 sets
Hip Thrusts x 2-4 sets
Calf Raises x 3-6 sets

This program will have you working out 5-6 times a week if you’re really on the ball. Each individual workout is less taxing and time-consuming due to the way it’s split with the exception of legs, so it’s great if you just want to get things over with. You can take an off day at any point in the program. The Push/Pull/Legs doesn’t have to be on consecutive days before you repeat.

Upper/Lower

Elevated Pushups x 2-4 sets
Pullups x 2-4 sets — remember you can sub 1 arm DB rows with these if you can’t perform pull-ups/chinups yet
Pushups x 2-4 sets
Chinups x 2-4 sets
Lateral Raises x 1-3 sets

Split Squats x 2-4 sets
1 Leg RDL x 2-4 sets
Lunges x 2-4 sets
Hip Thrusts x 2-4 sets
Calf Raises x 3-6 sets

This program is very similar to the Push/Pull/Legs program with the exception that the two upper body days are combined and reduced in terms of accessory exercises. This is to be done 4-6 days a week in alternating fashion depending on your volume requirements and whether you just want to maintain or gain.

Conclusion

And there you have it. How to keep and even make more gains on a budget while under self-isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As you can see, it’s not hard at all with the right mindset and knowledge. The principles of working out still apply. It just takes a little creativity.

Stay informed and be sure to do your part to keep yourself and others safe.

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