Very frequently people run into circumstances that keep them from having access to a gym for anywhere from a week to a month. Sometimes it’s business travel sometimes leisure travel. More commonly due to world circumstances, it’s military personal on tour or course.
How do you go about keeping in shape under such circumstances? Funny enough, from about the 1940′s and back, not too many people used gyms. Most of staying in shape fell into the combination of daily labour and for those that wanted more, variations of gymnastics types movements were the norm.
If you look back through the writings about physical culture, you’ll see a history of chinup type movements with chest dips, ring work and a lot of handstand and balancing movements. The physical capabilities of these folks was astounding compared to today’s physical culturists.
If you like the idea of being able to workout anywhere and at anytime without worrying about expensive equipment then bodyweight training like in the days of old just might be the thing for you. Here is a quick workout and list of movements that you can do for each bodypart using only your bodyweight for a medium level fitness person.
Work through 4 sets of failure with one minute rest after each set on everything listed below.
Start off with lunges supersetted with pushups. Then do chinups supersetted with handstand pushups. Now you can move onto the smaller bodyparts and combine single leg calf raises with hanging leg raises for the same set and rep scheme.
If you want to get the workout done faster, simply remove the rest periods and do the workout as a circuit. Hit one exercise after the other and work through the whole thing for four rounds.
If you find the routine quite physically demanding, then it’s best to take a day to rest between workouts. If you feel generally good but not ready to hit the routine the next day, then a jog or brisk walk would be great.
There are many ways to adjust the above routines intensity through exercises choices and repetition schemes but this will give you a great jump start. The less rest you take the more this routine will slant towards conditioning and the harder you make it, thus lowering the repetitions, the more the routine will slant towards building muscle.
Adjust the routine to meet your goals and have fun. Remember, as long as you have your body with you, you’re never without a gym.
You can check out my course and program on training without equipment
right here: Home Workout – No Equipment – No Gym
-Ray
Not having expensive exercise equipment should not deter anyone from working out. There are great bodyweight exercises out there, like pushups or crunches. As long as you are determined to work out, you will find a way.
Healthy regards,
Imerson