Most areas of the world are in some form of lockdown, with sports clubs and gyms mostly closed, improving or even maintaining your fitness, strength, and flexibility from home can prove incredibly difficult.
When stuck at home, the passive exercise we usually get from simple things like walking around is non-existant, if you boil it down many of us have to either embrace exercise, or risk becoming a couch potato.
Lots of us now have a little more free time on our hands, and it's important to mention that this could be a great opportunity to focus on your personal growth and wellbeing, exercise is a great way to do this. If you're looking to get a bit stronger, boost your endurance to get ready for the re-opening of sports clubs, or even just blow off some steam to sleep better at night, a daily workout routine should do the trick.
The power of social media
Many people have limited space and limited access to resources, but, if the abundance of great fitness content being posted by professional sportsman and fitness coaches has shown us anything, it's that working out during lockdown can be simple and easy for anybody!
(Image from Hollie Naughton's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hollieen/)
Sharing home workouts have become growing trend across social media and have done an excellent job of inspiring people to get creative with their own routines. Some examples from the squash world include professionals challenging eachother to beat their times (such as Nick Matthew's Spartan 500 challenge), or number of reps (Paul Coll doing an uncountable number of burpees).
We decided it would be a good idea to show you some of our own workout ideas...
One Week of Workouts...
Alex, from Control the 'T' Sports, will be sharing 7 days of workouts, each day focusing on something a little different. Apart from day 1's squash related exercises (done in a parking lot), each workout will be done from home, and will require no equipment and minimal space. A skipping rope is used every now and again, however, this can be replaced by fast running on the spot if you don't have a rope!
Day 1 - Movement & Footwork
Being a squash player, Alex has focused today's workout on Movement & Footwork, if you have access to a large parking lot nearby, this can be ideal for working on ghosting and getting creative with the lines on the ground.
This workout begins with a simple warmup to get your blood flowing including some fast feet and lunges, this is followed by a basic ghosting drill. Start with one minute of light ghosting at about 50% of your maximum effort rate, then take a 15 second break followed by 30 seconds of fast-paced ghosting at 80% of your maximum effort rate. Then repeat!
If this is too difficult or too easy for you, adjust the times and effort rate to match your personal fitness level and goals!
If you do have access to a parking lot, it's an awesome place to get creative with your training. The middle section of the video features a lateral exercise using parking spaces as ghosting points, and then a forwards and backwards direction changing exercise.
Finally, if you've got a few spare squash balls handy, Alex's workout finishes with a couple of fun exercises involving collecting balls and putting them back on a racquet.
Don't be afraid to get creative!
Check out day 1's video here:
(The video is in real time, however, using YouTube's settings you can speed it up if you need to)
The Workout:
Warmup -- 30 seconds of fast feet
- 30 seconds of split lunges
- 60 seconds of skipping
- 30 seconds of fast feet with lunges
Ghosting -
60 seconds of ghosting at 50% effort
15 seconds rest
30 seconds of ghosting at 80% effort
Repeat!
A lateral movement exercise using carpark spaces as ghosting points
A forwards and backwards direction changing exercise using carpark spaces
Finish with some fun ball collecting exercises
Did you enjoy day 1's workout? If so, subscribe now so we can let you know when we post new content!
