How I Transformed My Body in Lockdown
The 7 home fitness secrets (part one)
Fitness is an uphill road and during lockdown it has become even steeper.
I am not a fitness guru (yet), but it doesn’t take much to understand that all your fitness plans will take a hit while in lockdown. When I started training in confinement my main goal was to limit muscle loss for as long as possible in hope of the reopening of public gyms in my area. Little did I know that all gyms in the UK would have been closed for over 4 months.
At the beginning of the month of April, I had to rearrange my lifestyle accordingly to the situation. This meant substituting all the heavy-lift sessions with bodyweight exercises and replacing athletics and swimming for jogging. My diet was then based on high volume and low-calorie foods such as veggies and fruits because I didn’t require 3,000 kcal per day anymore.
If you have some experience with muscle gaining plans you will know that this is not a recipe for success. However, fast forward 2 months and meet the leaner, fitter and more energetic me that has managed to set unique bodyweight records.
Astonished by myself I looked back at the training plans for the past months and noticed some similarities that between friends we now refer to as “The 7 Home-Fitness Secrets”.
While training at home you need to be aware of the great weight loss plan that you can embrace. To lose weight you must be in a caloric deficit which means that your caloric expenditure throughout the day must be greater than your assumed calories per day (you probably already know this). To enter this deficit phase it is necessary to combine: a low-calorie diet, some sort of fitness training and reduce the inactivity time (sitting down, laying on the couch, etc.). The 7 Home-Fitness Secrets will help you do just this.
- Jump Rope
Jump rope is one of the easiest ways to get active and will quickly affect your excess weight. With 10 minutes of jumping you will burn over 200 kcal which is the equivalent of running 4km or cycling 9km. Jump rope is a very simple movement that we all learnt at a young age and it is a cheaper way to get in shape than paying for fitness classes. All you need is a rope and 10 minutes of your time.
Jump rope has become one of my favourite exercises as it has improved my coordination, matches my competitive character, can be done anywhere at any time and makes me sweat like no other exercise. I just love it! And this brings me to my next point…
2. Train in a way you like
This next secret is something that everyone has heard of, but seldom implements. Forcing your body to follow an excessively tiring program that destroys your vitality rather than lifting up your spirit can only make your life miserable, bringing mediocre results in your business and fitness life.
In such a strenuous time, you need to find a pleasant activity that you look forward to, in this case a training that you enjoy (which doesn’t mean easy). One way to do so is to include some of your strong movements and some weaker movements in the same workout. This way you will be less likely to skip a workout and you will still be training some of your weaker positions.
If workouts aren’t your thing there are many other activities that can help you maintain your fitness such as working in the garden, hiking, riding a bike or simply walking your dog.
3. More cardio less weight
Know what is available to you. Even if you do not have access to barbells and plates you can still create effective training plans that exploit other features such as high intensity. Cardio and bodyweight exercises are good examples of this type of training. They will not only maintain your muscle mass, but will even burn more calories, decreasing your body fat percentage quicker.
Cardio training is composed of manageable movements that can be performed by anybody (no matter the level of experience) without injury risks and, for each exercises, there are several simplified versions to help you progress step by step.
Including 20 minutes of training in your morning can really work off the ice creams and pizzas you might have been eating lately. An example of cardio training can be a 20 minutes Tabata session; thus a selection of ten exercises where you work for 30s, rest for 30s and then you move onto the next exercises and repeat the sequence twice.
4. Eating an early lunch
Our human body is run by our circadian rhythm which helps us regulate (among other things) our hunger. Most of us have breakfast between 7am-9am and lunch between 1pm and 3pm. However, our body is designed to operate only for 4 hours without eating (except when sleeping).
Forcing our bodies to delay the feeding process by a couple of hours will make you overeat because of the feeling of hunger you will have. Moreover, science has shown that our organism is more prone to consume energy in the morning rather than the afternoon and therefore eating too much at lunch will just provide superfluous energy that won’t be used later.
Anticipating lunch between 11am and 1pm can sound extreme, however, it will help with regulating your caloric intake and will allow you to cut on these unneeded calories without noticing.
I personally have enjoyed having lunch at midday during lockdown as it gave me longer and more productive afternoons and I will continue to schedule earlier meals.
Conclusion
There are 3 other Home-Fitness Secrets that I will explain in the second part of this article.
What is your opinion on early lunches? Do you think you will give it a try? Are there new bodyweight exercises you found to be effective while training at home? Share your thoughts below.
