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We pay our respects to you, oh soft and squishy couch, for allowing us to sink into you, and be comforted through our the 600th(?) hour of Netflix. But now we must courageously pull ourselves from your grasp, push the blanket and remote control aside, dust off the stray popcorn kernels, and move! We are ready — exercise, we've missed you.
It's OK if your social distancing time has involved zero exercise — I didn't feel motivated to work out at all for the first three weeks [3]. But if you're starting to get antsy and want to move a little, try this couch workout from certified personal trainer Massy Arias [4].
"Make the movements slow and controlled. Think twice about how you train," Massy said. Don't rush the movements, but engage the muscles and focus on correct form. She added, "I guarantee you this workout will have your lower half challenged and sore in all the right places," but I felt it in my core and arms, too!
Couch Home Workout
Directions: Perform three rounds of 10 to 12 repetitions of each of these seven exercises.
- Hamstring march
- Backward forward lunge
- Elevated push-up to pike push-up
- Hamstring curl
- Side elbow plank lower leg lift
- Reverse lunge to step-up
- Elevated mountain climbers
Love Massy's workouts? Try her challenging chair workout [6], this six-move HIIT bodyweight workout [7], and grab a dumbbell for this 20-minute HIIT workout [8].