Stay Fit at Home With These 5 Free Workout Apps & Exercise Tips

You don’t need to go to the gym or jog around the park to maintain your fitness. These stay-at-home workouts keep you healthy while being indoors, without any fancy equipment.

When you are forced to not move out, you don’t need to stop moving around. In fact, health officials say that staying fit and healthy will ensure your immune system can better fight any virus. It’s in your best interest to regularly exercise even at home.

Trainers, celebrities, and tech geeks are making apps and routines to workout at home. Here’s a quick roundup of five of the best indoor workouts, which includes Arnold Schwarzenegger and something for your kids.

1. Terminator at Home (Web): Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Home Workout

That’s right, The Terminator himself shared an exercise routine for everyone to stay fit at home. Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote a long Reddit post about how he started his own training without any equipment and continued that even after achieving fame.

In total, there are nine exercises. Schwarzenegger recommends different sets of repetitions for beginner and advanced, depending on your fitness level.

The workout mostly depends on your own body weight, aided at times by items you’ll have at home, like a chair, book, or a cane. He has also shared an Imgur gallery of photos demonstrating the various exercises.

You should actually read the full Reddit post. Schwarzenegger’s words are not only motivational, he also warns you about the pitfalls in working out alone.

He also advises how to track your progress and incrementally increase your capacity, with several commenters piping in with their own tips.

2. Workout Sesh (Web): Timed Browser-Based Workout App

Workout Sesh is a collection of different timed workout routines for the home or gym. Each workout clearly states which part of the body it trains, and how long the entire routine takes. Click any session to find a quick write-up and the exercises of the workout. You’ll see a list of all the exercises and how many seconds you’re supposed to do them for.

Workout Sesh presents a GIF for each exercise. Once you start the session, follow along to the speed of the GIF, and continue with it for the recommended time. The website sends audio alerts to start, stop, rest, and restart.

All of the routines on Workout Sesh are completely free and you can use them as many times as you want. Several routines have celebrity names to them, but don’t fall for that, there doesn’t seem to be any real backing by those celebs. Do them to get fit, not for the fake allure of the famous.

Workout Sesh is a progressive web app that works in a browser on your phone, laptop, or TV. There is no app to install , but it requires an active internet connection. If you want offline workouts, check out these other bodyweight exercise apps for fitness anywhere.

3. 4-Week Runner’s Workout (Web): But It’s Not Just for Runners…

Runner’s World magazine published a 28-day workout for runners stuck in their living rooms. But the magazine is quick to note that this isn’t only for runners, as it will help anyone get fit at home.

It divides the 28 days into four weekly workout plans. Each week’s routine is more difficult than the previous one. Every routine has five basic exercises, with illustrations that guide you on the correct form. Do each exercise for 30 seconds, and three circuits of all five, with 2-3 minute rest breaks between circuits.

Runner’s World also has instructions that speed up the workout routines at home depending on your fitness levels. For example, if you aren’t a beginner, you can skip directly to the second week’s exercise plan. The third and fourth week’s workout routines require dumbbells.

4. GymPerson’s DIY Weights (Web): Homemade Dumbbells and Alternative Weights

If you want to keep up with weight training at home but don’t have any weights, you can make your own. GymPerson offers five different DIY ways to make your own dumbbells or other exercise weights with objects and items you probably already have.

In step-by-step guides, the website instructs how to build homemade weights with water bottles, milk jugs, sand, concrete, and a backpack. Some of the guides are more explicit and clear than others.

For example, the DIY water bottle dumbbells weigh 10 pounds or 27 pounds, depending on the size of the bottle. Meanwhile, you’ll have to weigh the backpack on a scale to make it as heavy as you want.

The weights you make will depend on the equipment you have at home, but the website is pretty good at guiding you with different permutations.

You should also check out GymPerson’s DIY section for other equipment you can make at home, such as a pull-up bar, battle ropes, parallettes, and an exercise stepper.

5. P.E. With Joe (YouTube): Free Fitness Class for Kids From The Body Coach

Schools are shut so there are no Physical Education (PE) classes. Plus the kids can’t go out to play. So how do children stay fighting fit in these times? Personal trainer Joe Wicks, a.k.a The Body Coach, is hosting daily PE classes for kids on YouTube.

Wicks does a live class at 9am UK time every weekday, but the videos stay on so your kids can do a workout at timings ideal for them. Start from the first video, there is no pressure to catch up with the live classes.

Each session lasts 30 minutes and doesn’t require any equipment. While they’re meant for kids, they’re perfectly helpful for adults to keep in shape as well, and a fun family activity too. Wicks says he intends to be Britain’s PE teacher for now, promising to get kids “moving, feeling, energized, positive, optimistic.”

The Oldest and Greatest Home Workout

These workout routines and apps are only the tip of the iceberg. The internet is filled to the brim with suggestions for exercises that you can do at home, or without any equipment. For example, Darebee is one of the favorites here at MakeUseOf for its 300 free routines.

But you should also check out a cool, not-so-well known exercise routine. Gymnast J. P. Muller’s 1904 workout takes only 15 to 20 minutes, but it has several loyal supporters over the last century, including doctors, kings, and personalities like Franz Kafka. Find out more about it in our collection of the best free no-equipment workouts to get fit anywhere.

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