TEMpo

Staying Fit at Home

Thanks to our fitness guru John Nicolosi of Melbourne Athletic Developement (john@melbourneathleticdevelopment.com.au, 0422 893 393) for the production of this article.

 

All health and fitness practitioners regularly speak of the benefits of regular exercise and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  In this time of COVID-19 and its social distancing and restrictions on our ability to participate in organised sport, we thought it worthwhile to remind you of these benefits and to provide you with a summary of the major benefits of regular exercise.

5 health benefits you can achieve with home exercise during COVID restrictions

Reduced stress 

Resistance training and cardiovascular endurance training aids in improving the hormone and neurotransmitter profile for a number of health markers. Training that causes increased long term changes in cardiovascular fitness and endurance  assists with reducing stress. This can be achieved through tasks that raise the metabolic rate, and, even short bouts of high intensity training such as home exercise circuits have the ability to do this. 

 

Increased muscle mass

Resistance training increases muscle mass across all ages. Muscle mass is associated with improved metabolic markers, increased likelihood of maintaining strength across our lifetime, improved function as we age and even maintenance of cognitive function in our later years.

 

 

 

Increased bone density

Dynamic exercise that increases bone loading, such as running and jumping, is a major driver for bone mineral density maintenance. Not only is this beneficial as we age, it reduces the likelihood of fractures in athletes.

 

Reduced blood pressure

Regular exercise includes improved vascular function  increasing both cardiac efficiency and blood vessel function. This leads to a maintenance of healthy blood pressure ranges.

 

Reduced blood sugar level regulation 

Exercise typically increases blood sugar utilisation and assist with long term regulation of insulin function from the pancreas. Along with increased muscle mass, improvements in insulin regulation are shown to improve markers of blood glucose and diabetes risk.

 

 

Summary

From home anyone can get the benefits of dynamic high intensity exercise circuits that when completed continuously can give you all of the benefits suggested above. Many of the benefits will be seen in the short term, however the benefits are overwhelmingly increased if exercise is done consistently over an extended period of time. 

Exercise Plan

Complete the circuit shown below at the level which proves challenging to you.

 

Level 1 

Complete 20 seconds of each of the following 2 times through. Do not rest between the exercises and the 20 seconds starts when you start the next exercise. 

 

Level 2 

Complete 20 seconds of each of the following 3 times through. Do not rest between the exercises and the 20 seconds starts when you start the next exercise. 

 

Level 3

Complete 30 seconds of each of the following 3 times through. Do not rest between the exercises and the 30 seconds starts when you start the next exercise. 

 

Killer Circuit

Complete 45 seconds of each of the following 3 times through. Do not rest between the exercises and the 45 seconds starts when you start the next exercise. 

 

Circuit

None of these exercises require any specialised equipment and at each level described above the aim is to do as many repetitions with good form in the allocated time.

 

  1. Squats
  2. Push ups (can be on knees or feet or against a wall or bench)
  3. Lunges
  4. Tricep Dips (on the edge of a chair or edge of couch)
  5. Star jumps
  6. Lateral lunges
  7. Mountain climbers
  8. Squat jumps
  9. Plank side (left and right)
  10. Plank front

Click here to see videos of each exercise.