Ways to stay in shape during the quarantine

Because of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, most public facilities such as restaurants, theaters and gyms have been forced to shut down. Particularly, the forced closure of spring sports programs, gyms and hiking trails across the country have left high school students with no outlet to work off stress or to practice a healthy lifestyle, so here are a couple of workouts to do at home that requires no equipment.

Before working out, I like to stretch and warm up by jogging around the neighborhood for a mile. If you are looking to build a stronger upper body, doing the traditional pushup and variations such as the wide grip and diamond pushup will help your shoulders, chest and arms build strength.

In addition, isolation exercises, such as body weight tricep dips and lateral raises while holding heavy items on your thighs, will specifically help with the triceps and lateral deltoids, which is the outer part of the shoulder. Lastly, hip hinges and back hyperextensions will help stretch and exercise your upper and lower back, to ensure that your posture remains straight, especially since many of us will be using our phones and computers more often.

For these exercises, three sets of each exercise for 10-16 repetitions per set will suffice with a minute of rest in between each set. For more of a challenge, do the pushups while wearing a backpack with textbooks, which will add weighted resistance.

For people interested in looking to build a stronger core, Russian twists, crunches, planks and reverse crunches will aid in helping with rotational movement and stability in the core. Russian twists target the obliques and rotational movement of the hip, while reverse crunches target the lower abdominal muscles and help with the stability of the lower back and spine. Doing crunches and planks will also help add stability and strength to the abdominal muscles.

For these exercises, people should do two to three sets and individualize repetitions based on their own core strength.

To work out the legs, exercises that I find really effective are jump squats, wall sits, side lunges and mountain climbers. Jump squats and mountain climbers help increase overall heart rate and strengthen quads, hamstrings and glutes. In addition to working out these three muscles, side lunges also help work out the abductors and adductors, which are the inner and outer thighs, while wall sits help build endurance in the legs overall.

To start off, I like to do the jump squats and side lunges first, then mountain climbers and wall sits last. Depending on the leg strength of the individual, holding the wall sit position for 30 seconds to a minute for three sets works best, while doing mountain climbers for 20 to 45 seconds for two to three sets will suffice. For jump squats and side lunges, I like to do three to four sets of 15 to 20 repetitions. Rest in between each set until you think you can move on to the next set while still reaching the repetition range.

These workouts are just an example of what I usually do during the week to stay healthy during quarantine inside my house, and these exercises can be altered or substituted to fit your own needs.