Exercising in Lockdown With NO Equipment and Very Little Space

Being stuck in our homes and unable to go out for a walk or a change of view can be quite a problem for many of us, and after a while of lazing on the couch and watching TV reruns we start getting the urge to get moving and getting our blood circulating again.

But what to do in such a small space! Well, here are some ideas and suggestions that you can use as a kick off point to developing your own exercise routine!

You've heard it said "Use what you have, not what you don't have." What we have are two legs that weigh quite a bit, even if you're quite slim. One leg weighs about 15% of your body weight. So lifting those legs will use quite a bit of energy. So lets use them as follows.

Stand in an area of your house where you have at least a metre of space in front of you. (More if you're tall) Then keeping your leg as straight as you can, quickly lift it up forwards as high as you can. Try to get your heel up to the height of your bellybutton by kicking it upwards. You can put your hand on a table or a doorhandle to keep your balance. Alternate legs, so do left, right, left, right continuously until you get tired. After about 20 of these you will notice that your breathing is getting heavier. That means your blood is starting to move! Yay!

Then turn around and, keeping your legs straight, kick up each leg backwards in the same manner, doing left, right, left, right and so on until tired.

Get your breath back, then run easily on the spot for a bit until you feel ready for some more, and then repeat as much as you can.

Then there's dancing. Nothing fancy, something like a two step dance, as long as it gets you jumping around and getting that blood circulation going! So put some lively music on with a good beat and start dancing! Try and invent new dance steps, go a little ballistic and get those legs up and the arms going crazy - the more movement the better. This will also save you on heating costs because you'll get so warm you won't need any heating. It also helps with your digestion, makes you slimmer eventually, and flushes all the toxins out of your body. A win-win situation.

Bit too frail for all this crazy exercise? Well, make some space in your biggest room, or multiple rooms, and make a "track" that you can walk along, could be in a figure of eight type of shape or a random shape through your house or flat. Make sure you have a place where you can turn around fairly easily to go back to the start again. Then measure this "track" so you know how far one "lap" is. Now you can walk around this track for as long as you can, changing direction every now and again so you work all your muscles equally. Count the number of laps so you know how far you've walked, then you can try and improve on that next time you walk. You can also put music on to make it a little more pleasant. I managed to walk 2km in my small house, so try and top that.

If you have young kids, piggy back them all over the house. They will love it, and you'll get fit! If you have carpets you can push the little ones all over the place in a cardboard box, they always enjoy that, and it really works all the muscles in your body!

So no excuse now! You have all the gym equipment you need built right into your own body! Let's do it!