The Do-Anywhere, Total-Body Workout While You Shelter at Home

For those of you spending your days at home, following Pennsylvania’s shelter-at-home mandate, it’s important to stay active. You can’t go to the health club, but you can get great benefits from some simple exercises.

“My favorite bodyweight exercises are simple, can be done anywhere, and are centered around strengthening the lower abdominal and hip external rotation muscles,” said David Webner, M.D., a sports medicine physician for the Crozer Health .

Perform the following exercises in a circuit (one after another). Base the number of repetitions on your ability. And aim to do three to five circuits, resting two minutes between each.

Squats. “If you have knee issues, don’t lower past 90 degrees because you could run the risk of irritating your hips,” Dr. Webner said.

Push-ups. “Move slowly and keep your body rigid and you’ll feel these in your abs, chest, shoulders, upper arms, and back,” he said. Skip to the next exercise, though, if you have shoulder pain.

Sit-ups. Rather than raise your upper body all the way to your knees, stop when your shoulders are off the floor. Hold that position for a second or two and then slowly lower back down to the starting position.

Forward lunges. Keep your chest tall with your shoulders stacked over your hips. Resist the urge to lean too far forward.