Switching to body weight, at home exercises for a while?

Da_Chozen_Juan
Da_Chozen_Juan Posts: 37 Member
edited November 14 in Fitness and Exercise
My schedule for the next 5 weeks looks like it's gonna restrict me from going to the gym as often as I'd like (Closest gym is a 30 min drive away from my house). I'm thinking about switching to a program revolving around body weight exercises, that way I can consistently get workouts in. My question is, has anybody here experienced any significant loss of strength when they return to lifting weights after working out at home for a period of time?

Replies

  • WickAndArtoo
    WickAndArtoo Posts: 773 Member
    I'm sure you already looked into this but is there a gym near your work?

    I don't know the answer to your question, but you could look into used free weights at a local thrift shop or on Craigslist etc for cheap.

    You could also try to focus on flexibility with yoga to improve your lifting in the future.
  • singletrackmtbr
    singletrackmtbr Posts: 644 Member
    I was pretty much traveling all summer and didn't lift a weight for almost 8 weeks. I did nothing but bodyweight workouts and Insanity programs. I lost a bit of strength but not as much as I expected, and I shed some serious body fat. Bodyweight is the real deal if you have the right program and give it your full effort.

    I used athlean xero which costs money but for me was well worth it. Now I use it whenever I'm traveling.
  • unsuspectingfish
    unsuspectingfish Posts: 1,176 Member
    edited January 2017
    Darebee is what I use. It doesn't cost a cent, is updated with new workouts daily, and has a wide variety of programs available, including some strength ones. I can't speak for loss of strength, since I don't lift (yet), so all it's ever done for me is add more muscle.
  • singletrackmtbr
    singletrackmtbr Posts: 644 Member
    I checked out darebee and that is an awesome resource for free. I still prefer athlean xero for myself but for free this is about as well as you're going to do!

    My only concern is they can disappear at any time if the funding doesn't come through.
  • unsuspectingfish
    unsuspectingfish Posts: 1,176 Member
    They've branched out a lot recently into actually selling physical copies of some of the programs, as well as some merch, but, yeah, I always worry that they're going to shut down.
  • Da_Chozen_Juan
    Da_Chozen_Juan Posts: 37 Member
    WickAndArtoo wrote: »
    I'm sure you already looked into this but is there a gym near your work?

    I don't know the answer to your question, but you could look into used free weights at a local thrift shop or on Craigslist etc for cheap.

    You could also try to focus on flexibility with yoga to improve your lifting in the future.
    School is the reason why my schedule will be hectic for the next 5 weeks. I'm taking a 6 week pre calculus course at my local CC and an online 12 week Kinesiology course at the moment. Both these classes take up most of my time, and getting to the gym is quite hard (Im a mathtard, so I have to devote more time to studying in order to comprehend the concepts in precal than most people). I'm going to look into possibly buying used weights though, thanks for the suggestion.

  • Da_Chozen_Juan
    Da_Chozen_Juan Posts: 37 Member
    singletrackmtbr wrote: »
    I was pretty much traveling all summer and didn't lift a weight for almost 8 weeks. I did nothing but bodyweight workouts and Insanity programs. I lost a bit of strength but not as much as I expected, and I shed some serious body fat. Bodyweight is the real deal if you have the right program and give it your full effort.

    I used athlean xero which costs money but for me was well worth it. Now I use it whenever I'm traveling.
    Hmm interesting. Were you able to make any sort of gains with your body weight workouts? For example, were you able to consistently add in an extra push up every here or there, add a min to your plank, etc?
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    I haven't gone in awhile because I am into running now but I need to start back at the gym to get ready to ski. I am spoiled because the gym is exactly 1 mile away. I go run three miles and stop in for a quick Nautilus set and do a one mile cool down run. I used to drive to the gym and run treadmill or ride as a warm up and thought why am I doing this when I can use my trip to the gym as a warm up. Sorry to rub it in but you will be fine doing workouts at home so go with it.
  • singletrackmtbr
    singletrackmtbr Posts: 644 Member
    Da_Chozen_Juan wrote: »
    singletrackmtbr wrote: »
    I was pretty much traveling all summer and didn't lift a weight for almost 8 weeks. I did nothing but bodyweight workouts and Insanity programs. I lost a bit of strength but not as much as I expected, and I shed some serious body fat. Bodyweight is the real deal if you have the right program and give it your full effort.

    I used athlean xero which costs money but for me was well worth it. Now I use it whenever I'm traveling.
    Hmm interesting. Were you able to make any sort of gains with your body weight workouts? For example, were you able to consistently add in an extra push up every here or there, add a min to your plank, etc?

    Hard to say as I wasn't tracking that. I was on vacation and was just trying to hold down the fort until I got back to my garage gym. This particular program always demands work until failure, so if I was going to guess based upon my physical changes, I did get stronger in the program (more reps) but I don't know if I would say that directly translated to stronger in the weight room.
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