Ask HN: What is your minimal WFH exercise routine? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is your minimal WFH exercise routine?

18 pointsherodoturtle32 comments

Complements of the season!

I’m in need of some inspiration ^_^

Thanks!

I work largely from home, so it's important to come up with reasons to get out of the house. If I have an errand to run I'll do it on my bike. Often the errand is mostly an excuse for a ride.

I enjoy trail running in the winter, when there's nice soft snow on the ground and sweating isn't an issue.

Some days I don't feel up for a run, and just going for a walk is great. I always feel better after, mentally and physically.

I also like going to the bouldering gym, which is a good social environment as well as a place to get some exercise.

I prefer strength training in the evening, I feel exhausted after, I just want to eat and sleep.

A right-sized Cardio workout is energizing, and It's a good way to start the day.

Big/main lifts (squat, deadlift, overhead press and bench press) + some accessory lifts (either variation of the main with more volume or something different that assists the main lifts) when the schedule allows. I do them heavy. I increment the weight nearly every workout (even by 1-2lbs in upper body lifts). And of course, make sure I move around during the day (it helps with lifting as well)

I would add pull ups as a big lift, but otherwise that's solid advice.

I think of big lifts as ones that involve large muscle groups over a long range of motion, so I think of pull ups as assistance or accessory. They help a ton in the main lifts for sure. Do them anyway regardless of category :D

I would add barbell row to those four.

I walk 45 min every day and do lifts once a week. I highly recommend the book “Body by Science”. It’s a weight lift book for people like me who hate lifting weights. It shows you how to gain strength spending only 15 min a week in the gym. It’s simple. It works. I have increased my body strength quite substantially following it.

"Foundation training" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BOTvaRaDjI plus some quick yoga-like stretches and bends every few hours, standing on one alternating leg with upper body and arms moving around

Minimal? https://darebee.com

It's 100% free and most workouts don't require equipment.

DownDog Yoga and DownDog HIIT apps. Generate workouts for you and no two are ever the same. Can be bodyweight or can also use dumbbells and resistance bands.

Zwift: If you've got the cash for an 11 speed bike and a turbo trainer I highly recommend this. Alternatively, there's also a running mode now but it's not as fun in my opinion.

Rucking: Best recovery exercise I've found. Can also be a tough workout in itself if you pick a heavy weight and go fast or long.

Also recommend getting some sandbags and a pull up bar or suspension trainer and you can target pretty much every muscle group.

This guy has the best minimalist setup I've seen but he's turned his website into a buggy ad ridden hell hole over the last couple of years which is really annoying https://abrotherabroad.com/best-travel-workout-equipment/

I'm just starting up, found some deals:

- Got a bench for $50 bucks

- Adjustable pair of dumbbells for around $250-$350 (its 2 bucks per pound, shop around).

- Cheapest foldable row machine I've seen on Amazon is between $100-200

- One of those magic pull up shits

^ All this stuff fits in a small corner of an apartment, even if you rent just a room. I think everything can be had for ~$500.

Shoulder press, bench press and pull ups is more than enough for upper body.

That covers bench, shoulder press, pull ups, curls, rowing, along with daily walking. Walking is the minimal viable exercise to replace leg day (if you do it daily). I'm not getting a bunch of leg exercise machines, that just sounds stupid. But if you must, you can go once a week to the gym to knock out leg day.

Three times a week on the weights, walking is daily, rowing can be dailyish. Nice thing about having all that crap in your room is that you have no excuse other than being a lazy scumbag.

Such a coincidence, but that's exactly the type of equipment I see at every thrift store. Only thing that's missing is a hometrainer.

Hometrainer takes too much space, and I think rowing/walking is a much better cardio substitute (rowing is literally a full body workout, so if you must take up space, go with a rower than a bike/treadmill). Only way I'd consider a bike is if I'm specifically trying to train HIIT for explosiveness for a specific sport.

If you need to move, fold the bench and take the weights with you. You can choose to do the same with the row machine, or just throw it out if you went budget at around $100. If you really used the stuff over a year or two, throwing it all out when you move is not a big deal since you got all the value out of it. It doesn't have to be a massive investment into a home gym.

Try “Rucking”.

Get a backpack, put some weight in it (start with 15-20 lbs), and go for a walk. That’s it. I lost 9 lbs in just a couple weeks Rucking about 2 miles 2-3 times per week.

In an additional to high calorie burn and low impact cardio, it strengthens your back and leg muscles considerably.

I absolutely love it and it’s so simple.

When I was super busy, I used the Body by Science routine. Once a week during one single session, do 1 set each of :

* squat

* bench press

* bent barbell row

* barbell curl

* should press

I took non-lifting coworkers through this routine and all of them posted significant gains.

Anyways, buy a squat cage, bench, and weights. Don't skimp on your equipment -- optimize your time.

A workout of 5-10 minutes each day, using follow-along style videos such as these:

full body (depending on how fit you are you can do multiple rounds of these)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_AHHQj7eaM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPkW78iVb8

specific muscle groups

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FN6ovYpkoM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z68by50la9Q

Other than that, going pretty much everywhere by bike, e.g., when running errands.

A single kettlebell offers loads of variety for resistance and cardio.

Bent-over row. Overhead press. Squats. Swings. Combos like swing to press (although this takes guidance to avoid unnecessarily banging against forearm). Each has single/double arm/leg varieties.

Turkish/wrestler's get-up. Halos or twists. Side bends. Farmer's/suitcase walk (up and down stairs or on the flat).

Loop a towel through the handle and grip it for bicep curls.

Loads more. Maybe find a 12kg one to gauge things before buying anything heavier. You can always get two 12kg (or whatever) and use one in each hand if you're unsure about a single 16/20/etc kg bell.

I don't know what is your fitness level and what is minimal for you :)

I use videos from FitnessBlender[0]. You can choose your fitness level and how long you would want the workout to be and it will present you the matching workouts (Remember to choose free workouts). The free workouts are available on youtube also. You can play directly from their site or download it to your device.

[0] https://fitnessblender.com

A walk to the coffee-shop every morning before any work communication: gets the blood flowing and gives me an opportunity to mentally sort out the day ahead

Odd days: 5x5 weightlifting in the garage

Even days: either a fast 5k or a slow 10k, usually just around the neighborhood soccer pitch a million times as trails/roads in my area require enough attention that I have trouble falling into that nice contemplative running headspace

Interpretations of "minimal" may vary

Do you lift weights twice in a row after some months?

I had to take a break for a while due to injury and found that the best way of getting back to my routine was by sticking to the schedule, but dropping and slowly re-adding weight. Trying to go back to my normal weight at my normal cadence would have been rough.

Since starting working from home, I've tried a lot of different kinds of indoor exercise and have benefitted from nearly all of them. One I've been enjoying lately is using heavy metal rolds as swinging implements. Last month, I wrote up my thoughts about them:

https://www.gally.net/metalrods/index.html

I just started Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey.

"Devote at least 15 minutes each day to the exercises in this book, and watch your life change for the better."

- https://archive.org/details/Combat_Conditioning_Matt_Furey/p...

Check out Never Gymless by Ross Enaimait, Convict Conditioning (lots of BS narrative/stories, but the exercise progressions are solid), Coach Summers' gymnastics material, Simple & Sinister (minimalist kettlebell training) by Pavel Tsatsouline..

Solo basketball shoot around at the local rec center while no one else is there, four laps around the indoor track, squats with a low amount of weight, home by the time a podcast has finished. I take a long walk on off days.

Oh and this is not limited to working out indoors from home (although I’m keen to hear about it and every other option).

So in other words, if your wfh setup accommodates outdoorsy exercise, please share that too ^_^

I have a nice fenced backyard, so walking/jogging/running laps around the backyard.

250 steps per lap.

Bonus is it gets me outside in nature. Lots of trees, birds, squirrels, rabbits.

While I don't do it, a lot of people I know (online) swear by treadmill desk. Walk + work.

I personally stick to hatha-yoga (physical stretches etc) and one kettlebell for my shoulder.

2 hours at the gym, twice a week, full body workout.

every day, 2 sets of:

  - 10 pushups
  - 10 deadlifts
  - 10 hammer curls
  - 10 front lunges
  - 10 bicep curls
  - 10 side lunges
  - 30 russian twists
  - 60 second plank
  - 30 jump-squats (or 20 with weight)

I do the deadlifts first because I hate them, and the jump-squats last because they kill me but I don't hate them.

Pair of 24kg kettlebells. 5 clean, 5 press, 5 squat. 2 pullups on a pullup bar.

Do that 2 to 5 times spread throughout the day.

Minimum is 40 minutes walking. Consider a dog if you can't find motivation to do it all by yourself.

Simple and Sinister

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