We’ve all had a hard time adapting to all the social distancing rules and new restrictions that prevent us from hitting the gym or training in groups at all. However, as a student constantly finding creative solutions to lead a more effective dorm life, you know already that there are ways to boost your health, reduce your stress levels, and stay on the right track with your fitness routine without leaving your room.
In fact, sometimes the smallest adjustments you make in your workout routine and your nutrition can allow you to reach your goals even faster from the comfort of your dorm room. Here are a few promising tactics to use to enhance your dorm room workouts and stay fit during these difficult times.
Try circuit workouts
Unlike your typical routine that includes timed breaks between sets, circuit training allows you to push through different workout movements without taking any time between them to rest – or to take very brief rest sessions of 30 seconds.
By combining your movements for your lower body, such as squats, and for your upper body such as pushups, with core work for abs and some cardio moves, you can create a fairly intense, albeit brief training split. Keep in mind that you can always alter your exercises, add new movements, and eliminate breaks altogether for a tougher training session!
Intensify your existing routine
Sometimes the simplest workout splits can be the most effective if you know how to introduce more intensity and vary them well enough to your advantage. There are a few strategies to give your no equipment home workouts an added boost and make them more challenging for your body. For starters, you can perform the same exercises, but more slowly, and with greater muscle control, and add pauses in the most difficult positions.
If you do squats and pause for a few seconds in the lower portion of the squat, you’ll add more “burn” to your legs and glutes in an instant. You can also clump your exercises together into complementary supersets and giant sets of 4-5 movements to eliminate the breaks and make the combinations much more effective.
Add a kettlebell into the mix
Although you can use your bed, your chairs, and just your bodyweight to perform very difficult and effective exercises, you can always work your way up towards, let’s say, a kettlebell. This neat little tool is a perfect workout accessory to add more intensity to your training.
Plus, you’ll gain more opportunities to vary your workouts with new movements you can perform, and make your existing exercises far more challenging. Keep in mind that you should adapt your rep range for the added weight until your body gets used to the kettlebell.
Keep distractions at bay
Even the finest training routine cannot survive the incessant Messenger notifications if you keep getting distracted and take longer breaks than you should to keep your training effective. Be it your phone, email, your roommate, or something entirely else, you should make sure that all distractions are out of the picture during your workouts.
That way, you can stay focused, keep your eyes on the prize, focus on your progress, carefully measure the duration of your breaks, and always stay true to your routine. After your session, which doesn’t have to take longer than an hour, you can go back to your chats, emails, and calls!
Make sure you eat ample protein
We all love a good, refreshing smoothie in the middle of summer heat, especially when you can sneak in all kinds of nutritious goodies without spoiling the flavor one bit. However, these are typically loaded with carbs, often healthy carbs such as fruits and veggies, but very little protein.
For starters, you can infuse these smoothies with protein by adding supplements such as whey protein in powder form, or you can add protein-packed ingredients such as spirulina. However, in addition to these delicious treats, you should make sure that your meals are protein-rich, too. Consider consuming foods such as eggs, lean meat sources such as chicken, and dairy.
There’s no one-size-fits-all for your workout routine, but some strategies are both timeless and effective, and the listed ideas definitely meet the criteria. Now that you need to stay resilient and make sure you’re healthy more than ever due to the pandemic, use these tips to make your workouts more effective and stay strong even in the upcoming period. Rest assured, even passing exams will be easier with your fitness levels soaring!