Look to these workout moves when you can’t go outside.
The snow is coming down, the sidewalks are slippery, and it’s just too cold to exercise outside. But you still want to stay on track with your fitness goals and enjoy the benefits of moving your body. Don’t worry—you can do plenty of indoor workouts to keep up with your fitness goals.
To help you get started, we’ve isolated the seven moves detailed below. These can be mixed and matched to create a full-body workout routine that blends all the necessary elements: strength, cardio, and stretching.
Before we Start; a Note about Safety:
- Clear out your space of any obstacles and potential hazards to avoid the risk of injury and of breaking Aunt Kathy’s prize vase.
- Grab a bottle of water and start with a light warmup.
- If you’re making this a HIIT workout, give yourself some rest time in between sets (usually 30 seconds to a minute).
- Focus on your form as you make these moves. Each exercise includes a link to demonstrate the proper form.
1. Jumping Rope
Jumping rope is one of the simplest and most effective exercises. It’s a cardio workout focusing on your legs, glutes, core, and arms. Jumping rope is also a great starter workout that engages and prepares your muscles for more intense workouts. This exercise can be low or high-impact depending on how fast you go. If you lack a rope, jumping jacks, high knees, and butt kickers provide similar benefits.
Video: How to Jump Rope
2. Sumo Squats with a Kettlebell
Now that your legs are primed from jumping rope, it’s a great time to do sumo squats with a kettlebell, dumbbell, or even a gallon of milk. This workout strengthens your legs and bum while improving hip flexibility and balance. If you’re strength training, try heavier weights and fewer reps. Lighten the load and increase the reps if you want a cardio workout.
Video: How to do Sumo Squats with a Kettlebell
3. Burpees
This workout fits under both anaerobic and aerobic exercises. It targets your arms, chest, core, and legs. To get more strength training out of this workout, try going slow and focusing on controlled movement when you squat down and go into the plank and push-up. Then try explosive movement when returning to the squat position and the jump.
Get more cardio benefits by being fluid and quick—and taking out the jump at the end.
Jump squats and plank push-ups are good alternatives.
Video: How to do a Burpee
4. Tricep Dips
For this workout, grab a chair or use the edge of your coach. This exercise targets your arms and chest. For more intensity, start with your legs extended. If that’s too difficult, bring your legs closer to your chest.
If this move is hard on your shoulders, pushups and variants of the push-up also work.
Video: How to do a Tricep Dip
5. Vertical Leg Lifts
The goal of the vertical leg lift is to target your abs and hip flexors. If you’re working out alone, lie down with your hands under your buttocks and raise your legs. Then, lower them down until your heels almost touch the ground.
Bicycles, situps, v-ups, and seated crunchy frogs are all good replacements for this workout.
Video: How to do Leg Lifts
6. Jump Lunges
Now that you’ve targeted your upper body and core, it’s time to return to your legs. Jump lunges are a great way to get your heart rate back up and strengthen your lower body.
Go slow and controlled on the way down and then explosive up to your jump.
Make it more challenging by performing the move with dumbbells in each hand or a kettlebell at your chest. You can also try lateral jump lunges to target different parts of the quadricep muscles.
For less stress on the knees, try step lunges.
Video: How to Do a Jump Lunge
7. Cool Down with Yoga
Yoga moves are a bit different than simple stretching because they include more opportunities to build strength and balance. That versatility makes yoga an excellent option for cooling down after working up a sweat. This simple cool-down yoga flow is a great way to finish your indoor workout.
Video: 8-minute Cool-down Yoga Flow
Fortunately, the internet is crammed with free yoga flows and workout tutorials you can use to build your flexibility and stay active through the slush and snow of winter. We hope this list helps cut through the noise and get your body moving.