Weightlifting During COVID

August 11, 2020 12:29 PM

Exercise is one of the only things that helps to beat back my anxiety and depression, even more than medication. I have problems that keep me from running, but weightlifting has always done the trick. With gyms closed, I'm not sure what to do..

Exercise is one of the only things that helps to beat back my anxiety and depression, even more than medication. I have problems that keep me from running, but weightlifting has always done the trick. With gyms closed, I'm not sure what to do

Here is the thing, I need to really exercise hard, not just walk around the block. Weightlifting has always worked best. Hard to ruminate when bench pressing and squatting.

Gyms in my state are closed, but there is a gym 30 minutes away in another state. I take COVID VERY seriously and don't want to get sick or make someone else sick. IS there a safe and ethical way to go to the gym during COVID? Obviously masks, gloves etc..

I know that there are people out there doing bodyweight exercises and have home gyms. Space is limited in my small apartment. What options or programs do I have to bulk up and get stronger?

posted by Alvin80 to Health & Fitness (17 answers total)

I have been reading Swole Woman on weightlifting since before she had a Vice column, and she's been doing good work on this.

Here are some ideas for an at-home workout. Here's more. Here's the one where she says she's not ready to go back to the gym (it's from May, but what has changed?)

Her instagram has been full of footage of her lifting suitcases full of heavy things and doing pullups, but she's recently gone back to her gym, which is operating on a sidewalk, with masks and sanitizing of equipment and spacing of stations.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:43 PM on August 11, 2020 [4 favorites]

I have some very cool adjustable dumbbells from PowerBlock. Get the "Elite" because it is more expandable.
posted by 8603 at 1:32 PM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

SANDBAGS. They’re expensive, but they are super versatile. I have a 100lb soft Atlas stone in my garage and I’ll pick it up and throw it around, squats, presses, cleans, walks, lunges...it will test you. The best part is you can buy a “heavier” bag, but ramp up the weight inside until you get to the limit. They make them in “worm,” “tombstone,” or “stone” styles. Some have handles. After about destroying a relatively well made outdoor backpack (think 90’s North Face) I spent the money on the actual stone bag. Worth every penny.
posted by sara is disenchanted at 1:38 PM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've been doing "home gym" stuff with limited space—I do upper body with a FitnessReality adjustable bench and some dumbbells (old-style spinlock ones, 1" plates, though the really nice adjustable ones would be even more spcae-efficient) and a trap bar with olympic plates for deadlifts; trap bar deadlifts feel somewhere between barbell deadlifts and squats and it keeps me from needing a squat rack, which I couldn't fit into the room where I do this stuff.

Finding plates is still a little tough but they've started showing up at Walmart again if you're willing to check a few places. It's been great for my sanity.
posted by Polycarp at 1:53 PM on August 11, 2020

Kettlebells and prison workouts/"convict conditioning" were pretty big a few years ago. Also shovelglove.
posted by trig at 1:55 PM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

Hand- and head-stand pushups. planches, and the (floor) L-sit (sample URLs) are three bodyweight goals with well-established progressions that you can do without any equipment and which will keep you busy with hard exercise for (at least several) months.
posted by rhizome at 2:33 PM on August 11, 2020

Honestly, we found a whole weight set (bench, rack, bar, plates, what have you) on CL, borrowed a truck, and set it up in our basement. (I realize this may not be an option for others for numerous reasons) Boyfriend and I are both so glad to be back to lifting; trying to do body weight excercises or even kettlebells was just.. not the same. If you need a random internet stranger’s permission to spend a little bit to get your best workout set up at home, you have it!
posted by girlalex at 2:37 PM on August 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

I have been doing selected exercises from Arnold Schwarzenegger's Stay at home, stay fit. Also some from the Charles Atlas program, which is quite dated but also very interesting. There's no question that exercise, if it were sold in bottles as a drug, would be the most powerful drugs on the market.
posted by wnissen at 2:45 PM on August 11, 2020

I love my pullup bar. It's the kind that hooks into a doorframe - you can unhook it and use it as a pushup stand.
posted by porpoise at 2:57 PM on August 11, 2020

I am a lot like you. I've managed to get by with TRX ropes and online dance classes.
posted by pazazygeek at 3:10 PM on August 11, 2020

I just got a kettlebell and a pull up bar.
posted by umbú at 3:42 PM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

BlahLaLa mentioned Orangetheory workouts last week in AskMe and I've been enjoying them - they don't take up a lot of room and they demonstrate the exercises with DIY weights (eg gallon jugs instead of dumbbells). They mix up the exercises from day to day and it's enough exertion to get a good sweat.
posted by mogget at 4:07 PM on August 11, 2020

“Building the gymnastic body” has a bunch of really good progressions that are super demanding and only require a bar and rings, both of which can be ordered from amazon and set up in almost any apartment that has a doorframe.
posted by cirgue at 7:42 PM on August 11, 2020

My solution has been a dips/pullup frame and a set of really high "weight" resistance bands with handles. (I recommend safety glasses and maybe a helmet. The third time I used mine, they broke the door hinges and turned into a giant slingshot. I've now installled 1600lb eyebolts into plates on both sides of the bedroom wall.) It's not quite the same as free weights. But, it's close enough.
posted by eotvos at 7:53 PM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

Where I am there are personal trainers who set up equipment like barbells, kettlebells, various contraptions tied to trees, in parks for clients to do outdoor exercise. That's presumably lower risk assuming they're sanitizing the equipment. Not sure if you could find anyone doing that in your location.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 8:51 AM on August 12, 2020

I was looking for a while and the bottom line seems to be that apartments don’t mix with squat racks or punching bags.

I grabbed enough weights for one heavy dumbbell and a kettle bell and resistance bands just before our lock down. I’m doing Bulgarian split squats with the dumbbell which is fine for me because I'm not a super heavy lifter. I didn’t want to devote space to dip bars, so recently got some rings to hang from my pull-up bar. The rings are a real challenge.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:52 AM on August 12, 2020

Kettlebells! I have done so much with a 20lb kettlebell (and only for reference, but pre-COVID, I was benching 70, DL 180 (I don't program squats)). I can do things like work on 250 swings (which really work a lot of those DL muscles, that posterior chain!) but I can also do, like, 5 Turkish get-ups per side and be wasted. Once you get some of the basic skills, a complex is endless and you cannot think.

I take a Zoom kettlebell class weekly from my local gym and it ZONKS me; I'm happy to send the link to sign up if you DM me. I then do my own KB programming on other days. Our complex last week was a ladder of swing, clean, squat, OHP, row, swing -- start with 1 per side and work up to 5, then back down. A yoga mat and a 20-lb kettlebell have been sufficient for serious workouts.
posted by quadrilaterals at 7:25 AM on August 13, 2020 [1 favorite]