With gyms now open in England and Northern Ireland, many people are thrilled to be back in the gym.
However, Coronavirus has meant that many gym-goers are conscious about how they use the gym now.
PureGym has introduced a number of new policies in terms of cleaning and social distancing, but they’ve also release a set of ‘one kit’ and ‘no kit’ workouts that are designed for those that want to use minimal equipment and require less moving around the gym.
They are perfect if you want to touch less equipment whilst you’re in the gym and maintain social distancing.
Each workout has been designed by PureGym fitness experts.
One Kit Workout: Dumbbell Only Upper Body Workout
This dumbbell only workout is designed to hit your shoulders, chest, back and arms without needing much space or kit.
The workout is split into 3 supersets, which you do back to back for 40 seconds each with a 20 second recovery after each superset. Repeat each superset 3 times over with a 1-minute rest in between rounds.
1a. Push Press
- Front load the dumbbells, resting the end of the dumbbells gently on your shoulder region
- With a slight bend at the knees, generate power through your legs and drive the dumbbells up above your head
- Focus on keeping the dumbbells above the midline for each rep to avoid hyperextending the spine
- Keep the core engaged throughout
1b. Lateral Raises
- Take one leg back to act as a stabiliser during the movement
- Move the dumbbells from the midline laterally up in line with the shoulders and return back to your starting position
- Keep the chest up and core engaged throughout
2a. Hammer Curls
- Take one leg back to act as a stabiliser during the movement
- Grip the dumbbells with your palms facing into your body
- Curl one of the dumbbells up to the shoulder and focus on squeezing the bicep as it contracts
- Slowly lower the dumbbell to the starting position, keeping the eccentric part of the movement controlled throughout
- Remember to fully extend the bicep before switching sides
2b. Lying Tricep Extension
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and grip the dumbbells with palms facing together
- Position the dumbbells shoulder width apart, and extend them fully in line with the shoulders
- Keeping control of the movement throughout, slowly bend your elbows and bring the dumbbells towards your ears
- From here, use your triceps to drive back to the starting position
3a. Bent Over Row
- Hinge at the hips with a slight bend in the knee whilst keeping the spine neutral throughout
- Brace the abs and grip the dumbbells with palms facing inwards and shoulder width apart
- With the dumbbells at the knees pull in towards the rib cage whilst squeezing the shoulder blades together and engaging the back muscles
- To avoid too much involvement from your bicep in this movement, try to pull through your elbow and keep the arms nice and close to the body throughout
3b. Upright Row
- Keep your shoulders pinned back and down throughout
- With the palms facing towards your legs, pull the dumbbells level with collar bone
- Keep the elbows aligned and keep the dumbbells close to the midline throughout the pull
- Maintain tension with the core to keep a nice neutral spine position
Find out more regarding PureGym’s ‘back to the gym’ training guides here: https://www.puregym.com/blog/back-to-the-gym/