31 At-Home Workouts

The Coronavirus scare is a good opportunity to show your clients that their health comes first.

Whether you believe that it’s just another flu, or even the tail wagging the dog–that doesn’t matter. TwoBrain gyms in Italy have already been forced by the government to shut down for at least a month. Stock markets are plunging. Your audience is worried. And when people are worried, they stay home. You need to get out in front of this.

I wrote a lot more about this on the Two-Brain Business blog, including:

What to say to your clients

How to prepare for a possible downturn in new clients

How to handle membership cancellations

How to turn this into an opportunity for online training.

Click here to read the article and download the free email templates and posters.

In that article, I mentioned providing an “at-home option” for your group training clients. Here are 31 sample at-home workouts to get you started. Make SURE you tell your clients why you chose these ones, and–most importantly–how each workout will get them closer to their individual goals.

1. Ladders
   Choose 1 bodyweight movement, like pushups or burpees (or select from the “Exercises you’ve never tried” list at the end of this post.)Do 1 movement per minute at the top of every minute.  Add a rep every minute.

   Go until you can’t complete the required reps in a minute.

   You might want to add 2-3 other movements to make this a workout. Score is combined total of all movements.

2. Head-to-Toe Sprint
   7 Rounds for Time:

   10 Push-ups

   10 Air Squats

   Run 200m

3. “Michael”
   800m Run
   50 Situps
   50 Back Extensions (sub Supermans or some other back extension exercise)
4. Descending Ladder
   For time: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of 3 different exercises (choose from the standard bodyweight list, like burpees and pushups and situps, or choose from the more novel list below.)
5. Gym Practice
   AMRAP in 20:00
   10 Handstand pushups
   10 Pistols
   (Sub in whatever your clients’ weakest gymnastics movements might be.)
6. “Tabata Whatever”

   Choose 5 home-friendly exercises.  For each of the exercises, perform max reps for 8 consecutive Tabata intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. Rest 1 minute between exercises.

   Example:

   Tabata Row

   Rest 1 Minute

   Tabata Squats

   Rest 1 Minute

   Tabata Pull-ups

   Rest 1 Minute

   Tabata Push-ups

   Rest 1 Minute

   Tabata Sit-ups

   Tabata score is the least number of reps performed in any of the eight intervals. Unit for the row is “calories”. Post lowest Tabata score for each exercise and total for final score as Total Reps. E.G., 10, 20, 5, 10, 15 = 60

    

7. 800m of Burpee Broad jumps
8. Bodyweight “Filthy 50”
   For Time:50 Tuck Jumps

   50 Push-ups

   50 Air Squats

   50 Handstands

   50 Walking Lunges

   50 Sit-ups

   50 Second L-Sit

   50 Burpees

9. 5k Test – run a 5k for time.
10. For Time:Run 400m

    50 Air Squats

    Run 400m

    50 Push-ups

    Run 400m

    50 Sit-ups

    Run 400m

11. In 20:00, perform a maximum handstand. Every time you drop, perform 20 dumbbell snatches, alternating hands.
    I did this one in Memphis with CrossFit legend Greg Amundsen. When I complained that the gym was pretty sparse on equipment, he asked, “Does it have a wall?”

12. The Burpee Sprint Maxout, from Men’s Health

    5 2-minute rounds

    • 10 burpees
    • 200-m sprint
    • Max-rep burpees
13. “Cindy”

    20 minutes, as many reps as possible (AMRAP)

    • 5 Pullups
    • 10 Pushups
    • 15 squats

    Set a timer for 20 minutes. Complete as many rounds as you can before the clock runs out. Replace Pullups with something novel from the list below if necessary.

14. “Chelsea”

    Every minute on the minute (EMOM) for 30 minutes. Replace Pullups with something novel.

    • 5 pull-ups
    • 10 push-ups
    • 15 squats
15. “Annie”
    50 double-unders / 50 situps
    40 double-unders / 40 situps
    30 double-unders / 30 situps
    20 double-unders / 20 situps
    10 double-unders / 10 situps
    …for time.

16. “Angie”

    For time, replace “pull-ups” with something novel from the list below.

    • 100 pullups
    • 100 pushups
    • 100 situps
    • 100 squats
17. “Murph”

    For time, replace Pullups with a novel exercise if necessary.

    • 1 mile run
    • 100 pullups
    • 200 pushups
    • 300 squats
    • 1 mile run
18. “300”
    This was the workout that propelled Mark Twight to fame, and pulled CrossFit along for the ride. Sub the pull-ups and deadlifts (or anything else) with novel exercises from the list below.
    25 pull-ups50 deadlifts (with 60kg)

    50 press-ups

    50 box jumps (onto a 60cm box)

    50 floor wipers (with a 60kg bar)

    50 two-handed clean-and-presses (with a 24kg kettlebell)

    25 pull-ups

19. “Griff”Run 800m

    Run 400m backward

    Run 800m

    Run 400m backward

20. 4 rounds of:Run 400m

    50 squats

21. Run 800m
    80 double-unders
    80 pushups
    then 600/60/60, 400/40/40, 200/20/20
22. 100-75-50-25 reps:situps
    flutterkicks (4-count)
    leg levers
23. 50 ring dips100 squats

    50 ring dips

    100 squats

    50 ring dips
    (sub dips on anything if your clients don’t have rings at home)

24. 21-15-9 reps of:

    Body blasters (burpeepullupkneestoelbows)

    box jump burpees

    Belushi burpees (on jump turn 180 degrees)

    Burpee Jacks (plank jack to jumping jack)

25. Beep Test
    You can download the “beep test” as an audio file in several places. Here are the instructions.
26. 2 rounds:

    Max pushups 2:00

    Max situps 2:00

    Max flutterkicks 2:00

    Max squats 2:00

27. Run 10 minutes max effort

    200 squats

    Run 10 minutes max effort

28. 5 rounds of:

    10 burpees

    20 box/bench jumps

    30 pushups

    40 squats

    50 lunges

29. “Crouching Tiger”

    50 squats

    25 pushups

    50 pistols

    25 fingertip pushups

    50 side lunges

    25 knuckle pushups

    50 walking lunges

    25 diamond pushups

30. 20-16-12-8-4 reps of:

    One-arm pushups

    One-legged squats

31. 5 rounds of:

    100 jumping jacks

    100 mountain climbers

Your job isn’t to sell gym memberships. It’s to get your clients RESULTS. Sell them coaching by prescribing at-home workouts when you have to.

Working out at home doesn’t have to mean 31 days of burpees and air squats. Many of the original CrossFit workouts were done with minimal equipment, because there weren’t any CrossFit gyms yet. This was when I fell in love with CrossFit–but I usually forget all about these classics.

This is also a great opportunity to expand your arsenal of movements.

Here are some links to good exercises you’ve probably never done:

Warmup Drills – Look at the Cone Cardio Drills from Shape.com

Strength – 16 Nasty Exercises from T-Nation

The granddaddy of at-home workouts: RossTraining.com (interesting bit of trivia: when CrossFit.com launched, many people compared CrossFit to RossTraining. Check out these posts from 2004.)