Stay Adventure Ready: How to Exercise at Home (no gym required!)
With the Stay at Home and Shelter in Place orders, outdoors folks are getting creative on how to re-create their favorite places in their own backyard.
For outdoors folks stuck inside, coming up with creative ways to stay active keeps us in shape for the outdoors season this summer and gives us a mental and physical outlet to unwind after a day indoors.
Here’s what our writers and editors are using to stay sane and in shape.
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A home yoga mat adds extra grip and padding during home exercise. Photo by Brian Davidson
how to set up a home Yoga studio
When you can’t go outside, bring your focus inward. It’s a cliche, but I’ve found that practicing yoga at home has been integral to keeping me from going stir crazy while on stay-at-home orders.
My local studios are now streaming live classes with the teachers I already know and love. But before they got their systems set up, I practiced with free online videos from CorePower and the DownDog App.
I set up a home yoga studio in my office that includes my yoga mat, an inexpensive yoga strap, and a firm yoga block (I wish I had two). The straps and yoga blocks aren’t essential, but definitely help me get in some of the trickier poses. I love my Jade mat because I never slip on it. I've had it for years. Luckily, unlike some of the other yoga mats we recommend, the Jade Harmony is still in stock.
I prop my laptop on the bookshelf while practicing so the screen is always visible. It’s comforting to see faces I know and to do the same poses and practice as I used to do. It brings a sense of continuity to a time when everything feels uplifted.
Despite some initial skepticism that home practice isn’t going to be the same as practice in the studio, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much calm and physical exertion I’ve felt doing these classes and videos. It’s been a huge solace in these times and an outlet for my mental and physical energy. When I’m deep in these classes, anxiety and worry go away. It’s the same feeling I get when on a mountain. I feel enormously grateful that there are ways other than hiking to get to that place. -Liz “Snorkel” Thomas, editor in chief
Related: The Best Yoga Mats
JADE YOGA MAT
MANDUKA CORK YOGA BLOCK
MANDUKA ALIGN YOGA STRAP
A Book and A Ball
More time spent at home, and less on the trails, is a big challenge for most of us. Be kind to yourself, and have realistic expectations. Cook and eat lots of yummy, nutritious food. Give yourself permission to rest up, gain a few pounds if your body leans that way, and settle into a fitness maintenance routine. Commit to short, daily workouts. Like many athletes, I have endured long periods of forced rest due to injuries or other circumstances. Through those times, I have focused on coming out the other side rested and repaired, eager for adventure, and ready for action.
First, I have a book I recommend to all athletes, and yes that’s you! All us outdoor adventure seekers are athletes, and time off from big adventures is an opportunity to reflect on scheduling and train like an off-season athlete.
Core Performance, by Verstegen and Williams, changed my approach to fitness 15 years ago, and it is still one of the best guides out there. Knowledge, paired with your motivation, is the best tool you can have in your kit. Used copies of this seminal guide are just a few dollars. Get yourself one.
Second, my home gear for maintenance workouts is quite simple:
The exercise ball is key; it enables an endless variety of fun, challenging, and potentially silly, sessions of core work.
Being a constantly recovering climber, cyclist, and long-distance hiker, my routine focuses on PreHab (rather than ReHab) strengthening. General core strength and range of motion; shoulder mobility and strength; and hip and ankle mobility all benefit the outdoor athlete. And because I need some intensity when stuck indoors, I’ve set a goal to jump rope like a boxer. So fun. Yes to double-unders and cross-overs! Have fun, build a resilient body, and watch out for the chandelier! -Brandon Lampley, senior editor
CORE PERFORMANCE BOOK
STABILITY BALL
stay-at-home crossfit studio: Dumbbells
How do you know someone’s a CrossFitter? They’ll tell you!
With my regular gym closed, I’m missing lifting heavy things with my classmates.
While I have neither the space for a full barbell setup nor the interest in making such an investment, I’m not willing to lose all my gains!
I’m finding a pair of dumbbells can go a long way in staying fit and building muscle.
For more traditional strength exercises, I have a pair of adjustable weight dumbbells, the Bowflex SelectTech 552s, which are a great way to have a huge range of weight options without taking up your entire living room. I can choose the perfect loading for curls, presses, squats and lunges all from one pair of dumbbells.
Though I have 15 weight options with the SelectTechs, I’ve found fast-paced workouts involving more dynamic exercises (think single-arm snatches and renegade rows) are best done with a more traditional, solid dumbbell.
Outdoor adventurer by weekend and summer, Crossfitter by day, Treeline Review writer Kate Hoch after a vigorous home work out. Photo courtesy Kate Hoch.
Investing in a pair that’s light to moderate weight with hexagonal shaped ends that won’t roll away when you set them on the ground provides a lot of workout options. I’m using a set of 25lb right now for moves like devil’s presses and box step-ups. I use the dumbbells by Rogue Fitness, but there there are a million brands/options that would be just as good.
I’m fortunate that my gym is providing programming for at-home workouts that are easily adaptable to the limited equipment I have. Staying in touch with my regular workout friends through the CrossFit gym’s Facebook group and workout logging app has been a great way to stay motivated and accountable.
If you’re looking for some motivation and workout ideas, one of my favorite sources is Elise’s Body Shop on Instagram. She has tons of quick but challenging workouts posted with video clip demos of each move, and nearly all use only bodyweight or a single pair of dumbbells. -Kate “Drop n Roll” Hoch, Treeline writer
BOWFLEX SELECTTECH 552 ADJUSTABLE WEIGHT DUMBBELLS
LIFE FITNESS RUBBER HEX DUMBBELLS
Training for river season! Photo courtesy Josette Deschambeault.
at-home-exercise for water sports
Water sports are difficult to recreate — ask all three physical therapists who have had to deal with my shoulder injuries! But with the sun out, the snowpack melting, and our Grand Canyon & Alaskan boating adventures postponed indefinitely, I’ve had to keep my rowing strength (and mental stability) intact by recreating motions and actions that we find out on the water.
99.9% of this credit goes to my latest physical therapist who helped me work up from surgery to a physically fit state to row the Grand Canyon. But most of these exercises can be easily recreated with other objects around the house — including stairs, dog food, and Yeti coolers full of beer.
Push-ups for rowers
They’re simple and require absolutely no equipment… unless you want to spice it up!
As a rower, pushups are our best friend. We need the core, the arm, and the shoulder strength to push against currents in a raft full of people. Push-ups work all three — but ordinary pushups can be dull.
Try uneven push-ups by using a yoga block, dog food cans, a 12-pack of Le Croix, or stacked books. “Travel” over the platform to switch sides by placing both hands on the platform, holding for a moment, then moving one hand down and continuing the push-ups. If those are too difficult or you don’t have any good platforms on hand, try push-ups on the stairs, against the kitchen counter, or against the back of the couch as a modification. We get it — we’ve been in winter-mode, too, and this is a great way to start building those muscles again!
DIY Kayaking with Resistance Bands
The best way we’ve replicated paddling (sans water) has been with a rod and resistance bands. (In physical therapy, we did this with resistance tubes that clip into a rod with eyelet hooks, similar to this one.)
But it’s easy to recreate with what you have lying around, too — I took resistance bands from recovery, tied one end to my roommate’s kayak paddle (or a broom, ski pole, shovel handle, anything!), and anchored the other end in a door or around a tree. The further out you walk, the more resistance you get as you paddle.
Try it with beginner resistance band strengths or more advanced resistance band strengths to simulate different currents. Start with 10 strokes forward per side, then flip around and do 10 strokes backwards to get the full paddling effect. -Josette Deschambeault, river guide and Treeline Review writer
BEGINNER RESISTANCE BANDS
RESISTANCE TUBES
ADVANCED RESISTANCE BANDS
POWER BANDS
at home climbing practice
We’ve all seen the photos of climbers going stir-crazy during their shelter-in-place orders. I mean, who wouldn’t make the first ascent of their kitchen cabinets and rappel down their chimney, à la Santa? But while we’re mapping out our next ascents of the staircase or the apartment complex’s brick exterior, we still have to train. Enter hangboards.
There are two popular types of hangboards — rock rings and traditional hangboards.
Rock rings are a lot easier to mount (like on a tree, off your porch, in the garage) because they’re easily moved with their cordelette mounts.
Traditional hangboards are drilled into walls (or boards with cordelette mounts, if you’re transitional like seasonal workers, vanlifers, or college kids), but come with more grip options. You can get more affordable starter hangboards (like this Metolius hangboard) or you can get fancier (like these hand-carved wooden hangboards from a local Colorado artist), but they’ll all get the job done.
My favorite exercise circuits are designed for endurance. I like to rest my feet on a chair a little ways in front of me, and move from hold to hold across the hangboard and back again. That way I can still rest (like I would on a real route), but my feet aren’t on the ground absorbing all of my weight. Otherwise, I’ll do pull-ups and dead-hangs on the various holds, starting with the easiest jugs and moving into smaller and smaller holds.
Doing a few circuits of hangboard pull-ups is a great way to build your endurance and extend your pump-out limits. However, be mindful of your body, especially if you’re just starting on a hangboard — smaller holds will strain your tendons more easily. If something hurts, stop doing it. If you need a rest day, take it! Don’t strain yourself too hard on the first few go-rounds — ease into it and build up strength at a healthy pace. (We have nothing but time, people!)
Most hangboards come with a routine packet, but check out other resources to up your game, like these workouts from Metolius, Adventure Junkies, and Climbing Magazine. -Aaron Friedland, mountaineering instructor
ROCK RINGS
HANGBOARD
