It is no secret that living on your own in a new environment sometimes leads to weight gain. When I first came to Tallahassee, I myself was a victim of the freshman fifteen. Now, we face an even bigger weight gain threat: the COVID nineteen. Students in FAMU apartments that include an exercise room are beyond lucky; the rest of us must make due with what we have at our disposal.
Body Weight Exercises
Whether you are a novice or have a bit of experience lifting weights and working out, you will find that body weight exercises always deliver results. If you
live in a studio apartment, you have all the privacy you need to finish your workout; however, if you
live with two or
three roommates, you may not want to complete all your reps in the living room. In your bedroom, you will want to set aside enough space where you can move freely and avoid feeling crowded. In this space, you can stretch the muscles you want to focus on (stretching releases many of the same muscle-building hormones that lifting weights does) and complete a full body-weight workout session that matches your fitness goals and breaks a sweat.
Exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, and squats can be done just using the ground for support, while exercises like dips and rows will require a bit of improvisation. If you want to complete dips or modified push-ups, which activate more specific muscle groups, you might want to use a chair, the foot of your bed, or even a desk to help you achieve it. If you want to learn more about targeting certain muscle groups in body-weight workouts, there are a myriad of online resources that can teach you what you should and shouldn't do.
Improvise!
If you are willing to go the extra mile (without leaving your apartment), you can purchase cables and adjustable weights that suit your desired exercises; some friends of mine in FAMU apartments use pull-up bars and ropes that hang off of a door frame to complete their workouts. However, if you would rather use free substitutes, you can use everyday items around your house to meet the same goals. Remember those textbooks you bought, never used, then forgot about in your closet? Load up your backpack with books, binders, or even bricks to give you some extra freedom. With a heavy backpack, exercises like curls, lateral raises, and goblet squats become available to spice up your sweat session.
Working out, by itself, is no easy task; working out in your FAMU apartment is even more challenging. If you have found that this time of social distancing has taken away most of your exercise opportunities and made you all-around less active, completing workouts like the ones discussed above might just be the solution you are looking for. Please be careful if you work out alone and do not hesitate to research any at-home exercises you are unsure of!