4 Day Upper/Lower Bodyweight Split Workout
Apr 20. 2020
Workout Summary
General Fitness
Split
Beginner
4
45 minutes
Bodyweight, Other
Male & Female
Workout Description
I compete in Powerlifting, my fiancée knits — our levels of and outlooks on fitness couldn’t be further from one another. But, like millions of people around the globe, our lives have evolved over the course of the last month due to a pandemic and an order encouraging us to “stay at home.”
After only a week of social distancing, I was greeted by a string of words I never dreamed of hearing: “Can you help me with a workout?” Although it was music to my ears, it also presented a challenge: it had to be simple enough to do at home, but demanding enough to catalyze results. And as if that wasn’t enough, she asked if I’d do them with her — I can’t go to the gym, after all. Now, these workouts had to be strenuous enough to make me sweat. Challenge accepted.
I started with a few guiding principles: working with time instead of reps will increase intensity where we couldn’t use weights, and specifying rest time between sets would hold us accountable for keeping our heart-rates up. The duration of each exercise can be increased in increments of 10 seconds as the movements become easier, and the length of each rest should be decreased by increments of 5 seconds as you acclimate to the demands of each workout. The demands can continually become more challenging to match improvement.
With a bit of resourcefulness, we could use an old book bag full of hardcover books for things like squats, rows, and pushups; with a little creativity, we could use laundry detergent for Russian Twists and solid bricks for Renegade Rows. I got tunnel vision, beginning to see all the ways the mundane objects around our house could be used as weights.
Each workout begins with a jog around the block (come on, I’m a Powerlifter…) to get the heart-rate up, blood moving, and muscles warm. This can be increased to match anyone’s cardiovascular capability, or changed or something like burpees, jumping jacks, or mountain climbers if they loathe running (like I do). Take a short break, no more than a minute, before beginning the real work. Let’s do it.
