Several muscles in your legs help you perform daily activities with agility, speed, strength, and endurance. These muscles also reduce the stress of many movements on your spine. It’s important to target these muscles you won’t be using while sitting down working on a laptop or reclining in front of the TV.
Box Jumps
A variation on calf raises is the box jump. If you have a sturdy box, then you can target your calves to provide all the force to jump on top of the box and then back down. You may have to build a strong cube with plywood.
Add a Cardio Component
Remember, when targeting muscle groups during workouts, you can achieve different goals, such as muscle development (lengthening, expanding, contracting), toning, strength, reaction time, and range of motion. You can also focus on challenges such as jumping higher, taking longer strides, lifting your arms higher and more frequently over your head, and doing more repetitions. Every challenge pushes your body out of its comfort zone and provides variety in your home-life.
If you want to increase the effectiveness of a workout, then add a cardio component between the workouts discussed above. For example, you can walk a lap or two around your home, jump rope, try jumping jacks or pushups, or crank up the music and dance to a fast tune. Getting the heart moving faster is how the body pumps oxygen-rich blood to the muscles. If you aren’t giving muscles what they need, they won’t develop to the desired state.
Another option is playing a cardio routine on your laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Think of this idea as a movement break that integrates into the workday. It’s the same approach teachers use to get sleepy kids moving around and interested in the next activity.
These stretching and exercising ideas will help you maintain your physique, manage your stress, and feel vital despite being confined.
Dumbbell Step-Up
For this activity, you need a box, bench, or stair that is 2 to 3 feet above the ground. Hold a dumbbell of your preferred weight in each arm. Take turns stepping up to the raised surface and back down. As you step up with the right foot, curl the dumbbell in the left arm. Then, step back down and step up with the left foot and curl the dumbbell in the right arm. You can also add dumbbells to the calf raise exercise featured above.