The term ‘free-hand Exercise‘ has been tossed up by not one, but many professional trainers, including Rodney Corn, Co-Founder of PTA Global, an educational company for fitness professionals. Free-hand exercises come in many forms such as the traditional way of push-ups, dips between chairs, rowing between chairs, rope climbing, knee bends, one-leg squats, sprinting, and race walking to name a few.
While exercise machines make you workout in a routine procedure, a free-hand workout enables you to move multiple joints in different directions and use your body to stabilize the balance and increase strength!
Here is a list of a few free-hand exercises, that can help you keep fit even when stepping into a gym is not a possibility for you.
Push-Ups
Excellent for the chest, delts, and triceps, this is an old-fashioned workout that is still followed by everyone who has ever worked out in their life. And it’s needless to say that you don’t need a gym to do this one. All you have to do is place your hands at shoulder width apart and your body perfectly aligned, lower your body to the floor allowing your chest to touch it (almost), and come back up without locking your elbows.
While beginners can try to do 4-6 sets daily with 15 reps in a set, the experienced lot shall try and stretch their limit to new numbers every day to gain more sharpness and stamina to get that definition.
Side bends
It would not be wrong to say that most of us indulge in bad food habits without slogging it out in the gym to compensate for the effects. Result – fat on the side of your stomach, aka, love handles!
When the gym is not an option, it is best advisable if you take a pair of fat books, stand in an upright position with the books in both hands, slide down sideways slowly, and come up back again at the same pace.
Start off with 25 reps in both directions in a set of 4 and slowly increase the number of reps and sets to get better results. Though this exercise will not counter bad eating habits but will marginally limit the after-effects. If you want it to deliver more, then you will need a lot more control over your diet.
Free-hand bicep curls
Free-hand bicep curls can be done anywhere, anytime! Lock your hands and pull one arm towards your shoulder while resisting with the other hand. Repeat the same while doing it for the other arm. It is a very easy workout, as it doesn’t involve any weight. You can start your routine with 25 reps for each hand with 5 sets in total.
Power jumps
Though it might look a bit silly when you are jumping up and down at the same spot, this workout will lead to better pumping of the heart, therefore, resulting in better stamina for other workouts.
Very similar to what rope-jumping does, this could be a good alternative when you are traveling and cannot carry the rope with you. It will not only help you gain muscles on the calf and thigh but also result in losing that extra fat from your stomach. For starters, keep it to 100 jumps each in a set of 4 and increase the number of jumps in a set with time.
Chin-Ups/Pull-Ups
This probably is the king of upper body workouts and the toughest too! Chin-ups traditionally use a supinated grip (palms facing you), while pull-ups use a pronated grip, wherein, your palms face down. When you do either of them, always lower your body to a full extension to get better results. As for breathing, you should inhale when you start to ascend and exhale as you begin the descend.
As mentioned earlier, this one is the toughest from the lot, it would be advisable to start with 10 reps and 4 sets (minimum) daily and increase the volume as and when you gain strength.
