How do you maintain your fitness?

This pandemic has been rough on our bodies as a lot of us were barred from going to our gyms during shutdowns. I'm curious what you all have been doing to keep yourself in shape when you weren't allowed to leave your home. To start the thread out right. I'll share a recent fitness purchase of mine. No, I do not work for the company, nor am I getting paid for this post. I think the rower is the most effective cardio and endurance training machine you can use. It provides a whole body workout if done with proper form. I dread using the rower at the gym because others don't clean it thoroughly after use. So when this went back on sale and was available to ship to my place, I knew I had to make the purchase. This particular rower can fold up to save space when not in use and that was definitely a solid selling point for me. Shadow boxing is something I used to do to stay in shape, but when you've got people below you, there's no way I can continue that style of training. Fortunately, my gym has a boxing bag, but again with C19 using it is out the the question.

I learned over the years that you can lift heavy weights, but if you don't develop your stability muscles, big muscles is pointless if you have no control. Therefore, calisthenics should be part of every fitness enthusiast's regimen. The challenge of endurance often times is neglected by a lot of people who get into a lifting routine. Having moved several times now and having to carry heavy boxes, furniture, appliances made me feel more alive than standing in front of a mirror and going through the motions with weights. What's the point of having a strong body when you've nothing you can apply your strength to? Vanity only goes so far... now that "dad bods" is becoming more attractive to women. I find myself wanting to make use of my strength every chance I get. We tend to take our ability to move for granted. A lesson I was taught years ago with a Japanese drama based on a true story titled "One Litre of Tears." Apply yourself every chance you get. Embrace being human.

My regimen varies because I'm always trying to challenge myself.

Simple, I eat handsomely and sleep handsomely.PS: If you know about the Pendant you’re cool.

A simple piece of equipment, but it is so versatile in uses. As you see it in the photo, they are two separate rods. Each is weighted. The special thing about it is you can combine the rods to make a pole. I use it for calisthenics as well as stretching after a strenuous workout. A benefit from using a staff or pole to train with is you can use it to improve your posture. A good workout would be to do "supermans" with a weighted rod. You'll strengthen your shoulders and upper back with controlled movements that develops your stability muscles.

Those who train in martial arts would appreciate this kind of equipment. It strengthens your ability to block and will help improve stamina and speed of your arms movements. It's rather pricey. But, if you're serious about your training, the benefits outweigh the costs.

Ditto on the rower, definitely should be more popular. Fortunately for me the Beer Virus has not changed my workout routine. I do weighted calisthenics, chins/pulls and dips and variations of squats.

Just regular weight lifting (full body + accessories); no cardio...but even all of that's not even that necessary. But I also practice an unusually austere diet - and I think that's been a lot more imperative to my own fitness and body composition goals. Basic principle: I am super super picky about food sourcing and quality, and I tend not to eat too many processed materials (so I basically don't even shop at the Asian grocery stores, and I've sort of turned away from my own culture's canonical dishes). Doing this for a few years has given me a tremendous advantage in terms fitness goals.

Sleep is also important, but even more variable is putting myself in low stress situations, as I've always gravitated towards jobs that I enjoy.

This is all contingent on genetics as well. I have a black friend who hasn't been to the gym in a year, and eats colorful pancakes with berries on the regular, and still maintains an excellent body comp. I would not be able to get away with that haha

I could probably improve body comp even more with increased training velocity, but honestly after a certain point things get really time consuming...and I really want to enjoy other aspects of my life as well (though I don't normally get hangups about going to the gym; been going for over 10 years, so it's become like a routine thing at this point).

...This is all contingent on genetics as well. I have a black friend who hasn't been to the gym in a year, and eats colorful pancakes with berries on the regular, and still maintains an excellent body comp. I would not be able to get away with that haha...

I would bug my friend about this too, never picked up a weight in his entire life, works an administrative job, eats with reckless abandon then gets buff by default.

My adopted brother who is black is the same way. Incredible strength without even working out a day in his life. I used to be that way in high school. I didn't know how strong I was and wasn't able to control my strength. People always thought I was angry at someone or something because when I opened doors... I did so with what they called "excessive force."

@zen Looking at your bicep I can tell you've only been doing curls to form your muscle. A suggestion if I may... include hammer curls and reverse curls into your arm exercises to strengthen and lengthen your muscle. My arm was similar to yours in that I mainly did basic curls.

Another good workout equipment for the home gym is an elliptical. I don't do a lot of jogging or running because it's bad for your knees. Low impact training for cardio is best to prevent unnecessary injury. When I do train my knees, I do what I call Ninja jumping. Jumping as high in place as you can while bringing your legs up towards your chest. Vary it by including burpees for a high intensity workout. You can kind of see my elliptical in the background in this pic. Best one includes the bars to workout your arms and chest along with your legs. Squatting while using one maximizes overall fitness. I could be on one for hours. Having realized that I bought one for my home.

bad eating with no exercise will eventually catch up. it always does.