Celebrity trainer Alec Penix is using his time in quarantine to step out of his normal fitness routine. The celebrity trainer, who has worked with Shawn Mendes in the past to help maintain the singer‘s abs, says it’s the time of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workouts, especially if you’re trying to stay in shape at home. This is a workout you don’t want to miss, especially if you have limited space, zero equipment and want to feel amazing!
“This is the season or the time for calisthenic workouts, HIIT training, the type of stuff you do in your living room,” he tells HollywoodLife, exclusively, before explaining how easy it is to get complacent with an everyday gym routine. “We’re all told that we’ll have to go to the weight room in order to get a really good workout, and I just find that to be not true at all.” — Something he realized by training from home amid the current health crisis.
“This been a good experience, even for me as a trainer, to break out of my norm,” the Seven Sundays author said of working out at home. “I look at this time as a season for cross-training.” Alec, whose client roster also includes the likes of Olympic Gold Medalist Gabby Douglas and Derek Hough, on spirituality and wellness during training.
Some of Alec’s at-home moves include dips, squats, lunges and step-ups — all with the use of a chair. “I’ve also been using household goods, like canned goods, or a bottle of water, or a gallon milk jug as weight,” he said.
As for at-home cardio? — “You can do sprints in place, mountain climbers,” he said, explaining that “you can incorporate these exercises as if you’re doing regular exercises, but adding in more of these HIIT type of moves, like a jump squat, and doing a circuit.”
Below is Alec’s powerful core, and lower and upper body workout, which totals as a 30 minute HIIT workout:
Lower Body: 15 Bulgarian squats; 15 split-squats; 15 jump squats — 3x
How: Using a chair, you can do Bulgarian squats and it’s easy to search these exercises up online.
Bulgarian squats: It’s kind of similar to lunge, but you’re not moving. You’re staying in place and you’re just going straight up and down. Then, with the same leg, you move forward and do 15 split-squats. Since that’s a one legged exercise, you switch to the other leg. Do three rounds of that on each leg.
Tip: Week by week, if you’re feeling stronger, you can increase each round to 20 reps, and so on, etc.
Upper Body: 15 pushups; Superman pulses; Shoulder presses (20 reps) — 3x
Pushups: you can add a modification in there if you need by dropping to your knees.
Superman exercise: It focuses on your glutes and your back. With this exercise you, lay on your stomach with your arms out in front of you — your legs are off the ground, and you kind of look like you’re flying like Superman, but on the ground. Squeeze your glutes and your back together, and do 15 pulses.
Shoulder presses: We’re going to get creative and use canned goods, or other weighted items depending on what you have around the house. Hold the canned goods in each hand and you can choose to stand, sit on your chair, or be on your knees while doing this. Do a shoulder press as if you were in the gym using dumb bells. Go all the way down, touch your shoulder, then extend the item over the top of your head.
Core: Leg lifts (20 reps); Crunches (20 reps)
Leg lifts: Lay on your back with your legs are straight. Depending on how strong your core is, you could put your hands behind your head or your hands below your glutes. When you put your hands below your lower back, on your glutes, it gives you some of that lower back support, which is fine.
Crunches: The bottom of your feet are on the ground with your legs are sort of bent, knees are up, and you’re just bringing your shoulder blades off the ground. And to finish that off, you flip over and you do plank twist for anywhere between 30 seconds to a minute.
Plank: From the crunch position, twist over in a plank (arms on the ground and in line with your shoulders, toes pointed down, back flat).
Note from Alec: “Depending on the individual person and strength/ability, you can play around with the reps and rest time, although I would say, rest for 45 seconds between reps. Just go at your pace.”
