Take care of your muscles without going to a gym
Now that stay-at-home restrictions are easing, those of us interested in strong, healthy muscles but wearied by burpees in the living room may want to consider heading to the nearest reopened park or playground for weight training. Experts note that you can perform most standard exercises there if you’re willing to use your imagination
— you can even recruit your children to help as giggling, resistance-adding workout partners. What follows are a few moves for a full-body, sundrenched routine. (Wear a face mask, observe social distancing and use gloves or hand sanitizer to protect yourself and others, of course.)
In the park, look for a tree narrow enough to encircle with your arms. Hug it. Then squat, bottom out, knees bent to almost 90 degrees. Hold a few seconds and repeat the full squat or pulse shorter ones, moving up and down rapidly a few inches at a time. As Dannah Bollig, a personal trainer in Chicago and a former Division I soccer player, explained, “You just took your barre class outside” and worked muscles in