Discover more at-home workouts at CosmoBody, the new fitness and lifestyle video channel.You don't need much space to get an awesome workout. Which is a good thing, considering most dorm rooms have just enough floor space for your bed and — wait, that's all. Grab your desk chair, and complete each of these compact moves from CosmoBody trainer Adam Rosante back-to-back. Rest for 30 seconds, then repeat two more times for a full-body workout. Stand with heels shoulders-width apart and toes turned out slightly. Open up your chest and pull the shoulders down your back. Sit your hips back until your thighs are parallel to the ground, extending your arms straight out and bringing your hands together at shoulder level as you near the ground. Push through your heels to stand as you release your hands along your sides and squeeze your butt at the top. Get into push-up position with your shoulders stacked over your wrists and your feet together. Hop both feet apart, then hop them back together.
Keeping your body in one straight line between your head and your heels, brace your core as you bend your elbows and lower your body to the floor. (If that's not happening, bring your knees down to the floor, cross your ankles, raise your heels to come off your kneecaps, and do a modified push-up). Press up to starting position. Push the chair against the wall so the seat is facing forward and your back is facing the seat. Stand far enough in front of it to put the top of your left foot on the chair. Keeping your front knee behind your toes, sink straight down until your standing thigh is parallel to the floor. Do 10 reps, then switch legs and do 10 more. Stand behind your desk chair with your feet hips-width apart. Grab both sides of the chair so your palms face each other. Lock your elbows at your sides, roll your shoulders back, and bend your elbows to lift the chair up. With control and without dropping the chair to the floor, lower it back to starting position. Get into plank position with your forearms on the ground.
Your elbows should be directly beneath your shoulders and your hands locked together. Keeping your gaze down, push out through the heels and engage your core to keep your body in a straight line between your head and your heels. Hold for 30 seconds. Pin the tutorial to try it later: Follow Elizabeth on Twitter.Have you ever felt slightly overwhelmed when you were presented with a blank piece of paper and told to make art? In elementary school, I felt like Regina from Regina's Big Mistake (remember this book?) every time I picked up a crayon and stared down at my sheet of white construction paper. Furnishing a dorm room, oddly enough, makes me feel like Regina all over again. I've been given 100 square feet of white wall and tile, equipped with nothing more than basic furniture, and have been told time and time again that my dorm room should reflect "who I am". The sheer size of the dorm room shopping market, as well as the seemingly boundless choices available, are what prompted me to write this CF article series.
We've already learned about creating color schemes, room layouts, and choosing bedding, so let's tackle shopping for dorm room furnishings! These budget-friendly tips and picks will guide you in your shopping and help you deck out your room for fall.As we've said before in our previous post on furnishing your dorm room, the main things to keep in mind are your roommate and the size of your room. It would be awful to drag a six-shelf bookcase or heavy nightstand up three flights of stairs, only to then realize a) your roommate already brought one or b) It. Doesn't. That being said, read on to find out about some chic, inexpensive furnishings that will make you feel more at home in your dorm! Even if you are blessed with gorgeous hardwood floors, rugs are simply one of the easiest ways to make a room feel welcoming. The styles on the market vary tremendously from Oriental to shag to Flokati, and the prices can be astronomical if you don't know where to look.Click through the gallery below to see our favorite rugs for 2015:6GalleryDorm Room Rugs for 2015Nightstands are possibly my favorite room furnishing, apart from, of course, my bed.
There are so many ways to use them, and even more creative ideas for nightstands themselves! They bring so much charm to a room, and obviously provide ample space for the tottering pile of books I peruse every evening. Of course, you can purchase a standard nightstand (like the one pictured above) from nearly any furniture or home decor store, but what about something more unique? Keep reading to hear some in-lieu-of-a-nightstand ideas!Product Information, left to right, top to bottom: LACK Side Table (IKEA), Yellow Nightstand (Urban Outfitters), 3-shelf Bookcase (Target), Rolling File Cabinet (Walmart), White Chair (Target), Wooden Ladder (Amazon)I've never been one to be picky about where I sit. I actually favor hard wooden chairs when I'm studying, as I often find myself drifting off if I'm in a comfortable one. However, this might not apply to you, and you may develop a terrible hatred for that awful rocking wooden chair with the puce-colored upholstery that you see on move-in day.
Where to place our (stylish) posteriors, then, on those long all-nighters? Read on for tips on selecting and buying the desk chair that will last you through every midterm and final!Click through the gallery below to see some of our favorite chairs for 2015:5GalleryCollege Desk Chairs for 2015 Were these tips for furnishing dorm rooms helpful? What furnishings did you bring to school with you, and why did you choose them? Do you like the rugs, nightstands, and chairs we selected? What advice do you have for students setting out to furnish their rooms? Let us know with a comment!My freshman-year dorm room featured the MIDAS Automation System 1.0. It was a mess of wires and random junk found around campus wired together in strange and perhapsThe Housing Safety Department (an actual organization within MIT) shut down the whole operation. summer before my sophomore year I designed the room on paper, and upon getting to campus I started building. Most of the construction happened
the first few weeks of my sophomore year. Here are visuals of what the room looks like, and terse descriptions of what you are seeing and how it was To the right is my electrical engineering worktable, complete with power supplies, an oscilloscope,To the left is the primary desk where I do software development and mostAbove is the loft, which contains my bed and a lounge chair for reading and relaxing. The flooring that came with the dorm room wasThis is not my favorite color, so I installed hardwood flooring in the room.I built a bed frame out of lacquered pine wood. The loft frame is made of 2x4s and plywood. I did not want any of these materials to show through, so the frame and insides are completely covered. A metal stud spans the length of the edge of the loft. The flooring below the upper lounge chair has paddedI installed a metal wall using flashing aluminum cut into squares and glued to the wall. neon light orb is a custom music controller that interfaces with the
See the MIDAS Automation System and As mentioned, I did not want any plywood or 2x4s showing through, so for each section of the loft I created custom ceiling panels. On each end of the loft are free-form shapes cut out of steel plate on a waterjet. White particle board backs these, and I cut a hole out of the center to allow for recessed halogenOne panel contains a vintage oscilloscope (over the EE bench, somewhat visible in the above picture). It cannot be seen in this picture, but there is a passageway through the loft to get up directly below the top LCD monitor. On the second level I have a pivot-able LCD monitor which connects to the music server. server doubles as a home theater PC. can also check email from bed - a very important feature. Restored Herman Miller Eames lounge chair for reading, having guests over, etc. It might be the Plycraft version, I can't really tell. The back wall (white-ish) is a custom
light wall with eight individually light-able and color-changeableThe main motivation was to have a wall that appears to be a giant window letting light in. display (somewhat cutoff here) randomly displays various news andThe display is recessed into a similar wood as the hardwood floor to match with the rest of the room and give the back wallThe blinds are electrically actuated by the custom joystick controller positioned above the radiator. Various buttons tie into the MIDASThe large dark orb pictured here is the "randomIt reconfigures the room in a random configuration using all controllable devices available to it (this includes nearly 20 lights, blinds, The door and MIDAS AutomationFrom the touchscreen I can play music on the surround-sound system in my room, check the weather, and turn on/offThe door has polished wood strips cut to size on a table saw, and then mounted in a vertical orientation. On the left I put a strip of metal-plated wood.
installed in the center. I wanted an abnormal door, so I thought what better than to paint it white and put a giant ear on it. For scale, the ear is approximately two-feet tall. More controls for MIDAS. these activate one-touch macros such as sleep-mode. Loft ceiling panels over my mainFrom left to right: another similar waterjet-cut panel as above the EE bench, a frosted plastic panel which has colored lights inside it and a wine glass holder, and the iBlob music controller. The suspended loft frame was built out of 2x4s with metal supports. One rear vertical 4x4 gives the loft additional strength so that weight is distributed via the ceiling, walls, and theThis design allows the loft to float in the room, eliminating the need for obtrusive supports reaching down to the floor. Here is the finished loft frame ready for mounting. Two 3/8 inch threaded rods feed through heavy-duty eye-hooks mounted to the loft.