CATE Campbell has put a fresh twist on the "backyard gym" by doing pull-ups on the elevated wooden stairs of her family's renovated Queenslander to keep her stalled Olympic dream active.

Weighted pull-ups, with large water bottles attached to her waist, are completed next to the clothes line and stretches are in the sun not the gym.

Welcome to the new world of Queensland's champion 100m freestyler who has been forced to tread water with the rescheduling of the Tokyo Olympics to next year.

Campbell shifted home to Brisbane from her Sydney training base when the coronavirus scourge changed the date with destiny she had circled on the calendar for the past four years.

Her sense of humour is intact judging by the wry words which accompanied her Instagram post of Iso-life with her homespun gym.

"What people think my gym program looks like...what it actually looks like," Campbell said beside photos showing off her inventive backyard set-up.

Her hashtags "#hilarious" and "#buttheyactuallywork" came with her sobering slant that the health crisis has been "shattering so many people's dreams."

Originally published as Olympian's hardcore backyard workouts