This year many of us have swapped our in-person gym sessions for at-home fitness routines. Working out at home is a whole new territory, including new challenges and motivational blocks. To enhance your home workout routine and achieve your next body goals, try taking on board these eight smart tips today.
By Team Savant
Image: Kari Shea
1 . Fitness Applications
There are so many fitness applications which can enhance your homework out, here are just a few to get going:
Keelo Fitness: The Keelo fitness app combines conditioning, cardio, and strength exercises into one engaging program. The program is designed to help users improve their metabolic, cardiovascular, central nervous, and musculoskeletal systems. Keelo fitness uses an AI-based algorithm to personalize your workout and ensure you're getting the right kind of challenge.
Body by Blogilates: The Blogilates app was created by Pilates and fitness teacher Cassie Ho, including all of her most popular workout videos, here for you to access on the go. The app program combines cardio days, strength days, and rest days to provide you with the perfect workout regime. There are also plenty of challenges that you can take part in, including the ‘7-Day Ab Challenge’ or the ‘7-Day Thigh Challenge’.
Asana Rebel: The Asana Rebel app provides a wide range of workout options, from HIIT training to yoga and mediation. As well as the workout videos, there are also articles, quizzes, and challenges to keep you motivated. These workouts range from 5 minutes to one hour, so you can choose a time frame that suits your lifestyle.
2. Try An Online Personal Trainer
To achieve the perfect home workout routine, it’s well worth investing in an online personal trainer. PTs work with clients to improve their fitness levels, set fitness goals, develop long-term exercise habits, consider nutritional goals, improve endurance, and more. There are added benefits of choosing an online personal trainer specifically, including:
Flexibility: Sessions are conducted online and not in person, which means more flexibility to fit around your schedule.
Simple communication: With online personal training, communication is simple; use video platforms, Whatsapp, or email, whichever you prefer.
Affordability: Online personal training sessions are generally more affordable and suitable for a range of budgets.
For further information about online person training services check out Andy Griffiths Online Personal Trainer.
3. Invest In Gym Equipment
Perfecting your home work out routine means choosing the right equipment to support your exercises. For a few ideas, consider investing in the following gym equipment:
Kettlebells: A kettlebell is a type of weight; it’s usually made of cast steel or cast iron. It is a ball shape with a handle on the top. You can perform lots of different types of exercises using a kettlebell, including exercises for strength, cardiovascular or flexibility training.
Dumbbells: These are free weights; you can use one or two weights at a time (holding one in each hand). Dumbbell exercises can stimulate metabolic and mechanic overload, which results in muscle growth. There are plenty of exercises that you can do with dumbbells, including dumbbell squats, dumbbell bench presses, and bicep curls.
For other useful gym equipment, try gym balls, skipping ropes, or larger equipment such as rowing machines or stationary bikes.
4. Check Out Virtual Classes
Not too keen to attend the gym in person right now? Thankfully plenty of gyms and yoga studios are offering virtual classes that you can attend from the comfort of your own home. It can be challenging to motivate yourself to workout at home, but booking into a virtual class can give you the motivational boost that you need. It may take a little while to adjust to virtual classes, but once you're in a good routine, you’ll find that these are far more convenient and time-saving than classes in person.
5. Create A Fitness Area
Simple but effective, it’s far easier to motivate yourself if you create a designated fitness area. You don’t need tonnes of space, simply clear a small area, remove the clutter, put down a gym mat, and arrange your exercise equipment. With a tidy and aesthetically attractive gym space, you’ll feel more inspired to stick to a regular fitness regime. When you’re creating your fitness area, remember to think about temperature control and ventilation.
6. Incorporate Your Garden
Let’s face it, working out in the same place daily can get a little boring. If you’re looking for a bit more variety, try incorporating your garden into your home workout routine. Many studies indicate that being outdoors can improve our fitness practices. Being outdoors elevates your endorphin levels, while the fresh air is beneficial to regulate your temperature. You can also incorporate different types of equipment in a garden space, including trampolines and pull up bars.
7. Create A Schedule
To stay on the right track, it can be useful to create a workout schedule. Your schedule should outline when you will work out, for how long, and which kinds of exercises you will do. Once you get into a strict routine, it’s easy to follow the schedule and continue making progress. There might be days when you just don’t have time to complete your full routine, and that’s fine. Even if you can only squeeze in a ten-minute session, this is still beneficial to get your endorphin levels pumping. To support you to create a schedule, try using apps like Todoist.
8. Set Yourself Goals
Goal setting can help you to stay on track, motivate yourself, and know exactly what you are looking to achieve. Examples of a few workout goals might be:
Completing a 45 min exercise session at least three times a week.
Working towards a particular balance in yoga (for example, the crow).
Performing a certain number of reps (i.e, 100 burpees without stopping).
Increasing your weight limit (for example, moving from a 5kg dumbbell to a 10kg dumbbell).
To help set yourself goals, it can be useful to use the SMART framework. The framework ensures that all goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Using the SMART framework will allow you to set goals that motivate you.