A lot of people out there are missing their gyms and can’t wait to get back to their normal workout routine. Over the past few months, we’ve all had to adjust our exercise habits and try to find a new way to stay healthy and motivated. At first it was novel to change up our program and find new ways to exercises. It was even a bit of fun trying to think of creative ways to workout, but we all really just want to make sure what we’re doing is actually making us stronger, more fit, and healthier! The last thing anyone wants is to hurt themselves working out at home or waste their time not getting in better shape. Here are my 5 tips for working out at home to make sure what your doing is safe, smart, and effective.
1. Your workout program should be consistent. When you think about your exercise routine it should be consistent. The frequency of how often you’re exercising, and the intensity of the workouts should be relatively steady. Of course it’s fine to add one extra day in a week or to have a bit of a more challenging session, but overall things should be pretty consistent. What I would NOT recommend is a schedule where you take a whole week off and then workout 6 days the next week. Or where week 1 the workouts are super easy and then the next week are the hardest workouts of your life. Keep things consistent and slowly make things more challenging to see progress.
2. It should get more challenging over time. If you want to see yourself get stronger or healthier, you need to increase the challenge of your program over time. This means slowly making things harder as your body adapts to the workouts you’ve been doing. Here is an example- day 1 you do 3 sets of 10 bodyweight squats and they were tough to do. On day 15 you do 3 sets of 10 bodyweight squats and they were easy! This means your body has adapted and gotten stronger, which means you have to change something to make it harder now. You could add a few more reps, weights, or even an extra set. Choose one of these to change, but don’t choose all of them.
3. Choose one progression at a time. When you realize you’re ready to make an exercise harder, pick one small thing to change at a time. If squats are getting easy to do, try to add more reps, weights, or even an extra set. Here is an example of what I would NOT recommend doing- 3 sets of 10 bodyweight squats is easy for me to do now. To make it harder I’m going to hold a 20-pound kettlebell, increase each set to 20 reps, and do a 4th set as well. Don’t change too many factors at once, making any one of those modifications would be awesome, just don’t try to change them all at the same time.
4. Keep a goal in mind. Think about what you’re trying to get out of your home program. Is it to get stronger? Do you want to improve your cardio? Or maybe you just want to get a good sweat in a few times a week. Any of those goals are great! Keep that goal in mind when you’re exercising and make sure that’s what the program is doing for you. Your workouts should help you reach that goal by being specific and targeting the right parts of your body. Balance is good, so having a mix of these different goals is great, but focusing on one at a time will make your workouts more effective.
5. Enjoy your workout. At the end of the day you doing a workout is something you do for yourself. It’s something that you should enjoy and have fun with. I always say the best form of exercise is the one that you like doing. If you’re not a runner know that you don’t have to be. If you’re not a weightlifter you also don’t have to be one. Find the kind of exercise that gets you excited and then stick with it! Every type of exercise has its purpose and can be really helpful in specific ways, but at the end of the day you need to enjoy the time you spend exercising.
Let us know what you’ve been working on at home. If you have any questions, comments, or need help making sure your home workouts are following these 5 tips let us know!