Home Fitness is Not Out of Reach
Home Fitness is Not Out of Reach.
Is a gym membership required to get in shape? People are divided on the answer but as is tradition when the year starts, many people a looking to lead a healthier life. With the pandemic, more and more people are working out at home or trying to at least.
Start by measuring your heart rate.
There are a few reasons why measuring your heart rate before starting to work out again is a good idea.
First, it can help you set realistic goals for yourself. If your resting heart rate is high, you may want to start with lower intensity workouts and gradually increase the intensity as your body becomes more conditioned.
Second, it can help you track your progress. As you become more fit, your heart rate at rest will decrease. This means that you are getting healthier and becoming more physically conditioned. Finally, measuring your heart rate can help you stay safe during workouts.
If your heart rate starts to climb too high, you can take a break or modify the workout to keep yourself safe. This is especially important for a home workout because you will most likely be working out alone.
Set up a small area for exercising, to start with.
Space, in any home, is a premium but having a defined space for working out will help you stay motivated and keep your workouts safe and effective.
You can use a spare room or even a corner of a room for this purpose. This space needs to be clear of any clutter, especially items you will need throughout the workout (e.g., water bottles, hand weights). The room should be well-lit and clean as these factors will affect your mood and make you more likely to stay on track with your workouts.
You should not buy lots of workout equipment, weight plates, and tons of free weights right away. A small space, with basic equipment, is going to do wonders in the beginning. A foam roller, a yoga mat, and some free weights are the building blocks of a home gym.
Having too much gym equipment can make you feel overwhelmed and it can crowd out precious floor space.
As you get into a routine, slowly decrease your resting heart rate, and can do push-ups with proper form, then you can slowly invest in more gym equipment.
Taking it to the next level.
At some point, you will plateau, that's when you need to push yourself and, possibly, upgrade your workout area.
When you are doing it to your own home, however, there are many things to keep in mind.
Where?
Home fitness is sometimes just relegated to a garage. While that's an inexpensive way to get more use out of some extra space, badly placed heavy equipment or a loose dumbbell rack next to a car can spell disaster.
Home gyms, if you do more than bodyweight exercises, take up space. The thing you have to do is evaluate where in your home you have enough room and where you have the right floors. A basement that isn't used often can be fitted with rubber flooring and can easily accommodate the storage space you will need.
A spare bedroom can work as well but depending on the equipment used you may need to purchase rubber mats for the floor. Your workout space is also one where a full-body workout can include things like jump ropes or weight training. Letting heavy kettle bells strike the floor will make some noise without the proper preparation. And that can cost quite a bit of money.
The ideal spot for your home gym is one where you feel comfortable and have extra space to stretch and eventually add more equipment. If you are tight on indoor space, then dedicating a small outdoor area can help you build consistently while letting you warm up in the sun.
What kind of equipment will you need in a home gym?
Different people do home workouts for different reasons. Exercise helps with health but it can also be used to sculpt one's body. Some people prefer strength training while others intend to beat record times on a treadmill.
This means that you need to focus your workouts depending on your goals and that means finding the right equipment - and again that means money. Garage sales and used equipment are great to help you start. Since you probably won't have a personal trainer with you in your home gym, getting your hands on great key pieces to achieve your goals will take you a long way.
Turning your house into the perfect home gym is something that means tailoring that home gym to your needs. If your goal is to increase your overall fitness then a sweet spot where you can do both a strength workout for strength building and also a cardio workout with something like a stationary bike will help you out the most. They both have their benefits and work extremely well together for things like weight loss.
The extras
One thing that's pretty cool about having your very own workout space is that you can control the environment completely.
A sound system to help you focus on the workout can free you from headphones and you don't have to listen to other people talking too loudly or grunting far more than they need to. Adding floating shelves to your home gym can also make the storage of important things like your phone or engagement ring easy without having to give up extra space that could be used for a yoga mat.
A mirror will do wonders for home fitness. It's not just about seeing the progress as you keep going but when you are trying out new workouts you want to see if you're doing them properly. The difference between poor form and great form isn't just in the risk of injury, it will also make working out at home more efficient. Since no one will be around to check in on you to tell you if you're at risk of injuring yourself or being inefficient, a mirror will help keep you in check.
What about working out in an apartment or a small space?
Not everyone has a basement or a spare bedroom lying around. That doesn't mean that home workouts are out of the question. If you are renting then adding rubber flooring is probably out of the question but even with your limited space, you can find ways to do both strength training and cardio.
Resistance bands are great pieces of equipment that require very little space compared to other equipment. Very flexible, they allow you to work on almost all of your body, turning even a small hallway into a home workout space.
Though it is a small item, a jump rope requires both space and the absence of downstairs neighbours.
If you are buying gym equipment for a place you are renting or a house that does not have much extra room, pick things for your workout that can easily be moved.
Is it worth having a home gym?
While you can save money on a hard-to-cancel gym membership and buy used equipment relatively easily, some people do like the atmosphere of a gym. The camaraderie and social aspects are hard to replicate during a home workout unless you add a computer, webcam, and ask your friends to do the same.
Nevertheless, if you enjoy going on a treadmill with no time limits, doing your routine at the time that's most convenient for you, and saving yourself the car drive to the gym, then a home gym might be the right thing for you. Exercise is an important aspect of maintaining a healthy relationship with your body; making it accessible and comfortable by making space for it in your home will benefit you in more ways than one.
Working out at home is not for everyone but it's not as inaccessible as it seems.
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