A Guide to Home Workouts

Written By Utku Ozdemir

A lot of people have gym memberships, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association the U.S. health club industry serves over 70 million people. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit everything shut down, including the gyms, studios and fitness centers. As an avid fitness lover and coach I found this personally very challenging. Both my job and daily routines were thrown off. I like many others had to adapt.

Here is my guide to how to navigate home workouts and create a new fitness routine for yourself:

Set Goals for Yourself

First, think about starting your at-home fitness journey is setting new goals for yourself. Whether you consistently worked out or not before the pandemic hit it you should reevaluate what you want your goals to be. With quarantine and adapting to work from home it can be difficult to maintain your previous schedules. You may begin waking up later, working later, feeling less motivated, or less focused and that is totally understandable. Think about what you want to achieve and set attainable fitness goals and plans to achieve them. For example, for myself I knew I wanted to move 5 times a week and incorporate different types of exercise including cardio, muscle strength, and yoga.

Create a Schedule

After setting goals for yourself build a more structured schedule or plan to achieve those goals. Such as planning which days you want to workout, what time, what type, etc. This plan does not have to be concrete, just a guideline that can help you stay consistent and accountable. Insider wrote a guide to "How to start a new home workout routine in quarantine, even if you're new to fitness." that goes deeper into building a sustainable plan and tracking methods.

Find or Create Space

It is important to find a space to exercise in your house, apartment, or wherever you are. This can be in your bedroom, living room, wherever you can create enough space to safely move around. One great option, if the weather permits, it to exercise outside if you have a patio or backyard or even going to a local park. Wherever you choose make sure it is easy to access and set up and tear down. It is understandable that not everyone has enough space in their homes to dedicate solely for exercise, such as building a home gym, but finding a space that you can consistently use for exercise easily can help you to stay motivated to do so. If your space is too hard to set up to workout then you may be less motivated to exercise.

Equipment

One big reason that people have gym memberships are for the access to all sorts of equipment. From heavy lifting machines to hand weights to cardio machines. Most people do not have equipment at home and they can be surprisingly expensive to purchase. Cardio machines can range from $400 to over $1,000, which can be extremely expensive for people to buy to maintain their fitness routines. Here are some more affordable options:

For more resources into at home fitness check out Shape's "Comprehensive Guide to At-Home Workouts" and Men's Health "27 of the Best Exercises for Beginners to Try at Home".

Utku Ozdemir