As we write this, January has just come to an end. How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions and goals of getting fitter and losing weight this year? Maybe you are refining your goals so they feel more purposeful and realistic? Maybe your'e crushing it and loving the momentum. Either way, if you are like must of us, you probably have decided that even if you’re at home all day, you’re going to work out and exercise. Optimizing this is going to be key to a brand new you in 2022!
Well, if you’ve been having a hard time sticking to it and staying consistent, we feel you. It seems like something new always pops up and gives that voice in your head a reason to tell you not to exercise. You have a meeting at work, you have an appointment, you didn't sleep well... the list goes on and on.
The reality is, we won’t always have the perfect amount time, energy, motivation, or financial resources to work out the way we once imagined. Also, you’re at home - it might be the last place you want to exercise in, especially since it’s your refuge. Whenever you get home after a long day, you just want to curl up in bed and just relax.
If you’re feeling bad right now about not sticking to your resolution, we’re here to tell you to not. Forgive yourself. Remember, life isn’t about that!
Also, remember that the year has just started, and that means you can still fulfill your resolution. How? Well, read our workout hacks so that you can get started in an easy and enjoyable way. These hacks will help you make fitness a regular part of your daily routine, guaranteed!
Designate a workout spot at home.
As mentioned above, your home is your safe space, your place to relax. But if you want to be able to work at home, you should pick a space for your workout area. That helps put your mind and body in exercise mode. Every time you walk into that space, you know you’re going to get moving. Make it your official “home gym”, if you will. And since it’s your home, you can pick whatever spot you want! The important thing to remember is to get you in the right mindset for exercising.
Dress up in workout clothes when you’re at home.
Do you find your pajamas or sweatpants comfortable while working at home? Well, you’d be surprised that exercise clothes are just as comfortable. And dressing in your workout clothes can be more motivating than you think. Once you find yourself in clothes made for exercising, you’re more likely to not waste and not work out. Plus, dressing in them eliminates the objection of “I’m not in my proper workout clothes” altogether.
Make use of objects at your home for your workout.
Another objection you may have to exercise is that you don’t have any equipment at home. But if you’re creative and you really want to get your body moving, you’ll find a way! And that means checking out stuff that you have and making them part of your exercise routine. For example, you can do bridge lifts with a heavy coffee table book. Fill up a backpack and use it for added weight for jumping jacks. Climb up and down the stairs. You can also use heavy soup cans or gallons of water as dumbbells for bicep curls. And if you want to do tire flips, get that spare tire out of your car or garage.
Don’t buy plenty of equipment.
If you feel like your objects at home aren’t doing it for you, or you feel like your workouts just need a little more, there’s no problem with buying equipment. However, we also don’t recommend you buy up everything that’s available! Not only will you not be able to use them all at once, but it will also hurt your wallet and take up a lot of space in your home.
That’s why we at Committed HP only sell the following fitness tools: resistance bands, yoga mats, and foam rollers. These fitness essentials are more than enough to help you get a full-body workout at home. Less is more when it comes to fitness!
Set realistic workout goals for yourself.
It would be nice if you can lose 10 pounds in a week, right? It can happen, but for reasons you may not necessarily like. Losing that much weight can actually be detrimental to your physical and mental health.
When it comes to exercising, view it the same way. Don’t set impossible workout goals, like working out six times a day for two hours and you will start at eight in the morning all the time. As we mentioned above, life happens. You can’t control everything that happens in your life, so it is more than likely you will miss a workout.
If you set a goal like that and you don’t meet it, you might feel like a failure and decide to not continue your exercise goals forever. That’s the reason we recommend smaller goals instead. Go for three times a week for 30 minutes per exercise week for example. That’s more realistic and doable.
Get an accountability buddy.
You can plan to exercise all you want, but if you don’t stick with it, it remains a mere plan. If you need help sticking with it, why not enlist the help of someone to remind you to exercise? It can be a family member or a friend. Explain to them your goals and what you need from them. Just make sure it’s someone who is really willing to help you out.
A better accountability buddy is to get someone who has the same New Year’s resolution as you. That way, they can relate to you more and will understand the importance of keeping you accountable to working out.
Remember that other movements count, too.
Just because you didn’t hit your designated exercise spot for the day doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t work out. Did you walk your dog and played catch with it after? Did you find a bunch of nice songs to dance to on TikTok and filmed yourself the entire day dancing? Were you out running errands on foot? Did you take the whole day to clean out your entire house?
All those mentioned above require active movement, so that means you did actually “work out.” Don’t disregard those moments! Plus, they’re productive - those are things you actually need to do. Consider them as dual-purpose movements.
One last thing to take note of
For health reasons, the Mayo Clinic says that you should get “at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity.” That means that when it comes to exercise, you don’t have to always go hard and intense.
And again, you don’t have to feel bad if you didn’t exercise for a day or two. 150 minutes in 7 days is equal to less than 20 minutes a day, so you can always redistribute those missed minutes on other days.
Finally, home workouts don’t have to take a long time. Keeping things short will help you get in the habit of exercising. The important thing is making sure that you’re making the most of all your workout minutes, and that what you’re doing will ultimately help you feel, function, look and live better.