When Working Out at Home is Hard

Right now, four of the five of us are on a road trip taking our youngest daughter back to university for basketball practice. We’re an active family and naturally got to talking about working out. It was interesting to compare our favourite ways to exercise, and how I stood out as the only one who likes to work out at home! The others all complained that working out at home is hard and they’d rather go somewhere else to do it. That’s fine, but what if you can’t go elsewhere… like oh, during a pandemic? Then what? 

The Benefits of Working Out at Home

I love to work out at home for convenience, but it’s not the only reason you might want to give it a go. I’m a huge fan of cross-training, and exercising at home is a great way to switch up your workout. You can do exercises that will better your performance in your chosen sport, or modify your favourite activity into an at-home workout. 

My husband is into hockey, golf, and martial arts, for example. Hockey requires a team, golf needs wide open space, and martial arts usually takes place in a well-padded gym with others. These are great forms of fitness that get you out of the house, but it is possible to make them work at home, too. For example, you could do mobility exercises to support your golf swing, and agility or speed training for hockey. Craig has even been known to practice his slap shot in the driveway now and then. 

Since they’ve been at university, my daughters are starting to realize they need to work out differently than they did before. When they were younger, they participated in team sports and dance, so didn’t need to think about fitting in time to exercise. The youngest still does basketball and lifting at school, but those aren’t year-round. The others make time to dance, but again, it’s not at the same intensity as when they were younger. They’re also noticing some back pain from all the sitting at school, and need to find ways to move when their sports are out of season. 

As soon as I brought up working out at home as a solution, all three rolled their eyes at me. “You don’t get it! When it’s too convenient to do, it’s even easier to not do it.” 

The funny thing is that I do get it. Having an appointment to show up and do something is a great way to stay accountable to yourself and others. The people who pre-book their classes in the studio tend to be the ones who have the best results because they’re consistent. I recommend it to clients all the time! You show up, exercise, and don’t need to think about it. 

Getting out of the house can also make fitness a social activity. I have a great community of people that I run with. We can chat while we do our workout and might stop for coffee afterwards. It’s all about balance for me. Sometimes I want the company of others, and others I want to move my body and feel those exercise endorphins ASAP. 

How to Make Working Out at Home Work

Working out at home lets me fit fitness into a busy day, start the day off with some movement, and clear my mind. Despite having a Pilates studio, Peloton, and nearly a full gym at home, I’m not immune to the temptation to skip my home workouts. It happens. Since movement is important to me, though, I’ve learned how to get my butt downstairs to exercise, even when it’s hard to motivate myself. Maybe these tips will help you, too. 

• Schedule your workouts. Just like booking a class ahead of time makes you more likely to go, scheduling your home workouts helps to keep you accountable. Then if something comes up to interfere with your workout, reschedule it instead of cancelling it. 
• Exercise first. I do most of my workouts in the morning before I can even think of not doing them. Get up, work out, get on with the day. 
• Sleep in. I know I just said to get up and exercise first, but I let myself sleep in twice a week. My body needs it, and it’s a nice treat after the other days of getting up a bit earlier. 
• The 5 second rule. I haven’t read the book, but I love to use the 5 second rule when I’m finding myself getting distracted and it’s getting close to my workout time. I’ll count myself down: 5, 4, 3, 2,1. Then I get up and go. It works!
• Break it up. I like to break up my workouts throughout the day, and one of them is usually independent while the other is something I need to show up to. If you’re struggling to work out at home despite wanting to, start small! Do fifteen minutes in the morning, and fifteen later. Or do a small home workout, then take a long walk after dinner. 

Fitness is a lot of things. It’s about helping your body stay strong and mobile to support all you do in life. It’s about feeling good and achieving hard things. It’s about community. It’s also fun! Working out at home is just one way to integrate exercise and movement into your life. It’s convenient, inexpensive, and versatile no matter what you’re interested in. 

If you’d like to get moving at home more often, try the Sweat with Melissa subscription or keep your eyes open for my quarterly Bootcamp Challenges. The next one is coming soon!