Ever since the pandemic took over our lives and forced us to completely change our everyday routines, more people have had to abandon their fitness plans and goals at least to an extent. Although many of us remain gym aficionados and great fans of group workouts, we have to make the most of what we have at our disposal: home workouts!
Whether youve got years of fitness experience under your belt, or youve just embarked on your first fitness journey, home workouts can be as engaging, stimulating, and effective as the rest of the alternatives. Lets go over a handful of the most important steps to make your stay-at-home workouts more effective and to help you reach your new lifestyle goals in the process.
Equip yourself with the right gear
When you choose high-impact workouts to get your sweat on during quarantine, you also need to be mindful of your fitness gear. For example, choosing the right shoes for your training can both keep your feet properly aligned for each movement you perform, keep you comfortable, and prevent injuries along the way.
Investing in resistance bands and the occasional tool such as kettlebell can help you add more variety to your program, and it will allow you to increase the effectiveness of your workouts for each exercise you perform.
Revamp your nutrition
This is no time to slack off with your diet. In fact, now that you cannot hit the gym, you need to be particularly mindful of your nutrition to avoid packing on more pounds on your frame (unless were talking about muscle). For proper muscle-building and optimal protein intake, you can always introduce the best protein powder in the USA to your diet plan, so that you can keep building muscle and stay lean in the process.
Ensuring healthy digestion, muscle-building, and optimizing your diet to burn more fat will only be possible with the right diet. So, make sure you eat ample protein, cut out unwanted carbs, and keep your healthy fat intake under control.
Wearables are vital for success
You might feel tempted to keep your regular t-shirt and sweatpants, but you should instead still wear your regular gym garments. Why? They serve as the perfect tool to elevate your mood and create the same mindset youd have at the gym. Plus, functional and purposeful fitness wearables such as form-fitting leggings, tank tops, and sweat-wicking fabrics help your skin stay healthy and allow you optimal mobility to keep your movements clean and prevent injuries.
Add variety to keep it fun
Stay-at-home workouts might not be your cup of tea, but they dont have to be boring. If anything, you can keep your entire body engaged while training at home by selecting specific exercises and routines that will keep you motivated and your body active. For example, calisthenics-based exercises are a great way to utilize your own bodyweight to make progress.
Then again, you can use one or two days of your weekly program to add resistance bands, kettlebells, as well as dumbbells. Plus, you can always find YouTube videos with ample HIIT workouts, when you need to keep your workout short and still burn a decent number of calories. Lets not forget about guided Pilates and yoga classes, dance workouts, and other great opportunities to keep yourself engaged and motivated.
Always make a program
Planning and preparation are key to fitness success. There is no way you can simply wing it when youre stuck at home with no access to optimal training equipment, or the kind of machines that you already know work wonders for specific parts of your body. Instead of feeling discouraged, you can take some time and envision a program that is doable at home, with the equipment and items you have.
Keep in mind that bodyweight workouts can also be immensely challenging even for professional athletes, when organized properly. So, dont improvise. Write down your weekly training plan in detail, and plan for every workout, for every giant set, and every break. With such a plan, you wont be able to resist your daily workout, and youll be motivated to stick with your goals.
With these tips in mind, your home workout doesnt have to be mundane or uninspiring. You can stay true to your fitness plans while having fun and enriching your daily routine with successful milestones, challenging exercises, and all the while protecting your immune system in these trying times. Hopefully, soon enough, well be able to hit the barbell once again, but until such a day comes, we might as well enable these home-based workouts to work in our favor!
Peter is a men’s lifestyle writer at The Beard Mag magazine. Follow Peter on Twitter for more tips.
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