Why should everyone have a gym at home? It saves you tremendous time and money year after year while making it easy to stay motivated.
Gym memberships are expensive compared to the start-up costs of setting up your own gym at home.
More importantly, you eliminate a huge barrier to sticking with your fitness goals- the commute to and from the gym. If those reasons aren’t enough, consider that if you eliminate a 20-minute commute, to and from the gym, that works out to over 80 hours saved in a year on a typical 5-day-a-week workout routine.
What would you do with an extra 80 hours of time!
Here’s another insight: the gym business model works because so many people pay for a full month but only show up a few days here and there. Gyms “over-subscribe” their memberships because they know that most of us will never get our money’s worth and only show up once in a while. That’s a tremendous amount of cash going from your pocket to theirs.
Before I committed to my home fitness journey, I was one of those people spending insane amounts of money on memberships. I tried exclusive gyms for women, discount pricing to go at a certain time, premium pricing for access to trainers, and gyms near my home and near my office. I would stick with a location for a few months and then find an excuse not to go.
I’d tell myself “I’ll get back on track tomorrow” but when tomorrow would come, I’d leave work late or run into an insane amount of traffic or feel uncomfortable with some guy staring at me or seeing all these people much fitter than me. In the end, I didn’t reach my fitness goals and wasted my money.
Finally, a couple of years ago, I decided to take control of my health and put a plan together to stick with my fitness goals while not breaking the bank. With a new year around the corner, I had my workout routine together, my nutrition plan, my badass kicks, and my partner to keep me accountable. January came around and I killed it. February… was a breeze. By mid-March, I was feeling on top of the world.
I looked amazing, had so much energy, and felt the happiest I’d ever been.
And then… the pandemic hit. That’s right, I started my journey in the year we all remember- 2020.
As soon as the shutdowns started I felt lost. All the momentum I gained came to a screeching halt. I waited around the house almost in shock at what was happening.
There was so much uncertainty and I had no clue what to do but all I could think about was “if only I could, at least, get a workout in”. Right then it hit me- I had been using fitness to ground myself for the past three months. If it worked up until now, fitness should work to get me out of this slump again.
So I opened up my laptop and started typing. “Best full body workout routine at home”, “full body workout schedule at home” and more. I scoured the web for any and all information I could find but I would stop reading out of disappointment. All the info I found was okay but I needed something good. Something just as great as the past 3 months I’d had.
That’s when I knew, I would need to create this source of information myself. Here’s a bit of that info I put together so that you’ll love your home workouts.
It only takes 3 easy steps to start your home fitness journey.
Find the perfect space
You don’t need a huge space but you do need an area devoted to workouts. It can be in the corner of your living room or a dedicated room where you’ll be coming back specifically to work out. It’s important to maintain that consistency and familiarity of coming back to the same area. If you live in an apartment or a small house, you can use that to your advantage: choose a space you see every single day so that every time you walk by it- you feel a reminder that you need to work out and make those gains.
In my case, I picked a small room where I could hang a mirror. I used an empty drawer to store workout equipment and I was able to work out every day without having any distractions from family.
Invest in your body more than the space
I used to laugh when I heard about friends buying treadmills or stationary bikes. I’d always say to them, tongue-in-cheek: “You’ll be able to hang all types of shirts on those handlebars!”
The truth is that you don’t need expensive machines. I’ve been there and you’re just fine without. The most important thing to keep in mind is the three stages of daily exercise that you should meet: Cardio, Strength, and Recovery
Cardio
We all hate cardio but now we need to do it in a small space- how?? Simple, with burpees, high knees, butt kicks, or jump squats. My favorite, however, is the jump rope because it makes cardio fun. I like to challenge myself to do the most jumps in one minute or try new tricks. Give it a try and I’m sure you’ll have fun during cardio.
Another fun option is following dance videos on youtube.
Strength Training
At the core of every workout plan. The challenge is to find equipment that fits in a tight space. The answer is resistance bands. You can use them in many different routines to build muscle.
Recovery
Stretching has been proven to reduce post-workout soreness. I love using the yoga mat because it’s easy to store.
Design a spectacular place to store everything
If you bought a mat, weights, ball, leagues, etc. you can buy a special shelf, where it does not take up much space and all your things look good like this:
I also bought a blackboard where I wrote down all my daily and monthly progress, it motivates me to keep going.
Now that you have my three best tips to start your gym at home, visit the other parts of this site to learn how to create your own workout plan with easy-to-follow home routines and nutrition
Share your experiences, we love seeing people change their lives!
