Are you getting tired of doing the same at-home workouts over and over? Or maybe you've been struggling to find the motivation and haven't been working out as often as you hoped. Either way, here are some fresh ideas to make your exercise routine a little more fun and creative.
Social Media Workout Challenges
When you can't go to the gym and are stuck doing your workouts at home, it's easy to lose your motivation. Maybe you liked taking fitness classes because the energy of the group being all in it together made you feel like you could push yourself more. Maybe you looked forward to your daily chats with your best friend on the ellipticals together.
To keep your at-home workouts from getting boring, try some of these social media fitness challenges to mix things up. I've had a lot of fun making time-lapse videos of myself doing my workouts and tagging my friends in Instagram stories to do the same thing. It's easier to do it when you know you're going to share it with people!
How to Both Exercise + Binge Watch TV
What are the two main things you regularly do when you're not working, teaching your kids or cleaning your house? Probably watching TV and exercising! It's nice let our brains check out for a bit and be entertained by a binge-worthy show after a lot of hard work. And it's also nice to move our bodies and get some endorphins to release stress. If you feel like some days you're having to choose one over the other, try combining them! Maximize your time by getting your workout in and finding out what happens next in your favorite series.
Work Out with Things Found in Your House
Most of us didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare before going into quarantine, and if you always worked out at a gym, you probably don't own your own set of exercise equipment.
By now, you may have drunk all of your pseudo-weights (i.e. wine bottles) and need some new ideas to avoid ordering a ton of stuff online.
Zoe Weiner at Well + Good put together a master list of workout equipment subs for way more than just weights. She includes resistance bands, gliders and more in No Weights? No Problem.
50 At-Home Bodyweight Exercises
If you don't have a lot of exercise equipment at home, you can either get creative with wine bottle or bags of flour, or you can exercise using your own bodyweight. Greatist.com came up with 50 exercises you can do at home in 50 Exercises for a Bodyweight Workout You Can Do Anywhere. The exercises are broken down by full body, legs, shoulders + back, chest + arms, and core.
Playlists for Your At-Home Workouts
One of the fastest ways to give up on your workout is to not have the right music. You can be in a good flow and pushing yourself so hard and lose all of your momentum with the wrong song. Avoid that situation with these nine playlists put together by Jessica Pridmore in her article, Dig Deep With These 9 Spotify Workout Playlists on The Urban List.
Follow Hayley Hyer @hayhyer