Personal trainer: How to start a new home workout routine in quarantine, even if you're new to fitness
- As quarantine and self-isolation measures stretch beyond a month, maintaining your motivation to exercise can seem daunting.
- If you've been meaning to start a workout routine and put it off, or have lapsed in your exercise endeavors, it's not too late.
- Personal trainer Bryan Goldberg shares some tips for starting or maintainable a healthy, stable exercise plan right now, from where to begin to how to make time for rest days.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
With social distancing measures still in place a full month after most US cities brought them in, even those most opposed to home workout routines may be reconsidering their stance.
It can be hard to stay motivated to exercise in your living room. And, especially if you're newer to fitness and/or have been putting off a home fitness routine, it can be hard to know where to start.
Luckily, adding even a little a bit of movement into your day can have benefits, according to personal trainer Bryan Goldberg. And it may be easier than you think, particularly since gym aren't re-opening any time soon — and, crucially, there are no gym bros to intimidate you away from your area of choice.
"Right now it's most important to move, stay healthy and get a moderate amount of exercise," Goldberg said. "It's a great time to get started since nobody has to worry about gymtimidation."
Goldberg shared some tips with Insider about how to start a routine, if you've been wanting to for a while, and how to keep it sustainable, no matter what your fitness level is. Here's his best advice.
Be realistic about your current fitness level and your goals
Whether you're a seasoned jock or a fitness newbie, the first step is to take some time honestly assessing your fitness level and your goals, according to Goldberg.
If you're absolutely new to fitness, focus on basic body-weight movements, Goldberg advises. Good movements for beginners include squats, lunges, planks, and push-ups (from a kneeling position, if that's more accessible for you right now).
If you're more experienced and used to a gym routine, it's a good idea to recognize that your expectations might have to be different for a home workout, since you're lacking most of the equipment. It's OK to realize that using water jugs or walking up and down your stairs may have different results than the weight rack or treadmill, Goldberg explained, but you're still making progress.
"I set my expectations much lower when it comes to home workouts, but it doesn't mean they can't be effective," he said.
Aim for a sustainable, varied routine to protect your body and keep up your enthusiasm
Once you've assessed where you are and where you're headed, plan for an exercise routine you can keep doing over time. It might be tempting to jump right into attempting 100 pull-ups or 100 burpees every morning, but it's not helpful if you're so sore afterward you can't maintain it the next day (and the next day, and the next day).
"I know it's not 'sexy' to sell slow & steady, but maybe there's a reason tortoises tend to live to be 100 years old. I find that the more extreme the leap in difficulty/challenge, the more difficult it is to sustain," Goldberg said.
If you think of your workouts on a scale from 1 to 10, aim to move up one or two levels as a time — from a 1 to 2 or 3, for example, not from 1 to 8 right away.
"Jumps should be small, incremental and appropriately challenging. That goes for any level," Goldberg added.
As you're planning workouts, remember also that adding variety can be crucial to keeping your workouts challenging, and staying motivated to keep doing them.
"If you're the type of person who gets bored easily, look for both challenge and variety. Variety is important for the psyche more than it is for progress," Goldberg said.
Write a schedule and track your accomplishments
Particularly during self-isolation, where time can seem meaningless, writing down a to-do list for your day can be essential to a good routine.
"Before I go to bed, I write out a list of to-do's for the next day," Goldberg said. "If it's written there, it's real. It's now a part of the plan, not just a thought."
Scheduling workouts can help keep you on track, and if you're able, working out at the same time each day (whether you're a morning person or not) can help form the habit and make it easier to adhere to.
This also has an added bonus of allowing you to look back at your progress over time, and celebrate your accomplishments.
However, in line with being sustainable and realistic, it's also good to remember to take breaks for resting, and allow yourself some flexibility. It's still a pandemic, and things might be more stressful or chaotic even if you're working from or staying at home.
So, track your workouts, but don't obsess if you miss one or two, either, Goldberg added.
"Most importantly, if you miss it or skip it? No big deal. Move on. Do it the next day," he said. "It's just as important to have a healthy relationship with training as it is to train. Nobody gets out of shape for missing a workout."
When picking a workout, don't forget about having fun
Finally, it's important to prioritize enjoyment, especially right now — workouts should be a source of stress relief, not a burden, and offer mental as well as physical benefits.
As you're sorting through the wealth of online workouts currently on offer, keep this in mind — it's better to find programs that look like they'll be challenging and enjoyable for you personally, Goldberg advised. Consider recommendations from friends and family you trust, and avoid programs that advertise fast or miraculous results.
"Look for something that gets you moving and seems fun and enjoyable. It will make things easier to stick with," Goldberg said.
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