by: John Kecman, Fitness & Personal Training Director
Struggling with your at home workouts? Are boredom and monotony killing your motivation? Here are a few ways in which you can spice up your home workouts without having to think to hard.
- Play with Tempo Reps—The speed at which we normally complete a given exercise is an underrated variable you should tap into, regardless of whether you have a full home gym, or are only using your own body weight. If it takes you 10 seconds to do 10 pushups try a four second negative and a one second pause at the bottom and see how you feel after completing 10 reps. I can guarantee you will not miss your gym equipment nearly as much if you add some tempos to your home workouts.
- Add Weight—You may not have access to your usual machines, dumbells, a barbell, but I’m sure you can find various objects around your house to hold to make your bodyweight exercises more difficult. Go ahead and scout around your house to find suitable heavy objects to carry, lift, or press. This is a chance to get a little creative with your resistance, and as I can attest after messing around with lifting, and carrying a fire hydrant, those awkward, and oblong heavy objects are a lot harder to move than your standard barbell.
- Add a Time Cap, or Add Time Sets—Two other options will make you hate your at home workouts, in the best way possible, and in the same way you might have hated your trainer in the gym. The first option is adding a time cap to any given exercise or circuit. Try to see how many rounds you can make it through of 10 squats, 10 sit ups, and 10 pushups in 10 minutes would be an example. You can also do the timed sets as an option. Try 30 seconds of squats, then sit ups, followed by pushups, and add rounds as you build your work capacity.
There are many different ways in which you can fight boredom at home and Covid-19 related mental fatigue with fitness. Try to implement these concepts to your workouts if you have not already. There are far more to play around with, so get up and go do something. You’ll thank me when you’re done.
