Gym at home! Get all the exercise without paying gym fees.

You don’t need to spend loads of cash at the gym to enjoy the many health benefits of regular exercise. Like most things, a home-remedy alternative will work just as well or well enough. Now, don’t get us wrong, having a gym membership that opens you up to a whole community of fit-minded people and training experts can be a great asset. But, gyming can get very costly, and everyone should reap the same benefits at home, even if they can’t afford the luxury of a gym membership. 

Bodyweight training

Cost-saving workouts at home are becoming easier to access just by using your own body weight or by signing up to an exercise app that contains 1000s of hours of exercise routines that can keep you working up a sweat for a very long time. 

You can also stream loads of free workouts on YouTube, or watch creators on other social media apps like TikTok do live workouts while you follow along.

By finding a  few creators who use different exercise methods, you can focus is on all the essential areas of fitness that can be done at home, in your lounge or outside in your backyard. Spice it up with some Zumba on a Monday, Yoga on a Wednesday and perhaps full-on aerobics twice a week. 

And if you are travelling and you don’t have much time, do the fitness routine at least twice a week to keep you in shape.

By aiming to be well-rounded in your physical fitness, it means that you use all your muscle groups and joints. If you choose to do just yoga, you will become highly flexible and mobile while all the other areas fall short such as strength or cardio training. 

And if you go to the other extreme and power lift your way into extra-large muscles, it means that you will probably fall short in mobility and coordination. 

Key areas of fitness

In your home routines, you should look at the following key areas: conditioning and cardio, stability training, movement training and mobility training. 

You don’t have to focus on all these units in one exercise session but spread out the routines over a few days, mixing it up as you go along while working towards all-around physical proficiency.

According to VAHVA, you need to do a conditioning workout to warm up and cardiovascular health. These may include 2 or 3 rounds of jumping jacks, high knees, burpees, mountain climbers, walking lunges, sit-ups, push-ups, air squats and planks. 

Improving cardiovascular health and conditioning high-intensity exercises are also for burning fat, building muscle, and developing strength endurance, which will stand you in good stead for other sports.  

Stability training focuses on building core stability that protects and stabilises the spine. The outcome of working on core and hip stability and core mobility is the much-desired six-pack abs.  

For stability training, you need to be mentally sharp and focussed as you slowly and patiently execute each step in the exercise routine. It is one of the most challenging forms of exercise and includes repertoires such as stability bent over leg raise, knee up, sit up, lying leg raises, flutter kicks, and cross toe touch.

Movement and mobility training gets the whole body mobile and limber. These exercises help you coordinate the entire body and get body parts synchronised and working in harmony. This training keeps you moving forward and fills gaps should you hit an exercise plateau in other areas of your training.

It is advisable to follow an online trainer until you learn to execute exercises correctly, especially knowing which specific joints or muscles are targeted. 

Setting up a home gym

Don’t be scared to buy some home equipment, but remember, the is a risk of injury if not set up or used correctly. You may want to add more variety to exercising at home and set up an at-home gym. This may be in your garage, a spare room or on a covered deck in your back yard.

But before rushing off to your nearest sports store and buying up everything that you think you need, first, work out how much space you have to work with and where it is situated in your home.  

According to Cleveland Clinic, you need to plan how much time you want to spend in your space and what exercises you want to do before you begin investing in equipment.  

With a plan in hand, outfitting a home gym doesn’t have to cost a lot, especially if you add equipment as you improve and wish to expand your routines.   

If it is just yoga that you want to do, you’ll need a mat, yoga blocks and straps and a wall-mounted monitor so that you can join an online class.

If you’re doing Pilates and other exercise routines, you’ll need equipment such as: 

• Different strengths resistance bands
• A skipping rope
• A stability ball and a medicine ball can be substituted with sandbags
• An ab wheel
• A step bench
• Gliding discs
• A variety of weights in different sizes such as kettlebells, dumbbells and strap-on weights for aerobic dance routines
• Suspension trainers for beginners to weight training

You’ll need storage space for your equipment, a fan, a mirror, towels, a whiteboard with your routines, a timer, a foam roller and a massager to make it feel like a real gym that inspires you to get up every morning and get moving.  

For more expensive items, you may want to add one or two of these: a stationary exercise bike, a rower, an elliptical, a stair climber or the big expense item – a high tech treadmill.

It is essential to stick to your plan and find exercises that you enjoy and will stick to. You may also want to join your company’s online exercise programme or other online exercise groups or even ask a family member or friend to join you on your quest to stay committed to getting fit. 

Contact Affinity Health

Contact your doctor before you add any strenuous exercise to your daily routine.

Find your preferred Affinity Health physician on the network. 

Finding your nearest GP is as easy as going to our website and clicking on the Find a Doctor tab. You can find this tab under client resources. Now, type in your city or town. 

Affinity Health members can contact us on 0861 11 00 33 to consult with an Affinity Health primary healthcare consultant.