Here is the thing with home workouts that I found – you find it too easy, and you tend to give up. You find it too hard, and you tend to give up. And if you find something in between, you mess it up enough that your body aches – for days on end.
And that’s why I wanted to know from the pros what they did. This Reddit user kind of summed it up for me what a home workout experience should be.
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byu/urhoemie from discussion
inbeauty
This user suggested almost everything, but, what I liked for sure was – when you workout at home, it’s hard to keep exercising for hours. Here, I found, it’s better to do 3-4 workouts of 15 minutes rather than copying an entire video of an hour.
When we keep doing the same things and following the same routines, at a certain point, it becomes boring and demotivating, as we don’t want to continue it anymore.
Narayani Bhardwaj
I found home workout routines1 quite helpful during lockdown. One of my favorite platforms that guided me about workouts was YouTube. I found various YouTube yoga and exercise tutorials that actually came out helpful. Further, the most important part was the Dance workouts that I followed for the entire lockdown period.
Doing workouts at home can be boring and eventually, you won’t follow this routine as you cannot find motivation here. My motivation to continue workouts during my forceful holidays was the dance workouts. Frankly speaking, dance workouts are superb fun,2 especially when dancing is your hobby. And guess the best part! You don’t get bored of this as you can change your playlist and moves whenever you want.
So, I changed my dance workout choices (videos) almost every month or every 15 days. Dance workouts didn’t just help me stay fit but they made me a not-so-bad dancer as well. To find some fun dance workout recommendations, refer here –
Dance Aids Joint Health and Recovery
In my experience as a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, specializing in treating shoulder and knee injuries, I’ve observed the therapeutic benefits of movement and exercise in pain management and recovery. Dance workouts, in particular, stand out as they expertly combine cardiovascular exercise with the fluid, dynamic movements that are essential for joint health.
For instance, the repetitive, rhythmic motions involved in dance can mimic some of the low-impact exercises I often recommend for knee and hip pain management, such as swimming or cycling. These movements help build muscle strength around the joints, enhancing stability and reducing the risk of injury.
Moreover, my time spent teaching in Barcelona, coupled with a deep dive into Spanish culture, underscored the joy and communal connection fostered through dance. Dance workouts not only provide the physical benefits of exercise but also tap into the emotional and psychological uplift that comes from moving to music.
This dual effect can significantly bolster motivation, as participants are likely to enjoy the process and look forward to each session. The emotional high from the endorphins 3released during the dance, paired with the cultural enrichment of exploring different dance styles, offers a holistic approach to fitness that transcends the mere act of exercising.
Lastly, drawing from my surgical experience, particularly in sports medicine, I’ve noted the importance of maintaining a varied exercise regimen to prevent overuse injuries and ensure comprehensive muscle development. Dance workouts naturally encourage this variety, each session bringing in new movements that challenge different muscle groups while promoting agility, coordination, and flexibility.
By keeping the body guessing and continuously adapting, dance workouts mitigate the risk of repetitive stress injuries, commonplace in more monotonous forms of exercise. This keeps individuals not only safer but also more engaged and less likely to hit a plateau in their fitness journey.
Robert McLaughlin II, MD, President, Boston Concierge Orthopedics
Here, one of the users recommended dance workouts of “MadFit”, which is a YouTube handle and I also followed it for at least 6 months. I hope you also find the dance workouts helpful from this page. See for yourself here –
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byu/blackbird-12 from discussion
inTheGirlSurvivalGuide
YouTube Inspires Fitness Content Creation
I work in fitness content creation for SQUATWOLF, and my journey through fitness during the pandemic reshaped my approach to health and wellness. When the world went into lockdown, I, like many others, felt the walls of my home closing in.
The sudden shift left me missing my final year of university and facing personal challenges that took a toll on my mental health. Looking for a productive outlet, I turned to YouTube for home workout inspiration, aiming to channel my frustrations into building a healthier, fitter me.
Starting with nutritional education and meal prepping, I aimed for a balanced diet, focusing on protein while maintaining a calorie deficit. My daily routine involved following along with YouTube cardio and ab workouts in the morning and heading to a local park for runs in the evening, gradually improving my stamina.
As I grew more committed, I incorporated basic equipment like yoga mats, resistance bands, and dumbbells to enhance my workouts. This routine not only became my sanctuary during uncertain times but also laid the foundation for my fitness journey, leading me to embrace gym workouts with enthusiasm and consistency post-lockdown.
Samrah Yousuf, Content Lead, SQUATWOLF
You can find many workout ideas and routines yourself easily, but the most crucial aspect during lockdown was the motivation. How to stay motivated to work out at home4? As I told you earlier, my alterable dance workout routines and my fitness concern itself, were my motivations.
The world is full of distractions, and imagine when your world is as big as your home, which was the case during lockdown, how many distractions you can find there.
One of the comments on Reddit gave me a genuine idea to stay motivated is to find something that remains visible to you and reminds you to work out every day –
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byu/NikBK17 from discussion
inbackpain
However, sometimes the surprising results themselves, are the motivations that keep you consistent and make you stick to your daily routine exercises5.
Guest Author: Saket Kumar
- Matthies, Denys JC, et al. “FitFone: Tracking Home Workout in Pandemic Times.” Proceedings of the 14th PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments Conference. 2021. ↩︎
- Franklin, Eric. Conditioning for Dance: Training for Whole-body Coordination and Efficiency. Human Kinetics, 2017. ↩︎
- Kundziņa, Ieva, and Juris Grants. “The relationship between beta endorphins and emotional state in physically active individuals aged 45-55 (A report on a pilot study).” Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism 21.3 (2014): 147-150. ↩︎
- Borghouts, Judith Willemijn, et al. “Motivated to work or working to stay motivated: A diary and interview study on working from home.” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 6.CSCW2 (2022): 1-26. ↩︎
- Bloemen, S., Ijspeert, J., Heeren, R. B., van de Belt, T., & van Uden, J. (2018). Sticking to your Exercises. ↩︎
Last Updated on by Namrata
Thanks for this article. It was a great read, I’ve been working out nearly every day at the gym these days and i do want to keep myself active at home as well, so this’ll help me out a lot.