Home workouts: Fitness in lockdown 3

A survey’s found that two-fifths of us are doing less exercise in this lockdown compared to the first one in Spring 2020.

“If you cast your mind back to April, it was pretty beautiful every day, whereas now there are less daylight hours,” Dr Ian Taylor told Newsbeat.

“But also it’s not novel anymore. The last lockdown for a lot of people gave them a bit of time to think and do things and that element was quite energising.”

‘Remove barriers’

According to Ian there are a few things you can do to get into a positive mindset about exercise and make it seem less daunting.

“Remove barriers as you’ll be surprised how many of them mount up against your motivation,” he says.

“Going for a walk is very easy because you don’t need to change your clothes or move furniture out the way for example, or worry about your [gym] kit being spread all over the house”

He says it might be useful to change your goals when it comes to exercise too – think about mental health benefits rather than physical.

“What that does is reduce the time between your exercise and the outcome – if you’re exercising to be healthy at the minute, that seems too far in the future as getting fitter doesn’t happen straight away.

“Feeling better after exercise does happen straight away”.

Seeing people on social media doing their home workouts can make people feel down.

“I find I’m constantly comparing myself to everyone else on Instagram: ‘Oh that person’s been on a run, I need to do a run’.

“I get in such a mental state about it and can’t get myself out of that rut,” he says.

‘Everyone’s journey is so different’

Fitness coach Courtney Black says she could never imagine herself enjoying fitness outside of a gym environment before lockdown, but has found a way to enjoy it.

“Everyone’s journey is so different and it’s finding what works for you,” she says.

“If you’re sat at a computer all day it might be nice to exercise at midday or even before you start working.”

She says HIIT workouts aren’t for everyone and if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing you won’t be motivated.

“Maybe just do a low impact workout or get yourself some weights and resistance bands – find something you feel comfortable doing and enjoy rather than forcing yourself,” she says.

“It’s got to be achievable. Don’t think, ‘I’m going to do 50 burpees today’ or, ‘I’m going to go out for a 10k run’ when you know at the minute your fitness levels are telling you you can do 2k”.

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