Why You Should Have a Home Gym

Working out is essential to staying healthy, and many people find that getting a gym membership is a great way to gain access to workout equipment and personal training services. Unfortunately, not everyone has the time to go to a gym, and some gym memberships can be rather expensive.

The good news is that you can create your own home gym to get a similar experience, and you don’t even have to buy top-of-the-line home workout equipment to get satisfying results. Home workout equipment is available at different price points to match different budgets, allowing you to get fit without breaking the bank.

Freedom From Judgment

Many people feel that working out at home is simply a more comfortable experience. When you’re at a gym, it can be easy to feel judged, especially if you aren’t in the best shape, to begin with. When you work out at home, you can have more freedom to be yourself, make mistakes and work out wearing what you want. You also don’t have to share gym equipment, so you can set things up how you feel most comfortable.

The Availability of Workout Videos

Another reason why home gyms have become so popular is that there are many options these days when it comes to workout videos. Whether you follow along with a workout video on a streaming site like YouTube or you use a subscription service that offers live-streaming exercise classes, you can follow along at home and watch when it’s convenient for your schedule. If you’re having trouble keeping up, you can replay different parts of a video or slow the video down to catch more details.

Workout Anytime You Want

Although there are several 24-hour gyms these days, most are located in large metropolitan areas. If you don’t happen to live in one of these areas, you may be out of luck if you want to work out and your gym is closed.

When you set up a home gym, you can work out whenever you want. This added convenience is great for people who work odd shifts, but it is also advantageous if your schedule is temporarily moved around.

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Should I Be Tracking My Workout Progress?

There are all kinds of ways to get in shape these days, including at-home gym equipment, memberships to local gyms, and personalized workouts with dedicated instructors. How you approach your fitness journey will come down to your needs and your desire to compare tonal competitors against one another when looking at workout equipment. However, one question that most people ask when starting a fitness journey is, “Should I be tracking my workout progress?”

The Benefits of Tracking Your Workout Progress

One of the main benefits of tracking your workout progress is that doing so allows you to see how far you’ve come. This can serve as motivation to keep going when things get tough.

Another benefit is that it can give you a goal to work toward. As you track your progress, you can adjust your goals, use different tonal competitors to find the one that works for you, and aim for higher targets when you hit a plateau in your journey.

The Downsides of Tracking Your Workout Progress

Unfortunately, tracking your fitness progress can come with some downsides. If you aren’t seeing the results you want within the time frame you would like, you may lose motivation to keep going.

Also, some people have a hard time pushing past the inevitable plateaus that occur during a workout journey, and seeing things flatten out on a graph can hurt your psyche. Working out and getting fit takes place over long periods, and if you go into things with the expectation that you’re going to lose a lot of weight or build muscle quickly, you may end up disappointed.

Work With a Trainer

One way to track your progress and avoid some of the downsides is to work with a personal trainer. Your trainer can provide support and motivation during difficult times, but they can also help you to see how far you’ve come if you start doubting your progress. This approach offers many benefits of progress tracking while minimizing the detrimental aspects of tracking your progress.

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Is Boxing a Good Workout?

Boxing is both a competitive sport and a hobby for some, but you may not know that boxing is also an excellent way to work out. You don’t have to be Mike Tyson to get health benefits from boxing, and you also don’t ever have to step into a boxing ring if you don’t want to.

The act of boxing involves lots of movement, and boxing isn’t all about punching either. When you practice boxing as an exercise, you stand to gain cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, and stronger joints.

Boxing and Agility

Boxers have to keep moving when in a fight, and practicing boxing as an exercise also means that you need to remain nimble and in motion. In between arm movements, you have the chance to use your legs, ankles, and feet to jump and hop so that your body is always moving with the motion of the simulated fight. Your hips, shoulders, and back also get a good workout from boxing.

You can practice shadowboxing at home to try this out for yourself. At home boxing workouts can be done in virtually any space as long as you have enough room to safely move around. At home boxing workouts are also a great option when you don’t have time to get to a boxing gym or when you don’t have a partner to spar with.

Boxing for Weight Loss

Aside from the strength-building that comes along with boxing, you can also lose weight by boxing. An intense boxing session has the potential to burn a lot of calories, and you may be surprised at just how quickly the pounds come off when you practice boxing a few times a week.

The nice thing about boxing for weight loss is that you don’t have to be in great shape to get started. Regardless of your current fitness level, you can start with small movements and grow at your own pace. Over time and with practice, you can gradually increase the intensity of your boxing workouts until you’re comfortable.

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Tips to Fix Your Posture

Proper posture is important for several reasons. Having poor posture can go on to affect your spine and cause permanent deformities. Additionally, poor posture can lead to back strain and pain, eventually causing mobility and flexibility concerns.

Thankfully, there are some ways to not only ensure you are practicing good habits for proper posture support but also to potentially correct posture mistakes of the past. If you’re concerned about having good posture, below are some tips to get things straightened out:

Practice Training for Functionality

Functional training is a type of training that involves exercises that support everyday activity. An example of a functional training workout may include exercises like sit-ups, jumping jacks, and squats. All of these exercises involve physical activities that most people will encounter to some degree daily. By practicing them in a workout routine, you stand a better chance of being able to perform them in a functional setting.

For posture, some functional exercises may include multi-directional lunges, standing donkey kicks, and yoga. Essentially, any exercise that strengthens the back, neck, and core muscles has the potential to improve posture.

Take Breaks From Sitting

Many people these days spend long hours sitting at computers for work. This kind of sedentary activity can make it easy to hunch yourself over, as it can be difficult to maintain proper posture while sitting all day long, especially when typing.

To alleviate this problem and potentially improve your posture, take regular breaks from sitting throughout the day. When possible, get up and walk around, even if just for five minutes. This will give your body a break, improve your cardiovascular health and maybe even improve your posture.

Walk

Speaking of taking breaks to walk, the act of walking itself can do wonders for your posture. When you walk long distances or for long periods, your posture can improve because it’s difficult to walk slumped over when you walk at a brisk pace. Try to get in an hour of walking each day at a pace of between three and four miles per hour to see if you notice a difference in your posture and your core strength.

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Tips for Fitting in a Workout When You Have a Busy Schedule

You know that working out is important for your health, but your day is so packed full of responsibilities and obligations that it can be hard to put aside time to work out. Many busy people find themselves in this same difficult situation, but thankfully, there are ways to sneak in workout time during a hectic day.

Below are some tips to help you fit in a workout when you have a busy schedule:

Workout at Home

The conventional wisdom is that working out at a gym is best, but is it really? After all, gym environments are often crowded, and many people feel the need to push themselves harder in a gym because of social pressure. This can lead to strenuous workouts that ultimately end up tiring you out before you hit your peak fat-burning zone.

Instead, consider working out at home in the morning or afternoon. If you don't have space for a lot of home gym equipment, try doing at home virtual workouts instead. At home virtual workouts are either streamed live with an instructor online or are available as digital downloads from workout libraries. In either case, look for a few moments here or there to get motivated and start breaking a sweat in your living room.

Schedule Your Workout

You may think that your schedule is too busy for a workout, but have you considered that this might be because you haven't scheduled a workout? Oftentimes, the reason for not being able to squeeze in a workout is because people haven't considered the workout a part of their schedules.

If you look at working out the same way you do with work and family obligations, you can probably find the time to fit a workout into your schedule. Just make it a priority and put it in your planner along with everything else that matters. Remember that your health is important, so exercise counts as a necessity no matter what else is going on in your life.

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