5 Tips for Staying Motivated to Exercise at Home

Whether you’re stuck at home due to lockdown restrictions, or you’re a stay-at-home mom, it’s likely that seeing the same walls day in, day out isn’t encouraging you to work out. It’s easy to make excuses that exercising is not as important now because who can see me anyway? Of course, adding weight on through overeating and inactivity is happening a lot right now. But, without actively working against this tendency, the same situation could befall you too. 

To help you set your mind right, here are five tips for staying motivated to exercise at home. 

1. Choose the Fitness Equipment You’ll Enjoy Using

If you don’t enjoy using a piece of fitness equipment, you won’t feel encouraged to use it. It doesn’t matter how much it cost you, or how long it took to assemble either. 

Fitness equipment should be a natural fit for you. It should reduce the likelihood of sustaining an injury. Also, if it replaces an activity that you previously enjoyed doing outdoors, like riding in the park or on the roads to work, all the better. 

Placing a recumbent exercise bike in your home won’t take up much space and can replace an activity that you previously enjoyed. Stationary bikes can burn a surprising amount of calories too! If you feel too cooped up to find the will to work out, try taking your e-bike out for a quick ride around the neighborhood. A good change of scenery once in a while is a great way to get back on track on your fitness journey.

2. Set Meaningful Goals

Goals are the driving force. They can take you from where you are now to where you want to be.

With exercise and fitness, setting fitness-related or weight-related targets makes complete sense. It gives you something to aim for and be motivated to achieve. 

Whatever workout routine you perform, aim to perfect your form within the movements. Then increase either the speed or number of repetitions to add to the difficulty. Doing so will drive you to stay injury-free while boosting your fitness. 

If you’re looking to lose weight as well as to become fitter, adjust your diet and exercises to achieve what you’re wanting to do. But don’t get discouraged should the weight not start falling off as you’d like it to – it usually requires more time than expected. 

3. Establish a Regular Routine

Being haphazard with your exercise routine is another way to keep it consistent and stay motivated. When you have repeated it sufficiently, and performed it at the same time, then it will become a habit that’s harder to break. 

While you can use motivation to push yourself to exercise, motivation can wax and wane uncontrollably. Therefore, use the power of habits to repeat the same positive behavior regardless of whether you’re motivated at the moment or not. This process can then be usefully applied to other areas of your life that require improvement too. 

4. Share the Experience with a Friend

There’s no reason why you cannot have an exercise buddy who works out with you. 

Get on a video call with them when you’re both exercising and check-in. This ensures accountability on both sides and further reinforces exercising regularly by both sticking to the same routine. 

Even if it’s not possible to find an exercise buddy, talk with a friend to report your progress. The friend can follow along and provide regular encouragement. Also, they can call you out when your motivation begins to slip on difficult days. 

5. Use a Fitness App

Fitness apps are beneficial for recording information, reminding you when to exercise, and tracking your progress.

These apps can also deliver videos of the correct form, count the number of steps on a treadmill, or tell you how many estimated calories were burned. They can also record when you exercised and for how long, so you’re less likely to skip a day. 

Using various methods to make yourself accountable, creating meaningful goals, and sticking to a routine all help to keep you motivated to exercise at home. Apply these tools to get the results that you’re after.