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I have a friend who does NOT like group classes. She is fit and fun and very social, but has figured out that working out in a class or a group is just not her thing. Through this, she’s found that working out to DVD’s or YouTube in her own home is far more successful for her. (obligatory reminder to do what works for you, not everyone else). She also lives in a condo, and we recently had a discussion on how so often, small spaces are one of the reasons that people say “oh I could never work out at home!
False.
You can live in a small space, have big workouts, and even bigger results. Other “can’t work out at home” excuses include:
- Children/spouses in the home
- Animals in the home
- No time/too busy
Lets dig into one of these, shall we?
First and foremost: small spaces can equal big results. There is a whole world of proof of that out there, many that I have done in the past!
We used to live in a condo. We now live in a town home, which is larger, but our living room space is about the same, due to layout. The biggest difference between the condo and the townhouse is that I can jump now – no one lives below me! Just about every workout program on the planet requires jumping at some point, and if you are in the “cant bug the neighbors” position like I was for 4 years, you either bug the neighbors or you modify. Do whats best for you.
I also didn’t (and don’t) have the space or money for large equipment, rows of dumbbells, a treadmill, etc. My at-home workout needs to exist in about a 7×7 area, and also be able to have a child climb on me at any given point.
Difficult? Sure. Possible? Absolutely.
When I was first starting to workout (long before I lost the weight) I figured out that what burns the most, tends to take up the least amount of space. Then I also figured that if I am creative enough (which I am, if I do say so myself) I could turn my furniture into a gym. So I did.
Don’t let your space stop a workout; rather let it become part of your workout.
Here are some of the ways your home can become your gym, tested by me!
Dining Room Chairs:
- Tricep Dips
- Step Ups
- Balance for stretches/yoga/balance building exercises
- Calf raises (but be careful with this one cause you’re kind of high up)
Coffee Table
- Tricep Dips
- Leaning push ups
- Lay on it, use it as a bench
Couch:
- Squats (use it to make sure you are going far enough back/down)
- Step ups (the softness adds a balance factor that the chair does not)
- Sit ups (tuck your toes under the bottom to keep your feet down)
- Hip raises
Open Space:
- Yoga sequences
- Standing lunches
- Speed skaters
- Butterfly/ab workouts
- Burpees (blech)
I do have some (very minimal) equipment, and its mostly because it is the most versatile, and takes up the least amount of space.
- Kettle bell set – three different weights, and about 11 million different exercises you can do with them, or incorporate them into just about any workout.
- Yoga mat – I enjoy doing yoga, don’t do it nearly as much as I should, but its easier on the hands and feet to do it on a mat versus your carpet (or heaven forbid hardwood!). Plus, if I ever go to a class, I’d rather use mine than one that I guarantee has a lot of other peoples sweat on it.
- Stretching bands – OK, this one is less of “I purchased” and more of “my husband had a 5 year stretch of three broken bones and two surgeries, and I’ve done a lot of PT so we ended up with a lot of stretching bands” kind of thing. BUT that doesn’t make them less useful! They are great resistance to add difficulty to so many different workouts – a simple Pinterest search will give you thousands of ideas
That’s it! I have some DVD’s and a PDF printout of workouts, but other than that, everything is body weight for me!
I know that I have talked up my HIIT training before, and surely you are nauseated at the fact that I bring up pregnancy, but it’s my blog so I get to. But before I really started to make true effort to lose weight, I was doing these exercises at home. When I didn’t have a place to go workout that fit my time and life, I fit my workouts into these small spaces. Now that I am on pause with my HIIT workouts as I round out these last several weeks, my living room is my gym, even if rarely utilized!
The point of working out is not to make yourself miserable. Its to feel GOOD about yourself, and do what works for you. I find that if its solely home workouts, I don’t have enough accountability to stay with it. For my friend, that isn’t an issue in the slightest. You may be somewhere in between. What matters is that you find what works for you, your lifestyle, and how you can stick with it, then go for it.
Need an accountability partner? Hit me up! Disagree with everything I’ve said here? Tell me in the comments! Let me know what works best for YOU and how you make small space workouts work!
