Home Workout Mistakes You Need To Avoid At All Times
With the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19; the world, society, and lifestyles of individuals as we know it has to drastically shift. Staying at home and limiting physical contact are some of the many ways that we can do to not only preserve the well-being of our own selves, but also our loved ones. Most people’s lives have to shift indoors. This shift rattles not only those that have always enjoyed going outside but also those that are not quite outdoorsy. The transition comes in many forms, but the most prevalent one is in the “Wellness” department. People seem to have brought their fitness lifestyle home. How well is this home workout going to work out?
Importance of Home Workout
It might not take a whole lot to feel lonely, especially if you’re one of those who bask in the warmth of surrounding yourself with people. You should also note that accessing information does not take a whole lot these days. With that in mind, overloading yourself with information is never a good thing, especially if most of the information that you are overloading yourself with is filled with nothing but negativity. So, equip yourself more with information that can get you to do what you can do for yourself at the moment and less with information coming from questionable sources.
Amidst this COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to keep our sanity in check first and foremost. How do you keep your sanity in check? By taking really good care of your very own self. This might sound cliche, but if you want to love, you have to start by loving yourself. Let’s get right to “how to take good care of yourself”.
Getting yourself in shape does not always mean that you have to rack up the weights and run miles on the treadmill. As experts have recommended, we should avoid going to the gym; at least for a while now. What do we do then? Fret not! With the help of the ever-developing world of technology, and developers who are relentlessly working in software houses, we now have access to fitness apps that you can install right now on your phones! Be it Android phones or iPhones, you can easily go to the App Store and pick and install the one that suits you best. Once you’ve got that done, you’re ready to jump right into the world of “Home Workout.”
Is Working Out At Home Effective?
COVID-19 truly shows us how adaptability is essential for our survival in the long run. With this in mind, those who have been a fitness addict, or even those that have just been inspired to “get some” might be faced with the fact that they have to adjust their gym-filled lifestyle by bringing it into their homes. Thanks to the help of the rapid growth of technological advancement, we now have many ways to turn this to reality.
It is apparent that since the dawn of COVID-19 breakout, people have been marching towards online-services and this is also very true for the fitness industry. The Co-Founders of Obé, an online-only fitness service; Mark Mullett and Ashley Mills tell CNN Business in an email:
“We have seen a considerable increase in membership across the US in the last few weeks.”
Source
Now, you might be asking yourself “how do I know if I’m doing it correctly?”, and the answer to that is you must keep a mindset that “Too much of a good thing is never a good thing”. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that adults need 150 minutes of health–aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening each week is the way to go.
A research done by the University of Utah found that:
“The current physical activity guideline for Americans is to get at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, MVPA, a week, which can be accumulated in eight to 10 minute periods.”
That being said, mixing things up is what will get things going right. There’s not quite a right-or-wrong situation when it comes to breaking down the 150 minutes as you can essentially break it up into 7 minutes of full-body workout and add another 5-minute of cardiovascular activity to wrap it up for the day.
What can go wrong then? Well, the ease of accessing virtual fitness apps is great, but as we all know, with great ease, comes great responsibility. It is as easy as accessing the fitness apps to overdo the training that was supposed to be only either 30-minute or an hour long. This won’t only do more harm than good, but will also jeopardize the very plan that you’ve had in mind, which is to get in shape while at home.
Mistakes While Working Out
So, you’ve followed all the government’s regulations to stay home, had your electricity bills paid, had your internet connection steady, and downloaded the apps that you need to get yourself some sweaty time. That is wonderful! Except, you might still be missing some things. Below are things to consider when you’re working out at home:
1. Getting Way Ahead of Yourself
Having the mindset of losing weight or gaining muscle mass is great! You’ve established a motivation as to why you’re going on the wellness journey. However, you might have skipped over some steps that should have been taken gradually. Keep in mind that your body needs to adjust to the training and the training itself should also adjust to your body.
Everyone is different, especially when it comes to physique. So, you must understand which training suits best for your body. Understanding your body type is not only important in deciding the sort of training that is best for you, but also in controlling the diet that you should be taking.
2. Not Warming Up Properly
Understanding what you can do is important, but understanding what you must do is just as important! The very first thing that some might have completely overlooked when doing their workout is properly warming up. Not only will proper warming up session get your body to adjust to what you will be doing, but it will also mentally prepare you for what you will be doing.
Warming up gets your body temperature to rise up and be ready for an exercise. What this means is the blood flow to your muscles increases and it will essentially reduce the possibility of your muscle to strain and eventually risk an injury. Yeah, getting your muscles twisted that you’re not able to do your workout properly is the last thing anyone would want, especially in the middle of this pandemic.
3. Overtraining
It’s great that you’re willing to get this ball to start rolling. However, make sure that you don’t get it to roll way too fast, or you’ll end up losing it! What this means is that you must know when to actually take a break. There are a couple of things that you need to know when you’re doing too much:
- Loss of appetite
- Headache
- Muscle soreness and tenderness
- Fatigue (not during, but later)
- Injury
- Higher pulse (10 or more beats) the day after exercising
- Irritability
- Difficulty concentrating
- Reduced self-esteem
- Weakened immune system
Up above are the things that you need to take a very good look into when you’re doing your exercise. The worst thing that you do not want is putting too much strain on your muscle fibers that they start dying and they get released into your bloodstream
This is what is called “Rhabdomyolysis”, or “Rhabdo” for short. Rhabdomyolysis is caused by overworking your muscles that they start to actually die and cause all sorts of nasty stuff to your body that can lead to kidney failure! Again, you don’t want to overwork yourself so that you compromise your immune system in this pandemic! Workout well, workout responsibly!
4. Not Re-hydrating Enough
Overworking whilst working out is one bad juice to your workout routine mix and this can lead to dehydration. While you’re working out, you should understand that your body craves not only protein, but also H2O, or something that we call, water. Water is not only important to cool our body temperature down, but it also plays a very important role in generating all the sweat, the urine, and the nasty stuff that comes out of your back-end!
It is recommended that four hours before you start exercising, you drink at the very least one cup of water. While you’re doing the exercise, about 120ml of water is also sufficient to make up for it. Make sure that you drink this 120ml of water every 10-15 minutes in between your exercise. Lastly, once you’re about done with your exercise, you’re not quite done with this! You will need to not only drink a cup or two but twice the amount of water that you’ve lost during the exercise!
CONCLUSION
So, you’ve come this far and survived all the odds that are against you at this point and you should be proud of that! Things will only look up from this point onwards. The fact that you’re still here and willing to get yourself in shape is the very proof that we all can do this and definitely not a feat to turn a blind eye to.
Don’t ever forget to take everything that you find on the internet with grains and grains of salt. Make sure that you do not make the mistakes stated above when working out in the middle of this pandemic. Remember that you want to get in shape, and not get yourself at risk. Make sure that you’re having fun when doing all of this so that your mental health is in its best shape as well. Keeping your mental health in its best shape is what truly matters at the end of the day, especially at these very challenging times, and one surefire way to feel better about yourself is by taking very good care of yourself. So, give a home workout a shot and feel the positivity!
If you’ve got anything else that you would like to add, make sure to hit that comment section and let us know what you have in mind! Stay happy, stay healthy.
