You know that getting the most from your home fitness equipment takes more than just jumping onto your elliptical or treadmill for the same workout each day, but deciding what to do next can be overwhelming. Working with a personal trainer is helpful to keep things challenging or to learn proper technique, but most of us can get great results at home just by putting a little extra thought into our training. Try a few of these tips to get the kind of results you’d expect from paying big bucks to work with a personal trainer.
Goal Setting Working with a personal trainer brings structure and focus to your workouts. You can get this advantage when using your fitness equipment at home by deciding on your major goals (frequently weight loss or performance improvement) and breaking them down into weekly and monthly goals. Once you know what you’re hoping to achieve each week, you can structure your workouts accordingly. For more on planning your workouts, check out my previous blog on Periodization here.
Accountability Knowing that you will have to check in each week and having someone hold you accountable for completing your workouts is a huge benefit to working with a personal trainer. You can recreate this accountability with a little planning and using your natural supports. A workout buddy or an online forum may be a natural fit for you. Choose your partner carefully and make sure they’re as committed as you are. I’ve seen workout partners derail each others efforts by giving each other an excuse to head for happy hour or lunch rather than hitting the scheduled workout. You can also try beginning a personal journal and reward system to keep track of your performance.
Diet Cardio is important but don’t overlook the effect of diet on hitting your fitness goals. Current research is proving what we knew all along…that weight loss happens most effectively when we combine diet and exercise. If you’re not keeping track of your diet, you may unconsciously be consuming enough calories to undo the good of your workouts. Counting calories and food journaling are effective, but can be time consuming. You can also try taking a month to break some of the habits that are keeping you from hitting your ideal weight. Good targets include dropping sugar, alcohol, and second (or oversized) helpings from your diet. Hitting these common culprits will keep you from making up for your increased caloric output with hidden calories.
Hit the Weights In addition to burning more calories and adding definition to your form, strength training makes your cardio workouts more effective. By increasing your range of motion, power, and stability, strength training will let you work out harder with a lower risk of injury. Try alternating every four to six weeks between body weight exercises (such as push-ups and squats) to improve your range of motion and stability and those using free weights, such as dumbbells, to improve your strength.
Weigh In: What have you done to get more out of your home fitness equipment? What tools and techniques have helped you to reach your goals?
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