Home fitness tips

The most core and effective logic of home fitness is never to follow the differentiated training plan of the gym or to assemble a complete set of professional equipment. Instead, it is to first match your living conditions, available time fragments and existing exercise foundation, and use the lowest decision-making cost to integrate exercise into your daily life, and ultimately achieve results similar to conventional training.

When I first moved to a new house two years ago, I was so excited that I bought a bunch of adjustable dumbbells, thickened yoga mats, resistance bands and even small rowing machines. In the end, the rowing machines were piled on the balcony to dry down jackets, and the dumbbells were placed in the entrance hall as door stops. I only used yoga mats for occasional cushioning when unpacking express delivery. Don't tell me, this detour of "buying equipment first and then starting exercise" has been experienced by at least 70% of my friends who have tried home fitness.

There are actually two completely different views on home training in the fitness circle today: one is a pure self-respecting party, saying that as long as the movements are designed properly, push-ups, squats, and planks alone can cover all the needs for muscle gain, fat loss, and core strengthening. There is no need to spend a penny on equipment.； The other group is those who use light equipment. They feel that the upper limit of the load of bodyweight training is too low. For people with a certain training foundation, they will encounter a muscle-building bottleneck in up to 3 months. It is better to spend a few hundred yuan to buy a pair of adjustable dumbbells to maximize practicality. In fact, there is nothing wrong with both of these statements. Pure self-weight is more suitable for novices who have little exercise foundation and cannot spare a whole time to exercise. After all, you can practice anytime and anywhere, and you can even save the steps of changing sportswear. ； Light equipment is more suitable for people who have more than half a year of training experience and have clear muscle-building needs. A pair of 20kg adjustable dumbbells can basically replace 80% of the upper limb training movements in the gym.

For those who live in an old community and are afraid of disturbing the neighbors, don’t do it too hard. You can save on running and jumping movements such as jumping jacks, leg raises, and standard burpees. When I lived on the 6th floor, there was a retired aunt downstairs who was a very light sleeper. She just started to follow the trend of violent sweating, and someone knocked on the door on the third day. Later, I specially found a lot of silent training exercises, and replaced all running and jumping exercises with step-back lunges, mountain climbing runs without knees touching the ground, and static squats against the wall. There was almost no sound when I stepped on the thick yoga mat. My heart rate could still be raised to over 130 after the exercise. The fat loss effect was not bad at all.

I really don’t have to squeeze in an entire hour of time every day. When I’m so busy working on projects that my feet don’t even touch the floor, I boil eggs in the morning and wait for 3 minutes for the water to boil. Then I lean against the wall and do static squats. The eggs are just cooked when my legs are so sore that I’m shaking.； When brushing your teeth, stand on one leg to activate your core. Brush on both sides for 2 minutes, just one set. ； When I was watching a drama in the evening, I didn’t just slump on the sofa. I sat on a yoga mat and did lateral raises with two 2L Coke bottles filled with water. After finishing a 45-minute episode, my shoulders, back and core were all trained, and I didn’t feel like I was “completing the task” at all.

Oh, by the way, there is also the controversial issue of "training with live broadcasts". I have seen two extremes: one is completely dependent on live broadcasts, dancing with the anchor every day at the end of the day, and not realizing if the movements are wrong. I once had a colleague who danced for a week with the fast-paced sweaty live broadcast, and his knees hurt for half a month. He went to the hospital to check whether his meniscus was slightly worn. Later I found out that his knees kept buckling in when doing lunges, and the anchor had no time to remind him because of the rhythm.； The other type is to completely despise the live broadcast training, thinking that it is just for novices to cut leeks. In fact, there is no need. If you really have no motivation to practice by yourself, you can find a live broadcast with a slow pace and focus on movement correction. You can find out the key points of each movement in advance. When practicing, focus on your own muscle feelings instead of blindly pursuing the rhythm of the anchor, and the effect will not be bad.

To put it bluntly, there really aren’t that many rules and regulations for home fitness. You don’t have to wear professional sportswear, you don’t have to take photos and post them on WeChat, and you don’t even have to practice until you’re covered in sweat. It is useful to stand on your toes when you change into your slippers when you get home from get off work, stand instead of sitting while browsing your mobile phone, and eat less food that is heavy in oil and salt when eating. After all, the skills that you can stick to are the ones that really suit you.