By Thomas King, MSc, CK, CSCS

Given the situation in the world right now, there is a good chance that gyms in your area are either shut down completely or operating with limited capacity meaning you can’t always get a workout in.

This doesn’t have to be the end of your fitness goals though! Working out at home can be an excellent alternative. While this may not be ideal it is the reality and so presented below are my top 5 tips for staying motivated while training at home!

1. Keep the Same Workout Schedule

Never underestimate the power of keeping yourself on schedule. Did you previously get up early to exercise before work? Then keep doing that! It’s likely that you train at this time because it works best for your schedule. As a bonus, it may mean that you end up having your workout completed before your partner or kids are even awake. The same goes for you night owls out there. If you previously trained in the evening/night, keep doing that! Don’t feel like your training regime needs to change just because your other routines have.

2. Choose Your Favourite Music

This is an important one. Choosing your favourite music can be the difference between feeling motivated and feeling like nothing is working quite right. Several studies have found that when participants listened to music they enjoyed, their rate of perceived exertion (read: how hard they experienced an exercise) was lower than when they listened to music they didn’t like. The bottom line: pick music you like when training at home.

3. Check in With Your Trainer/Coach (us!)

This is a great way to stay accountable and any coach worth their salt should be happy to help with this. Just feel like you need that extra accountability? Email your trainer to tell them what you done for your workout, how it felt, exercise/technique tips, anything! While we can’t train in person right now, our world is more electronically connected than ever and your coach is just a couple of clicks away (*hint hint* let us know you’re still getting your workouts in!!)

4. Make it a Family Affair

Kids won’t leave you alone long enough to workout? Make them part of your training! Workouts can be great family time. Kids are an endless source of energy so having them burn off a little taking part in your workout can serve a double purpose of helping you complete your workout and making them a bit tired. Try doing some lunges, jumps, push-ups, whatever! As long as their technique is appropriate kids are more than capable of doing these exercises.

5. Accept Progress May Stall

Unless you have a home gym set-up exactly like your gym, you may experience a plateauing or slight decline of your progress. This is normally and totally okay! Unless you plan to train for the World Powerlifting Championships, no one is going to care that you lost 20lbs on your max deadlift. Besides, a little break will likely do your muscles, joints, and nervous system some good. When you get back in the gym again, you will be refreshed and ready to train hard and that 20lbs won’t be very long coming back.

The Wrap-Up

Hopefully some of these tips will help you remain motivated to train even when you can’t get in the gym. In an ideal world, we would all be back in the gym doing what we love and improving our lifts. For now though, that is difficult for most and training at home is the next best thing. So take these tips and use them to keep yourself motivated to keep going, gyms will be open again soon!

~Thomas 🏋️‍♀️

WANT TO ENSURE YOU’RE BEING EFFECTIVE IN THE GYM AND GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR WORKOUTS? WE CAN HELP YOU WITH YOUR FORM AND PROGRAM DESIGN SO YOU CAN MAXIMIZE YOUR RESULTS.

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I recently visited Newfoundland for one month, and was looking for a good place to train while I was there. Jon and the team at JK conditioning really took the time to assess what I already knew, and set achievable goals for the time that I had with them. The gym was such a great place to push yourself. It had everything you needed, but more importantly it had a well organized, very knowledgeable, and really motivating group of trainers to push you at each workout. Not to mention a really nice group of other members who also motivated me to go that little bit further. I would highly recommend the gym to anyone who has a goal and wants to find a place to help them achieve it.

I came to JKC through recommendations from my peers from lululemon. As a current ambassador, I’ve been introduced to legacy ambassadors, like Jon, and I knew a bunch of other people from the store were working out here so I wanted to give it a go. I often dread lower body workouts so I started coming here to do legs. I’ve had such great progress that I now come twice a week— and, I no longer hate leg day!

I’ve never experienced this sort of hybrid between group workouts and personalized service. Many group strength training services offer a sort of one-size-fits-all workout for the general population, which has never been of interest to me, because I want my workout tailored to my needs! I LOVE that you can be in a group setting while doing your own personal program; I love the camaraderie and community at JKC, and, I’ve seen incredible results thus far! Jon is always so attuned to what I need.

I originally chose JKC to help me rehab following back surgery. JKC was the first gym where a trainer took the time to help me identify my goals and tailor my workouts to achieve them in a safe and doable manner. 🏋🏼 Jon & Thomas are both highly professional and knowledgeable. 👨🏼‍🎓 With their guidance and informative explanations 🗣 they have enabled me to reach my ever evolving goals. At JKC I’m guaranteed fun 😆, interesting 🙃 and diverse workouts, with Jon & Thomas forever supportive and encouraging. 👏🙌👍👊

I’m 30 — started at JKC Aug 2016. I moved to NL to open lululemon and we chose Jon as one of our store’s ambassadors, did one workout and have raved about it ever since! The JKC team can adapt a workout no matter what the situation — injuries, new goals, you name it! The trust and expertise can’t be matched!

I chose JKC originally to help prevent rowing injuries. I’m a rower and we won the St. John’s Regatta in 2019 but I rowed through a rib stress fracture and missed significant time in the boat during the racing season. Training at JKC consistently since the pandemic helped me stay injury free this year and made me the strongest I’ve ever felt, which helped me help my team win the 2021 St. John’s Regatta! Jon adds variety and mixes the exercises up well so that the workout goes by quickly and strength is gained. The gym is very personable and I like the eclectic mix of people that are there. JKC is much more intimate and personal than other gyms.

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