10 Useful Tips To Stay Motivated When Exercising At Home

Happy Lunar New Year to everyone who is celebrating the start of the new year! Modern Mom Life wishes everyone good health, filled with abundance and prosperity in the Year of the Ox! 🍊🍊🧧

With any kind of holiday occasion, it becomes way too easy to get carried away by all the festivities. Those mouth-watering snacks that sit on the table, looking so inviting to anyone who walks past. Who has time to think of exercising at home when there is too much delicious food to savor? 

Stand aside New Year Resolutions, you’ll only be attended to after the festive. 

Does that sound like you? Because I’m sure that’s me if I do not have my regular routines. 

Other than the holidays, do you find it difficult to stay motivated whenever procrastination strikes? Your brain starts scrambling for excuses to skip your workout sets, or starting on the project that you were meant to complete last week. 

Share with me how do you stay motivated in whatever you are doing? Leave your comment below!

In my previous post, I wrote about how you can start your workout at home. Easier said than done, I know. One of the downsides of exercising at home is that it can be difficult to stay motivated. Although there are tons of videos with different types of workouts, you might soon find it dull and lose interest. 

How do you ensure that you stay true to your workout goals then? 

Here are 10 tips on how you can exercise at home, stay motivated, and hit your fitness goals in no time! 

1. Schedule Time To Exercise

One of the hardest things about exercising at home is the starting point. 

Procrastination stays true to its meaning and it is difficult to chase it away. Especially when your brain has readily prepared a million excuses. 

What you can do is mentally prepare yourself by delegating a fixed time to exercise at home.

This schedule can be different for everyone. Be honest with yourself and think about your commitments and the flexibility of exercising at home. Decide on a time that works best for your current schedule, play around with the different timings to determine which time of the day works best for you.

2. Create a routine 

It’s important to find a routine that works for you until it becomes habitual. 

You can start with mini workouts to convince your mind that you do have time to work out and start with that. This works effectively when you have not been exercising for a while. You want to start conditioning your mind and body, building up motivation over time. 

3. Be flexible 

Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom or working from home, exercising at home might be a more ideal option. You can do simple exercises while doing the laundry (yes! Don’t underestimate the power of the 5 liters liquid detergent) or even when you are sitting on the couch.

The beauty of exercising at home is that you can fit workouts in whenever you like!

If you have time in the morning, you can start your day with a productive workout. If you need a mental break in the middle of your day, schedule a workout after lunch to sweat it out. If you are one who prefers exercising after completing your daily tasks, so be it! 

It doesn’t matter when you exercise, what matters is that you take the time and effort to start your workout. Not only will you be feeling refresh, but that sense of accomplishment is a great feeling too! 

4. Designate a space to exercise at home

That doesn’t mean going all out with buying equipment or finding a spare room solely for exercising at home. Especially for small apartments where space is not to your advantage. 

As a start, keep your equipment in a designated space within a room. Resistance bands or yoga mats can be placed on a rack to avoid cluttering the room. With everything organized in one area, it can help you focus on exercising once you’re in the space.

If you don’t have any formal equipment, you can replace them with kitchen and household items you can find at home. Here are some ways to get creative: 

• Cans, water bottles, books, or even laundry detergent can replace dumbbells. 

• For heavier weights, you can fill a backpack with heavy items or lift and press chairs instead

• Use soft belts or scarves as yoga straps

• Create yoga blocks and bolsters with blankets or towels

5. Prepare your workout routines in advance

Browse through workout routines beforehand and include them in a playlist. 

Make sure to find the right videos with the proper intensity levels. This lets you exercise at home without any interruptions and decide on the total workout time. On days when you’re feeling less motivated, click on short 10mins videos such as stretches or focus on a specific part of the body. We don’t have to be professional athletics to have good and bad workout days, and it is perfectly normal. On your good days, push yourself with a 45mins intensive HIIT routine if you are a seasoned gym rat or an hour-long of power yoga. You know what works best for you. 

6. Wear your workout clothes 

Stop yourself from procrastinating after you’ve dropped the kids off at school, and start changing into your workout gear right away!

Who says you can’t look good even though you are exercising at home? You do whatever you need to do to stay motivated!

Fun fact: Workout clothes do give you a brain boost, according to Dr. Jonathan Fader. Simply put it, you get into character like actors in a play. 

Besides looking and feeling great while exercising at home, the right workout clothes will prevent injuries while you are exercising at home. Do not underestimate all levels of workout. Sometimes a wrong twist can cause you weeks of recovery, setting you back on your workout goals. Not only that, it will be more difficult for you to stay motivated should you have any setbacks, especially if you are starting out.

7. Use a fitness app 

There are many fitness apps you can use ranging from lower intensity to high-intensity interval training and bodyweight circuits. Some of them even include meal plannings according to your personal goals and personality. The right app and workout routines will ensure you stay motivated to exercising and staying fit.

You can choose one app and schedule daily workouts that focus on different fitness goals. This helps you plan a proper workout routine and keep track of which exercises you’ve done through the week. 

Although most of them come with a monthly subscription fee, it is eventually cheaper than a gym membership fee. The YouTube videos I subscribe to include workout videos from MadFit, growingannanas, Heather Robertson, and Sydney Cummings. 

As for the workout apps, I find the Fit Body app by Anna Victoria most suitable. Note that I am not affiliated with this app in any way and this is based on my opinion. It is easy to use and navigate, and you can even have customized meal plans created based on your personal goals. It is a paid app, but a good alternative to YouTube videos. 

8. Switch up your workouts

When you feel like your workouts are working less efficiently, it’s time to change your workouts to something else. Try switching through different fitness classes and intensity levels to train different aspects of your body. For example, yoga on Monday, cardio on Tuesday, and so on. 

Have a fitness calendar to plan out your workout routines. This will give you a clearer idea of which workout sets you will be doing for that day. You will need to spend lesser time browsing through the intended videos to search for the right one too. 

9. Surround yourself with like-minded people 

One of the hardest reasons to stay motivated is that you’re exercising alone at home. Have a workout buddy to keep you on track. If your goal is to lose weight, you can also find a friend with a similar goal and keep each other accountable through exercising together. 

Besides having a workout buddy, you can also follow your favorite instructors on social media as a lot of them are putting out live workouts via Instagram and Zoom. This way, you don’t have to feel alone and stay motivated to keep exercising at home.

10. Have an upbeat music playlist 

Studies have shown that listening to music can help boost your efficiency resulting in a better performance. 

Exercising to an upbeat tune can help motivate you to go an extra minute, or punch just a little harder. You can either choose the songs you like on music streaming apps or browse through other existing playlists made by others to keep yourself in good spirits and push yourself to reach even greater heights for your next workout. 

If you need more workout ideas, this article might just be the one for you!

I hope that you have found these tips useful to help you in your quest for exercising at home! Always remember not to be too hard on yourself. Have fun exploring your different options, there is no right or wrong routine when it comes to exercising.

It takes some time to figure out which types of workouts suit you better, so let your body adjust to exercising regularly until it becomes a natural part of your day. Having a regular set of routines also help to make sure you stay motivated when exercising at home. Regardless of progress, it’s a step forward in keeping healthy and you should be proud of yourself.

Share with me your biggest motivation tip and all the best in achieving your fitness goals!