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I have long been a gym regular (in large part because I work there part-time as a spin instructor) and I have owned my Peloton for four years, but I never considered myself a workout fiend. But lately, I’ve gotten more serious about it. I’m using apps to monitor my protein intake, filling my downtime with sports, and even—and especially—working out at home.
At-home exercise has long been a challenge for me, as I find I have trouble staying motivated the same way I do when I’m at the gym, but I’ve found some ways to keep myself consistent. Here are seven changes I’ve made that you can also try if you’re struggling to convince yourself to break a sweat while your couch is beckoning to you from across the room.
I invested in equipment
Money is a major motivator for me. Maybe it’s because of all my Capricorn zodiac placements, the fact that I’m an only child, or just a personality defect with no explanation, but the fact remains: I am incapable of enjoying a hobby without tying it to some kind of financial stakes. I can’t simply like fashion; I have to constantly sell and rent out my clothes online so I can get money to buy more clothes. I can’t simply take spin classes; I have to get certified so I can teach them. Teaching spin, it turns out, paid dividends for me: I got paid to do a thing I would otherwise be paying to do, and I got a free gym membership in the bargain. Initially, however, that backfired: Because I was no longer paying for my gym membership, I stopped going to the gym when I wasn’t teaching. Turns out that financial motivator was key to my productivity.
To rectify this, I’ve started funneling money into health and fitness in other ways. In addition to buying month-to-month packages at boutique gyms, like pilates studios, I’ve invested in at-home equipment. The Peloton app alone costs me $44 per month, which is probably a large part of why I’m on an 106-day streak of riding my Bike every day.
I also began collecting workout equipment, like weights, a sturdy yoga mat, yoga blocks, and random tools like resistance bands and this strange little device for more effective body-weight squats. I keep it all in the open in my living room so that I have to consider my investment every day. If I don’t use it, I’ll know my money is going to waste. It’s an aggressive defense against my own lazy tendencies, but it works for me.
If your plan is just to follow along with a few at-home “crunch challenges” or plyometrics you find on Instagram, you may lose motivation since it’s not really costing you anything. Up the ante with a little monetary investment and you’ll feel the burn, both in your wallet and your core.
This also addresses one of the other ways the gym tends to be better than at-home workouts: The more equipment you have, the more you can do, and the more you’ll want to do. It’s no fun to follow along with a YouTube video or a Peloton strength workout and not have the right tools. Spending not only money, but time, figuring out what you need to meet your goals is worthwhile.
I set specific goals
I used to have pretty nebulous fitness goals: “Lose weight. Be healthier.” Those are nice ideas to stick on a vision board, but they don’t produce much in terms of planning or motivation. If you have a solid routine of going to the gym, they’re easy enough to maintain, but if you need to get serious about forcing yourself off the couch and working out in your own home, I don’t think they cut it. So I started mapping out much more specific goals, like “Do the splits by August.”
You can set out to curl a certain weight by your next birthday, gain a certain circumference on your bicep by autumn, lose a certain amount of pounds by an upcoming event—it doesn’t matter what your goals are so much as it matters that they’re unique, actionable, measurable, and time-based.
I’ve found that for me, achieving the goal by my personal deadline is motivating enough to keep me focused. I set a goal to do a pistol squat by May and achieved it in April, which made me feel smug, and eager to move on to the next one. If a generaly feeling of superiority isn’t enough for you, try a rewards system: If your goal is to curl 30 pounds by December and you’re at 15 now, think of a reward you can allow yourself when you hit the 20 and 25 pound milestones, like a meal at a favorite restaurant. If you’re on a weight-loss journey, consider allowing yourself one deluxe activewear purchase every time you go down a size.
Don’t forget to track your progress toward your goals. Cristina Chan, a F45 Global Recovery Athlete, tells me that when it comes to staying motivated to work out solo, “Tracking your workouts in a way that’s visual and rewarding can be a game-changer.” She encourages clients to mark off a calendar, fill in a habit tracker app, or even put sticky notes on a wall to keep track of active days. “Seeing your consistency build over time is a powerful motivator and it shifts the focus to showing up, not just physical results.”
I dress to impress (myself)
Remember during lockdown when everyone was telling you to continue dressing for work, even when you were clocking in from home, because it would put you in a “work” mindset? I’ve done well applying the same logic to my workouts: Every day before I hop on my Peloton or situate myself on my yoga mat, I don a matching workout set. (My favorites come from Set Active because they’re all color-coordinated and the fabric is compressive but comfortable.)
I could do my at-home workouts in my pajamas, but that doesn’t put me in the “workout” headspace. It puts me in the “lounging” headspace. Making the conscious decision to get up and put on compressive garments, high socks, and a sturdy hair clip tricks my brain. I wouldn’t lounge around all day in those tight clothes, so my mind automatically knows it’s not time to lounge at all. Even if no one sees me in my matching sets, I “see” myself, and know what time it is. When I finish my at-home workout, I put on a new outfit, just as if I was leaving the gym.
I also prepare for an at-home workout like I would if I were heading to the gym. I mix some creatine into my water (I love the Wellah creatine and am obsessed with matching an Owala water bottle to my outfit), select a perfect playlist, and stretch well.
All of these rituals are about getting into the correct mindset. Your living room probably doesn’t look like a gym or have gym vibes, so it’s on you to make yourself feel like you’re ready to work out.
I approximate the feeling of community
I do love being at the gym because I enjoy being around people. It’s motivating to see the same faces every day and to be surrounded by people who are also working hard. When you’re next to someone on a treadmill or taking a pilates class, you almost can’t help but put some extra oomph into your own workout. Sadly, that energy is harder to replicate if you primarily work out from home.
This is why I love taking Peloton classes. The leaderboards make it easy to feel like I’m part of a real class, and I always feel a need to compete with other people—even faceless strangers whose output scores I’m trying to beat in a virtual setting. If you don’t have a Peloton, there are other ways to accomplish this same thing.
One option is to set up challenge groups. Assemble a group of friends who will all commit to, say, submitting mid-workout selfies to a group chat once a day for accountability. (I follow a few different people who do this publicly via Instagram stories, but that’s a stretch, even for me.) If none of your friends are into it, strangers on the internet will be: Search Reddit or Facebook for “fitness challenge” or “workout challenge.” Add your city or some identifiers, like “for moms,” and you’ll find a group of like-minded people who want to hold each other accountable.
A lot of virtual fitness instructors, like people who upload cycling classes to YouTube, offer live classes, too. Just like signing up for a class at the gym, this can force you to work out when you might not otherwise want to. You don’t want to miss class or make other regulars wonder where you are.
I add variety
A key component of working out is avoiding boredom, which isn’t always easy in your own home. When you go to the gym, you see all kinds of people, have access to a variety of tools and resources, and can even find entertainment in your commute. If you work out in your living room, it likely contains no new people and limited equipment—and the commute to get there might oly involve standing up.
To inject some variety, I mix up what I’m doing on my Peloton. I watch YouTube videos, play games, and take scenic rides. I schedule rides with friends and have even taken classes in foreign languages just to force myself to pay extra attention to the on-screen metrics. Beyond the Peloton, I try to do an array of other kinds of workouts, though a lot of them—like stretching and meditation—are also available in the Peloton app. I even divvy days up the same as I would in the gym, focusing on legs one day, arms the next, and so on.
Just because you’re working out at home doesn’t mean you can’t go outside. I consider outdoor jogs “at-home” workouts because they require the same additional motivators as doing yoga in my living room: There’s no one there with me, it costs nothing, and I have to convince myself to get up and go.
If you’re tired of the same four walls, stretch on your deck. Jog down the block. Get yourself out of the same room you’re always in so that the workout feels fresh.
I keep to a schedule
This one is a work in progress, but I think it’s crucial. For a long time, I was tackling at-home workouts sporadically. Some days, I’d bounce out of bed to do a morning Peloton ride. Other days, I’d wait until bedtime to tucker myself out with my free weights. Lunch-break runs, yoga when I felt stressed, randomly deciding it was simply “YouTube pilates time” at 8 p.m.—all of this kept me moving, but there was no schedule or structure to keep me accountable to myself.
Now, I’m slowly figuring out the schedule that works best for me, which is harder in the summer months, when the likelihood of going out at night is much higher. As it stands, I’m doing morning Peloton rides on the days I’m not already teaching a spin class at 7 a.m. (with a 10-minute “cooldown” Peloton ride when I get home on the days I do teach), then immediately doing yoga, stretching, or mat pilates right after work at least three days a week. I also try to make sure at least one leisure activity a week is more activity than leisure, like golfing, playing basketball, or swimming, and those are usually slated for weekend afternoons.
“One strategy I always suggest to clients is habit-stacking/pairing your workout with something you’re already doing every day,” Chan advises. “For example, if you always have coffee in the morning, lay out your mat right after your last sip. That small trigger helps turn movement into a non-negotiable part of your routine, not something you have to constantly talk yourself into.”
I try to be kind to myself
I’m serious about this one. I’ve been working hard for the last year or so to stop badmouthing myself when I don’t do as well at something as I think I should. Getting down on yourself only worsens your mood, which isn’t particularly motivating. There are days I really do not want or have time to work out, so I queue up a 10-minute meditation on the Peloton app to maintain my active days streak. I don’t give myself grief about this, and that’s key: I know that if I felt bad about it or made myself feel lazy or guilty, I’d start to associate those negative feelings with working out altogether—and then I might quit.
If I can stay positive, tell myself it’s OK to have an off day as long as I get back at it tomorrow, and stay focused on my real goals instead of an arbitrary idea about how much I need to do every single day, I’ll keep viewing working out as a fun and productive. And that means I’ll be much more likely to hop on the Peloton the tomorrow morning.
Chan suggests having a “bare-minimum” workout allowance for those off days—your version of my Peloton meditations. “Some days, motivation just isn’t there and that’s normal,” she says. “I tell my clients to always have a go-to ‘bare minimum’ workout: five minutes of mobility or three sets of a simple bodyweight circuit. Even if that’s all you do, you’ve kept the habit alive. Most of the time, once you start moving, you’ll want to keep going.”
