With many of us now being encouraged to work from home we wanted to give you a few tips that will help you to stay fit and active if you haven’t got access to a gym. We can’t be certain about very much right now but we can be sure about the positive impact that staying active will have on your physical and mental health. Here are a few simple things you can do to make that process a bit easier.

Plan your sessions in advance 
We’d advise you to do this whether you’re working out at home or in a gym but it becomes even more important when you’re training at home. The crucial point here is that if you don’t plan your sessions in advance it’s all too easy to say “ah, I’ll do it tomorrow”. If, on the other hand, you work out out now when you’re going to exercise during the week ahead, you’ll be more committed to completing the sessions. If you usually workout in the morning try to stick to that routine, it will be familiar and you have already built a habit. Try to avoid doing random sessions decide ahead what you are going to train and how.

Block off some time
Of course, it’s a lot easier to stay focused when you’re in the gym because there’s not much else to do other than lift weights and work up a sweat. Your home can be a lot more distracting because you’ve got instant access to the fridge and a bunch of devices. So block off some time to train and be disciplined about doing nothing else other than your workout during that time.

Music 
One of the easiest ways to stay focused is to create a great workout playlist and fire it up at the start of your session. It’ll block out background noise and distractions and studies have also shown that it can even improve workout performance. If you have some wireless headphones these can cut out any distractions.

Tell your family 
If you’re planning on exercising at home it makes sense to let any family members know what you’re doing and when you’re doing it. Hopefully they will leave you alone and also they will understand what those strange noises are coming from the garage!

Keep focussed
As you’ve probably already begun to realise, avoiding distractions is a good idea when you’re working out at home. So, in between sets you could do some stretching or keep rest periods fairly short.

Find some space 
Now, this might not be an option for everyone but if you can find a bit of space away from everyone else in the house, that’s likely to give you a better workout. If you have a garage or a spare room, that’s ideal. If not, just try to use a room while it is empty.

At Body Planners we offer BP@Home structured workouts and full meal plans for a month. The workouts can be done live with your coach and great way of being focussed and staying committed, but can also be performed  in catch up at a time to suit.

We have also published a FREE progressive bodyweight programme to keep you fighting fit whilst the gyms are closed, downloadable form the website.