Long before spinning studios, Crossfit Boxes and pre-choreographed LesMills classes, we watched the Gym Tonic of Véronique de Villèle and Davina Delor (better known as “Véronique and Davina”) in front of our television screen. It was the beginning of sports at home , and the housewife could take an aerobics class without leaving the house. This show launched the media coverage of fitness, particularly for women, and the transition of sport as an activity which takes a real place in daily free time.
Sport at home, for whom, why?
This brings us to our current definition of Fitness. For many, going to the gym represents the only option to build muscle or lose weight. However, this can be expensive or time-consuming if we are not lucky enough to live near a structure offering this type of activity.
So there is the solution of sports at home . But be careful because it also has certain obstacles: various distractions such as the telephone, children, dog, computer or a neighbor can stop your training session. And when you're at home, it's very easy to find something else to do! Our experts say that a good way to stay motivated and avoid distractions is to do your exercises at the start of the day . There are fewer external distractions and it is easier to “get going” first thing in the morning than after a long day at work.
Sport at home and on an empty stomach, the ultimate solution?
Doing cardio training on an empty stomach allows you to develop lipid power , that is to say the ability to use lipids favorably during exercise. Indeed, the fasting body is deficient in glycogen, so it will tend to favor the use of fats during physical exercise. The advantage of doing it at home is that you don't need to go to the room and you can be up and running 5 minutes after getting out of bed.
Photo Stimium® Thermoshape + link to the product
Combination of several active ingredients to burn fat / suppress appetite
Be careful, however, not to put yourself in danger and to always have a homemade carbohydrate supply nearby (water and grape juice, Stimium® Boost for example) to avoid hypoglycemia during your session.
Photo Stimium® Boost + link to the product
Source of energy for the muscle / Improves alertness and reduces fatigue / Contributes to normal energy metabolism / Powerful antioxidant
We come back to the question of “should you exercise on an empty stomach or not?” ". We list the advantages such as the use of stored fat to provide energy and also the reduction of digestive disorders, but be careful of the risks involved . The practitioner can find himself in hypoglycemia as we explained above but above all there is a risk of being exhausted prematurely and of providing less intense effort. If our goal is to gain muscle, you should know that doing bodybuilding on an empty stomach will not help you build an Apollo physique. Muscles need a number of nutrients such as protein to build them, so it's important to give them at the right time.
Photo Stimium® [C] Whey + link to the product
Sculpt your body / Regenerate your muscles / Lose fat mass
To conclude, when you start exercising at home and decide to do it on an empty stomach, remember this:
- It is better to favor a cardiovascular effort at moderate intensity
- Anticipate your diet the day before and have a carbohydrate drink or snack nearby such as Stimium® Boost gums
- Avoid split or strength training efforts
Who can play sports at home?
To this question where we want to say “everyone”, our experts advise not to do anything when you are a beginner. Before starting it is important to know what your objectives are : weight loss, muscle mass gain, sharpening, flexibility? Then, you need to be able to plan your workouts well in order to do everything you can to achieve your goals and stay motivated.
Stimium® Joint Flex + link to the product
Synergistically effective in joint inflammation, mobility and flexibility problems / Avoids morning stiffness
While these prerogatives are important, the most important thing is to do the exercises well. At the end of this file you will find programs and applications to guide you but you must always take care to have good posture . Someone who has never done a squat without the help of a professional to demonstrate the position is at high risk of injury in the long term.
Our tip: do your exercises in front of a mirror
Our tip if you use an online program at home: do your exercises in front of a mirror to be sure you have good placement on all your movements. Concerning the abdominals for people who suffer from lower back pain, it is important to protect themselves well by, for example, placing a cushion at the level of the buttocks to avoid having hyperlordosis (exaggerated arching at the level of the lower back which causes muscle tension and pain).
For regulars who have already practiced sport in the gym or with a coach and who have correct placements, maintaining motivation on their own will be essential. To do this, it is important to establish a real training plan and set times in advance, without distraction, to carry out your sessions. This will help keep you motivated and a good guideline for the future.
The benefits of sport at home
Playing sport has long been recognized as providing numerous benefits, particularly for health and self-confidence. Regardless of the sport, it is recommended to practice at least 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of intense activity per week according to the WHO .
But finding time to work out is never easy, which is why working out at home could be the answer. Grouping together small equipment such as elastics, small dumbbells or a TRX can be the key to effective fitness without wasting time!
The question many are asking: can doing fitness at home be as beneficial as working out at the gym? The answer is yes, and we're going to tempt you to try by presenting a list of benefits below:
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No need to purchase a gym membership . Certainly, the prices of certain subscriptions are more and more attractive, but there are no small savings.
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Save time by avoiding traveling and having to take transport.
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Savings : small equipment is often inexpensive.
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Practical : you can train whenever you want, your home is always available, even if you want to train at 3 a.m. (ask your partner for permission beforehand anyway).
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You avoid rush hours at the gym and waiting to use the machine you want
Be careful, practicing sport at home and alone can also have some disadvantages such as:
- The need for creativity to maintain interest in training
- Have good posture without professional supervision, otherwise there is a risk of injury
- Small equipment is not expensive, but if you want to invest in weights and dumbbells, the initial price will be high
- It can get boring and unmotivating to train alone
If you're still considering working out at home, read on for the basics to know when building your own workout.
The 5 elements of Fitness
Warming up
What is the most important part of your workout? If you answered “warm up” you win. Without a proper warm-up, you will run many risks, not only of injury, but also of not properly optimizing your session, and therefore slowing down your progress.
From now on, before starting your session, remember to do a warm-up adapted to it, taking into account the following points:
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Mobility
Increasing mobility dynamically ensures the body can move in multiple directions safely. Linked to flexibility, mobility allows you to increase the range of movement. Many injuries occur due to a lack of mobility of the tendons , particularly over the long term. Trying to do dynamic mobility movements during the warm-up is therefore essential. In particular, you can perform circles with your arms, swinging movements with your legs while leaning against a wall or any fixed support.
Stimium® Joint Flex + link to the product
Synergistically effective in joint inflammation, mobility and flexibility problems / Avoids morning stiffness
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A specific preparation
You turn on your car before you start driving. Along the same lines, you will activate the parts of your brain that control your movements in preparation for a specific workout. The main advantage of this preparation for specific movements is to activate the muscles which will be mainly used during the training to ensure that it will be as effective as possible. For example, doing bodyweight squats before adding elastics or weights will optimize the work of the muscles involved.
Photo Stimium® Veg Protein + link to the product
Sculpt your body / Regenerate your muscles / Lose fat mass
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Increase body temperature
This part of the workout is called the “warm-up” for good reason. Increasing blood flow and intramuscular temperature makes the muscles more flexible and avoids strains/strains or even muscle tears.
A strain generally does not take very long to heal, but once the muscle has been affected it will be more likely to be affected again in the future.
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Raise awareness of your proprioception
The principle of proprioception can be translated as body awareness. A stricter definition is to understand and know where one's body is located in space. This is the sense that allows you to touch your hands behind your back and also to coordinate your eyes with your hands and your movements on the ground for example. You can resolve your stability and balance problems , and potentially injury, by working in the three anatomical reference planes: the frontal plane, the sagittal plane and the horizontal plane (or transverse plane).
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Joints
Don't know why you have joint pain? The culprit could be your overheating. To do this, try combining dynamic stretching movements and low-impact exercises such as jumping rope. This will remind your body of its elastic properties in your tendons and ligaments to prevent possible sprains.
Stimium® Joint Flex + link to the product
Synergistically effective in joint inflammation, mobility and flexibility problems / Avoids morning stiffness
Cardio
The term “cardio” defines cardiovascular training which improves cardiac performance and increases endurance. More concretely, it is the ability of your heart and lungs to work together to supply your body with oxygen during prolonged exercise. Running, cycling and swimming are the most common cardio training efforts, which is why Triathlon represents the flagship discipline of cardio sports. This is an outdoor sport, but nothing stops you from improving your cardio with exercises at home. Jumping rope, jumping jacks, knee raises or the famous burpees are all exercises that improve your cardio and burn calories.
Muscle strengthening
Muscular strength is the force that your muscles are capable of producing, for example for pushing such as push-ups or pulling such as pull-ups. It is based on the ability of your muscles to exert force to overcome resistance. Strength training will help you gain muscle mass, improve your posture and gain strength . Push-ups, squats and pull-ups are perfect examples of exercises to do at home, which can be adapted to their difficulties with elastics and weights.
Photo Stimium® Preworkout Max + link to the product
Increase in work performed, simple and repetitive exercises and muscular adaptation during exercise / reduces the effect of physical and mental fatigue
Flexibility
Flexibility, or flexibility, is the physical quality that allows you to perform bodily movements with the greatest amplitude (joint and muscular) and ease possible. This flexibility can be active (with dynamic movements) or passive (without dynamic movements). To improve it, specific stretching sessions at least once a week will help you progress. Certain disciplines such as Yoga or Pilates combine deep muscle strengthening and stretching.
The return to calm
It is important to always end your training session with a cool down, regardless of the activity carried out. Without necessarily taking a long part of your session, this moment will allow you to make the transition to prepare your body to begin recovery . During the session, the body warmed up and the tissues were mobilized. A state in which he will not remain after the session. Warming up and cooling down are equally important, but for very different reasons. Indeed, the goal of returning to calm is to promote recovery by helping the body return to its initial state before training. To do this, it will be essential to slow down the heart rate and gradually reduce blood pressure in order to avoid discomfort that may occur after the session (dizziness or even fainting). This time also allows your body to recharge and relax by beginning to eliminate metabolic waste.
Stimium® Vital LLR + link to the product
Contributes to maintaining better physiological and mental vitality / Helps with the proper functioning of nervous, muscular, immune and vision systems
The key phases of this return to calm are:
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A gentle exercise , such as a breathing exercise, massage or self-massage, which will help relieve tension and improve mobility by increasing blood flow.
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Stretching , the aim of which will not be to gain flexibility but to reduce post-workout pain and reduce recovery time.
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Hydration and nutrient intake , in liquid or solid form.
hoto Stimium® Rgn3-Reload + link to the product
Reduces fatigue / Maintains water-electrolyte and acid-base balance / Antioxidant action
These five points are therefore essential to practicing physical activity. Most supervised sports sessions are built around these axes. It is essential to follow them also when you decide to practice sport at home, otherwise you risk not obtaining the expected result or even getting injured.
So you have decided to do your fitness session at home, now there remains one question: where to start and how to organize yourself?
How to start fitness at home?
You don't have time to go to the gym, or you simply don't like doing your sport with other people? Training at home is therefore the perfect solution for you. Now it’s a matter of getting started, so how do you get started?
First of all, it's important to know what your goal is .
Photo Stimium® Thermoshape + link to the product
Combination of several active ingredients to burn fat / suppress appetite
- Gain lean mass (i.e. build muscle)?
Photo Stimium® [C] Whey + link to the product
Sculpt your body / Regenerate your muscles / Lose fat mass
Stimium® Joint Flex + link to the product
Synergistically effective in joint inflammation, mobility and flexibility problems / Avoids morning stiffness
- Clear your head by exercising a little physically each day?
Whatever it is, it is important to write down this goal somewhere. We recommend that you take a notebook in which you will take notes on your sessions and your progress. Start by putting the start date of your program, possibly your measurements if you have a “quantified” objective that you wish to achieve, as well as your objective in words. Finally, attach photos of yourself to be aware of your progress : in your underwear, from the front and in profile if possible. This will help you measure your progress, even when it doesn't necessarily show on the scale. Remember to take photos of yourself once a month or at least once every two months to compare.
Your fitness notebook ready, you now need to determine how much time you will be able to devote to your sports sessions at home as well as their duration: once an hour per week? 15 minutes every day? Make sure it fits into your current schedule and that you will be able to stick to it. Training at home requires a lot of discipline because there won't be anyone to remind you that it's time to do your sport, so start by being realistic and don't impose a schedule on yourself that you don't. you won't be able to hold on in the long term. The gratification that comes from successfully maintaining a sports program on your own will allow you to gradually increase your physical activity and will only amplify the quality of the results you obtain.
Monotony is a factor that can affect you when you decide to train at home, which is why it is important to vary the exercises and for this, including small equipment allows you to break the routine or increase the difficulty of the exercise. certain exercises. We will present to you below a non-exhaustive list of our “essentials” to have at home.
Small equipment to vary the exercises
Even if you don't have a large space to exercise at home, this list of fitness accessories will allow you to equip yourself well and vary the exercises to always challenge your body.
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The gym mat
The floor mat is the basis of any physical practice in order to be able to carry out exercises in a sitting or lying position and ensure optimal comfort for your body. Don't hesitate to take it quite thick if you don't plan to carry it, this will allow you to have a very pleasant little layer of cushioning between you and the ground.
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Jumping rope
Cardio exercise par excellence, it is one of the essential accessories in many sports. Skipping rope allows you to increase your cardiovascular activity using small jumps. A real fat burner, it's a simple exercise that will also develop your endurance skills. To achieve an even more complete result, you can take a weighted skipping rope (weights can be inserted into the wrists). Your arms and shoulders will be even more toned.
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Swiss Ball
The Swiss Ball is a large ball that allows you to create exercises that work your deep muscles. The variations for the use of this accessory are almost endless and the main advantage it provides is to always put your body in a situation of imbalance, it is then up to you to use your muscles to maintain this stability: this allows you to build muscle. your abdominal strap, tone your figure and relieve your back pain.
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Elastic bands
Elastic bands allow you to use different muscles by adding resistance during muscular effort, they offer the possibility of modulating the workload and creating a multitude of different movements during training. They exist with different resistances, which makes them adaptable for almost all types of exercises and all levels. The other advantage they have is their ability to use all the muscle fibers because the resistance increases during the movement.
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Waff
The Waff is an ergonomic cushion made of air and used to create an unstable surface. Whether you support the cushion with your hands or your feet, you will be forced to compensate for this instability by strengthening and engaging your deep muscles more significantly to maintain the position or correctly carry out a movement.
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Kettlebells
The kettlebell is an accessory often affiliated with Crossfit. It is a weighted ball with a handle. It is originally a traditional Russian weight. It can be used for muscle or cardio-respiratory strengthening with the famous kettlebell swing for example. It allows you to gain strength, reactivity and balance, its advantage compared to a dumbbell is the position of its center of gravity which is therefore located outside the hand and which allows you to perform a swinging movement.
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TRX
The Total Resistance eXercice or TRX is a well-known accessory for bodyweight work. It is composed of two rigid and adjustable straps connected together at one end to attach to a fixed point such as a door, a tree or a post. The straps are equipped with handles that can be used with the hands or feet allowing you to perform different exercises using your own body weight. From high-level athletes to sedentary people returning to physical activity, the intensity can vary and is adaptable to everyone. Tone, sculpt or lose weight, we promise you won't be disappointed with the results!
This list is of course non-exhaustive, there is an almost infinite number of Fitness accessories and new ones are constantly being released. Our advice: before buying the latest novelty that promises you a perfect body for this summer, already master the tools you own and then look to diversify.
There are many programs available, whether online, through an app, or in books. They make it possible to ensure constant progress and to have daily advice, which provides a source of motivation which is not negligible when training alone at home.
The best-known programs and applications for doing fitness at home
To stay motivated when you are alone, the best way is to follow a program. Here are the best known.
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Gym Direct
One of the flagship Fitness shows on television, this is broadcast from Monday to Friday at 6 a.m. on the C8 channel. You can also find it on myCanal at any time. Coaches offer to follow them on a muscle strengthening, cardio-boxing or Pilates program. The main advantage is to receive advice from a coach without traveling, the disadvantage is that he is not there to correct you.
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Lafay method
The Lafay method was developed by Olivier Lafay. It is broken down into four books, two for men, a special one for women and one on nutrition. This program is entirely designed without equipment, the method also contains a flexibility and endurance section and specific programs so that everyone can draw on it according to their needs and desires. The book offers personalized training at home, it is complete and you can take it anywhere.
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Nike Training Club
The application, developed by the American giant, offers videos and tailor-made programs created by qualified coaches. There is the possibility of defining your objective and the frequency with which you wish to train. Fun and varied, the application can be used anywhere, with or without equipment depending on the conditions in which you train.
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Freeletics
Created in Germany, Freeletics is a workout program that promises to transform your figure through cardio and muscle-strengthening exercises. The program lasts twelve weeks and requires practitioners to perform a set of bodyweight exercises in a minimum of time. The community is strong and allows you to stay motivated on a daily basis
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Seven
Doing seven minutes of sport every day to get in shape and get the body of your dreams is tempting, isn't it? This is what Seven offers you, an application which offers twelve exercises performed for 30 seconds, alternating with rests of 10 seconds. All for seven minutes. Of course, you can do this several times a day and thus speed up the results.
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Runtastic Result
Runtastic Result is an Austrian application that tracks your progress and suggests exercises while challenging you daily to achieve your results. It also consists of a twelve-week program of bodyweight training and is personalized according to your current level. The sessions last from 5 to 65 minutes to which you can add cardio-focused workouts each week. All the exercises are explained through videos and you can follow your results directly through the application (in particular via recorded photos of your figure) and thus see your progress.
The number of applications and programs continues to increase, for better or for worse in Fitness. This is why we recommend that you do your research before embarking on a program and investing money (and time). Finally, if you can afford it, nothing beats a home coach who can guide you and help you position yourself well for your exercises. He will be able to create a personalized program that is adaptable to your body shape and your goals, while keeping you motivated during each session!
