Productivity Hacks You've Been Missing: Exercise at Home

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There are a seemingly endless number of productivity hacks with a range of efficacies streaming through our feeds daily.

One dramatically underutilized tactic is exercising at home, and here’s why: the benefits of exercise are well established, and nearly everyone you talk to says they should use more, but few do.

Why is this? Read on to learn more.

Time

For many, the answer is time.

Even more significant than the number of people who say they should exercise more are people who want more time in the day.

People want more time to sleep, more time to spend with their kids and spouse, more time to take that class they keep talking about, more time to go out and do fun activities, more time to work on their business, and on and on.

Productivity Hacks and Time Savers: Exercising at Home

So where does exercising in-home come in?

Hopefully, you have a safe place to sleep at night, and if you work a typical 9-5 type job, you’ll be at home both before and after work. If you have a non-traditional work schedule, then you may have other parts of the day at home.

By fitting in an exercise habit where you already are every day (and that day-to-day consistency is the most important part) you move closer to your own golden mean of well-being.

Since you have your shower, clothes, water, and food all right at home, you cut back dramatically on the total time dedicated to the process of exercise.

That process includes commuting to a fitness center, planning your outfit for at the gym and after, bringing shower gear and showering, changing, refilling water, going to the smoothie bar, chatting with other members… you get the picture.

Going to a traditional gym can be incredibly inefficient, and for most people who want to feel better, and look better, is unnecessary.

A Quick Note

It’s worth noting that for many, the social component is essential, and a big reason why they like going to the gym. For the vast majority of Americans however, the gym is the last place they want to spend their socializing time, and when they do try to go every January for their next health kick, it just doesn’t work.

A million excuses come up, and it’s not necessarily that they were weak-minded, didn’t want it bad enough, or some other “self-help” industry jargon.

It's possible the process of going to the gym just didn’t fit their lifestyle, and by cutting out the inefficiency and finding a better and more sustainable solution for them, they could actually change their lives in a productive and empowering way (but I digress, that’s for another day).

"Going to a traditional gym can be incredibly inefficient, and for most people who want to feel better, and look better, is unnecessary."

Starting Healthy Habits

Our Director of Training at Golden Home Fitness, Coach Mike Urso, often references in our wellness workshops at luxury residential communities that only 6% of the American population is meeting five habits linked to health and well-being:

  • Maintaining a healthy weight
  • Not smoking
  • Drinking in moderation or not at all
  • Getting 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or more
  • Getting at least 7 hours of sleep or more on average

Not mentioned on this list, but often featured on other indices of health, is social capital, or having positive relationships with other people in our life and relatedness to the world around us.

It can seem like a cruel Catch-22 where you can choose to get the sleep you need but skip the exercise, or you can sacrifice sleep to get the exercise; then add in trying to get both while making time for family and friends?

Most people would think it more likely to see a yeti vacationing in Aruba than maintain all those areas for very long!

Keep Pushing Forward with Productivity Hacks (and Some Help from Us)

It doesn’t have to be that way! In other articles in the Golden Home Fitness resource library, we've discussed how to make the most of your particular situation, including:

  • Productivity hacks
  • How to get yourself in the right mindset to exercise at home
  • How to get an effective workout with minimal or no equipment
  • How to go about equipping your home if you want more of a home gym
  • And more.

I’ll be writing more on this so stay tuned but know that the elusive lifestyle of your dreams (and for optimal physiological and psychological function) can be within your reach, and exercising at home may help you move closer to your golden mean for a live well-lived.

Written by Will Hansen, NSCA-CPT, Golden Home Fitness Director of Operations. Originally published on LinkedIn and Medium and republished with permission.

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