Are You Doing Home Workouts Right? Plus, The Amazing Science Of Shinrin Yoku
How are you staying fit during lockdown? Has the loss of your favourite gym or personal trainer changed the way you move? If you’re like many committed exercisers, you might be shifting to home-based workouts – either on your own, or with virtual assistance from a personal trainer or online platform.
But before you get too carried away, we want to help you set up your home workout space and maintain great technique, in order to make the most of your efforts and avoid injury.
We share five steps to home-workout success, five chiropractic cautions, and a short discussion of home-exercise alternatives (including the remarkable benefits of Shinrin Yoku or Nature Therapy).
Read on, lockdown warrior.
Five Steps To Home Workout Success
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Clear your space
Kicking the table or knocking over the TV sounds comic, but the risks are real if you run out of space. You could injure yourself on furniture, or perform an exercise awkwardly if hemmed in.
Best to claim a spare bedroom, reorganise the lounge room, or head to the backyard if you’re lucky enough to have access to grass. Pop a yoga/exercise mat down and you’re good to go (though, check step #5 for correct screen positioning if you’re following along online).
To avoid limiting your range of motion (think: lunges, pushups and jumping jacks), aim to occupy at least three-square-meters of space. Of course, the exact dimensions will be different for everybody.
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Go barefoot… sometimes
Doing yoga or pilates in bare feet is ideal. Weightlifting or bodyweight exercises can also lend themselves to naked toes to challenge proprioception (awareness of your body) and activate those tiny little muscles in your feet and ankles.
However, if you’re used to wearing sneakers/trainers, barefoot workouts can be tough on your bones and joints – especially if you’re jumping around like a mad thing. Wear good quality trainers, even inside, and if you choose to go shoeless, work up slowly, stopping if you feel pain or cramping and being careful not to drop your dumbbells!
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You didn’t skip the warmup, did you?
At the gym, your eagle-eyed trainer won’t let you skip crucial workout components like the warm up. At home? You might be tempted to launch straight into the session. Don’t!
Warming up the body for 10 – 20 minutes increases blood flow to the muscles from a baseline of around 20% up to 75%. And more blood flow equals more oxygen and nutrients delivered to the muscles, allowing them to perform better, stay loose and warm, and relieve pressure on your joints. (You can read more about how to prevent sporting injuries, here.)
If it’s a nice day, try a brisk walk around the block before getting stuck into your workout, or follow a guided warm-up routine from your gym, trainer or online fitness portal of choice.
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Check yourself out
Checking your form and posture in the mirror is gold. Like at the gym, those full-length mirrors aren’t designed for admiring your activewear, rather, noticing whether your shoulders are rounded, your neck’s craning forwards, your bum’s at a weird angle or chest has dropped.
Proper form and technique is vital not only for preventing injury, but for getting results, too. Poor form can fail to activate the desired muscle group (like your glutes), leading to a flat bum or otherwise frustrating lack of tone, or simply ‘let you off the hook’ with lazy movement patterns.
If you don’t have a mirror, you can always record yourself on your laptop (try using photobooth or other in-built video tool) and watch it back. Better still, send it to your trainer for feedback.
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An eye-level screen is IMPERATIVE
Your neck is delicate. Your neck is precious. Don’t compromise it by craning to see a tiny personal trainer in your iPhone screen laid flat on the ground.
Having your screen at eye level is a must. You can do this by hooking up your tv to your computer and watching it on the big screen (if it’s in a good position), placing your laptop on a high stool or table, or sitting your device on an eye-level shelf.
The goal is to keep your neck in line with your spine. Find a configuration that facilitates this.
Chiropractic Cautions
We’re all for daily movement, and champion everyone giving it a go. But if you’re starting from scratch, managing injuries or fall into the ‘go hard or go home’ camp, we have five important cautions to issue before you jump into jumping around at home.
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Don’t do too much too soon. It’s better to be over cautious, working up a little at a time, than diving in and doing yourself an injury. Start small, even if it’s 5 or 10 minutes per day. Work up slowly and build a solid foundation of fitness, first – your body will thank you.
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Stick to workouts that meet your ability. Be honest. Be OK with being a beginner. And plus, there’s no one to judge you at home!
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Don’t feel you have to complete the whole workout if it’s long or you’re tired. Just because the exercise video is 40 minutes long doesn’t mean you should doggedly persist until the end. Listen to your body and stop when you’ve had enough.
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Feel a twinge? Stop right there! There’s a difference between feeling healthily tired and injuriously pained. If you noticed your lower back is sore, a muscle seems tight and twinge-y, or something just doesn’t feel right, listen to your body and stop.
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If you pull up sore – beyond normal post-workout tenderness – perhaps you did too much. Use your body’s feedback as a guide to go a little easier next time. (And if there’s ever an excuse to take a long soak in Epsom Salts, this is it.)
Alternative Exercise Options
A gentle stroll
Walking outside is a safe, gentle, feelgood way to keep your body in condition. Increasing evidence suggests that this kind of steady-state movement – even if you’re not whipping past fellow walkers at warp speed in small shorts – is still beneficial.
Don’t dismiss the simple pleasure of walking – around your suburb, your local parklands, wherever you can. It’s truly the original human workout.
We wrote a comprehensive guide to the benefits of walking and how to do it the *right* way, here. Have a read and get out there.
Shinrin Yoku (or Nature Therapy)
There’s no doubt about it: greenery does a person good. But did you know that spending time in nature – especially in forests, the bush, the beach and other naturally wild places – is measurably therapeutic?
In Japan, “Forest Bathing” or Shinrin Yoku is covered by health insurance, proven to increase immunity, relieve stress and tension, reduce inflammation, restore nervous system function, focus the mind and a host of other amazing benefits.
Researchers discovered that trees give off tiny volatile oils that have positive effects on the human system, which can even be antibacterial/anti-infective – imagine that!
In addition, some people swear by ‘earthing’ (having your body in contact with the ground), the therapeutic effects of ‘vitamin green’ (simply admiring greenery) and of course, all the goodness of being outside in the fresh air and sunshine.
Now, more than ever, maintaining healthy vitamin D levels for immunity and lung and cardiovascular function is vital for staying strong and confident during the pandemic.
Whether you workout at home or in nature, here’s to you for keeping fit, active and upbeat in the midst of a tricky time. Keep it up.