By Thomas King, MSc, CK, CSCS

Given the situation in the world right now, there is a good chance that gyms in your area are either shut down completely or operating with limited capacity meaning you can’t always get a workout in.

This doesn’t have to be the end of your fitness goals though! Working out at home can be an excellent alternative. While this may not be ideal it is the reality and so presented below are my top 5 tips for staying motivated while training at home!

1. Keep the Same Workout Schedule

Never underestimate the power of keeping yourself on schedule. Did you previously get up early to exercise before work? Then keep doing that! It’s likely that you train at this time because it works best for your schedule. As a bonus, it may mean that you end up having your workout completed before your partner or kids are even awake. The same goes for you night owls out there. If you previously trained in the evening/night, keep doing that! Don’t feel like your training regime needs to change just because your other routines have.

2. Choose Your Favourite Music

This is an important one. Choosing your favourite music can be the difference between feeling motivated and feeling like nothing is working quite right. Several studies have found that when participants listened to music they enjoyed, their rate of perceived exertion (read: how hard they experienced an exercise) was lower than when they listened to music they didn’t like. The bottom line: pick music you like when training at home.

3. Check in With Your Trainer/Coach (us!)

This is a great way to stay accountable and any coach worth their salt should be happy to help with this. Just feel like you need that extra accountability? Email your trainer to tell them what you done for your workout, how it felt, exercise/technique tips, anything! While we can’t train in person right now, our world is more electronically connected than ever and your coach is just a couple of clicks away (*hint hint* let us know you’re still getting your workouts in!!)

4. Make it a Family Affair

Kids won’t leave you alone long enough to workout? Make them part of your training! Workouts can be great family time. Kids are an endless source of energy so having them burn off a little taking part in your workout can serve a double purpose of helping you complete your workout and making them a bit tired. Try doing some lunges, jumps, push-ups, whatever! As long as their technique is appropriate kids are more than capable of doing these exercises.

5. Accept Progress May Stall

Unless you have a home gym set-up exactly like your gym, you may experience a plateauing or slight decline of your progress. This is normally and totally okay! Unless you plan to train for the World Powerlifting Championships, no one is going to care that you lost 20lbs on your max deadlift. Besides, a little break will likely do your muscles, joints, and nervous system some good. When you get back in the gym again, you will be refreshed and ready to train hard and that 20lbs won’t be very long coming back.

The Wrap-Up

Hopefully some of these tips will help you remain motivated to train even when you can’t get in the gym. In an ideal world, we would all be back in the gym doing what we love and improving our lifts. For now though, that is difficult for most and training at home is the next best thing. So take these tips and use them to keep yourself motivated to keep going, gyms will be open again soon!

~Thomas 🏋️‍♀️

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I’m 34 and started at JKC in 2015. My wife joined while I was working away in 2015 and started making amazing progress while also completing exercises I’d never perform on my own. I felt I was missing out so I signed up. JKC helps in establishing goals while also having clear direction of what to do, and how, in each session. They also measure your progress which is another means of motivation! At other gyms I wouldn’t have a clear plan and would just use whatever equipment was free, it was hard to see any results. Between setting some personal bests and making good friends its hard to identify a favorite memory.  One that does come to mind was when I hit my target goal/PB in both bench and squats in the same session, big day.

I’m 30 — started at JKC Aug 2016. I moved to NL to open lululemon and we chose Jon as one of our store’s ambassadors, did one workout and have raved about it ever since! The JKC team can adapt a workout no matter what the situation — injuries, new goals, you name it! The trust and expertise can’t be matched!

JKC was recommended to me by my good friend Casidhe Dyke. Cas had been training with JKC for a while, and both he and his father had seen great results from the personal training that Jon and Thomas were giving them. I was and still am primarily a triathlete and I’ve always struggled with injuries. I was talking to Cas about incorporating more strength training in my program to try and prevent injuries going forward and Cas suggested that I give JKC a try. I reached out to Jon not long after, and the rest is history! After working with Jon and Thomas for a few months, I was getting stronger, faster, and most importantly, I was staying injury-free. I ended up being able to train the whole season without significant injury and posted a personal best at Ironman Copenhagen in 2018. A big part of that was due to the strength training and coaching I received at JKC.

After my children were born, I was completely out of shape. I had been active before my first pregnancy in 2008. I saw a post on social media about a charity event that was hosted at the gym. It prompted me to check out the JKC website. I was immediately impressed by the professional content and decided to give it a try. The professionally crafted and uniquely tailored work outs, as well as the sense of accountability and commitment that they foster. I have not missed a workout since joining – contrary to other experiences I have had when purchasing gym memberships. The flexibility of booking and rescheduling workouts, made easy by an online app, also contributed to my success in meeting my fitness goals.

I enjoy every session, working out with Jon, Thomas and Craig, as well as the “JKC Community”. Anytime someone achieves a personal best, I enjoy the celebration and support everyone gives each other. For me, I fondly remember achieving personal bests on bench press, chin ups and the sled push, in particular.

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