Exercising from home

Keeping fit at uni is important but it can be so hard, especially when gyms cost money. I think the best way to go about exercising is to join a sport but that can’t always be possible particularly at a later stage in the year so exercising from home is an excellent choice.

I’m lucky because there is a little gym room in my accommodation building but you don’t need that to exercise from home, as long as you have room to move around a simple yoga mat will work (can get them for about £10 from many places). The mat is useful because of the spongy texture to be a bit more comfortable but it isn’t necessary- you could always put your quilt on the floor as an alternative.

YouTube is amazing when it comes to most things including workouts and there are so many good things on there for all different workouts and abilities. If you just search what you want to target then you will get thousands of options; this can be a little overwhelming so here are a couple of my favourites to get you started:

Lucy Wyndham-Read is great for beginners with her 4-minute workouts working well as a morning workout with your day started. I like how you can repeat things if you want to make the workout longer and she offers suggestions to make things easier if you’re just starting out.

Blogilates is a fun and energetic channel including music workouts where you exercise alongside popular songs. It doesn’t seem difficult at first just going along to one song but afterwards you really do feel great- a fab mood improver too!

Carly Rowena has amazing videos for ideas in the gym but many of her videos also include exercises using no equipment as well so you can do them in the comfort of your own home without any hassle. My favourite at the minute are the HIIT workouts, feels so good when you can feel a workout has done something after.

Finally, if none of those channels are for you then I’m sure you’ll find something on FitnessBlender to suit you. They haven’t uploaded in a while but have a great selection of videos on there for all different types of workout.

Doing a workout in the comfort of your own home feels so much less intimidating than going to the gym especially if you haven’t been before or are new to exercise. Don’t forget to do a little warm up first so you don’t hurt yourself and a stretch at the end will help your muscles recover better.

Here is an example workout which I have used before: 20 star jumps and 30 seconds high knees to warm up; 10 leg raises, 10 squats, 10 crunches, 10 lunges on each leg, 10 russian twists, 30 second plank; repeat this 3 times; stretch. If you don’t know what any of the exercises are a quick google search will help with that and the correct form so you don’t hurt yourself.