BOD Home Workouts

By Ashley I.

Having not worked out consistently in years, the idea of walking into a gym intimidated me. Plus, in the past I always found myself making excuses as to why I couldn’t make it to the gym that day. So I decided to start at home to #1 make a habit of working out (with no excuses) and #2 to build a foundation before I find my way into the gym.

While working out at home may not be for everyone, it is a good option for those that aren’t ready to join a gym yet or for people that are short on time. In fact, here is a whole list of reasons that you may choose to workout at home…

• You never have to face the cold or bad weather. Oh, it’s 10 degrees below zero? There’s a blizzard out there and you can’t see the road? It’s raining cats and dogs? Well good thing you don’t have to worry about going out to face Midwest weather to get to your gym… you’re already there!

• You don’t have to care how you look. Doesn’t matter what you wear, whether you shaved your legs or not, how silly you look doing an exercise, how much you are sweating, how heavy you’re breathing, or what your face looks like when you feel like you’re about to fall over… no one is there to judge you. Your dog might look at you funny, but I’m betting they aren’t going to tell anyone.

• The only germs are your own. You aren’t touching machines and weights and equipment that hundreds of other people have had their dirty, sweaty hands (and bodies) on.

• Pre-workout and post-workout meals are just a few steps away… in the kitchen.

• You don’t have to wear headphones. And you can listen to any music you want as loud as you want to listen to it. You can even belt out all the words and dance along, too!

• Multi-tasking. You can have dinner in the oven while you get your workout in or sneak in a workout between loads of laundry. You can even hit the pause button on your workout at any time to answer the knock on the door or feed your dog if he won’t leave you alone (this one happens to me all the time).

• Kids. No excuses for not having someone to watch your kiddos if you’re working out at home. They could even join you on your workouts… teach your family how important it is to stay active and healthy!

There are TONS of home work out programs out there on the market, and many free programs, too. You can also make your own workouts if you do your research or have someone who knows a lot about it to help you out. While I’m sure that we could talk for hours about all of the programs out there, I’m just going to talk about the one I have been using most recently.

Beachbody on Demand (BOD) is the online platform I use. They are all videos with a super enthusiastic (cheesy) coach, which I have found surprisingly fun and entertaining! There is a yearly membership fee of $99. With that $99/year you get access to over 50 different programs. These programs range from 3 days to 80 days, 10 minutes to 60 minutes, beginner level to advanced, yoga to cardio to strength, etc. There are literally programs for everyone and anyone. Some popular ones you may have heard of that are included on here are “P90X,” “21 Day Fix,” “80 Day Obsession,” and “Insanity” among several others. You are able to filter out programs by level, time, and type if you need help choosing one.

For a lot of these programs you only need basic equipment such as a set of dumbbells, a mat, and maybe a resistance band… so you definitely don’t need to invest in a bunch of fancy, expensive equipment to be able to workout at home. Amazon sells all of these things pretty cheap, too.

Another great part about this platform is the community. BOD has discussion groups for each program that you can turn to with questions or look to for tips and stories from others that have went through the program before. There are also countless Facebook groups for different programs, filled with people to share support and experiences.

The first program I did (21 Day Fix), I went into ready to rock! I quickly realized that the trainers make it look A LOT easier than it was for me. The good thing though, is that they had someone showing a “modifier” exercise for each move… which I usually ended up following. Now if I were in a workout class I might have been a little embarrassed by how “out of shape” I was but being at home alone me allowed me to remain confident in myself and give it my all, no matter how silly or embarrassing I may have looked doing it. Though I grew a lot by the end of the 21 days, I want to repeat the program again… challenging myself to not have to use the modifiers at all!

Side Note: There is also a food/nutrition program that goes along with the 21 Day Fix that focuses on portion control. I highly recommend giving it a try if you struggle with portions. I can write another post about the nutrition part of 21 Day Fix in the future if anyone is interested in hearing about it more… just let me know using the suggestion form on the Contribute page!

With that being said, I encourage you to consider BOD if you are stuck not knowing where to begin on your journey and looking for some guidance OR if you are looking for a way to fit workouts into your busy life by working out at home OR even if you are just looking for something new to change up your current routines. Hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I do… and see results like I did, too!