For the purpose of this blog I’d like to touch on a topic
that is gaining some traction online recently. At home exercise programs are getting
some heat as they are deemed to be too simple and serve most people very little
purpose. I’d like to take that opinion and completely squash it, as in my opinion;
at home programs serve so many functions and purposes. To me, this issue lies
in the fact that from a simplistic point of view, people only exercise for 2
reasons; to gain muscle and to lose fat. This really could not be further from
the truth and I hope to do my best with this article to explain why.
Injury rehabilitation:
Most of the clients which I work with present with some kind of current or
history of injury. They have signs and symptoms of movement dysfunction which
is either currently or has in the past lead to injury. These people come in all
shapes and sizes and probably have multiple reasons as to why they would be
seeing an Exercise Physiologist in the first place, but injury / pain /
dysfunction always takes number one priority. Somebody cannot lose 10 kilograms
through increasing their energy expenditure if they can’t walk more than a few
hundred meters without experiencing pain. From a programming perspective, there
are always different solutions depending on the presentation of the issue,
however; if I was to restrict a patient to only exercising and doing rehab
within the gym, they’d never get any better. This in itself leads me to my next
point.
Exercise Frequency:
If we are talking about rehabilitation, it might be a case that a patient needs
to be performing movements 2 to 3 times a day. Obviously this has to be done
within an environment which is conducive to doing so, which is where the home
is the perfect location 10 out of 10 times. If we disregard injury or
rehabilitation for a second, the idea of exercise frequency can still be
explored within the home. If somebody is in need of losing a significant amount
of weight, having an at home intervention is going to be the best and possibly
only solution. Without diving into the psychological issues which have
potentially arisen as a person has gained weight, we need to remember that
exercise frequency is always going to be the best start for a beginner to
exercise. Having a daily routine is going to be the best approach and encourage
the thought of committing to something every day. Why do we need equipment to
elicit this response?
Stability specific:
For some movements which I like to give clients to challenge their stability, I
do not require the use of equipment. More often than not the exercise is too
hard to add external loading anyway. Movements which require a great deal of
motor control and have a focus on building neurological pathways are not going
to be loaded. Exercises which aim to build endurance and are often performed
for time, also do not require equipment. I’d use the term athlete loosely,
however somebody who has a keen focus on distance running will probably only
require body weight resistance to overload their glutes and hips to induce
greater levels of stability. There are so many examples where by balance and
single leg type exercises are only ever done using body weight as a resistance.
This is not to say that these are not important exercises or should be
overlooked, quite the opposite. I think the problem a lot of the time is that
they are in fact over looked. They are seen as either too easy or possible to
do under load in a different way. This leaves them left out of a program more
often than not and is a serious disservice to a lot of people unfortunately.
Ab training:
Much like the stability and sports specific exercises I often give to clients,
abdominal exercises will more than likely be done equipment free. There are a
number of benefits to working through different movements within your abdominal
routine, such as including rotation and anti rotation moves, flexion and
extension moves as well as incorporating some mobility throughout some drills.
As long as you have some floor space you can do an entire routine at home, and
get some serious results. There is definitely more to abdominal training than
simply seeing how long you can hold a plank for, but if you have a good mix,
you will be well on your way to a life with little to no back pain, ever. The
more I learn about movement, the more I realise how good trunk mechanics and
adequate strength really does underpin all loaded movement in the gym.
Final thoughts:
I’d probably just like to say that you should never feel bullied into one type
of training over another. You need to understand your situation, your body’s
needs and also your goals. If you want to be a power lifter, go to a gym. If
you want to be a professional team sport athlete, go to a gym. If you have
complex rehab requirements, maybe go to the gym. If you are very overweight,
self conscious and just want to do something, do a body weight routine at home
and go for a walk afterwards. Exercise is only as complicated as you want to
make it and there is not much point in joining a gym if you could be doing the
same thing at home. There is also not much point in not joining a gym if you
have aspirations to be a high level athlete. Just remember that there are many
ways to achieve your desired results and a lot of the time it is perfectly ok
to train at home. The biggest battle is going to be finding a routine you are
happy with and sticking to it, so get on top of that first and go from there.
In my next blog I will break down an at home exercise program with real world
examples. This will help make a bit more sense of what I mean by some of the
things within this blog.