The COVID-19 epidemic has left many people with a lot of questions as to how they’re going to keep up their strict regimens of personal training. Many countries have strict restrictions on what can and can’t be open right now with several allowing only the most essential services to operate.
Unfortunately, these restrictions don’t make allowances for gyms, whether public or private. This has left many people without a personal trainer and without a place to go and workout or train during these times.
So, can people start personal training in house and what does it take? The short answer is that it is doable but it is up to the individual person as to how they want to approach personal training and, quite frankly, how much money they want to spend.
Here are a few options for everyone to consider in having their own in-house training regimen:
Build Your Own Gym
This is where the “if you’ve got the money” part comes in. For anyone who has some extra space and extra money laying around, building your own gym is the best option for someone to be able to train at home. The most important item for any in-house gym is, of course, the treadmill. This is probably the most often used piece of equipment at any gym out there.
Don’t like the treadmill? There are other options as well. Some people favor the elliptical, the bike, or the rower. The most important thing to remember about any of these machines is that a good twenty minutes a day on any of them is crucial towards building good cardio exercise.
For building up muscle, the multi-gym or multi-station is the best option for people who have limited space and want to get the most from the equipment they buy. Keep in mind there are also options of getting free weights, racks and benches, if one has the extra room.
What about the cost? That’s the only bad news about creating a private gym at home is that these items aren’t cheap, but there are also other options available. For those who want to have their own personal gym to train in, but don’t have that much money, they can look at online used listings. Some might think that it would be hard to find used gym equipment, but there are many people who get the idea to create their own gym, get everything together, and then find that they haven’t used that very same gym in a year, at which point they decide to sell off the equipment and turn the space into a home theater!
When Money is an Issue
The truth of the matter is that even used gym equipment can be expensive and not everyone has a lot of extra cash on hand. In these cases, one can still set up a basic in-house personal training area at home with some simple items.
First, there are exercise balls that are relatively cheap and easy to use. A workout mat is also something that any simple in-house gym should have. Besides that, one can get a good workout from inexpensive things like a jump rope, some basic free weights, and a good old stretch of road, which is always free.
Location, Location, Location
The other costly thing that might be an issue for people who want to do in house personal training is to find the space for it. People, especially people with families, may find that every room is accounted for, making it more difficult to do any kind of personal training at home.
There are solutions, however, in many cases that just require a little creative thinking. For those in apartment buildings, keep your mats and free weights in the closet until it’s workout time and then temporarily convert the living room into a workout area every day for an hour or so.
For anyone living in a house, finding space might be easier than one might think. A spare bedroom or disused office can be easily converted into a gym for in-house personal training. Are all of the rooms on the main and second floors being used? Try the basement. There’s usually plenty of extra space down there that simply begs to be put to use as a personal gym. Even a few extra square feet in the furnace room could prove useful.
Do Personal Trainers Make House Calls?
The answer is, in most cases, probably not. Even if there was that option, the truth is that COVID restrictions would discourage those kinds of visits, anyway. So, with personal trainers and private gyms off the menu, for now, doing in house personal training is the best option, and not quite so hard as everyone thought!