4 Tips to Fight Burnout from Exercising at Home

With the pandemic still going on, going to the gym remains risky or just not possible. Many fitness centers have been forced to close and can be expected to remain closed depending on lockdown protocols in their locality. Naturally, gymgoers were forced to transform their homes into mini fitness centers where they could maintain the momentum of their fitness regime. People did this by using various innovative gadgets, equipment, and techniques. 

However, being able to train at home as hard as people did in gyms meant they were more likely to burn themselves out. After all, being able to exercise at home can be really convenient and encourage people to train even harder.

Lucky for you, we’ve gathered valuable advice that can help you fight burnout, so you can maximize fitness at home

What causes exercise burnout?

Before diving deep into techniques in overcoming exercise burnout, it’s important to understand what causes it. Health and wellness expert Jillian Michaels says overtraining and under-recovery are the primary reasons people feel burnt out from exercising. 

Similar to burnout from other activities, especially work, exercise burnout impacts both the physical and mental wellbeing of a person. Physical symptoms of exercise burnout may include lethargy, poor performance, slower recovery, and overall sluggishness in your fitness progress. Meanwhile, mental symptoms may include feeling bored and tired despite having plenty of rest. Ultimately, burnout will make you despise working out. 

Take a break and recover

The first step towards overcoming exercise burnout at home is slowing down. Understandably, you want to capitalize on your newfound motivation to go harder at your fitness regime, but the losses will outweigh all the gains if you get burnt out. But how exactly do you slow down?

You can take a break from exercising. It can be less than or more than a week, whatever feels right for you. As mentioned above, one factor that causes burnout is under-recovery. Taking breaks from your training allows your muscles to recover, especially if you’re under an intense regime. It’s important to note that during your breaks, you can replace your regular exercise with low-impact gentle movements. You can do stretches in the morning or go on walking meetings if that applies to your livelihood. 

Apart from taking recovery breaks, you can decrease the volume and intensity of your exercise, especially if your burnout is caused by overtraining. After making changes to your training, make sure to also apply corresponding changes to your recovery breaks. If you want your recovery to be faster, you can do light, active recovery workouts. 

Split your training wisely

Continuing on the importance of recovery, you can decrease the likelihood of getting burnt out by scheduling your workouts properly. When planning workout splits, you want to prioritize recovery and time under tension. It’s advisable to train a group of muscles only twice a week and rest them for a minimum of two days before putting them under tension once more. 

A specific piece of advice for women regarding scheduling workouts would allow them to burn calories even during their period. According to experts and various studies, females’ metabolism is at full force about one to two weeks prior to their menstruation. Meaning, females plan their workouts around this time frame to maximize the calories they can burn.

Diversify your exercise

Another factor that may result in exercise burnout is the monotony of having the same set of exercise types every time you train. Doing the same exercises again and again for a long period may make your routine tedious and boring, making training more exhausting than it really is. The tip is to diversify your exercise. Try out different types of movement that you haven’t really done before. You can even take a break from your regular routine and stick to a totally different one for a while. When you return to your original set of exercises, you’re likely to feel refreshed and more motivated.  

Another way to break the monotony is to try out a new hobby or return to an old one. If you have hobbies that require you to be physically active, you can reinvest into them or get into your first one. You can go to dancing classes or do yoga if you haven’t done those before. They may not be as intense as your regular training, but they allow you to try out something new so you can rediscover your enthusiasm towards your routine.

Eat what you want

It sounds counterintuitive, but being free to eat whatever you want positively impacts your mood towards your fitness goals. Having plenty of restrictions that don’t allow you to consume the food you find pleasing can make training feel more stressful and exhausting than it really is – increasing the likelihood of experiencing burnout.

People who enforce a strict diet rule upon themselves end up in a snowball effect of negative emotions and bad decisions the moment they cheat on their diet. You can argue that they should not have cheated on their diet in the first place, but isn’t it better to not have to cheat? Problems regarding work, family, finances, and other things can stress you out, and the last thing you want is to avoid eating your comfort food. 

It makes sense to feel irresponsible when you don’t follow a diet, but you should be fine as long as you don’t eat too much or too little. It’s also important to note that having a diet isn’t bad. If you’re on a keto, paleo, or a specific diet to detox at home, there’s no problem as long as those diets aren’t keeping you from eating the food you like.

Author Bio

Katie Pierce is a teacher-slash-writer who loves telling stories to an audience, whether it’s bored adults in front of a computer screen or a bunch of hyperactive 4-year-olds. Writing keeps her sane (most of the time) and allows her to enjoy some quiet time in the evening before she walks into a room of screaming kids (all of whom she loves dearly) the next morning.

Self-Care and Success: How You Can Thrive Alongside Your Company

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The popular image of a successful entrepreneur is someone who devotes every second of the day to work. While hard work is inevitable, failing to take care of yourself can lead to exhaustion and burnout. If you are struggling to find a healthy balance between your company and your health, then it’s time to make some lifestyle changes. Shapeshifter Media presents a guide that can help you balance success and self-care.

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Home Workouts as a Lifestyle: Tips for Organizing the Training System

Description: The most challenging part about home workouts is regularity. Weak motivation and household chores kill our dream. How to organize sports at home? Let’s take a look at 7 effective ways to make home workouts a lifestyle.

You are not alone. I also started somewhere. I ran every day for two months; then I went to the gym for several months. Group training taught me the correct exercise technique, raised my self-esteem, and gave me self-confidence. I’ve thought: why don’t I start training on my own? It is a real money-saving plus experience. And a lot of good video complexes on the Internet will help me.

woman-working-out
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How to Write a Fitness Journal

Devoting yourself to regular exercise is hard. Whoever says that’s not the case is masking the truth. In that enthusiastic moment when you start planning when and how you’ll start your workout routine, all seems possible. The troubles begin when you have to put that plan in motion.

If you are starting a fitness regimen and you want this one to last, give a fitness journal a try. Keeping a fitness journal can be one of the means that will help you stick through.

Are you intrigued by the idea of keeping a fitness journal? Do you want to know the benefits of keeping one? In the following lines, you can get answers to these questions and also learn the best ways of writing a fitness journal. Let’s begin!

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Fitting Running Into Your Busy Calendar

As the saying goes: where there’s a will there’s a way, you can find a way to make it all happen if you are willing to do so. It is very relevant to your intent and effort to fit running in your busy calendar.

We don’t dare question your intent. In many cases, however, people who say they are too busy to take a time out from their busy lives to exercise are a majority of escape-seekers. They can find any excuse to seek that escape.

Hopefully you are not one of those people. You are doing all you can to make fitness a part and parcel of your daily life struggle.

A tiresome urban lifestyle makes a regular exercise a need, just like any other need, i.e. a need to work. You should not ignore it. Find as little time as you can to exercise to become and stay fit.

Running is amongst only few exercises, which you can do anywhere, anytime. You do not require a fitness equipment to do it. All you need is some time, and there you go; start running.

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The Secret to Rapid Regeneration

What if I told you that blood circulation is directly responsible for how quickly we’re able to heal surface wounds? What if I told you that our muscles aren’t able to heal and repair without oxygen being properly transported through our circulatory system? Everyone knows that circulation is important, but not everyone knows exactly why.

I’m going to outline the vital importance of the circulatory system in this article, and then I’ll tell you how to improve your circulation.

You can strengthen your circulatory system to improve your health and recovery speed by adapting several specific lifestyle techniques and by including certain foods and vitamins in your diet,

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Bodyweight Kettlebell FUSION Workout For Faster Fat Burning

If you could fold a home gym up and keep it in the corner of your closet… would that be cool?

Of course it would!  🙂

And in a way that’s what you get with a kettlebell.

It’s one of the most versatile home training tools if you are limited for space.

And when combined with bodyweight exercise you get a fun, fast paced, fat-burning workout you can do anytime, anywhere.

Recently my family and I spent the week at a cottage near Mont Tremblant, Quebec.

I arranged for my buddy and kettlebell expert Chris Lopez to bring a KB. And I brought a TRX and a jump rope.

Then together we came up with a workout each day that combined the tools we had with some bodyweight exercises. It was fun crafting the workouts on the spot… and it provided a great way to keep our workouts on track even though we were miles from the nearest gym.

Here’s what we came up with on the first day…

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Get Bulletproof Buns in Just 3 Moves

Who doesn’t love a firm butt?

What’s the one common physical feature that stands out when you look at a dancer, a gymnast or someone who practices Pilates?

A firm, attractive butt. But it’s not just firm, it’s also lifted.

“High & Tight” — that’s my motto in the Pilates studio. In fact, I say it so often my clients chipped in and had a tank top made for me!

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