If you are anything like us, one of the many areas of our every day lives that has dramatically changed over the course of this year is our wellness routine. Specifically, the ways in which we stay active and fit. While it seems small in the grand scheme of things, fitness is crucial to our health so when the gym closed we quickly improvised and found a variety of ways to stay active, sometimes getting very crafty. After we realized it would be months before we had any normal fitness routine, we invested in some affordable gear to challenge us enough to regain that fitness level prior to quarantine. While we still find ourselves craving the variety we once were fortunate to have at our local gyms, we have found equipment that challenges us, offers variety, is affordable, and most importantly can fit in small spaces to complete a workout anywhere.
While I will venture to guess that some of you have already found a routine that fits your lifestyle, we wanted to share our affordable guide for those who are still trying to find ways to stay fit at home and those who need some new ideas! Ps- There are so many brands selling these, but these are the ones we stumbled upon and found to be excellent quality for the workouts we are doing!
With so many options out there it can be hard to decide what is necessary, which is why we put together a list of our workout essentials for a good sweat sesh!
- Yoga Mat- Chances are that 2020 has led you to embrace a variety of mindsets and sides to your personality, some well adaptive some not so much. For some that may be channeling their inner zen and taking up the yogi mindset by practicing meditation on the regular. Or in my case, sitting there and listening to ocean sounds and deep breathing and chalking it up as deep meditation. I say this, because if any piece of equipment has been a necessity at our homes this year, it has to be the yoga matt. Even if you haven’t become a yogi this year, a yoga mat is essential to create a space with stability and cushion for your home workouts. While I’m certain you could find cheaper alternatives on amazon, I can only vouch for this yoga mat from target and have been pleased to say that it has survived a wide range of sweat seshes without any wear or tear.
- A Step Deck- This was by far one of the best wellness purchases I have made during quarantine. The step deck allows you to sweat it out with a variety of workouts and exercises, providing a flexible workout routine. As the name suggests, you can use this platform as a step, providing a stationary version to the stairmaster or running stadium stairs. Besides it’s obvious functions, there are so many workouts you can google for ways to use a step deck, whether it be cardio step or strength training.
- Resistance Bands– If you take one look at the #Justliving feed you will quickly notice the one piece of workout equipment used consistently in our sweat seshes are resistance bands. These are perfect for strengthening and targeting muscles groups. In addition, they are amazingggg at enhancing your workouts as you can perform your cardio and tone your muscles simultaneously by adding in these resistance bands. Again, there are so many brands you can purchase but honestly the ones referenced above are the bands I purchased for less than $15 and they offer lots of variety in intensity and strength training.
- Weights- Not only do these allow for me to maintain my strength but these allow me variety as I can get creative and use these as props in my cardio exercises. More recently, I channeled prior barre days and kickboxing and used these weights to carry out a strenuous series of movements using the weights in place of the punching bag to achieve the same sense of strength and conditioning. I was pleased with the quality of these weights- they were easy to grip and they came in cute colors. If you are on a budget, I suggest buying two dumbbell’s at two different weights to allow you a challenging strengthening workout.
