Louise Redknapp takes part in a live at home workout
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Gym memberships and personal training are expensive and intimidating, but lots of people swear by going to the gym and being coached in person. If you’re looking to change your body dramatically, Olympian and owner of Roar Fitness London, Sarah Linsday, reckons you’ll need to go to the gym to achieve this.
Is working out at home good enough?
If working out at home was good enough for everyone’s goals, there would be no need for gyms.
Whether or not a home workout suits your needs totally depends on what your goal is.
If your goal is to be healthy and your diet and lifestyle reflect this, you are fine to work out at home.
However, if you want to be super fit and see a big lifelong transformation you will need a gym.
Being healthy and being fit are not the same thing.
Sarah explained: “Being healthy for me just means being free from disease, it means not being ill. That’s the basics.
“Being healthy is very important but I also like to be fit and strong and the benefits that come with that are a little bit different to not being ill.”
If you are focussing on health, you can be healthy and do exercise that contributes to this without going to a gym.
Sarah said: “Being active, doing your steps and making sure that you’re always moving to avoid stiffness and keep your heart and lungs healthy is very important.
“Doing this can impact how much body fat you’re carrying too, but there’s a big difference between being healthy and fit.
“You can be fit and unhealthy, or there are aspects that can be unhealthy even if you’re fit. You can also be unfit and healthy.”
Is working out at home good enough?
Being physically fit ties into your health because the stronger you are, the easier you make day to day activities.
Sarah said “When you’re strong and fit everyday life is easier. Everything you do becomes easier the stronger you are.”
If your goal is to become really fit and change your body, unfortunately, you’re going to need a gym.
In the long run, you’re not going to be able to continue on your fitness journey if you don’t have weights at home.
Sarah said: “To really get the results you see in the before and after pictures, you need progressive overload (weight training) and who has that at home?
“Unless you’re Simon Cowell and you’ve got an amazing gym in your house, then you don’t have that progression.”
We’re not talking about a few dumbbells, you need a whole range of equipment in different weights.
If you’re doing home workout videos with no weights or simply going on the same long walk every single day, you’re not going to stay fit for long because you need to progress
Sarah explained: “You just end up doing the same thing over and over again with the same weights.
“You might get results for a couple of weeks but then it becomes easy because you’ve adapted to that weight and then what?”
In the gym, you’ll have access to a wide range of equipment, space and a much more motivational environment.
Sarah said: “You have to keep making it harder to keep moving forward and keep challenging yourself otherwise nothing happens.
“Some people will go to the gym and for a year they will pick up the five-kilo dumbbells because that’s their weight, but that’s not how it works.
“You used the five-kilo dumbbells last week, so now it’s time to pick up the six.”
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