This time last year, we were all doing home workouts. And I know a lot of people held off going back to the gym when they reopened too. I postponed my return, which eventually turned into a cancellation and the decision to make a home gym setup in the garage. The majority of us found a way to get some sort of exercise in, making the best of what we had at home in 2020, but I found my attitude towards it changed completely when I made it my permanent situation.
As I’ve mentioned many times before on my blog, running is my primary form of exercise, which thankfully can be done just about anywhere. I say that, but getting a treadmill was one of the biggest determining factors that lead to the cancellation of the gym membership. So by anywhere, I mean anywhere, but mostly the garage. One huge difference I noticed when I switched to home workouts Vs the gym was how quickly bad habits began to creep in.
I don’t know whether there’s less pressure to do everything right when there’s no one watching, or whether it’s because the home setup isn’t ideal, or laziness creeping in when surrounded by home comforts, but I realised that things like my warm up and cool down/ stretching routine had taken a big hit.
MY GYM WORKOUT ROUTINE
At the gym, it was very easy to do things right. I used to use the women’s only area. Not particularly for the fact it was female only, but because it was on a raised balcony that looked over the main gym area and it was more interesting to look at than the back of someone’s head on a machine in front of me. The best thing about that area? It was right next to the mats and the free training rooms. So it was approximately 15 steps from the treadmill to the stretching area. No one is too lazy to skip their stretching routine when it’s literally just there.
But at home, it can be a different story.
HOME WORKOUT ROUTINE
At home, I typically do a mix of running and Pilates style stretching routines. And then there’s the warm up/ cool down routines.
There are plenty of apps and YouTube videos out there that offer suggestions for cool down routines, and I use the Nike running app, so it’s a natural progression to use the Nike training app for some of my other workouts too (both are free if anyone is interested). Where that becomes an issue is when I want to spend longer working on certain areas or feel like certain muscles need more of a stretch. Yes, it’s easy to plan your own stretching routine. What’s a lot more tedious is timing it out.
That’s where the WOD Workout Timer comes in. It’s designed to be used for all different kinds of workouts from HIIT to tabata and basically any other timed interval workout you can think of, so you can plan your full workout with it or use one of the shorter programmes for stretching.
If you’ve been working out at home for a while, you’ve probably found different elements of different routines that you enjoy, but maybe not all in one place. Or if you’re trying to work one muscle group in particular, maybe have an injury and need to combine the easier moves of a few different workouts, maybe you just like to plan your own routine full stop and don’t have any other reason. Whatever your situation, the time makes it a lot easier to track your workout to a set time and not have to worry about things like starting a regular timer/ stopwatch.
It weighs about as much as my phone, so it’s super easy to carry with you. So taking your workout stuff outside, or even packing it, is really easy.
BACK AT THE GYM?
Well, even if you’re back at the gym, you still need to time your workout somehow unless you’re counting reps rather than timed intervals. But if you go to the gym for the machines but still like to include some sort of functional training or stretching in your routines, this timer is perfect.
TIMER DETAILS
Not only does it have several different settings, it’s also magnetic, so you can place it somewhere easier to view. And it comes with an app, so you can easily setup your timers from your phone.
For me, the timer makes it much easier to try different workouts at home and keep some flexibility to my routine, as well as making it easier to make up my own custom routines rather than following an app etc.
