In a rush to reach our fitness goals, a lot of us join the gym [1] and see it as a fix-all option, but it's not a quick fix, and if you know your wavering motivation [2] may not justify the spend, then opting instead for home workouts is a great choice. But, let's be honest, turning an area of your home into your own fitness space every couple days has it's downsides, namely, the sofa and your bed being within a few feet's reach. If you'd like to forgo the spend of buying into a gym membership, read on for four tips that'll help you become an expert at working out at home.

Schedule Time

The convenience of working out from home is a double-edged sword. While on the one hand you can work out at your leisure, on the other this freedom can easily lead you to unnecessarily skip out on sessions [3]. Keep yourself committed and accountable by scheduling your workouts at times you know you'll stick to and keeping the schedule in plain view.

Don't Skip the Essentials

Just because you're doing squats on your comfortable, carpeted bedroom floor, doesn't mean you can skip your warmup, cooldown, and stretching sessions [4]. These are important parts of keeping your body fighting fit, so when you feel like skipping them, try finding alternative ways to fit them into your routine like stretching it out in bed [5] to show your legs some love after a long workout.

Keep a Record

Stagnating can happen to anyone, whether you're a gym bunny or homebound. Jotting down your workouts is an easy way to keep record of what you're doing, how effective it is, and when to switch things up.

Use What You've Got

It goes without saying that you don't need a gym full of equipment to make home workouts effective. And if you can't stretch to a few budget-friendly fitness buys [6], then simply grab what you can to make your workouts more effective. Need some added weight for a strength training workout [7]? Grab some abandoned tins of beans out of a kitchen cupboard, and use them as weights!