How To Work Out When You Work At Home

Just because you’re at home doesn’t mean your fitness tracker isn’t counting your activity. It still is. So, you might as well get paid for it.

Check out our list of Apps To Earn Rewards For Using Your Fitness Tracker to find out how.

How To Work Out When You Work At Home

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Walk around town

I take a long walk through our community every night. I usually grab my parents when they’re in town and we have the same route, so I know exactly how long it takes and how many steps it will be.

My dad and I usually play Pokémon Go while we’re walking, so we’re not as fast as my mom, but it’s a good way to motivate me to get out.

When my parents were away this fall, my neighbor came for a walk every night.

If you know your neighbors, you can set up a specific time each day for a neighborhood walk. Those people are often around, so you’ll often have someone to walk with. When you can go with someone else, it holds you accountable — plus makes it go a lot quicker.

Use a walking pad

When it gets dark early, or when it’s cold out, I skip my walk. I just get very lazy about it.

But, my brothers bought me a walking pad this past Christmas after finding out I wanted one for over a year. I just didn’t pull the trigger on it because, well, I liked having an excuse to not get my steps in.

Now, I don’t have an excuse. And I have an even bigger reason to get my walk in: I don’t want them to have spent all this money for nothing.

I have mine set up in my office and it’s part of my morning routine. If it’s easier for you, set it up in a room near a television. If you’re watching TV, you won’t even be thinking about your steps.

Set up a gym a home

When Pete used to work at the school district, we would walk together when he got home from work. After our walk, I was done. But our walk was just Pete’s warm up.

He would go into our bonus room and finish his workout.

He has a chin up bar, a workout bench, weights, and a gym mat, and that’s enough for him to get in a great workout. That’s better than paying for a gym membership because one, it’s free every month and two, you don’t waste any time traveling from home to the gym. It’s just down the hall.

What’s great about this is a home gym doesn’t close. You don’t have to worry about running out to the gym on the gym’s schedule.

If you’re like me, you work all hours of the day, so you might not be able to get to the gym during operating hours. And when you finally get there, all the machines you want might be taken by others who finally found time to get to the gym.

Your own home gym means you can work out whenever you can.

Bike “to work”

Working at home means there’s no commute. But, you can still build a commute into your day by biking “to work.”

If you have a stationary bike at home, ride it for 10 minutes before you start your workday and 10 minutes at the end of your workday to represent your commute. That’s 20 minutes to easy activity that you didn’t have to leave the house for.

If you don’t have a stationary bike, you can actually just ride a pedal bike around your neighborhood (if it’s safe of course). Create a short, 10-minute route and do that twice a day.

Do chores

No one really likes to vacuum. I love how our house feels after it’s vacuumed, but no one (I know) ever gets excited over having to vacuum.

Look at it like a way to work out instead.

Vacuuming is great cardio, especially if you’re like me and have to carry the vacuum up and down a flight of stairs. I vacuum the left side on the way up and the right side on the way down so at least those get done too.

Don’t have carpets? Clean your showers.

I hate that chore too, but it is a really great arm workout. Throw the curtains in the wash and use that time to really scrub down the walls and tub. And if you don’t have a laundry machine in your house and have to scrub the curtains yourself, that’s great for your arms.

If you’re working at home, you can squeeze in a couple minutes for chores between calls or on your lunch break. A short break every hour is recommended when you work at home.

Get an under-desk exercise bike

When I worked at my last office job, I wanted an under-desk exercise bike so badly. I couldn’t expense it, and no one would get it for me, so I never picked it up.

Basically, it’s the pedals of a bike, attached to a base, that sits under your desk. You can just pedal all day long. There’s an attachment that tracks your time, distance, speed, and more. If you really are stuck sitting at your desk all day, you can get in some exercise with one of these under your desk.

I did finally get one when I started working at home, but my desk was a little low, so my knees kept hitting the bottom of the keyboard tray. So I never used it.

But, you don’t actually need a desk for this. If you’re in the living room folding laundry while you’re watching television, just pull this out from under the coffee table. Get in a little exercise while you’re binging Netflix. The show will distract you and you’ll be getting some exercise in without even thinking about it.

Play with your dog

If you’re working from home and your only coworker is your dog, get him involved in your workout.

He’s gonna want to go outside at some point during the day, so exercise with your dog. Play fetch with him to work your arms, walk him to get in some cardio, whatever is best for the both of you is a great way to get moving.

Plus, that means you’ll get some sunshine too, something people who work at home don’t get nearly enough of.

More Workout Tips:

Now that you’ve got the hang of working out when you work at home, you might realize you need a little help working out other times, like when you’re away.

Don’t worry. We have a great list of ways to exercise on vacation that will help you stay on track.