How to Exercise at Home: Advice every Black Woman needs

14th November 2020Afrowoman1Beauty Counter & Wellbeing, Blog1

Home exercise is the easiest way to start your fitness journey as all you need is yourself and a towel! Honestly, no special equipment just your body. If you’re new to exercise there’s a plethora of free online exercise classes available on YouTube (especially mine!) for beginners. These will ease you into fitness and by trying different styles you’ll be able to see what fits you best.

Pilates and yoga is a good place to start

When starting out on your fitness journey I would recommend a mixture of Pilates and Yoga for a number of reasons:

1. The pace of these types of classes is slower and this will help you to perform the moves correctly and so avoid injury.

2. Understanding your body is paramount in getting the best from your workout and avoiding injury.

3. No special clothing is needed (or fancy trainers!) just wear loose comfortable clothing such as leggings and a t shirt. Once you’re confident to move onto more energetic you’ll need to think about clothing. You’ll need a sports bra and trainers with the focus of both being support! Wide straps on sports bras will feel a lot more comfortable and provide more support. Your ankles are the main focus at this stage when purchasing trainers. Look for a minimum of 6 lace holes, trust me, that extra hole really makes a difference.

Starting your exercise & fitness journey

When you are into the swing of your exercise program you may find specific trainers work better for you. I always wear running trainers with an orthotic insert as I have flat feet and a tendency to over pronate. Lastly on the trainer front, it may be tempting to go for those sparkly £150 trainers, they look sooooo gorgeous, but don’t! If you’re consistently exercising three times a week or more you’ll need to replace your trainers every 6 months. Don’t believe me? Put an old trainer on one foot and a new one on the other and feel that difference. The spring and support in your old ones will have deteriorated, this is how injuries begin. I spend no more than £40 on my trainers as I change them every three months. In fact, I just spent £23 on my next pair.

You could spend all day exercising if you wanted but not all of us have that luxury of time. The beauty of online is that you can find classes from 15 minutes to 90 minutes which you can dip in and out of. The most engaging online classes are usually around 30 minutes. Anything more than that you may find your mind wandering unless you’re doing it with others.

Make some space

If you have enough floor space to lay out a large towel or a yoga mat then that’s all the space you need for nearly all workouts. I have many YouTube workouts where you spend a full 30 minutes on the mat. Depending on the workout you’ve chosen you’ll be dripping with sweat or totally zenned out…….. or both! A good online fitness coach will take you through a warm up and explain how it effects your body. It’s your job to listen to your body and not push it too far especially if you’re new to exercise. You’ll find as your fitness increases you’ll automatically want to do more and not even notice.

During my videos I pay a lot of attention to technique. Get it right and not only will you progress quicker but it will help you to avoid injury.
Exercise has been a life saver for many during 2020. Lockdown encouraged people to take control of their own wellness which was evident in bike sales and home exercise equipment. Mentally it helped us to focus on something other than COVID-19. A huge amount of people embraced fitness and have now made it part of their every day life.