Are You More Likely To Work Out At Home?

Sometimes, you need to have your cake and eat it to get results. I found a journal (Jakicic et al, 1999) which compared the results of long bouts of training, short bouts of training, and short bouts of training using home exercise equipment (a treadmill in that particular study). Guess which group had the best results?!

I’ve just completed a 6 week training plan at The Altitude Centre and whilst I loved every minute of it, one of the most difficult parts was fitting in the sessions in Central London as my job is remote; this currently means a mixture of working from home in Essex, running around meetings in London or travelling to / from Brighton for meetings.

I’m super proud of myself for making my schedule work over those 6 weeks but sometimes the convenience of a decent workout at home would have won if it had a chance!

The Bowflex Max Trainer M7

Curious to know if having a piece of cardio equipment at home would make any difference to me, I took delivery of the Bowflex Max Trainer M7. It’s like a cross between an elliptical and a stepper so you still get a full body workout.

I wasn’t really sure where I was gonna put it as I live in a flat but as you can see the footprint isn’t too huge and it was the perfect incentive to do some “spring” cleaning. And, I hear you ask, what is the USP of the Bowflex Max Trainer M7?!

A Complete Home Workout In Just 14 Minutes

Fourteen. That’s one less than 15. That’s actually just one minute more than I spend walking to or from the tube station each day. I’m pretty sure I spend more time than that on Instagram too… The 14 minute workout is based around the principle of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) combining hard work with rest periods for a maximum training effect.

Another great point is that the workout is low impact so perfect for everyone (including the Mr with a torn ACL). The first time I tried it was just a little test… I don’t think I was even wearing gym kit, I put in a little bit of effort and I ended up throwing clothes off during my rest periods.

There’s a dial on the screen that tells you how hard you’re working and kinda makes you see that there is scope to push harder! The recovery is long enough to really give your next bout of work everything you have got!

The At Home Workout Group

So the results of the study I mentioned earlier were that the at home workout group completed a higher percentage of their sessions, they lost more weight and then re-gained a lesser amount than the other two groups.

In terms of body composition, changes in percentage of body fat and fat mass were greater in the at home workout group than the others however, in the interests of balance, no difference for lean body mass or bone mineral content was found between any of the groups (Jakicic et al, 1999).

Down Time Over The Holidays

As per every December, studio timetables dwindle allowing everyone a well earned break. My training plan finished just in time so now I have a solid few weeks at home to really give the Bowflex Max a good go and see what results I can achieve.

The machine has 11 workout programs in total so I will have to try as many of them as I can and figure out which ones I like best. The machine also comes with a heart rate belt and an app which I need to download so I will have plenty to play with over the holidays!

I’ll be back with another post soon sharing my thoughts on the other workouts and useability etc.

In the meantime, I’m curious to know what equipment you have at home? and what equipment is on your wish list?!

Elle