How To Stay Active And Reach 10,000 Steps Even If You're Just At Home

Being indoors for all these months has either turned us into fitness enthusiasts or more sluggish than ever. We can't blame people who often find themselves seated for the majority of the day, especially now that working from home has become the norm. The temptation to just roll from the bed to the couch is also at an all-time high, and getting motivated to sweat it out has proved to be a challenge. But, as always, there is hope! 

We enlisted the help of professional fitness trainer Lahaina Mae Mondonedo, the force behind actress Nadine Lustre's fit physique, and asked her for her expert advice on how to make the most of these days indoors (and how to reach that goal of 10,000 steps per day!).

Metro.Style: How can one work up to 10,000 steps a day if we are all just indoors?

Lahaina Mae: This is a tough one. Truth is, almost everyone’s step count has drastically dropped because of having to stay indoors. What I do is I started making sure I don’t stay seated or stagnant for too long. If I plan to be seated for an extended period of time, I would put an alarm on my phone at least every hour. When it goes off, I would get up and walk around—go for a walk outside (if it’s safe, of course); do a household chore; do a few jumping jacks; get up and dance to a song; or simply stand up and walk around your home.

Aiming for 10,000 steps a day is a good goal, but what I think is more important to aim for is to keep your body moving as much as possible daily, which in result, will help one stay as healthy as possible.

MS:  What have you been prescribing in terms of workouts for your clients these past few months?

LM: In the same thought as the previous question, the most important thing—especially in current times—is to stay healthy. Fitness-wise, the way to do that is to maintain a light to medium intensity of activity daily. I say light to medium instead of high intensity because of consistency. If it’s too intense, more time is needed to recover, and the longer your immunity is down as you recover. In light of that, I have every one of my clients working out everyday—taking a long walk at least once a day, and doing a quick weight training session once a day. 

This makes sure my clients are moving daily at a mild and consistent fashion despite being at home.    Even I, who used to lift heavy weights for at least an hour an half every other day, now only lift medium weights for about 30 minutes everyday. I’ve also started doing and have recommended to others intermittent workouts, also known as, trigger workouts.

These are short spurts of activity with the goal to increase your overall daily calorie burn. One way to do it is to assign an exercise to a location, like 5 push-ups at the kitchen, 10 jumping jacks at the bathroom, and 10 squats at the sofa. If you pass by those locations, you have to complete the exercises. The other way of doing it is to schedule a short exercise frequently, like doing those three above mentioned exercises every 30 minutes. Before you know it, you’ve done so many exercise reps by just going about your day. This is not meant to replace cardio or weight sessions, but it will supplement it. This has helped me tremendously in keeping me moving, despite being stuck indoors.  

MS: What advice would you give someone with zero fitness background about starting an active routine at home?

LM: Just start. There is no better time than to start now. Fitness can sometimes seem daunting and complicated, but it really shouldn’t be. Just start moving—walking around, jumping around, dancing around. Dedicate some time to sweat everyday, and that’s a good start.  The next step from there is to seek some help. Once you’ve started moving and would like to up the ante, I would seek help from a professional.

The reason why this is so important is because of the prevalence of misinformation and unhealthy fitness practices out there. So, it’s always good to get the advice of a professional. If you aren’t able to get one-on-one advice, there are so many resources and articles out there that you can read to get educated. Just make sure it’s from a credible source. Safety first!

MS:  What are your personal favorite ways to move these days?

LM: I am currently living in Washington D.C., and this is a city full of beautiful parks and trails, so biking around has quickly become one of my favorite activities. Before the pandemic, I was a child the last time I rode a bike, and now I ride everyday. I’ve also incorporated trigger workouts in my daily life. I find that to be the most effective way to ensure that I’m burning calories throughout my day, even if I am stuck home for most of the time. I keep a tally of repetitions, so I find it extremely rewarding to see how many I am able to do in a day.

Follow Lahaina on Instagram @lahainamae