Humans are routine-oriented beings. People seek comfort in routine, which is not necessarily a bad thing but can lead to boredom. Making exercise a habit is one of the best ways to start living a better lifestyle, but if your goals are more ambitious than “getting healthy”, you will have to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. This involves combining a variety of exercises that will continue to push your body while avoiding an extremely repetitive exercise program.

While there is a time and place for routines, there is also a time and place for trying new things. There are many benefits to doing the new, especially when it comes to working out at home. To start off, trying new things will help you value yourself more. It’s strange to think that you don’t know yourself as well as you think you do, but it’s usually always true. Doing the new can help you in the discovery of likes, dislikes, and hidden skills. In addition to this, trying something new helps you conquer fears. In most cases, fear is the one thing that keeps us from doing the new. We’re afraid of the investment, consequences, and worst-case scenarios. When doing something new, dread is inevitable, but you’ll soon find that your mind is exaggerating things. Fear will eventually cease to be a devastating element in your life if you make it a priority to try new things. Instead, you’ll regard it as a little block in the way of a new experience. When you try something new such as a workout, your brain and body are being challenged. This means that underused neurotransmitters or muscles are shocked and will be functioning.

If you are new to working out, try every exercise you can. If you don’t, there is no way to know if you’ll enjoy it or not. In order to try new exercises and push yourself beyond your comfort zone though, you do not always need an expensive gym membership or tons of expensive equipment to do so. Working out at home while going outside of your comfort zone can be done by trying out new exercises to see what you like while challenging your body at the same time. But, if you are struggling with inspiration for what new exercises to try, internet resources like Pinterest and YouTube have great at-home workouts that you can use for inspiration, or even follow along with. Emily Derderian is a resident of Sellersville, Pennsylvania, and has a treadmill in her basement. When she is not playing soccer, she says “I walk on the treadmill a lot…I have YouTube on the TV in my basement that I use to look for videos to follow along with”. If you do not have any equipment or machines, HIIT workouts are a great way to test your comfort zone. HIIT stands for High-Intensity Interval Training and is defined as a training technique consisting of short, alternating periods of intense or explosive anaerobic exercises with brief recovery periods. You can customize your HIIT workouts based on your own personal fitness level, and by knowing your own fitness level, you can adjust your exercises accordingly to push yourself out of your comfort zone. HIIT training is also a great way to incorporate new workouts you have never tried before into your routine because almost any exercise can be used in HIIT, as long as it’s done in a short, intense burst, followed by a brief recovery.

Doing the same thing every day is an easy task since it will not require new skills. However, being stuck in a routine for a long period of time can be boring and unhealthy too. While stepping outside of your comfort zone might be frightening, it can also be exhilarating and educational. With exercise, you have the opportunity to explore and reach new heights, and the best part is that it can be accomplished in the comfort of your own home. Don’t be scared to attempt new things because they may help you learn more about yourself and see things from a new perspective.