Episode 62: Building a Home Workout Routine

doTERRA: Did you know that the World Health Organization reports a 20-30% increase in the risk of death for people who are not sufficiently active? That's crazy! Thankfully there are simple and effective ways to change those odds and become more active in your everyday life. And one of those ways is building a workout routine you can do at home.

Welcome back to Essential Oil Solutions with doTERRA. The podcast where you'll hear exciting, useful, and simple everyday uses for essential oils from experts in the field. If you like what you hear today rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. We always appreciate hearing from you.

Today we're excited to talk with Tim Hightower, former professional athlete and fitness enthusiast.

He's going to give his best advice and tips on how to build the home workout routine that's perfect for you

Tim, thank you for sitting down to talk with us today.

Tim Hightower: Oh man I'm excited. Thanks for having me.

doTERRA: So, what we want to talk about today is a home workout routine, which I know brings a lot of fear and insecurity to people. So, my first question is, is a workout routine something that I am able to create by myself?

Tim: I would say a workout is something you should create by yourself because that's the beautiful thing about working out in your home. It’s your environment, you want it to be something that you kind of own, right? This is your space, you being creative, utilizing what you have. Now what, what I would say, there's so much, there's so many resources out there, right, to understand.

You know if you're just jumping into this thing YouTube some things. Check out Wellness Wednesday, we have Wellness Wednesday resources for beginner workouts.  But gather some inspiration from somewhere so you have an idea of, "hey what are some beginner workouts?" But then you utilize your home to say, hey I want to do 10 minutes of cardio today.

What do I have in my home? I have a couch, I have a chair. How can I get creative? That's part of the fun is utilizing your home and saying, hey how can I create something that's mine, that I will enjoy, and that ultimately, I'll continue to stick with overtime.

doTERRA: I think that's great. With all those resources out there, how can I make sure that I'm finding something that's within my comfort zone and my fitness zone?

Tim: Oh, that's awesome. Well I always tend to, if you do have, like if there are other medical issues or you know, you always want to check with a doctor first, right? You know if you've had previous surgeries or any type of complication because what's right for me may not be right for you. So, you know, you gotta understand you just watched a YouTube video and you're trying to replicate what they're doing and they may not have had the history. So, you've got to respect where you are. And with that being said the biggest thing that I would say is know what you're training for.

What are your goals? Right? Because everything, kind of you work back from there. If I'm an athlete training for if I'm training for a marathon or a sport or cross lifter or just training for overall health and wellness, you want to know what you're training for and that's going to determine where you go and where you start to look for information and how you build a program.

doTERRA: I think that's excellent advice and making sure to pay attention to your body I think is so key.

Tim: 100 percent.

doTERRA: So, one other fear that I think people have when they approach working out at home is maybe the price tag of getting different equipment and things like that. Do I need a lot of equipment to have a really good home workout routine?

Tim: You do not. And that's something that you build over time. A lot of times people ask me "Well what if I don't why I don't have this?" Well what do you have? That's the whole point about being in your home, utilize what you do have. Well first of all you have your body. Before any weights were invented, people had to stay active right? They used their body. And so, squats and you know using your chair, standing up and down, pushups, sit ups, those different things that just require your body weight, let's just start there first. Because the whole idea is you want to develop a routine that's consistent, that you can do.

So, you're going out and buying all these weights, dumbbells, bands, all these things, and you haven't developed a commitment in a consistent routine, that's not going to serve you any purpose. So, begin by starting where you are and find some different way to challenge yourself using your body weight. And then closely to that, before weights, I like to utilize bands. I can travel with them. So, you have the band that you can put, the resistance bands the long ones, that you can use for push-ups and different things like that. But you also have the bands that you can wear around your knees.

They're very cost effective. I mean less than $50 you can get you know a whole set of them but they travel. You can travel with them, you can take them inside outside, they're very versatile you get a great workout. So, I would start with body weight and then add some type of resistance bands.

doTERRA: And I think that's so simple and so easy and that's the part that I know I miss a lot is I get intimidated and I think well I can't start until I have X or until I have Y or Z, I'll wait until I have this perfect moment but there's never going to be a perfect moment.

Tim: No, there's not and the cool thing, the challenging thing but the cool thing, with social media, there's so much workout information there there's all these classes and these HIIT classes. And you feel like, they're so smart with how they develop this stuff, they know we all want to be connected to a tribe or a team. We want to be a part of something, it's the social aspect, that's as important as the physical aspect. And so, you see these things and we feel like we should start there, right? We should join this club we should do these things. But what, even studies show it, but you're going to be more committed to something when you start where you are in small, consistent steps over time. 

So even if I just commit to say you know what. This week I'm going to work out twice at home for 10, 15 minutes. Right? And I don't care if it's even just you go in for a walk. And then you do that, and then you build to three days a week, and then you build to four days a week. Then, maybe your goal is in three months you'll change it up and you'll start a workout class or something like that. But not to get intimidated by what I don't have, be encouraged by what you do have and just create the discipline, create through the routine of just exercising daily or weekly and that'll turn into great results over time.

doTERRA: Absolutely. So, pivoting a little bit into the realm of essential oils. What essential oils, and how can essential oils help me with my workout goals?

Tim: And I'm always big on that. To me the workout is not or it's important but it's the preparation for the workout. Right? So, what are you doing prior to and what are you doing after? Because I can give you a great workout. I can have a great workout and I wake up the next morning, I'm sore, I'm stressed out, chances are I don't want to work out the next day because I'm, my body does not want to go through that torture. But if I can create a routine to where I'm making sure, in the morning I'm giving myself the proper fuel and the proper energy, and then at night I'm recovering I'm cooling down, it gives me the opportunity to have consistent workouts and stay motivated. 

So, in the morning doing things to wake you up, whatever oils, some people like lemon, some people like the citrus oils. Whatever it is, you know just diffusing something to just wake them up get their energy going. I like to take you know, the softgel, the Turmeric, I mentioned that in the last one of the Wellness Wednesdays, the Turmeric and the Copaiba in the morning, the probiotics just for support afterwards. I'm always using Deep Blue, I think we all are familiar with that. Just you know in the morning making sure my energy is high, during the workout I'm not doing a lot of supplements it's more hydration, but then afterwards the cool down is the Deep Blue. It's the Serenity at night, it's the Adaptiv at night, it's the utilizing the baths, whether it's Eucalyptus or Serenity or Deep Blue whatever it is in the bath.

The morning, during, after just giving yourself a chance to have consistent great workouts and feel good and that's what it's all about.

doTERRA: And I think that's one of the most beautiful things about essential oils is they're able to support you throughout the entire day, throughout whatever it is you're doing whatever your goal might be.

Tim: A hundred percent.

doTERRA: So, Tim, my final question is what would be your recommended home workout routine for someone who is looking to start on their fitness journey?

Tim: Yeah absolutely. For me starting with body weight. Right? So, we're going to start with body weight. We all have chairs in our home. We get a couch you've got a chair, right?  Those are two things that that, use your body grab a chair and we're gonna work out your whole body. You know? I don't believe in isolation, I believe we use our bodies all day every day so we want to work our whole body, our mind and our body. So for me a basic squat okay? Either I'm going to do it on a couch, sitting up and sitting down or standing up right? Or I'm going to hold on the back of the chair if I've had some type of surgery or if I'm not up to the point where I can squat I'll hold onto the back of a chair.

So, I'm going to do squats on a chair. I'm going to do some type of push-up. If I can't do it on the floor. I'm going to do it up against the chair, I'm gonna do it up against the couch, I'm even going to do it up against the wall. You can start wherever you are, but some variation of a push-up, some variation of a squat, and some variation of a plank. If we all know the plank is that you know where you're on the ground, either you're on your hands or you're on your forearms, and modified as you need to. If you need to go to your knees that's okay but that's going to work your core is going to work your legs it's gonna work your upper body. Do those, whatever type of sets and reps it doesn't really matter, but just get moving with those three components in mind. Utilize the space that you have, utilize the resources you have at home, the whole goal is to move and begin.

doTERRA: Absolutely. Well, Tim thank you so much. I think you have given us an excellent starting point and a way to move forward and progress and make sure that we are achieving our own fitness goals.

Tim: That's awesome. I look forward to questions, comments, follow along Wellness Wednesday.

That's why I love the fact that doTERRA's really, we've always had the best as it relates to products right and making sure that we're giving you the resources. So please, you know, as we add this wellness component to it from a physical and exercise I look forward to whatever comments and however I continue to support people along the individual journeys. So that's what it's all about, let's get better together

doTERRA: Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you liked what you heard today rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Also, if you want to try any of the products you learned about go to doterra.com or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.