Take care when working out at home and make sure you don’t join the many Brits who have suffered injuries and mishaps when doing home fitness.
During lockdown, 32 per cent of fitness-conscious Britons fashioned weights and other exercise equipment from household objects including paint cans, tins of food and garden ornaments.
However, 12 per cent caused damage and injury to themselves according to health club chain David Lloyd, as well their homes and others by using makeshift equipment.
Millions of Brits have been forced to spend the last four months exercising in their homes and for 32 per cent, that has meant fashioning improvised weights and exercise equipment from a variety of household objects. The 10 most common items used as homemade gym equipment included chairs, sofas, tinned food, towels, books, bags of flour, tins of paint and even bottles of wine!
Ceiling damage
Recently a father made national headlines after sharing a photo of the damage to his living room ceiling caused by his children working out upstairs. This is something that those surveyed by David Lloyd Clubs can relate to, with mishaps caused by homemade exercise equipment leading to scuffs, marks and dents in walls (25 per cent); damaging and staining furniture and flooring (19 per cent); and breaking gadgets like tablets, laptops (21 per cent) and smartphones (16 per cent).
It’s not just damage to homes, either, but damage to people with typical injuries from makeshift workouts gone awry including a pulled muscle (20 per cent), a sprained wrist and ankle (15 per cent) and even broken bones (17 per cent).
Safe exercise space
Glenn Earlham, CEO at David Lloyd Clubs says: ‘We’re delighted that we’re able to open our doors to our spacious and safe clubs. After all this time we can’t wait to welcome back members so they can make use of our premium health, fitness and wellbeing facilities, as well as enjoy the warm and friendly David Lloyd Club community, which so many have told us they have missed over the last few months at home.’
While home exercise can be dangerous if you’re not careful, it’s also convenient for many, so if you intend to keep doing it, take care. Make sure you have a good amount of space around you if you are doing exercises like lunges and moves where you need space. Ensure you have a non-slip mat and exercise in trainers or supportive footwear even though you are indoors. Keep pets and children away from weights and dumbbells and make sure you warm up and cool down before and after every workout.
