The rise of working out while working from home

IT'S a desk! It's a bike! It's a ... desk bike! While most gyms and fitness studios across the US were shutting their doors (and then prematurely reopening them in some states), the "working out while working from home" category of merchandise was climbing towards massive mainstream appeal.

Thanks in part to millennials' obsession with bettering themselves, the self-improvement industry is valued at US$11 billion. We're committed to a lifetime of optimisation, so we're putting pressure on ourselves to make the most out of isolation. Because if we're not doing something - or everything, all at once - then clearly we've wasted a tremendous amount of time that we'll never ever get back, right?

For many, combining work time with workout time is a no-brainer. It's a natural crossover, accelerated by life in lockdown.

In a survey conducted by the accounting and consulting firm PwC, 71 per cent of their millennial employees admitted that work demands interfered with their personal lives. There's no better example of how this drive for productivity has manifested than Flexispot's cycle desk bike, which went viral on TikTok, thanks to Jules Nguyen.

After Ms Nguyen included the bike desk in an Amazon haul, as part of a partnership with the e-commerce megaretailer, it sold out within the first 24 hours of uploading the video. The remaining inventory on Flexispot's website was out of stock by the next day and then went on backorder until the end of the year.

Based on tracking from her affiliate link, she has sold about US$12,000 worth of bikes on Amazon. Since posting the video in October, it has racked up 2.3 million "Likes" and helped Ms Nguyen to gain 155,600-plus followers on TikTok.

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Getting joints in motion

As far as personal trainers are concerned, there's not much to dislike about modern fitness technology. Thea Hughes, a strength and wellness coach at Session and the founder of 6FT Training Club, sees devices like the desk bike as a great way for the "everyday athlete" to get their joints in motion.

For former commuters who are now spending the majority of their day sitting in front of a screen, she thinks this form of steady state cardio is "hugely beneficial".

But, she says: "What you're not getting is the sunlight, fresh air, and some of those other stimuli that do obviously have proven effects of boosting mood."

During the first phase of lockdown, the most basic fitness equipment like weights, kettlebells, mats, props, and other affordable accessories was flying off the shelves at major retailers like Amazon, Target, and Dick's Sporting Goods with a massive boost in sales of 170 per cent.

The increased interest in at-home workout gear during the pandemic reportedly spiked by 500 per cent, forcing some brands to implement preorders to account for production delays on high-demand items.

Nostalgic outdoor activities like roller skating even made a comeback, which led to Moxi Skates seeing a sales growth of 1,000 per cent since March.

With desk chairs becoming obsolete - studies have shown that sitting sedentary for too long is bad for your health - some millennials upgraded their stations with ellipticals and treadmill desks.

Daily habits

Ms Hughes points out that, in general, "our body can't tell the difference from a Bala bangle or a 3-litre jug of water or a resistance band" so that shouldn't limit consumers in terms of their product selection. The real hack with fitness is to set up daily habits to follow that will support a desired outcome and then "integrating into your plan".

She adds: "People like to get items and then be like, 'Oh, all of my problems are solved', but then the said object just stays in the corner."

As the pandemic continues, many of our living spaces have transformed into makeshift fitness studios full of tech-savvy gear like smart mirrors and jump ropes that monitor our every move while meeting the intersection of functional and fashionable. We strap on colourful bangles, sandbags, and belts to our wrists, ankles, and waists just to feel something - validation from everyone on Instagram bearing witness to the fitness.

So why wouldn't peak functionality extend to combining work and fitness? "Millennials, for good reason, feel entitled so we're like 'Why can't we have a desk and a bike? Why can't we do it all?' I think that's an awesome attitude, but it's sometimes funny to see what it looks like," said Kira West, a fitness insider and community cultivator, highlighting the many, many products that attempt to bring the studio experience home.

Nick Bognar, a therapist who specialises in couples therapy, trauma, men's mental health, and codependency, mostly attributes the increased attention on fitness right now to anxiety. When thrust into a period of uncertainty, our first instinct is usually to sort out what we can realistically control. "In those moments, many of us despair, and many others scramble to find the things we think we can control and throttle them," he said.

Since nobody was prepared for living through a pandemic, everyone is figuring out how to overcome being blindsided by such a huge obstacle.

Jason Fierstein, a private practice psychotherapist, argues that the drive to work out while working from home is also a reflection of our self-worth.

"Working out from home allows us to experience that sense of productivity. . . We can still multitask through the pandemic and be our ever-productive selves," he explained in an e-mail.

"Being able to multitask, we unconsciously validate ourselves for being these perfectly productive people, overcoming the adversity with which we're faced, which adds to our self-validation."

But one of the biggest challenges with working from home is doing everything in the same room.

Tess Brigham, a therapist and millennial life coach, acknowledges that some people are struggling with working out at home because it doesn't quite feel the same. For many of her clients, fitness is a vehicle for creating a sense of certainty in their lives, which she views as a healthy coping mechanism.

"I've certainly had clients who really enjoyed what it was like to go to a gym and the people that they knew there," she said. "For them, losing all that was huge."

No gym

To some degree, the "working out while working from home" subcategory has cultivated an emotional support group for those grieving the death of the gym with the hope that movement will be the best form of medicine. (ClassPass almost feels like a distant memory from a pre-pandemic past.) The lack of camaraderie can take on its own toll and is something else that may take longer to recover from.

Gyms won't be obsolete in the future, but it will be a long time before they look and feel the way they used to. In the meantime, people should focus on creating an environment that works for them at home regardless of trendy equipment.

"The other thing I've noticed about millennials is they definitely feel like everything in their life has to be productive," Ms Brigham concludes. "I think it's interesting - like are you exercising because it's the most efficient way for you to work out or are you doing it as a way of not really feeling your feelings?" VOX