Home workouts are perfect for you if you don’t have the time to go to the gym or if you don’t want to go to the gym.
However, the level of difficulty of home workouts also differs just the way workouts involving free weights or machines do. For home workouts, you will mainly be working with your bodyweight unless you have a full gym set up.
If you have a full gym set up, your workouts will not be different from what you usually do at the gym. You will mainly be working with push-ups, squats, lunges, pull-ups, and others.
These exercises can be completed with little or no machines or free weights. As your fitness levels improve, you can start investing in resistance bands and a pair of dumbbells.
Home workouts and workout plans
Usually, workout plans for home workouts will be in the form of high intensity interval training (HIIT), circuit training, or AMRAP.
The goal is to urge the body to burn as many calories as possible even when you’re not using additional resistance.
An example of HIIT
- Pick an exercise such as jumping jacks, burpees, or high knees. It should be done where you’re able to raise your heart rate.
- Do the exercise with 100% effort for 30 seconds.
- Do the same exercise or another with 20% effort for the next 30 seconds.
- Repeat the cycle for at least 8-10 rounds.
This type of training raises your heart rate, allows it to drop slightly, and pushes it back up. That increases metabolism and helps with burning calories.
An example of circuit training
Circuit training is one where you do 4-5 back-to-back exercises, and that makes it one circuit. You repeat the circuit for at least 5-6 rounds or more.
You can pick the following:
- 10 squats
- 10 push-ups
- 5 burpees
- 20 jump ropes
- 20 sit ups
Ensure that you’re using exercises that work on almost every muscle group.
Ab workouts at home
It could so happen that while you get the time to train the bigger muscle groups at home, the smaller groups do not get as much attention. That allows you to work the smaller muscle groups, especially the core muscles, at home.
Here are some of the exercises for ab workout at home:
- Plank
- Crunch
- Leg raise
- Russian twist
- Bicycle crunch
You should aim to work with the sides as well as the middle part of the entire muscle group. Additionally, the core muscles should be engaged at all times during the workout, and you must rest between sets.
Cardio workouts at home
If you’re into both resistance training and cardio but don’t get the time to do both at the gym, you can try certain cardio workouts at home to ensure you’re not only doing one part of your plan.
Here are some exercises you can include in your cardio workouts at home:
- Jumping jacks
- Jump rope
- Burpees
- Stair stepping
- Jumping lunges
If you have a treadmill or any other cardio machine set-up at home, you can use that as well.
It’s not impossible to exercise at home. If you can make it a habit, you will be able to remain consistent with the workout. Sometimes, it can be distracting to exercise at home, and you could lose interest. In such cases, home workouts may not be the best way forward. Nevertheless, if you don’t have access to a gym, home workouts can always be better than doing absolutely nothing for your fitness.
If you’re doing home workouts to lose weight, it won’t happen with just the workouts. You need to follow a calorie deficit diet and know your daily macros. Once you have created a calorie deficit diet, you will be able to begin reducing body fat percentage, as the body will use the stored calories to make up for the deficit created.