Now more than ever a lot of people are doing in-home workouts. While a gym has a lot of equipment, an in-home workout could be just as effective and you don’t need much to get started! In this article, I will give you some tips, tricks, and exercises to help you get the most effective workout at home whether you are just starting out or already have some experience.
The beauty of exercise is that it is versatile and there are always variations that you can do in order to scale back or intensify your workout. Quite frankly, you could get a pretty intense workout just by using your own body weight.
Some good exercises for this are squats, push-ups, planks, lunges, and much more. If you want to give yourself a bit of a challenge, you can take these exercises and do more repetitions or slow the exercise down so that the time you keep your muscles under tension is longer.
This can make a huge difference in your workouts and you can use these techniques with any exercise. Here is another list of things that can be done to give your workouts more variation.
Alternatively, there are pieces of simple and cost-effective equipment that you can use inside of your home that could give you the same effect and target the same muscle groups as using a machine that can help you get the most effective workout at home.
Some of these include:
- resistance bands
- medicine balls
- agility ladders
- kettlebells
With these, you can do a ton of different exercises that are effective. Another thing that should be focused on is compound exercises vs isolation exercises. The difference here is that an isolation exercise only targets one muscle group at a time.
Isolation Exercise Examples:
- Bicep curls – Only targets biceps
- Tricep extensions – Only targets triceps
- Leg extensions – Only target the quadricep group
And so on….
Compound exercises, on the other hand, targets multiple muscle groups at the same time. So not only is this more time effective, but it also allows for a more intense workout.
It also helps you target something called your proprioceptors, which are tiny supporting muscles that help with stabilization and lets you know where your body is in space.
This is great because it helps with everyday tasks such as going upstairs, getting in and out of a car, carrying and putting away groceries, etc.
Lastly, since compound exercises target many muscles at the same time, it also really helps strengthen your core which is also very important as having a weak core makes it much harder to do other exercises.
Compound Exercises include:
- Squats – Targets quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves
- Push-Ups – Targets chest, triceps, abs/core, shoulders
- Plank – Targets glutes, abs, shoulders, low back
You get the idea.
Now you’re probably thinking, how often should I be doing these workouts?
Ideally, when it comes to frequency, it depends on your fitness level. If you’re just starting out then start with 2 days/week and try to work yourself up to 3. If you’re more intermediate then 3-4 days/week is perfect. If you’re advance, then 4-5 days/week is what you want to aim for. I wouldn’t recommend doing more than 5 days as your body needs rest to recover from the workouts.
Oh, and don forget to stretch. Here’s a great article on how and why to stretch.
I hope this article gives you some ideas and helps you get the most effective workout at home! Also, feel free to visit my website and connect here!