All too often, your local gym is equipped with expensive equipment, and even more expensive membership fees. Often after their initial promotional rate is over, your monthly membership can be pretty costly. The good news is that you don’t need to belong to a gym to get a great workout. You can train just as hard and reach your fitness goals from home. You just need to train smart and with the right equipment. Keep reading below to learn some of the best exercises you can do from home to stay in shape and save money.
1. Warm Up
You need to warm up before you start any, and every, workout. Start with five, or ten minutes of light cardio, such as jogging, or jumping rope.
2. Body Weight Exercises
Body weight exercises don’t need fancy equipment or expensive gym membership. You can do pushups, planks, and crunches on the floor. You can do pull-ups on a high bar, or on playground equipment. You can do squats, lunges, and calf raises at home, and you can do dips on a kitchen chair.
3. Stability Ball
Stability balls are relatively inexpensive and exceptionally helpful for working out at home. You can do pushups, Russian twists, overhead squats, planks, and, plank pike-ups. You can sit on the ball and use hand weights to do overhead triceps extensions. You can lie on your back on the ball and do flyes.
4. Weights
Hand weights can let you perform a range of exercises, and they’re inexpensive. You can use dumbbells at home for arm curls, overhead presses, triceps kickbacks, deadlifts, front raises, rear raises, lateral raises, and bent-over rows.
5. Running
Running upstairs and hills will burn calories, strengthen your legs and increase your stamina.
6. Resistance Band Exercises
Resistance bands can be purchased almost everywhere, and you can use them for a variety of exercises. Try out some rows, curls, squats, and presses.
Tips
Make sure you exercise all your major muscles at least twice per week, but not on consecutive days. Your major muscles include calves, hamstrings, quads, core, back, chest, biceps, triceps, and shoulders.
- Try doing 2 or 3 sets of each exercise in your routine or work to increase your stamina to that level.
- Perform 8-12 repetitions of weight exercises, using a weight that leaves you a little fatigued by the last rep. Perform 15-20 reps of resistance band exercises, or body weight exercises. If you can’t perform 15 reps, do as many as you can, and increase your stamina until you can.
- If your overall fitness goal is to lose weight, then try doing 6-10 exercises without resting in between. This can help you burn more calories. You’ll also need to look at your diet, and try to add in more fruit, vegetables, whole grains, fish and poultry.
Working out at home means that you’ll be saving money, and you won’t be using fancy equipment, but it doesn’t mean that you won’t be getting a full workout. You should always consult with your doctor before you start any new exercise regime, and make sure that it’s okay for you to try a new program.
About the Author
Ann Kaknon has been in the fitness industry for over 10 years including work as a dietician, personal trainer, and athletic trainer. She now spends her time at home with her kids and writing about her fitness experiences on the side. If you want to contact her you can do so on her LinkedIn or blog.