Home Workout Programs: A Guide

When it comes to working out at home or doing a home workout plan, there is something about being in your own domain that can make or break your workout program. Home – It’s where the heart is. It is where we feel most comfortable; we sleep, eat and relax there. So why not work out there as well? Chances are, everyone has trained in one form or another in the comfort of their own home: Whether it is with a set of Free weights, using a home workout DVD, some morning yoga, hitting the heavy bag, even using some home cardio equipment such as a stationary bike or simply just using your own bodyweight by firing out some push ups and sit ups. Whatever it is, there is a plethora of different and versatile ways to get fit, healthy and reach your goals without leaving the house. In this article we are going to look at some of the best and most popular ways to do just that. First let’s look at some of the advantages of working out from home:

1. It’s cheap: In theory completely free if you are just using your own bodyweight, say in the form of Calisthenics or plyometrics for example. If using a piece of equipment or DVD you have purchased then it is only costing you what you initially spent on that particular piece of kit.
2. It’s Your Home, you’re the boss: No queuing for equipment, having to deal with anyone’s gym/roid rage or any meathead attitude. Unless you live with someone like that, in which case you can probably handle it.
3. Privacy: A big barrier for exercise for a lot of people is being self-conscious. Chances are, if you are thinking about working out from home it could be because of this reason. Maybe you are overweight or think you are and as such you would rather work out from home until you start to build some confidence and foster some positive changes inside and out, before you think about setting foot in the gym. There is no shame in this. I lost over 40 pounds at home before even setting foot in the gym, partly from this reason.
4. Rise and Shine: As soon as you wake up in the morning you can get out of bed and start exercising before breakfast. This is a huge advantage if you are trying to burn fat because you can fire your metabolism up right from the get go and then keep it burning by eating right and regular throughout the rest of the day.
5. Time is on your side: Another big contraindication to regular exercise is the factor of old father time. We lead busy lives : jobs, kids, education, you name it – they are hurdles you have to negotiate to get your workout in. Now I know there is the old adage of “If it’s important you will find a way, if it’s not you will find an excuse” but sometimes other things do have to come first. Training at home can make it a lot easier to get your regular exercise in. You can get that 15 minute circuit in before work in the morning as part of your wake up ritual or hit the skipping rope while the baby takes a nap. All in the time it takes most other people to drive to the gym.

There are countless other advantages to working out from home but those 5 are the ones that come up the most and have the biggest effect in people choosing to train there as opposed to the gym or health club. So we now know why we may want to work out at home, let’s get down to business and give you the 411 on how…

No Home Workout Kit? No Problem!

Let’s start with the basics. You can get an awesome workout without spending a dime on equipment, you literally have the power in your hands and all the resistance you need on your very person: Your bodyweight. There are a truckload of variations of moves such as press ups, squats, lunges, sit-ups, planks, jumping jacks, the list goes on. With the right combination you can hit up the whole body and all you need is roughly 2 by 3 metres of floor space in which to do it.

A great example of a basic workout you can do without any equipment is the Bodyweight 100: 100 reps split over 5 bodyweight moves, performed back to back with minimal rest. Try doing 20 jumping jacks, 20 Squats, 20 Press Ups, 20 lunges and 20 sit-ups as quickly as you can and you will see what I mean.

Another method you can utilise is to use Sets, reps and scheduled rest like you would with standard resistance program. This is a great way to focus on form and getting the most out of every rep.

Pick a set of moves that hit up the whole body: Squat, Press up, Lunges, Sit-ups and Dorsal Raise. Perform each rep at 3/2 pace (3 seconds on the Eccentric Contraction, 2 seconds on the concentric contraction) for 15 repetitions, for 3 sets with 1 minute rest periods. This is a great way to build your muscular endurance and lay the foundations for more complex workouts in the future. If you want to keep your heart rate up you can do this by employing an active recovery method by doing jumping jacks in the 1 minute rest period.

An introduction to circuit training would be doing each exercise back to back for 45 seconds with 15 second rest periods between exercises. Once you have completed all the exercises have 1 or 2 minutes rest and then complete the cycle again aiming for 2 to 4 complete cycles (or circuits as they are commonly known). This will really improve your Cardiovascular fitness and the density of the arrangement of the training stimulus is a sure fire calorie burner.

As you can see from this short explanation – using your own bodyweight is a versatile and free way to workout at home while laying the foundations for more demanding methods of getting fit and in shape.

Building a Home Workout Arsenal

There is a mind boggling amount of exercise equipment on the market for those who want to train at home. Some of it is great and should be in every home fitness enthusiast’s armoury, other equipment is the latest gimmick and destined to become the rusting hulk gathering dust in the corner of the room that only gets used these days for dumping your un-ironed clothes on. If you are going to invest in some equipment then you need to take the following things into consideration:

1. Functionality: The equipment you are choosing suits your exercise needs and will assist you in pursuing your goals.
2. Value for Money: The amount of use you are going to get from the equipment justifies how much money you are going to spend on it.

These factors should always be brought into consideration before spending money on any potentially expensive workout equipment. As such we are going to look at the most essential, cost effective and functional home workout kit first, the logical first step!

Home Workouts & Bodyweight

Believe it or not, there are some great ways to utilise the resistance of your own bodyweight using equipment to put your frame into a situation it can’t get in with floor space alone. By getting off the floor you can start to approach upper body workouts from a new and challenging angle, from putting you an unstable surface you can activate your core like you never have before, and by combining the two you’re going to take it to the next level….

• Raise the bar: Chin ups, Pull ups and their many variations are regarded by many as the ultimate expression of strength using bodyweight. By investing in a chin up bar that can be fitted to a door frame or from a wall/ceiling beam or similar you can incorporate the ultimate back and arm building bodyweight exercise into your home regime. It don’t stop there though, anyone for hanging leg raises? Say yes by tensing your abs!
• Overcome your Instability – Invest in a Gym ball and you are starting down the path to a solid, strong and stable core. Suddenly simple moves such as sit-ups, back raises, press ups and planks just got way harder! Fighting to complete rep after rep of whatever bodyweight exercise you are doing while bracing your core to correct and maintain your balance will bring a whole new challenge. Just don’t stand on it, that’s the fast track to a Darwin Award. Check out Bosu boards instead. Essentially half a gym ball with a board attached, this will help bring balance to your standing exercises.
• Hang in there: Now for something really special. In gyms all over the world people are testing their limits while being suspended from the ceiling: Welcome to the world of TRX Suspension systems. Available now for the home with handy door anchor mounts, these Suspension straps take your bodyweight and use it against you with the help of Isaac Newton’s buddy, Gravity. Mountain climbers were hard when you were on the floor but try them with your feet suspended off of the ground as your core fights to maintain your body position rep after rep. These are a great investment for the serious home training enthusiast and if you want to see what suspension straps can do for a man’s physique then check out Robert Downey JR in any of the Iron Man films or Stephen Amell in the forthcoming CW series Arrow. Suspension straps feature in both Actor’s training regimes to help them get in superhero shape.

Irresistible Forces

If you want to take your strength, endurance, muscle mass, power or conditioning to new heights then you will need a little more to pump than just your bodyweight for resistance. If you want to up the stimulus on your skeletal muscle then it is time to start using some external resistance. Now, it is unlikely that many people will have the disposable income or space for an arsenal of fixed path resistance machines in their own home. So yet again let’s trim the fat and cut to what matters, -in this case it’s all about free weights and as you are about to find out that term covers some great equipment for the home.

• As clear as a bell: Dumbbells and Barbells are at the foundation of all free weight resistance exercises. They can be used for techniques, moves and regimes ranging from basic to advanced and everything in between with the added bonus of helping build muscles that you can use. Unlike the majority of fixed path machines you find in every gym under the sun, these weights allow you to perform each rep with a natural range of movement while recruiting synergistic and stabilising secondary muscles, teaching your body to work as a unit whether you use a bench or not. These free weights are available in prices to suit all wallets and space considerations.  Dumbbells? It’s a no brainer.
• Boiling Point: Swinging the equivalent of a 35 to 55 pound cast iron cannon ball with a handle welded to it is one hell of a workout, just ask the Russian Olympians who invented the Kettle bell. Incorporating momentum over often multiple planes of movement, these free weights can be used help develop Olympian strength, power and muscle mass as well as being a great tool for fat burning when used in circuits. They also have the advantage of being as practical for storage as free weights can get, meaning they are often a great choice for the home.
• Take your Medicine: Every boxer worth his salt will have put in many hours of training with a medicine ball. These heavy rubber or leather spheres can be used for all kinds of training applications but really come into their own when used for developing power through plyometrics. As such, these are only really practical at home if you have a yard, garage or building to yourself as the repetitive sound of medicine ball floor slams or Russian twist wall rebounds may get you labelled as a disturber of the peace.

Home Workout Programs: Burn Your Couch (And Fat)

Ever since VCR’s became a widespread feature in homes back in the 70’s there has been the home workout video, a phenomenon that is the antithesis of what we associate with the use of home entertainment systems as they get you off your couch and working up a sweat.

There have been as many fad workouts committed to tape and sold globally as there have been gimmicky workout equipment crazes but among these dead ducks there are some very good training systems for use in the home that bring a personal trainer and exercise class right into your home. Like all the subjects and methods featured in this article you could write page upon page on everything out there, but in the interest of brevity and clarity we are going to have a little look at the most high end and challenging home workout programs. Time to go hard at home.

• P90X – Plateau Busting comes home: As many people will know, when it comes to working out the plateau is one of the biggest stumbling blocks you will meet when trying to continually progress. Unless you have a personal trainer tweaking your regime as you progress or have a good knowledge on the effect of training periodization a plateau is waiting for you just round the corner where your muscle gains and fat losses will grind to a halt. The biggest selling point of P90X is the way it is designed with this periodization in mind. Over the 90 days of the program the workout is progressed in a way that keeps the body stimulated and keeps the plateau at bay, meaning in theory you can keep advancing and seeing results for the duration of the regime. P90X is the brainchild of trainer Tony Horton who uses a motivational and sometimes humorous instructional style which beginners or veterans will find agreeable. The program itself features a variety of bodyweight, plyometric, body combat and yoga based workouts which mean a balanced and functional approach to training the whole body.
• Insanity – Are you ready to dig deep? :  Any home fitness program that features one of its success stories on a promotional video saying they threw up on the first day of the program because it was so hard is going be pretty proud of how hard it is. Claiming to be the hardest fitness program ever to be put on DVD, Insanity takes High intensity interval training and gruelling circuits of plyometric and bodyweight exercises and supercharges it. This is a hard workout  but HIIT and circuits are the sure fire way to transform your body and incinerate body fat, so perfect for people who want to get results quickly and who don’t care how hard they have to work for it. Creator Shaun T is at the helm instructing the program and he brings positivity and a can do attitude by the truckload to motivate the participant, just what you need in a workout this hardcore. This is a bodyweight boot camp brought straight to your front door so perfect for the home trainer with no equipment.
• The Asylum – Insanity for Athletes:  Shaun T is also responsible for this sport specific workout program which focuses on conditioning and dynamic athleticism in order to get results. Based on the training regimes of pro and world class athletes, The Asylum picks up where Insanity left off and takes it to new levels by incorporating equipment such as the Speed rope and agility ladder in order to push the participant’s fitness even further. Also featuring generous amounts of plyometrics, flexibility and strength work – this workout is designed to get you fit and agile for sport as well as helping you get the body you want.
• Body Beast – Commit to getting huge: Whereas most home fitness programs are aimed at people who want to lose fat and get lean, Body Beast is aimed at the participant who wants to pack on muscle and build a ripped hulk of an anatomy. Body Beast trainer Sagi Kalev brings a larger than life and aggressive instructional style to push you through workouts of big lifts designed to optimise your muscle building. As you can imagine, this kind of home workout program will require some Free weights and a bench in order to make it happen, but if you have that equipment then this program will help you get the most out of them to an extreme level without you ever having to leave your home and queue for a squat rack.

One thing that all of the above home workout programs come with that will be crucial to the participant’s success and the optimization of their results is detailed nutrition plans. If I have said it once I will say it a thousand times: You can’t out train a bad diet. That being the case, the nutritional advice given as part of the program is as important as the activity happening during the workout. Just to drive the point home, there is a reason why ripped actors in action films always talk about their diet when they get asked about how they got in shape for the role.

In Conclusion

So you have the equipment to start working out at home, a regime all planned or maybe your Home workout program just arrived in the post, but what is the most important factor to guaranteeing you reach your goals? No matter what your chosen method of working out at home is, there is one fundamental thing that decides what you get out of it. You. When you work out at home under your own power, just like when you workout anywhere else – you are 100% accountable for your success. There are no outside factors that you can blame and no excuses you can tell yourself if it does not work. That is the operative word, work. Whatever the equipment, whatever the program – you need to put the work and time in because no one else can do it for you.
It is going to be hard work but it will be rewarding if you stick with it, as someone who lost over 40 pounds by training from home in the last year I have a rough idea how it works:

Wake up tomorrow morning, roll out of bed and then walk into your lounge and start carving yourself into a new animal. Good luck.