The Coronavirus has had a major impact on our lives across the past 13 months, a big one being the disruption it's caused to our daily routines. When discussing exercise as part of our routine, the inconsistent opening and closing of gyms throughout lockdown has resulted in many of us either temporarily giving up exercising, or try to adopt different exercise strategies to compensate for those disruptions.
With a recent increase in fitness equipment purchases, fitness app downloads and frequency in exercise participation, could exercising at home make the difference for your fitness results?
If you're interested in exercising within the comfort of your own home then this guide is for you. Here you can take a look at some of the best workouts to try at home.
UNDERSTANDING HOME WORKOUTS
One of the main issues people have regarding home workouts is the direct comparison to the gym. Could you do the same workout at home that you would do in the gym?
One of the many beauties of completing home workouts is that it doesn't require a huge amount of equipment - if any. Without equipment you might feel your options to work out at home are limited however, you can utilise your bodyweight to achieve almost all fitness goals including strength, endurance, weight loss, muscle mass, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility and mobility without the use of equipment. So does this mean you can achieve the same goals you'd have in the gym at home? I believe so.
This doesn't mean you can't use equipment, it's all dependant on how you want your home workouts to be. Remember everyone's home environment is different, therefore the space available to one individual will be different to another individual.
COST EFFECTIVE
We've already mentioned that it doesn't require much equipment to exercise at home, but any equipment you do purchase can be reasonably cheap. For example purchasing an exercise mat comes as a one time investment. This is more affordable than buying a monthly subscription to a gym and paying for the travel to get there.
IT CAN BE DONE ANYWHERE
It doesn't have to require a huge amount of space meaning you can do it in the comfort of your own room or even the back garden. One of the primary reasons people do not want to exercise is because they feel they don't have enough time. Another reason is they find gyms intimidating. Being able to workout at home enables you to exercise in a safe and comfortable place of your choice.
Home workouts come with such variety depending on what's available to you. For the purpose of these workouts the exercise list below only consists of bodyweight exercises to reflect minimal space and available equipment.
EXERCISE LIST
CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISES
Jogging on the spot
High Knees
Jumping Jacks
Jump Squats
Burpee
Speed Skaters
Mountain Climbers
CORE EXERCISES
Leg Raises
Bicycle Legs
Flutter Kicks
Swimmers
Bird Dog
Deadbug
Duel Leg Lift Overs
UPPER BODY EXERCISES
Push Ups - Flat, Incline, Decline
Push Ups - Wide, Diamond, Shoulder Width
Pull Up
Chin Up
Back Extension
Pike Press
Handstand Push Up
Arm Raises
Prone Shoulder Press
LOWER BODY EXERCISES
Squats
Pulse Squat
Split Squat
Bulgarian Split Squat
Reverse Lunge
Step Up
Supine Leg Curl
Nordic Curls
Inchworm
Romanian Dead Lift
Single Leg Romanian Dead Lift
Heel Elevated Glute Bridge
Single Leg Heel Elevated Glute Bridge
Glute Bridge
Frog Bridge
Bent Leg Fire Hydrants
Straight Leg Fire Hydrants
Kick Backs
Clams
Hip Abduction
Hip Extension
1) AMRAPS
AMRAPS stands for As Many Rounds As Possible, it's a very straight forward workout and it's brilliant at maximising time whilst still being tough and effective. The brilliance of this workout style is the simplicity of it.
How does it work? AMRAP workouts have pre set exercises with the desired repetitions that need to be completed as many times as possible in the given pre determined timeframe - without rest.
Performing as many rounds as possible allows you to gradually build each week as you enhance and improve your body. However many rounds you complete in one session can you beat it the following week as you improve?
WORKOUT EXAMPLE
Reverse lunge - 10 reps
Mountain climbers - 10 seconds
Press ups - 10 reps
Deadbug - 10 reps
Equals 1 round
Repeat as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes
Tips: Try to start off with no more than 6-8 minutes to begin with. Once your body has adapted to the demands of repeated sustained effort then you can increase the duration of the workout.
2) HIIT
High intensity interval training (HIIT) is a workout style that involves brief bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by brief periods of low-intensity recovery or rest. One of the most appealing features of HIIT workouts is the duration of the workout. A typical HIIT workout tends to last around 20-30 minutes, making it really easy to incorporate into your busy schedule at home. There is continuing evidence to suggest that shorter bursts of higher-intensity exercise may provide greater health improvements than the traditional moderate-intensity continuous exercise.
HIIT is commonly associated with high-impact exercises for example jumping. For certain individuals this can become a deterrent due to fear of injury. Common pain sights include hips, knees, back as well as shins. High impact-exercises have shown to decrease the risk of fractures in people with osteoporosis as well as help improving individuals with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Although this might be the case, I would always act with caution. HIIT workouts are a format, this means you can substitute the exercises out for any alternatives that might be lower-impact, therefore being kinder on the joints to begin with. If there are any concerns around your health prior to doing any workout then talk to your GP and ensure everything is safe first.
Typically HIIT workouts follow a Tabata protocol where you complete an exercise for 4 minutes before moving on to the next exercise. Within the four minutes you'd complete the exercise for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds rest, this would then be repeated 8 times. To really utilise HIIT you can tap into your imagination and create fun and varied workouts by mixing up intervals and rest times.
WORKOUT EXAMPLE
Squats - 20 seconds
Rest - 10 seconds
Repeat 8 times
Press ups - 20 seconds
Rest - 10 seconds
Repeat 8 times
Burpees - 20 seconds
Rest - 10 seconds
Repeat 8 times
Deadbug - 20 seconds
Rest - 10 seconds
Repeat 8 times
Reverse lunge - 20 seconds
Rest - 10 seconds
Repeat 8 times
Total: 20 Minutes
Tips: If you have Apple Music or Spotify then try out the Tabata playlists avalible to make your workouts more interesting. Start off simple by using Tabata but as you get comfortable with HIIT then start to play about and have fun with it.
3) EMOMS
Another acronym workout format that stands for Every Minute On The Minute. This workout sets the challenge to complete the pre planned exercise within 60 seconds. The time left after completion of the exercises within the 60 second timeframe is the rest duration.
The high-intensity occurs from the potentially limited rest period in-between each minute of work within the workout. As you improve and progress then further exercises can be added to increase intensity as well as playing with the rep ranges. The beauty of this format style similar the others mentioned above is the ability to personalise it, creating more fun varied workouts at home. The workout is structured around 60 seconds worth of work therefore you can dictate the duration of the whole workout quite literally minute by minute. This again makes it adaptable which is perfect for home workouts.
WORKOUT EXAMPLE
In 60 seconds at the start of the minute complete:
10 Press ups
10 Squats
10 Jumping Jacks
Rest the remainder of the 60 seconds
Repeat for 10 minutes
Tips: Whatever you choose to incorporate into your EMOM try to take note of how long it takes to complete so you can establish how long you'll roughly get to rest each time. This does vary the longer the workout goes on as you begin to tire. The amount of rest time should reflect your ability so try to ensure you have enough rest time to begin with.
4) PYRAMIDS
Pyramid workouts are another way to utilise exercising at home with a lack of equipment. The intensity of the workout comes from amount of volume you do for each exercise. If you picture a pyramid in your mind, you'll notice the wide base at the bottom and how it slowly narrows moving up the pyramid until you approach the tip at the top. This would be what's known as a descending pyramid workout where the repetitions would start high (wide base) and slowly get lower as we approach the top. On the other hand starting with lower reps and moving towards higher reps would be whats known as an ascending pyramid. You can mix up the workout by combining a mixture of both ascending and descending exercises at the same time. You can then rest in-between exercises.
WORKOUT EXAMPLE
Squats - 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 reps
Press ups - 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 reps
In this case you'd alternate from 10 squats to 1 press up then 9 squats and 2 press ups and so on.
Tips: Similar to the AMRAP workout at the beginning you may struggle to sustain prolonged exercise without rest. I recommended that you choose different exercises which target opposing muscle groups to allow for some rest whilst still working, or if needed take rest points during the workout where needed if you're struggling. For example if you're doing an ascending pyramid of 1-10 squats and are struggling at say 7, stop take a moment to rest then continue until completion. As you gain confidence again you can mix up the pyramids to make it more engaging and fun.
5) CHALLENGE FOR TIME
This is yet another simple workout. In order to give this one a go you've simply got to choose a variety of exercises you want to complete and set a desired amount of repetitions usually a high amount. Once pre planned, your aim is to complete the exercises with the correct form at a nice controlled speed and record how long it takes to finish that exercise. The intensity again comes from the sheer volume of repetitions that are completed.
WORKOUT EXAMPLE
Press ups - 100
Squats - 100
Pull ups - 100
Leg raises - 100
Simply record how long it takes to complete the desired amount of repetitions.
Tips: This is quite a demanding workout style based off the high volume of repetitions. Where it's the first time attempting this type of workout style, remember to give yourself rest where needed however, keep the clock ticking as the aim is to record how long it takes to complete the whole workout including rest. As your body adapts and improves your amount of rest should decrease and your time will subsequently get better. I would recommend you have a good base level of both cardiovascular fitness and strength before attempting to complete this workout because of the demand it requires. Attempting some of the other workouts mentioned would be a better place to start.
FINAL WORDS
Home workouts have been seen to become more popular in recent months in an attempt to maintain some level of physical activity in the current climate.
There are a wide range of appealing benefits as to why you might want to get into working out within the comfort of your own home.
Your household is not a gym and therefore it is not expected of you to have all the fancy equipment a gym might have. In this post we've discussed how it's possible to complete a great workout without the need to purchase equipment. Instead using a wide variety of bodyweight exercises to build your home workouts. These 5 home exercise routines are designed to capitalise on time efficiently and being effective in how you train in order to create demanding workouts in a short space of time, making it ideal for those who have busy lifestyles, families to be with or a lack of motivation to spend hours exercising.
If you have any concerns about any of the workouts or would like any extra help/support regarding working out at home then Get In Touch or simply leave a comment.