For those of us who can’t or don’t want to go to the gym, home exercise is a great alternative. There are a plethora of home workout videos or articles that you can follow. To work out at home, all you need is a spacious place to move around, a blood-pumping music playlist, and willpower.
Working out at home presents certain advantages over working out at a gym. The most attractive aspect of home exercise is accessibility. When the time is right to work out, simply go to a spacious part of your home and begin your routine. Being able to jump straight into a workout is a huge appeal, especially for students with busy schedules who can not find a quality gym near their homes. The other great aspect of working out in the comfort of your home is its cost-effectiveness. Working out can be very cheap or even free depending on your approach, and is very convenient if you do not want to spend lots of money on a gym membership.
Before you start working out, it is important to ensure that you are keeping yourself safe. In a gym, there are professional employees and experienced gym-goers that will gladly help you with your form and ensure that you are exercising safely, but that is not the case at home. However, if you work out at home, you will need to research the exercises you want to do to make sure you are doing them safely, especially if you have any underlying health conditions. Following a video of a professional whenever you are trying out something new can ensure you have the proper form to decrease the risk of any injuries. Also, don’t forget to stretch before a workout and take short water breaks.
If the lack of equipment discourages you from household workout sessions, there is a vast number of exercises you can do with no equipment. For example, you can focus on cardiovascular activities by going to a nearby park or pool and going for a run, a hike, or go biking. Similarly, according to a Harvard Medical School study titled “HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training),” HIIT helps get the blood pumping while being a fast and effective workout practice. HIIT workouts consist of several short rounds of quick body-weight workouts like pushups, burpees, and mountain climbers repeated multiple times with minimal rest periods in between each round. Multiple rounds of exercises are called a set, repeat the same set three or four times and you will notice it will get progressively harder as your body becomes more fatigued. This will test your endurance and improve your cardio overtime without the need of any equipment.
Similarly, there are dozens of core workouts that can be done without equipment, like sit-ups, planks, and Russian twists, according to a Healthline article. There are several types of crunches, like regular crunches, double crunches, and bicycle crunches, all of which are tough on your body yet require no equipment.
However, if you were to invest some money into your workouts, it could pay off. Dumbbells are a good choice for equipment, simply because they can be used in a large variety of ways. Whether you want to test your endurance and strength or simply make your routines a little tougher, dumbbells can help you out.Hammer curls and bicep curls are good at isolating your arm muscles and properly exercising them. Dumbbell deadlifts, which consist of Lowering the dumbbells to the top of your feet, and bringing them as far up as you can go by extending through your waist, then slowly return to the starting position, can help your lower body and back muscles.
Elasticity bands will help your flexibility by challenging your range of motion, kettlebells can be used to challenge you in your leg and arm workouts with exercises like kettlebell swings, which require you to swing a kettlebell up and down without putting the kettlebell down to rest. Pull-up bars can easily be set up at your home in a doorframe and can develop your back and chest muscles by doing simple pull-ups, overhand pull-ups or wide-grip pull-up. You definitely do not have to buy all of these items, but a small, one-time investment will pay off.
Of course, the biggest obstacle to overcome when working out at home is staying motivated. If you work out at home, you are likely to be more easily distracted mid-workout by your devices or other people at your home. A gym environment encourages working out extensively, so, to replicate that environment at home, make sure to work out in a place where there are minimal distractions. Put your phone at a distance where it will not distract you. The important part is to persevere and stay motivated.
Working out at home might not be for everybody, but it is worth a try. It is cheap, easy, and with the Internet, there is an infinite amount of help at your disposal. The most important thing to remember is to make sure to stay safe, remain consistent, and have fun.