Home workout plan

 

With everything that is currently happening it only makes sense that we need a home workout plan.

 

Whether you have been training for a while or are just thinking of getting started, it is still important to have a proper plan that you can stick to.

 

OF COURSE it’s not the same without gym equipment or having people around you, motivating you. But, these are the times and we have to make the best of it. Nothing can and nothing will stop us from reaching our fitness goals.

 

 

 

 

Goals for your home workout plan

 

So, that brings us to the point. What are your goals?

 

Whether your goals are to lose weight, build muscle, health and wellness, flexibility, the list goes on, we can construct simple and easy home workout plans to at least realize a few of these at a time.

 

Let’s see how our workouts may differ depending on our goals.

 

 

 

 Cardio home workout plan

 

If your only goal is to do cardio at home for your heart health/endurance, then we can construct our workout accordingly.

 

This may actually be the easiest home workouts because most of the time you don’t need much to get started on your cardio workouts.

 

Objectives of our cardio home workout plan

 

Well since we know that cardio workouts are comprised of elevating your heart rate for an extended period of time, that will be our main focus when making our workout plan.

 

If you are not familiar with cardio or are interested in MORE details about what happens to our bodies when doing a cardio workout, check out Workout for beginners.

 

 

 

Heart rate

Now, to elevate our heart rate we must move our body. The more of our body (muscles used) move at once the more efficient.

 

Exercises such as running, biking. squats, burpees, push-ups, jumping jacks, move so many muscles simultaneously. These are great to easily get our heart rate up.

 

 

Rest time

Normally taking rest time is very important when working out. We are going to have an opposite approach and reduce our rest time.

 

The less time we take to rest the longer period of time our heart rate is up.

 

Taking days off can be necessary, but with most cardio workouts, they are not too intense on our muscles. Taking days off once or twice a week should generally be enough.

 

Disclaimer: if exercises ever give you discomfort or pain stop immediately and consult a professional. All this information is generic and exercises should be challenging but not painful.

 

 

 

Intensity

We must keep our intensity in the 70-100% range. This is optimal for cardio goals such as endurance and heart health. (opposed to moderate or light intensity training). (1)

 

To calculate the intensity, you’re at, use this simple calculation.

 

220 subtract your age (2). Then multiply by the percentage/intensity that you want to train

 

It should look something like this.

• You want to average at 70% intensity to maximize endurance.
• You’re 35.

 

 

HR MAX: 220 – 35= 185

HR MAX x Intensity %

185 x 0.70 = 129.5 or 130bpm

 

Keeping 130 beats per minute, should give you a great endurance based exercise for your home workout plan.

 

 

Side note: Counting your heart rate

1. Measuring heart rate can be done by either any smart watch/device on your wrist.
2. If you are using a cardio machine, handles are usually there to measure
3. Counting your heart beat by putting your index and middle finger on your wrist or just under where your jaw where it lines up with your ear. Count the number of beats while looking at a timer/clock for 10 seconds and multiply by 6 (to get the “per minute). Or count for 30 seconds and multiply by 2. Or count for 60 seconds (but this takes too long and interrupts are workout)

 

 

 

Exercises

Often we focus too much on the actual exercises. The key points listed above are more important than the exercises.

The exercises that we need are any that can be repetitive and gets our heart rate up.

 

This is why most cardio exercises consists of running, biking, swimming, and any cardio machine.

 

Now, since this is our home workout plan, we may not have access to most of these alternatives.
Normally, even running outside or biking is great, but if it’s too cold for that, like it is currently for many of us, then we have to figure something out inside.

 

Space our obvious constraint. All of these exercises will not take up more than a small portion of a small room.

 

We HAVE to create environments where there are NO EXCUSES!

 

We all have a small space that can do these exercises:

 

Squats, burpees, jumping jacks, circuits, push-ups, skip rope.

 

Cardio home workout plan

 

With all of the objectives of our cardio workout discussed, we can put it all together and come up with a solid cardio home workout plan.

 

 

 

 

note: any cardio exercises can be used here where you can be consistent and maintain a heart rate of ~70% HR MAX

 

 

 

 

note: exercise choice:

 

LEGS	Squats	Lunges	Hip thrusts	Wall sits	Single legged hip thrusts
CHEST	Push ups	Incline pushups	Narrow pushups	Archer pushups	Static hold pushup
BACK	Rows	Single armed rows	Pull ups	Back flyes	Arm pull downs
CORE	Planks	Crunches	Reverse crunches	Ab rollouts	Russian twists
ARMS	Bicep curls	Tricep extensions	Lateral shoulder raises	Front shoulder raises	Rear delt raises

 

note: these are just examples of exercises that you can implement to any of these plans. We do have to get a bit creative with some of them, using objects we have at home as the weights.

 

 

Weight loss home workout plan

 

Before we begin to construct our weight loss home workout plan, we have to remember one thing.

This thing is repeated time after time again. Weight loss happens in the kitchen.

 

 

No matter what, if our goals are to lose weight (lose fat, really) we must consume less calories than we need in a day.

Yes, our weight loss home workout plan will help our weight loss, but no matter how hard you work out you can’t beat a bad diet.

 

 

 

Objectives of our weight loss home workout plan

 

Even though most of the work still needs to be done in the diet, we can make our work out as effective as possible.
The diet also doesn’t have to be scary.

 

Often people take this word and create crazy meals that people wont stand for more than one week. Our mission is to create a proper lifestyle. So, when I say diet, I just mean eating properly.

 

Though that is easier said than done, we can take the right steps and follow proper nutrition. For more information, check out Diet with NO CARBS and HIGH in PROTEIN. We break down how that kind of eating style is beneficial for weight loss and muscle gain.

 

Now, optimizing our weight loss home workout plan.

 

 

Caloric deficit

I have to say it again; this is the only thing that matters for weight loss.

A caloric deficit is when you expend more energy you consume in a day.

 

The consumption is taken care of by our diet. The expenditure, however is taken care of by our workout.

 

Every day, you USE calories, no matter what you’re doing. We all have a daily caloric usage, even if you sit on the couch the entire day. There are millions of processes going on in our bodies, so they need energy or calories.

 

Knowing that, if we maintain the same amount food needed to keep our bodies running, but burn calories through our workout, we will be in a caloric deficit and lose weight.

 

 

Rest time

This is where our cardio workouts and weight loss workouts have a lot of overlap.

The less time we have rest between our sets, the more calories we will burn.

 

In the same sense that we tried to keep our heart rate elevated for our cardio workouts. This burns more calories which is great for our weight loss workouts.

 

Intensity

This is where thing get interesting, and maybe a lot of you, like myself, will enjoy.

When it comes to weight loss, low intensity for an extended period of time is best.

Also known as, steady state cardio, this is where we keep our heart rate at 50-60% for the entire workout!

 

Though, this is more for a cardio style approach to weight loss. Which again, consists of a repetitive movement for an extended period of time.

 

For more weightlifting approaches, we need to focus on using as many muscles at once, and until it burns! (usually a lighter weight for 15-20 repetitions of an exercise)

 

Exercises

Like stated above, if we are doing a steady-state cardio workout, we would focus on doing a repetitive movement.

 

Walking, light skipping, light jumping jacks/burpees will do the job for this.

 

When doing more weightlifting style, we need to do big functional movements that use many muscles at once (that way we burn more calories per rep).

 

Squats, lunges, deadlifts, pull ups, pushups are ALL great for WEIGHT LOSS.

 

Another thing to focus on is high reps, which also leads to circuits. Doing many repetitions is great to continuously burn calories. Along with short rest times when doing circuits, a whole workout can easily burn 300-600 calories. (30-60 minutes workout with low rest times)

 

 

 

Weight loss home workout plan

 

 

 note: this is just an example schedule, you can replace or move around any of the desired styled workouts. For WEIGHT LOSS, any exercise(s) that burn calories are beneficial.

 

LEGS	Squats	Lunges	Hip thrusts	Wall sits	Single legged hip thrusts
CHEST	Push ups	Incline pushups	Narrow pushups	Archer pushups	Static hold pushup
BACK	Rows	Single armed rows	Pull ups	Back flyes	Arm pull downs
CORE	Planks	Crunches	Reverse crunches	Ab rollouts	Russian twists
ARMS	Bicep curls	Tricep extensions	Lateral shoulder raises	Front shoulder raises	Rear delt raises

 

 

 

 

Muscle building home workout plan

Building muscle may be the most challenging of the three types mentioned here.

 

Usually it is difficult to have enough resistance to build muscle without equipment, but with a proper muscle building home workout plan we can overcome those difficulties.

 

 

To build muscle, in general, you need two things.

1. Force your muscles to work through resistance (can be weights, bands, gravity etc.) and go up the amount of resistance over time. (progressive overload)
2. Eat ENOUGH protein

 

 

 

Objectives of our muscle building home workout plan

 

Focusing on the first point, progressive overload, we can take ANY workout routine, and gain muscle if we have the proper construction.

 

Yet, we can still work on eating enough protein at home, since this is our home workout plan. We cannot ignore this point but we can learn more about it here How to BUILD MUSCLE.

 

 

Also, the most common problem is eating ENOUGH protein, meaning it usually feels like A LOT of food. We must choose the best protein dense foods to do this right. TOP 10 foods that BUILD MUSCLE

 

 

Progressive overload

Now, this word we keep discussing, progressive overload. What is it exactly?

 

To keep it simple, our muscles break when they are loaded either from weights or resistance or even just moving around.

 

If we put enough load, our muscles break so much that our body overcompensates and builds them MORE, in preparation for next time.

 

We must, then, have enough load.

 

 

Weights and resistance

There are a few ways we can load our muscles.

 

The most common one people think about are weights. As we use various muscles to move weights, at the right load, our muscles will break and heal and grow for next time.

 

Now, since this is our home workout plan, we may not have access to so many different weights for exercises.

 

We must focus on then, our body as the weight.

 

Doing body weight exercises is very effective, and even if you find them easy, there are many ways to properly progress them (make them more difficult).

 

 

• We can increase the amount of REPETITIONS. Though, we want to stay in the 6-12 rep range for the most effective ways of building muscle.
• Slowing down TEMPO can also make any exercise way more difficult. Just imagine doing one squat that takes 10 seconds.
• Increasing the RANGE OF MOTION (ROM) strains the muscle for a greater length, which is a great challenge. (however, an increased flexibility is recommended for this)

These are just a few alternatives we can do. Learn more at How to workout effectively (coming soon).

 

 

Intensity

Since we are not focusing on our heart rate to determine our intensity. The only approach is to go for maximal intensity.

 

This is crucial, yet we must be safe.

 

The way to properly execute maximal effort, is to know how your body feels and to know the exercise properly.

 

 

For example, you are just starting out and you want to do push-ups to max effort. Assuming the form is correct and safe.

 

You must then do as many push-ups as you can while keeping good form.

 

What this means is, the moment your form doesn’t look like a proper push-up any more, that’s where you STOP. This is NOT about moving up and down as many times as you can, but doing proper push-ups as many times as you can.

 

 

Rest time

When it comes to building muscle, rest time is quite important. This can, however, have a large window.

 

The most important thing is that you give your muscles and body enough time to relax a bit. Usually, depending on the repetition range (5, 8, 12 etc.) you will take shorter rests.

 

In heavy strength exercises for example, if you’re doing a heavy weighted squat for 5 reps, you would want to rest 3-5 minutes between sets. Opposed to doing medium weighted squats for 8 reps, where you might want to only rest for 1-2 minutes between sets.

 

Also, you don’t have to be overly particular about the rest times, as long as you feel good and ready for the next set. The rest times don’t matter too much. (3)

 

More importantly is the rest time between workouts. Muscles need time to repair after a workout. This can take any where from 24-48 hours. It is recommended to not train the same muscles within two days.

 

Strength

Generally, the higher brackets of rest time 3-5 minutes are mostly optimal for strength training. There is a lot of overlap between strength training and muscle building (hypertrophy), in terms of exercises, protocol, workout routines.

 

Maybe not discussed directly in this post, but strength training has many benefits to us building muscle.

 

 

Exercises

Building muscle is where you want to use every muscle in the span of you work out or workouts.

 

 

Grouping many muscles at once is beneficial for developing overall strength, muscle mass, and working many muscles that aren’t seen that are stabilizing muscles. These exercises are called COMPOUND EXERCISES, any one that uses more than a few muscles at a time.

Examples include: squats, lunges, deadlifts, pushups, pull ups, etc.

 

 

Using one or a few muscles at once is also beneficial for different reasons including; definition, building lacking muscle, mind-body connection. These exercises are called ISOLATION EXERCISES, focusing on one or a few muscles at a time.

 

Examples include: bicep curls, triceps extensions, shoulder raises, leg extensions, etc.

 

 

 

LEGS	Squats	Lunges	Hip thrusts	Wall sits	Single legged hip thrusts
CHEST	Push ups	Incline pushups	Narrow pushups	Archer pushups	Static hold pushup
BACK	Rows	Single armed rows	Pull ups	Back flyes	Arm pull downs
CORE	Planks	Crunches	Reverse crunches	Ab rollouts	Russian twists
ARMS	Bicep curls	Tricep extensions	Lateral shoulder raises	Front shoulder raises	Rear delt raises

 

 

Concluding remarks

 

Of course this is more information that some of you have come for or want when it comes to having your home workout plan.

I believe to be directionless, like I was, without the correct information and understanding of what the workout is and is for, is sometimes just as bad as not starting at all.

 

With the right philosophy and knowledge of fitness we can perform our workouts properly and continue with them consistently, which is ultimately the most important aspect.

 

Equipment

Now, all of this information is discussed for workouts without access to equipment. Styles and progressions change dramatically with the access to weights, machines, etc.

 

If you’re looking for a full in-depth explanation of the most important workouts and how to do them check it out here. 22 of the MOST IMPORTANT EXERCISES and How to do them (coming soon)

 

 

 

Diet

Since a lot of us are home a lot anyways, we might as well make the best of our diet. There are small to medium changes that we can do, whether it be timing, portion control, finding the right foods. 

 

 

Safety and planning

These are all suggested points and workouts. In the end without a professional guiding you, any workout can present safety issues. Always consult professionals and conduct your workouts along with this information as safe as you can.

 

Moving forward, hopefully we can all progress and do our best during these trying times. With the tougher conditions we just have to continue staying focused and driven to what we want to become.

 

Timur Yigit