While much of life has returned to normal since the shutdowns of the Covid pandemic, some conveniences, such as at-home workouts have stuck around. For some, working out at home is the best of both worlds.
Whether there are time limitations for travel to and from the gym, the need for a flexible schedule or that busy parent fitting in a workout while their child is asleep – working out from home provides flexibility. Working out at home may even help supplement workouts at the gym!
If you need this level of flexibility to accomplish your workouts you may be asking yourself “what is the best at home workout routine?” The answer ultimately depends on your specific goal or what kind of workout you’re looking for. Let’s dive in!
Walking as Part of an At Home Workout Routine
Walking is an accessible form of exercise for most people. All you need to get started are a pair of walking shoes and a safe place to walk. Walking has many benefits, including…
- burning calories
- building postural and core strength
- building stamina (especially if you are just getting started with exercise)
- stress relief.
No matter what your fitness level is – walking for exercise can be adjusted to a pace and distance that challenges you.
Walking is also a great exercise for days between more intense bouts of exercise. It doesn’t cause tremendous strain on the muscle so it’s also great for active recovery.
Another benefit to walking is it gets you outside for fresh air and sunshine, which helps you get necessary Vitamin D. Walking can be a great form of stress relief and even a 5 to 10-minute walking break can help you feel energized and refreshed.
Bodyweight Cardio and HIIT
Perhaps your goal is to increase your cardio fitness or burn more calories. In addition to walking or instead of – you can include bodyweight cardio or HIIT training at home.
HIIT stands for High-Intensity Interval Training and this style of training allows you to incorporate many different bodyweight exercises with a challenging timing sequence to maximize the benefits of cardio exercise.
The benefit of HIIT training for calorie burn and cardio fitness happens during the workout where you perform an intense phase of exercise followed by rest or an active rest period. This style of training has been shown to produce improvements in cardio fitness, even in a short workout.
Another feature of HIIT is that you burn calories during the workout, but also after the workout as your body works to recover to its resting state.
If you need bodyweight cardio or HIIT style workout you can do from home – check out the option to add YouFit’s On-Demand workouts to your membership. For some, a gym membership, plus the option to work out from home is the ultimate solution!
Strength Training Workouts at Home
If your goal is to get stronger and build lean muscle tissue, then strength training is the correct form of exercise for you!
Strength training can be challenging to do from home because it requires weight training equipment. If you are completely new to strength training – bodyweight exercises can be effective at building strength and muscle. However, past those initial stages – you will need to challenge yourself with some form of weight.
The good news is – it doesn’t take a lot of equipment to do strength training at home. In fact, a pair of dumbbells is often all you need. =
At-Home Equipment
Additionally, there are many kinds of exercise equipment you can purchase that come with a live stream online option or videos on-demand. Large companies such as Peloton and Nordic Track offer a wide variety of training sessions. If you’re someone who wants to work out from home and incorporate strength training along with a variety of other exercise classes – this may be the option for you!
Yoga
Like walking – minimal equipment is needed for yoga! Also, yoga is great for all levels, whether you’re a beginner to fitness or a seasoned athlete.
Yoga has many benefits and it can complement several different goals. For example, if you want to improve your mobility and flexibility alongside your cardio or strength training, then yoga is the perfect activity to incorporate into your at-home workout routine.
Yoga is also great if you want to include some gentle movement into your workout routine to help ease you into a more intense form of exercise. Yoga can help improve core muscle strength and improve muscle endurance, which is helpful when taking on any form of exercise.
Lastly, yoga has meditative qualities. This can help you manage stress better and bring a sense of calmness to your day. Yoga is also a great way to recover on the days between intense workouts.
Ready to add yoga to your at-home workout routine? Take a peek into YouFit Gyms On Demand library of online classes taught by Les Mills Instructors.
Putting the Best At Home Workout Routine Together
Begin structuring your workout routine with your goal in mind. Prioritize your workout schedule around the most important form of exercise to get you closer to your goal. Fill in your schedule with extra workouts if you have time for it. Devote as many days in your workout schedule as you can realistically fit.
Then, once you know what workouts you need to prioritize, plug them into your schedule like you would any important appointment. If you can schedule a live class online, then sign-up for it ahead of time.
Even the best at home workout routine will fail if you don’t have your exercise scheduled! So set aside a time each week to look at your calendar and establish and schedule the best times for your workouts.
