Working out at home comes with many challenges. As a personal trainer, I’ve seen the difficulties of just trying to get a routine going. In this post let’s combat that with some home workout tips for beginners.
Strength training is important for whatever fitness goals you have, including weight loss (read: http://Why Strength Training Is Important For Weight Loss: Do You Really Need It? This Will Help You Decide! )
The best home workout tips for beginners
To have the best home workout as a beginner try following these simple guidelines; Designate a workout area and time, eliminate distractions, start slow, keep the training simple and finally just be consistent.
Let’s dive deeper into each tip so you know how to use them effectively.
Home Workout Tips For Beginners
Designate your workout area and time
A vital part of successfully working out at home is designating an area and time for exercising.
This will help streamline the process and eliminate any decision-making on where and when you will get your workouts in.
When creating a successful habit like getting into home workouts, you want to make things as easy as possible.
This means when it’s time to get sweating, you already know where and what to do, with no excuses.
You can always change things later, for now just pick a spot with a bit of open space that you feel comfortable working out in.
Select a time in the day that least interferes with other responsibilities. For most people, although challenging, an early morning workout helps set a good tone for the day.
Now just to get started.
Eliminate distractions
The problem that can arise with not just working out at home, but working from home in general, is the constant distractions in your environment.
Sometimes you might be able to power through a blaring television screen without effort.
But there will be points where you just don’t feel like doing your home workout.
That’s when a simple distraction can throw you off the rails.
Not only can a distraction cause your home workout to take significantly longer, but you probably won’t be as engaged so the overall quality will drop too.
Take a second to think about any possible attention hazards, phones, t.v, and maybe even a talkative spouse.
Keep the workout zone distraction-free.
Start slow
This one might be hard to hear. But if you take anything from this list of home workout tips for beginners, this tip is it.
Start slow.
When full of motivation it’s easy to say a 1-hour workout, 5 times each week is doable.
But when creating your plan, think about your unmotivated self, what can THEY do?
If you know you have the time for 5 workouts a week, great! Keep that in your back pocket and work your way up to that much effort.
Maybe 2 full body workouts each week is something you can do even when life is throwing punches at you and getting up in the morning is hard.
Start with that, if after a couple of weeks it feels like you can add more volume, then do so.
Keep the workout simple to start
In a world filled with fitness influencers, it is easy to want to try every impressive-looking exercise. But stay away for now.
Or maybe follow along with someone else’s program.
But as a beginner working out from home, you don’t have the same experience and probably not the same environment either.
Remember this, a poorly programmed workout done consistently is better than a great workout done inconsistently.
So keep your first workouts simple as you learn the basics.
Push-ups might not be a flashy chest exercise for example, but if they are a challenge for you then push-ups might be all you need.
You might not only be discouraged by being unable to do more advanced moves correctly but skipping the basics could lead to injury down the line.
If you want to add some equipment to your workouts eventually, BowFlex dumbbells are a great option to save space and time with a quick weight-adjusting dial. Check them out here.
Be consistent
We all want to see results happen on the same day. Waiting for weeks or even months is hardly in anyone’s plans.
But in reality, undergoing a total body transformation can take months or even a year.
The only way to get to the end is by actually doing the work for that long.
Instead of thinking of it as a long grueling process, remember that each day down is instead one day closer.
There are plenty of proven ways for you to stay consistent in your home workouts.
Following the other tips on this list is one. Others include sticking to the same time, so working out becomes part of your daily flow.
Another idea is to have a buddy that keeps you accountable. This doesn’t need to be a person that actually works out with you, they just need to help keep you honest.
Sample home workout plan to get those home workout tips for beginners some use
You might want to try programming your own home workout eventually (read: https://troxfit.com/how-to-program-workouts-for-your-home-gym/ ).
But to help get you started I’ve put together a small workout plan to get you started. Everyone is different with unique needs and circumstances, but this is a very beginner-friendly home workout.
All you need are resistance bands.
Warmup
Warming up is a vital part of the workout process and is commonly overlooked.
In this workout, we are going to do some light cardio to get moving and then 1 core and 1 glute activation exercise.
Spend at least 10 minutes here.
- 5 minutes brisk jog/walk
- 3 sets of bodyweight glute bridges supersetted with bird dogs.
Strength
For the strength portion, we are going to accomplish a full-body workout through functional movements.
These are compound exercises that recruit more than one muscle group as well as replicate important movements of the human body.
- 3 sets of bodyweight squats
- 3 sets of band rows
- 3 sets of banded good mornings
- 3 sets of push-ups
- 3 sets of pull-ups
- 3 sets of forward lunges
- 3 sets of band overhead press
Finisher
To end the workout, we are going to include a finisher.
Think of it like a small HIIT workout that doesn’t require much thinking, so you use whatever energy you have left. It’s like the cherry on top of an already tasty sundae.
-3 sets of no push-up burpees supersetted with front planks
Because this is a full-body workout, I don’t advise doing this every day. Allow for 1 to 2 days of rest in between sessions so you can adequately recover.
Go give these home workout tips for beginners an honest try, best of luck!
If you still feel like you could use some extra coaching, check out my online fitness coaching service right here!