Could you benefit from shedding a few pounds? Is your sedentary lifestyle making you seem bigger in the belly, thighs, or booty?
Everyone’s body is unique, as is our understanding of physical fitness. Fortunately, we have 12 exercises you can do at home right in your living room to get you off the sofa and back into shape. It’s freezing outside. Work out indoors!
What Are The Benefits Of Exercises You Can Do At Home?
We all know that regular exercise is beneficial to our health. However, with so many alternatives and information accessible, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with what works. But don’t worry. We have your back (and body)! Check out these 12 exercises for optimum fitness.
Combine them into a fitness regimen for a simple yet effective workout that will keep you in shape for the rest of your life. After 30 days — or even just twice a week — you should see increases in your muscular strength, endurance, and balance. Plus, you’ll notice a change in how your clothes fit — a win-win situation!
1. Yoga – If you have never tried yoga, now is the time. The poses of downward dog and sun salutations might seem like a walk in the park, but don’t get ahead of yourself. Yoga can seriously burn calories and get your body and mind in the right mindset to tackle your day or your week.
Aside from the abundance of health benefits, perhaps the best advantage of yoga is how it helps one manage stress, which can have crippling effects on the mind, body, and soul.
The only gear requirement for yoga is a mat, which can be found for economically-friendly prices nearly anywhere.
Hook up YouTube to your phone, tablet, computer, or TV, and follow along with professional yogis.
Some common yoga poses are:
- Mountain
- Downward facing dog
- Plank
- Triangle
- Tree
- Warrior 1
- Warrior 2
- Seated forward bend
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2. Lunges – If you’ve ever been in a fitness centre setting, you likely know what lunges are.
If not, let’s jog your memory:
- Stand straight, keep your upper body straight, shoulders relaxed, and chin up.
- Keep one leg forward, and lower your hips till both knees are bent at a 90-degree angle. Make sure that your knee is in line with your ankles.
- Make sure that the other knee does not touch the floor.
- Keep your body weight on the heels.
- Now switch feet and repeat the same.
Lunges are great for building up muscle mass and strengthening and toning your body, especially your legs and core. You’ll better your balance and tighten your booty in the process. Lunges are great to gain some definition in your abs and improve your range of motion and posture.
3. Superman/Banana – Made famous by the fad workout regimen P90X, the Superman/Banana switcheroo uses your body’s weight against it.
Superman – Lay on your stomach and raise your arms out in front of you as high as you can while lifting your legs off the ground in a similar manner.
Banana – Lay on your back and lift your shoulders off the ground ever so slightly. Raise your legs off the ground and connect your biceps with your ears.
This workout takes no gear and is great for the core.
Time yourself. How long can you be Superman today?
4. Pull-ups – You will require a pull-up bar for this exercise, but the benefits you receive from implementing pull-ups into your home workout regimen are huge.
Among other things, pull-ups help:
- Strengthen the back muscles
- Strengthen the arm and shoulder muscles
- Improve grip strength
- Improve overall body strength and fitness level
- Improve physical health
- Improve mental health
If you’re not quite strong enough to do pull-ups by yourself, grab a chair from the living or dining room and use it as a starting point. Start with both feet on the chair if necessary, and gradually reduce to one foot.
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5. Curls – Curls are a favourite among men looking to pump up their arms for aesthetic purposes.
Grab yourself a pair of dumbbells from your local sporting goods store and include bicep curls into your weekly fitness regimen.
It’s a simple workout, and it works well. It is an effective way to isolate one muscle group, whereas most of the exercises mentioned above work for many muscle groups.
6. Skipping Rope – Skipping introduces a wide range of health benefits and is a great calorie burner. Did you know that skipping rope for just 10 minutes is similar to a 30-minute run? Seriously!
It helps that skipping is a fair bit of fun, as well.
Enjoying your physical fitness journey is a crucial ingredient for keeping up with your regimen. So, if skipping has never occurred to you as a form of exercise, perhaps now is a great time to find your child’s rope and give it a go.
Not convinced quite yet?
Check out the 4 top benefits you can gain when implementing skipping into your daily or weekly fitness routine.
- Weight loss
- Balance
- Improved heart health
- Full body workout
7. Air Boxing – You would be shocked to know how many calories you could burn by punching the air for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Like yoga, air boxing (or shadowboxing) is both a physical and mental exercise. Those practising it say air boxing can quiet and focus the mind.
Experienced gym-goers may think of air boxing as a warmup to the big thing, but it’s a great full-body workout if you fully commit to the exercise. Especially now, with a worldwide pandemic, all you need is about 5 square meters of space outside, in your garage, or even in your living room to get a nice sweat going.
During an air boxing session, you work on everything from your shoulders and arms to your chest and leg muscles. Don’t forget your water bottle.
8. Chair Dips – Position a chair in a place with space and turn your back to it. Put your hands at the edge of the chair or on the sides. Then, put your legs straight out in front of you.
Next, just dip your arms down to a 90-degree angle and push yourself back up before your hindquarters land on the carpet or hardwood.
Three sets of 10 twice a day should do the trick.
This workout targets the triceps and the upper arms. Some experts explain that chair dips are the absolute best workout for this specific region of the body. The triceps are essential in everyday movements that involve extending the elbow and forearm.
9. Oblique Crunches – Great for getting rid of stubborn belly or side fat (affectionately called the muffin top), oblique crunches isolate your oblique abdominals first and foremost. Be careful, these muscles are rarely exercised correctly and can be prone to overstretching and injury, should you overdo the exercise.
Like many of the exercises on this list, oblique crunches need only a floor or a yoga mat to accomplish.
The crunch fully engages the abdominal wall and helps sculpt the waist. It also helps strengthen the back muscles while improving balance and flexibility as a bonus.
10. High Knee Runners – Think of the last time you went for a run or a jog. You probably didn’t move your legs too high while you did it. When most people run, they barely lift their feet above the ground, perhaps a few centimetres. The human race has become so deft at walking that there is no longer thought regarding human movement sans technology.
High-knee runners change that by getting your knees up to your waist for an extended period. Instead of just running down the street, through the park, or next to the woods, high-knee runners change your routine. It’s a cardio-centric exercise performed at a fast pace and engages your core and legs to improve coordination and balance.
11. Planks – Another abdominal crusher, planks require little to no movement during the duration of the exercise. Does that make you excited?
Planks just may be the most challenging workout on this list. The goal is to keep your abdominal muscles flexed for as long as you can. By planking, you achieve this goal by putting the tips of your toes and your forearms on the ground in a downward-facing position.
You hold yourself in that position for a predetermined amount of time or muster it for as long as you can. One of the most significant health benefits that planking gives you is a strong posture. Planking also helps and aligns your spine, rhomboids, and trapezius, promoting better posture.
12. Walking – This one is the easiest thing you can do. Just get up and walk around. Did you know that walking gives immediate cognitive and physical benefits to those who walk for as little as 15 minutes? Benefits include a boost to your mental health and weight loss goals and better sleep. The best part of walking is that you can do it right outside your front door. Or better yet, in and around your house.
If you don’t have the time, motivation, or excitement to do any exercises, at least do yourself a favour and walk around your house for a while. It’s the least you can do.
How To Improve These Exercises That You Can Do At Home?
These essential workouts will benefit your body, but there is always the potential for improvement. If you find yourself rushing through and barely breaking a sweat, concentrate on progressive overload by making each step more difficult by:
- Adding 5 more reps
- Adding more weight
- Tacking on a jump to moves like squats and lunges
Another way to shake things up? Make the program a time-under-tension exercise by performing each action for a specified period of time rather than a defined number of reps.