Regular exercising helps you lose weight, maintain strength, and look better. Research further shows that physical activity reduces the risk of heart disease and cancer and increases life expectancy by up to 6.9 years.
However, people live busy lives, and they don’t get enough time to hit the gym. If you’re one of them, we’ve got you covered. This guide will unravel some fantastic workouts you can do at home.
Now, home workouts are a broad topic depending on the space and equipment you have. For example, if you have basic workout equipment like dumbbells, you can take your workouts to another level.
However, we’ve listed workouts that require no equipment so that anyone can do them. Moreover, these exercises need minimum space, so you can even do them in your bedroom. And to help you pick the best workout, we’ve highlighted the calories burned, difficulty level, and ideal age for all exercises.
Let’s delve into the seven best home workouts to stay in shape.
1. Jumping
Jumping is a plyometric exercise that comes in various forms and variations. The most basic version is regular jumping, where you jump off the ground using both your feet simultaneously. There are dozens of jumping variations, and you can pick one based on your age and fitness level.
Short reps of slow jumping are ideal for beginners and aged individuals. Once you build stamina and tolerance, you can graduate to advanced jumping exercises, like jumping jacks and high jumps. These exercises require more effort and thus, help you burn more calories.
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Skipping rope is the best jumping exercise, but it’s meant for advanced jumpers. You need good hand-leg coordination to jump at the right time. Skipping rope is a high-intensity cardiovascular exercise, and it’s not ideal for older individuals and heart patients.
Overall, all jumping exercises are good, and you can pick one depending on your stamina, age, and other factors. Apart from burning calories and weight loss, jumping helps you build calves, hamstrings, abs, glutes, back, chest, and oblique muscles.
2. Squats
A squat is a strength exercise targeting your quadriceps (thigh front), hamstrings (thigh back), calves, and glutes. It’s also an effective cardiovascular exercise that can help you burn 8-10 calories per minute.
How to do a squat?
Stand straight and lower your hips down from a standing position to a sitting position and then stand back up. Your feet should remain flat on the ground throughout the exercise.
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If you’re a beginner, avoid overdoing squats, as they can leave your thighs and calves sore. Start with three reps of 25 squats each and gradually increase the reps and intensity.
If you want to take your squats to the next level, you can customize them by including weights or jumps. Power squats, for example, comprise jumping and squatting, which increases the intensity of the squats. You can also hold a weight, like a dumbbell, while squatting to increase the intensity.
3. Push-ups
The push-up is a calisthenics exercise targeting the chest, shoulders, triceps, and nearby muscles. It’s one of the most common home exercises, and it’s also popular in military training and physical education.
How to do a push-up?
Place your palms at shoulder-width or slightly apart. Straighten your arms and body as much as possible, with your elbows being perpendicular to the ground. Now, bring your body down while bending your elbows slightly outward. Touch your chest to the ground and push yourself up to the default position.
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Push-ups are not the easiest exercise to do, and if you haven’t done push-ups before, you may find them challenging. Start slowly with fewer reps and gradually increase the reps.
There are multiple variations of push-ups. Beginners can start with wall push-ups and kneeling push-ups. Once you build the strength, you can advance to military push-ups, diamond push-ups, and power & clap push-ups.
You can pick a push-up depending on your experience level and the muscle groups you want to focus on.
4. Plank
The plank is a core strength exercise targeting mainly the core. It strengthens the core and improves balance, posture, and stability.
How to do a plank?
Get into the push-up position with your palms at shoulder width. Bring your elbows to the ground and position your forearms forward. Ensure that your body forms a straight line from your head to heals. Now, hold this position for as long as you can.
The plank is also a good cardiovascular exercise that helps you burn 2-5 calories. You can do plank variations like forearm to full plank, side plank on forearm, and plank with shoulder tap to increase the intensity and burn more calories.
5. Inchworms
The inchworm exercise is an excellent bodyweight exercise that activates most of the body’s muscles, including arms, chest, back, and abs. It’s a good cardiovascular exercise, and you can also incorporate it into your core strength training.
How to do an inchworm?
Stand straight with your feet at hip distance. Bend down to touch your toes without bending your knees (it’s okay to bend your knees slightly). Place your hands on the floor, and crawl forward until you reach the push-up position. Now, crawl back to the toe-touch position.
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If you want to step things up, you can do a full push-up when you reach the push-up position.
6. Core exercises
The core includes the muscles in your abdomen, pelvis, and back. Building core strength is vital, as it improves balance, stability, and posture.
It’s a common misconception that the core only comprises abdominal muscles or abs. The core consists of the erector spinae (back muscle), rectus abdominis (abs), obliques, transverse abdominis (side abs), pelvis, groin, and multifidus (back).
There are many core exercises, and you can pick them depending on which core muscle you want to train. Your resilience and experience will also play a role in determining the core exercise you do.
Here are the five best core exercises in the ascending order of difficulty:
- Bridges
- Crunches
- Bicycle crunches
- Planks
- Mountain climbers
Note: Mountain climbers are excellent for burning calories too. Opt for mountain climbers if you want to combine your cardio with core training.
7. High knees
Let’s end this list with high knees, a cardio-intensive (HIIT) exercise that helps burn calories while strengthening your core, calves, and hamstrings. It’s a common exercise in military training.
How to do high knees?
Run at one place while bringing your knees as high as possible. Your knees should be parallel to the ground or higher for the exercise to be effective.
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There are two variations of this exercise.
- Let your hands move freely as you run normally.
- Keep your arms parallel to the body and bring your forearms forward, positioning them parallel to the ground. When doing high knees, bring your knees up to your palms.
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Though high knees can help you strengthen the core, calves, and thigh muscles, they’re essentially a high-intensity cardiovascular exercise. If you prefer HIIT cardio sessions, you can incorporate high knees into your workout.
Final thoughts
Exercising has many research-backed benefits, including weight maintenance, body strength, and higher life expectancy. However, not all people can spend hours in the gym. Here’s where home workouts discussed above come into the picture.
You can do these exercises anywhere, and doing them regularly can help you lose weight and get a ripped body.
So, which exercise did you like the most? Let us know.
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