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According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Less than 5% of adults participate in 30 minutes of physical activity each day. Only one in three adults receive the recommended amount of physical activity each week.” Improve your health by creating a personalized exercise plan for workouts that you can do at home.
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Assess Your Current Health Conditions
If you are out of shape and more than 20 pounds overweight, your exercise plan will be different than someone who has been exercising for a while and is at their optimal weight level. If you want to successfully implement an exercise workout plan to complete at home, you need to accurately access your current health conditions.
- Weight – Weigh yourself and write your weight down in an exercise journal, or track it in a workout app. Record the date you weighed yourself so you know your starting point and can more accurately assess your weight loss goals.
- Physical – If you haven’t had an annual physical exam recently, make an appointment with your physician to get a comprehensive health assessment.
- Mental – Assess your current mental and emotional well-being. If you are not motivated to implement your workout routine, you’ll likely fail. Your mental and emotional health are just as important as your physical well-being.
Write Down Your Exercise Goals
Once you assess your current health conditions, it’s important to write down your exercise goals. Don’t simply think about them or share your goals with your best friend. Writing those goals down makes them more real in your mindset. Write the goals in your workout journal or add them to an exercise app you are using.
- Immediate – Make immediate workout goals, like creating your home workout routine, and the action steps you’ll need to take to get started.
- Short-Term – Create short-term goals to be completed in 3-6 months like developing the habit of daily or weekly exercise and identify your first weight loss goal.
- Long-Term – Make long-term goals that can be completed in 1-3 years like losing 15-30 (or more) pounds and changing your eating habits.
Research the Best Workout Routines
Do your homework and get advice from the experts. If you’ll be working out at home, you want to make sure that you are exercising the right way to avoid injuries. Purchase fitness books for beginners like “Strong: Nine Workout Programs for Women to Burn Fat” by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove or “Cross-Training for Dummies” by Tony Ryan and Martica Heaner. If you can’t afford to purchase exercise books, visit your local library to see what books they have on the subject for you to read and learn from.
YouTube can be a great resource for learning some excellent workout routines you can do at home. Some well-known trainers to check out are Kira Stokes, Cassey Ho, Anna Renderer, and Scott Herman.
The following websites offer both free and paid workout options: Crossfit, Planet Fitness, Nike Training Club, Blogilates, Barry’s Bootcamp, 305 Fitness, and Peloton. You can download any of the following free exercise apps: Centr by Chris Hemsworth, Home Workout by Leap Fitness Group, and 7 Minute Workout by Simple Design Ltd.
Implement Your Workout Routine
After completing those three steps, you are ready to get started implementing your workout routine. Make sure your exercise routine includes the following:
- Strength Training – Use weights or resistance training techniques for all your major muscle groups at least twice weekly.
- Aerobic Exercise – The Mayo Clinic recommends at “least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise daily or one hour of aerobic exercise three times weekly.”
- Balancing Activities – Integrate balancing exercises into your home workout to ensure that you maintain core strength and better balance as you age.
- Stretching Routines – Flexibility is important to decrease muscle cramps, risk of injury while exercising, and joint pain, so stretching routines should be a part of your daily workouts.
Be Smart and Have Fun to Workout at Home !
If you are not used to exercising, you need to make sure that you think before you act and remember to have fun. By following the four steps as outlined in this article, you will increase your chances of completing successful workouts at home–and improving your overall health and well-being.
Sources:
- hhs.gov/fitness/resource-center/facts-and-statistics/index.html
- mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/expert-answers/aerobic-exercise/faq-20058561#:~:text=For%20most%20healthy%20adults%2C%20the%20Department%20of%20Health,training%20exercises%20at%20least%20two%20times%20a%20week.
