Exercising at home allows you to workout in the convenience and comfort of your home and saves you the time and money spent on a gym membership. There are many ways to exercise at home for those with limited or no fitness equipment. It’s best to include both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training into your home fitness regimen to effectively lose weight.
Cardio. Performing cardio exercise regularly will help you to burn calories, boost metabolism, reduce body fat and lose weight. Biking, jogging, aerobics and swimming are examples of exercises that will keep your heart rate elevated for a prolonged period. Aim to get your heart rate into your target heart zone which is 50% to 85% of your max heart rate. Calculate your max heart rate (MHR) by subtracting your age from 220. For example, if a 30-year-old adult’s MHR is 190 beats per minute (BPM), their target heart zone would be 95 BPM to 161 BPM. This 30-year-old person will burn the optimal amount of fat when they exercise closer to the top of their range, which is 161 BPM. They will burn the least amount of fat when exercising near the bottom, which is 95 BPM.
Resistance Training. It’s important to include resistance training into your fitness routine to tone muscles, burn calories and protect bones and joints. Strength training has a powerful weight loss benefit known as the “after burn effect”. The “after burn effect” is the result of resistance training that requires your body to use calories to rebuild and repair micro-tears in the muscle. This process can take as long as 48 hours which means your body is burning calories long after you’ve completed your workout. Be sure to allow 48 hours of recovery time before training a muscle again. For instance, if you’ve trained legs and back on Monday then do not train them again until Wednesday.
Workout Program. An ideal weight loss program would include 4 to 5 days of cardiovascular exercise and 3 to 4 days of resistance training. A sample week would include cardio exercise Monday through Friday and resistance training on:
- Monday (Back, Shoulders & Legs)
- Tuesday (Chest, Arms & Abs)
- Thursday (Back, Shoulders & Legs)
- Friday (Chest, Arms & Abs).
Beginners should start with 3 days of cardio exercise and 3 days of resistance training. Train each muscle group with 3 different exercises and perform 3 sets with 10 to 15 repetitions.
