Maximize Your Home Workout

 

 

If you’re interested in maximizing the benefits of your home workout, it’s important to understand a couple of things. First of all, there are numerous reasons you should be exercising, and many of these reasons have absolutely nothing to do with weight loss. A regular exercise routine is essential for a healthy lifestyle. It can boost your body’s immunity, help you get a better night’s sleep, and provide a variety of important health benefits.

 

The second thing you should understand is if your only reason to workout is to lose weight, it’s not going to happen. There’s so much more that goes into losing weight; in fact, it’s not even necessary to exercise in order to lose weight. Of course, it’s definitely recommended, especially because it can help speed up your weight loss; but, more importantly, because regular exercise is necessary for good health.

 

With those two important points out of the way, it is true that there are exercises and workouts you can do that can help burn fat so you lose weight faster. What these exercises have in common is that they generally all include high-intensity moves designed to burn the maximum amount of calories in a short period of time.

 

Before we get started talking about maximizing your home workout for weight loss, there are a few basics you should know:

 

 

1.  The food choices you make are more important than your workout.

If you want to see permanent changes in your weight, healthy eating habits are absolutely essential.

 

2.  Exercise should be a meaningful part of your regular routine.

A home workout once a week is simply not going to help you see any significant results. If you’re new to exercising or you’re just getting back into the habit, strive for three workouts per week. As you gain stamina, you should increase your workouts to 5 or 6 per week. Remember, you should have at least one day off each week in order to let your body rest and recover.

 

3.  Push yourself in every workout.

Make a commitment that you’re going to give every workout 100% effort. As you’re doing your workout, periodically take a mental check to see if you’re pushing yourself to your maximum ability. Ask yourself if you could be giving more. It’s better to do fewer workouts per week than to increase the number of workouts you do, but only put in 50% effort.

 

4.  Find a home workout you enjoy.

If you want to lose weight, finding a workout that you like is very important. When you’re doing something you like, you’ll be more likely to stick with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interval Training

The workout most experts recommend for weight loss is interval training. In fact, it’s their number one recommendation, even if you aren’t trying to lose weight. Interval training is a type of exercise that has you working as hard as you can for short bursts of time. You give it your all, then back off to a more comfortable intensity until you’ve regained your breath. Repeated cycles of high intensity / low intensity exercise is an excellent way to get your metabolism running at full throttle. Of course, that’s also when you’re going to be maximizing the calorie burn as well.

 

Weight Training

The use of weight training for weight loss is another exercise that’s at the top of expert recommendations. You can use resistance bands, hand weights, or even your own body weight. Weight training can increase your resting metabolic rate so you burn more calories, even long after your workout is finished. This is called the “afterburn effect.” Incorporate weight training into your workout at least 3 times each week. Adding weights to your home workout is an effective way to burn more calories and fat. Keep in mind that your body has a tendency to adjust to movements it is exposed to repeatedly, so it’s a good idea to mix up your intensity every few weeks in order to maximize the effectiveness of the exercise.

 

Yoga

On its own, yoga isn’t a great weight loss workout. However, it can be an excellent tool to use along with your other exercises. Yoga will keep you healthier and more flexible, so you’ll be able to dig deeper into some of the more intense fat burning workouts. Yoga also increases stability and balance as well as give a boost to our mental health. At least once each week, try to fit in a yoga session.

 

Jumping Rope

A jump rope is a cheap piece of exercise equipment that you can take with you just about anywhere, even on vacation. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes of jumping rope to get your heart rate pumping.

 

Here’s a quick routine to try:

1. Warm up with a light 3 minute skip with the rope.
2. Do 100 traditional jumps with the rope (both feet are off the floor at the same time, no extra hops).
3. When you’re done, immediately do 100 jump rope sprints (regular jump rope, but at a faster pace).
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3, but switch to 50/50, 21/21, 15/15, 9/9.
5. If you’re ready to challenge yourself, try working your way back up through the sequence until you get to 100/100 again.