Training at Home

I am a gym rat. If you know me you know that going to the gym is a big part of my life. I love the machines, I love the dumbbells, I love being surrounded by other people working hard but mostly I love the diversity of equipment. Being able to go to one place and have so many options makes workouts less boring and I also like to see what other people are doing to get ideas on things I want to incorporate in my workouts. Even if I had the money to have a basic gym at home I would prefer to work out in a gym. Thats just me though, I know a lot of other people who would prefer to workout at home. Personally I feel like I get a better workout at the gym, but every so often I won't have time to get there or I will be out of town and will have to workout at home. I don't have a lot of equipment, but with these basics you can get a pretty good workout in the comfort of your own home:

1. Jump Rope
2. Bosu Ball
3. Yoga Mat
4. Dumbbells or resistance bands (or both!)
5. Medicine Ball

One of the best ways to condense a workout but maintain your heart rate is to do circuit training. The lovely thing about circuit training is that it is a simple formula that you can use anywhere, at the gym or at home. Basically you chose a set of 6-7 exercises that work each area of the body and do them consecutively. If you want to increase the intensity of your workouts you can also do circuits that focus on just the upper part or the lower part of your body.

A good full body at home circuit workout should start with a small warm up and a bit of loosening up. By loosening up I do arm circles and swing my leg back and forth, just to get things lose and the blood flowing. You might even want to take a 5 minute brisk walk around the neighborhood.

Start your circuit with jumping rope. Now if you haven't jumped rope since you were in elementary school you may have forgotten how hard it is. Not only do you need a little coordination but it tires you out! Towards the end of any jump rope workout I am usually tripping on the rope more times than I would like to admit and out of breath. Start out by jumping for 1-3 minutes and increase this as you get better.

Next move on to squats. Your legs are going to be a little tired but a full body squat is a great exercise that works your entire lower body and your core. As you get more advanced you can also try a body squat on the bosu ball or a dumbbell squat. Start by doing sets of 10-15 reps, after your first set move on to your next exercise, the push up.

Push ups are a great upper body and core workout. Obviously your chest gets involved but your shoulders, back and core are all utilized in this exercise as well. Standard push ups should be where you start, but there are numerous variations on pushups you can do for variety. Do 10-20 reps.

Next move on to the lunge. A good lunge will really work the booty and there are several variations as well; the reverse lunge, the curtsey lunge etc. Do 15 lunges per leg.

Next give your legs a little rest and get those abs working. You can start by doing a basic crunch on the yoga mat or if you have an exercise ball, crunches on those are even better because you use a fuller range of motion. Do 25 reps.

Now dip baby dip. Back to the upper body, get your triceps working by doing some dips. Use a chair, the couch, the side of a table or any other sturdy object in the room. Place your hands, palms down, on the surface of the object. Your fingers should point toward your heels. Your body should be facing away from the object and your arms should be supporting your body weight. Your feet are simply acting as a pivot point. Lower your body toward the floor, and then lift yourself back up using your arms. This exercise focuses on your triceps but works your shoulders as well. Aim for 10-15 reps. When this gets easy, put a weight or something with some weight on your lap like a gallon of milk for a little extra difficulty.

Back to the abs, to work the lower abs try a reverse crunch(mandana optional). Do 20-30 reps and don't rush through these, slow and focused is better for your abs and back plus you won't be able to cheat by using momentum. From here go on to more ab work. I like to do some of my ab work consecutively to build up endurance and I found that consecutive ab work also gets me better results. One quick note on abs though, if you are trying to loose weight, don't waste a lot of time on ab work. Defined abs will only be visible if you don't have a layer of fat over them and doing ab work does not help you lose fat. That comes from consistently lifting weights and especially cardio. Having a strong core however will help you stay healthy and injury free so don't completely neglect them, just don't think that if you do 500 sit ups a day you will see anything if you still have overall body fat.

That completes one circuit! Get a drink of water and wait 1-2 mnutes then start again with the jump rope. Repeat this circuit 3 times and you have a pretty decent overall workout. With all exercise, don't do the same workout over and over for an extended period of time. As you get stronger you need to challenge yourself by increasing weight, increasing reps or doing variations of the exercises (or different exercies entirely). If you don't you will plateau and stop seeing results because your body becomes too effecient at doing the exercise and no longer has to work as hard.

Don't let an inability to get to the gym or a lack of a gym membership prevent you from working out!