What Are You Trying to Accomplish?
Read on to discover more about the different types of training that you should consider.
Strength Training
One of the most important benefits of strength training is that it can help prevent injury. If you want to be able to participate in sports or other physical activities as you get older, you must maintain your physical fitness.
No one is immune to injury. Many serious injuries can be prevented by building strength and maintaining flexibility. Strength training doesn’t only build muscle. It assists with improving your joint health, making you less likely to suffer from chronic pain or injuries.
Losing or maintaining weight is another benefit of strength training. While aerobic exercise burns more calories during the workout itself, strength training has an “afterburn effect”. Your body continues to burn calories after the workout is over.
Strength training is one of the most important ways to maintain or increase muscle mass even as you lose weight.
Cardio
Cardio workouts, like running, swimming, or biking, are great for your heart health. They improve your VO2 max. In the most basic terms, this is the amount of oxygen your body can process while exercising. It also measures your heart and lungs’ ability to pump blood through your body.
What is VO2 max?
VO2 max is the amount of oxygen your body uses while exercising as hard as you can.
If you’d like to know more about VO2 Max, check the article Everything to Know About VO₂ Max at Healthline.
This is important because the more efficiently your heart and lungs work, the less likely you are to have health problems like diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Cardio workouts also help you burn calories, which can be helpful if you’re trying to lose weight or get fit.
The more calories you can burn in a day, the better. However, cardio workouts don’t always burn a lot of calories, especially if you’re not pushing yourself. If you want to lose a lot of weight, you’ll benefit by doing a lot of cardio, but if you just want to stay in good shape, you may not need to do very many cardio workouts at all.
Body Weight Exercises
Body weight exercises are great for improving your overall fitness and health, but they don’t necessarily improve your strength. If you want to get stronger, you’ll need to add some weight lifting to your routine, but bodyweight exercises are a great way to get started and improve your overall fitness at the same time.
If you’re just starting out, you can do all these exercises using your own body weight. There are many great workouts you can do using just your own body weight, like squats, lunges, pushups, and crunches. Exercises like these can also help improve your balance and flexibility, which can help prevent injury, as well as improve your posture. They’re also much less expensive than joining a gym.
If you like to add some light weights to make your workout just that little bit more intense, have a look at this adjustable arm and leg weights. They come in a range of colors and can add up to 10 lbs.
Resistance Band Exercises
Resistance band exercises are great for improving muscle strength and endurance. If you’re trying to get stronger, or if you want to be able to do things like lift heavier weights, you’re going to want to add resistance training to your home workout routine.
Resistance bands are a great alternative to free weights because they’re cheaper, don’t require a gym membership, and are safe for people of all ages and fitness levels. You can get a great resistance band workout in the comfort of your own home and do things like squats, lunges, jumping jacks, and crunches. They’re great for beginners, but they can be used by advanced lifters as well.
Resistance bands come in a range of different resistance strengths. Some are more heavy duty than others. All you need is a basic set of resistance bands like one featured here.
Generally there are 2 types of resistance bands. Some form a loop like the featured Fit Simplify ones, and others are a length of band, usually around 5-6 feet long that do not create a loop. They are perfectly suited for both home and gym workouts.
Jumping Exercise
If you’re trying to improve your cardiovascular health, you can do jumping exercises like skipping, jumping jacks, jump ropes, and box jumps. This type of cardio is great for people who don’t want to run, but still want to get their heart rate up.
You can jump rope outside or inside on a carpet. Jumping exercises are great for beginners because you don’t need expensive equipment and you can do them almost anywhere.
You can pick up a decent jump rope for less than $10.
These ones have an ergonomic handle for comfort and they also have high-quality ball bearings which allow the rope to spin easily and not get tangled.
You also don’t need to be in great shape to start doing jumping exercises. You can do them as a warm-up at the beginning of your workout or as a cool-down at the end.
Jumping rope can be a great cardio exercise for both new and experienced athletes. I’m always impressed by how good boxers are at jumping rope. But remember, they had to start somewhere, and I’m sure they weren’t very good at first!
Conclusion
People have a range of reasons why they don’t go to the gym, and that’s perfectly ok. It may be that it’s too expensive, or that you can’t find the time, or you feel intimidated by others when you are there. Home workouts may be the answer for you, and they don’t have to be a scary thing.
You can get a great workout at home using minimal equipment and still see many of the same benefits as if you went to the gym. Decide what you are trying to accomplish with your home workouts and choose the type of exercise that will best help you achieve those goals. From there, you can explore the different types of equipment you might need to get started.
