At Home Workout Plan Basics For Beginners

So you’ve decided to start exercising at home, at your own pace and comfort, but you don’t know where to begin or how to begin. Right? I know the feeling all too well. It’s exciting but quite frightening. However, I’m here to help YOU design an effective beginner friendly at home workout plan suited for your body and schedule. There’s absolutely no catch. Yes, you read that right. No gym membership, personal trainer or expensive equipment is required. Just your desire to workout, body and time! Gyms may be closed due to Coronavirus, but you can still workout at home! So, get ready to learn all the basics of how to create an effective at home workout plan.
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At Home Workout Plan Basics
Please note I will be writing this post assuming that you have NEVER worked out at-home before. Again, this post is beginner friendly. Since there are quite a few things to cover! Therefore, I will be dividing this topic into TWO posts (two-parts) But before we could get into the actual portion of creating an at-home workout plan, we have to cover all the basics in this post.
- Familiarizing yourself with fitness
- Learning the basics
- Discovering what works best for you
- Preparing a fitness area
- Planning your fitness time
1. FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH FITNESS
What do I mean by this?
Learn what you can about fitness
Online, through social media, books, articles, blogs, YouTube, through whatever stream you can! Try to expand your knowledge on fitness. The more you know about fitness, the more effective your performance will be. You don’t have to become an expert to have a successful workout. However, you do need to have some knowledge in the matter. You definetly need to know what you’re doing and how it’ll affect your body. Otherwise, you can injure yourself. Here are a few helpful articles that can help you get started:
Surround yourself with fitness related content and people
Let fitness be a part of your world. Increase the presence of fitness on all of your platforms. Here are some easy ways to do so:
- Follow fitness influencers on Instagram – Fitness Influencers typically share their daily workouts, exercises they are loving, new routines they are trying out, suggested exercises for specific muscles, and more fun stuff. This is a great way to learn new routines and exercises! My favorite fitness influencer is Pamela Reif!
- Subscribe to fitness channels on YouTube – Fitness YouTubers post incredible workout routines and challenges that you can follow, and helpful fitness related videos. Here are my top five favorite fitness youtubers!
Related Posts:
2. LEARN THE BASICS
Learn the basic bodyweight exercises:
- their names
- the form you should have when performing them
- modifications for them
Here’s a list of 10 bodyweight exercises you should learn & master:
- Squats
- Push-Ups
- Crunches
- Planks
- Dips
- Glute Bridges
- Lunges
- Leg kickbacks
- Leg Lifts
- Jumping Jacks
Look up these exercises online (YouTube) and practice them! Once you master these basic exercises, you can begin doing variations of these exercises. For example, variations of Glute Bridges would include: close glute bridges, wide glute bridges, weighted glute bridges, single leg glute bridges, glute bridge hold, etc! There’s just so many!! If you’re interested in practicing more exercises, here are 100 exercises you can try!
3. DISCOVER WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU
This step goes side by side with step #2. As you’re learning basic bodyweight exercises and trying out variations of them, take a moment to see how your body reacts to each exercise. Ask yourself the following questions:
WHICH EXERCISES:
- Do I like?
- Do I dislike?
- Make me sweat the most?
- Hurt me the most?
- Leave my muscles sore the next day?
- Are the easiest/hardest to do?
- Am I targeting when performing x exercise?
It is important to always try out new exercises so that you see how each exercise targets your muscles and how you can target your muscles from different angles. Since you are just starting your fitness journey, it’s important for you to only focus on a set of exercises that you like and work best for you.So, give yourself a two-week trial to discover what exercises you like and dislike and what works and what doesn’t. During this period, try out all kinds of exercises and make a note of which exercises work best.
Related Post: 100 Bodyweight Exercises To Try
4. PREPARE YOUR WORKOUT SPACE
As you read in the title of this post, this workout plan is designed for at-home workouts! However, you can definitely take your workout to a different location, if you want to! Here are 7 different locations you can workout in! Considering that you do decide to workout at home: choose a place in your home where you can workout consistently. Make it your designated “workout area” or “mini-gym” if you have the space to do so!
1. Choose a place that:
- Motivates you to workout in (how is the view? temperature? vibe?)
- Is spacious – there is enough room for you to move around in.
- You feel comfortable in!
- Is accessible at all times.
Whether it be a space in your bedroom, office, living room, basement or a guest room, make sure you can consistently workout in this area.
2. Prepare your workout area
Once you have chosen the area that you will workout in, it’s time to prepare it.
Basic equipment suggested:
- Yoga mat
- Resistance Bands
- A pair of dumbbells
- Stretching strap
- Kettlebell
- Step platform
- Waist Trainer
Once you have purchased the basic equipment listed above, it’s time to place the equipment you have/will use during your workouts in your NEW workout area.
TIP: Keep all of your equipment together that way you can easily locate them during your workouts. It’ll save you time!
Related Post: How To Have A Successful At-Home Workout.
5. PLAN YOUR TIME
How much time are you willing to devote each day to your workouts?
- 15 minutes?
- 20 minutes?
- 30 minutes?
- 40 minutes?
- 60 minutes?
How many days a week can you workout for?
- 2 days?
- 3 days?
- 4 days?
- 5 days?
- 6 days?
You can’t design a workout plan that will fit with your current schedule without knowing beforehand how much time and how many days a week you can devote to working out. So, make sure that you can consistently stick with whatever amount of time and days you choose. Consistency is everything here!
More Posts You May Like:
- How To Stay Motivated To Consistently Workout At Home.
- How To Design An Effective At Home Workout Plan.
- Top 8 Benefits Of Working Out At Home.
- How To Have A Successful At Home Workout.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Now that you have all the basics down, you are ready to begin designing your own workout plan! I don’t want to throw everything at you at once, so we’ll pick up from here in part 2. In Part 2 of this series, I will be showing you exactly how to design a successful at home workout plan fit for you, while sharing my tips and tricks. Part 2: How To Design Your Own At Home Workout Plan.
Until next time,
Gabby Abigail
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Wow, this is a really excellent post! I work out at home, but only occasionally, and not mindfully. I have physical therapy exercises I should be doing for my knee, but I find that when I get busy, my PT and exercise routine fall by the wayside. I love how you break everything down like this! I feel very inspired, thanks!
Yes, I’ve figured that when I am mindful and consistent with my workout routine, I see more results. That’s why it’s important to create a good workout plan (suited for you) and stick to it, as much as you can. I’m glad you found this helpful! Thank you for reading (:
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GABBY
This is an absolutely amazing post for someone like me! I am a little bit exercise-phobic but am really wanting to get in shape and develop my own fitness routine. Thank you so much for this post and I look forward to the next post
The hardest part is starting! Once you dive into the world of fitness, you won’t want to leave! Take it from someone who hated sports and gym class as a kid and NOW loves working out. You can do it too! At-home workouts definitely give you the flexibility to create a routine that you feel comfortable with. So glad you enjoyed this post! x
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GABBY
Such a good post! I’ve recently started working out at home and you pretty much hit the nail on the head!
bossbabechroniclesblog.com
Thank you, Mariam! Glad you think so.
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GABBY
I’m too lazy to go to the gym, so I really need a good home workout plan. Thanks for the tips!
Absolutely. hey, I get it!:-)
These are really great tips! It’s amazing that there’s so many resources available to us to be able to do workouts at home during this difficult time xo
Makeup Muddle
Thank you. I’m glad to help 🙂 At-home workouts are definitely keeping me sane during this difficult time!
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GABBY
Just might have to forward this post to a few fitness newbies and freaks I know, because this is very much on point in terms of informing beginners how to approach workouts. Some people dont know where to start from, what they need, where to do their research and how to progress in training (which is one thing I felt this post could’ve touched on more to be honest but then again it’s for beginners and you dont wanna risk scaring them off so maybe not haha). Theres no excuse for them now, especially with everyone self-isolating.
Johnny | Johnny’s Traventures
https://johnnystraventures.com
Ah, thank you!! I really appreciate your feedback. I tried my best to cover as much as I can without scaring fitness newbies away, haha. However, I will definitely create a post centered on the progress in training. And you’re right, there are no more excuses to not workout. I hope everyone tries to make the best of the situation, as much as they can!
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GABBY
I need to figure out the time portion. I think I need to start out small like 15 minutes for 3 days maybe. We will see how it goes! Thank you for this post!
That sounds perfect. I started out only exercising for 10 minutes 3-5x a week, and now I’m working out 1 hour 4-5x a week. Girl, anything is better than nothing. Let me know how it goes!
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GABBY
I love this step-by-step approach to working out from home! I found that twenty minutes a day works well for me, and I adapted an exercise program through an online workout routine. So true that it is whatever works for you. 🙂
20 minutes sounds great! (: I am so glad you have found a routine that works for you. Thanks for reading!
Yesss I needed this, girl!! I downloaded that printable and am filling it out tonight lol. Being able to visualize how many days a week and how long I want to workout will be very helpful in putting together a workout plan that I can be accountable to!
Also, I think its great that you listed questions to ponder when trying to figure out an exercise plan. It is important to recognize what is an exercise motivator, as well as what challenges us and makes us sweat!
Yay! That’s awesome! I am so excited for you. Let me know how it goes!
Btw, part 2 of this series will be up next week! so stay tuned (:
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GABBY