6 Ideas For Your Home Workout: Equipment, Tools And Programs

If you can’t leave the house, or don’t have a gym membership, you’re stuck doing workouts at home — which can get boring quickly.

Worse, it’s easy to simply go through the motions because you’re not motivated or challenged or not sure which workouts to do. As a result, you don’t get a great workout and are even less interested to do it again the next day.

Instead of checking the box, and boring yourself with another crappy workout, take it to the next level with these simple home workout ideas for every budget, fitness goal and experience level.

1. Vary Your home workout – consistently

The key to making the most of your workouts at home may lie in consistency.

Without consistency, you might not have enough structure to allow for growth.

As Hannah Peters, BS, CPT and Health Fitness Instructor explains: “Our bodies adapt gradually to exercise. In the end, consistency will help you reach your goals.”

But, consistency doesn’t mean repeating the same over and over again.The body needs progressive overload, “which is when the amount of stress on the body is gradually increased over time, leading to increased strength and performance,” explains Peters.

So, instead of doing the same workouts, at the same pace, weight and level, gradually make them harder, add more weight, or choose more challenging workouts.

This will ensure that your body gets the most out of every movement opportunity.

2. Use Home Workout Programs

If you have a hard time motivating yourself to get moving for a workout, have someone else do it for you by following a workout program or video.

There are various online fitness videos, both as stand-alone 1-time workouts and as multi-week workout programs that allow you to progress toward greater strength and endurance.

Using available on-demand workouts is also a great option if you’re struggling to figure out what type of workout to do in the first place. Decide what your goal is and then choose the program that best supports it.

If you don’t want to or don’t have the time to spend looking for suitable workouts, you can use a daily training guide, like the FitSpark, to get ready-made tailored workout suggestions based on your fitness level, recovery status and training history.

3. Track Your Home Workout

If you love working out at home, but are never sure if you’re getting a great workout, track yourself with a free training app, like Polar Beat. You can track heart rate, duration, calories burned and much more.

Take it one step further by getting the pro version of your favorite app, which often comes with training and coaching, mid-workout reminders and sleep and water intake tracking.

Decide what you need and find the app that will push you to reach your workout targets.

4. Use the Stairs

If you have stairs at home, in your apartment building or at the entrance to your house, use them as part of your workout. There are so many ways that you can boost a bodyweight workout with this simple yet powerful tool.

Here are some stair exercises you can try:

• Box jumps
• Tricep dips
• Step-ups
• Decline push-ups

You can also run long sets of stairs for a cardio warm-up or burnout.

5. Get Home Workout Equipment

Take your bodyweight workouts up a notch with some equipment.

While you may not have room in your house for a full weight rack or set of dumbbells, you can invest in a few key items that will allow you to add resistance and challenging elements to your workout without taking up too much space.

Here’s some at-home workout equipment to consider:

• Resistance bands
• Pull-up bar
• Gliders
• Ankle weights
• Kettlebell
• 1-2 sets of weights

Note that most of this can slide under your bed or couch, or be tucked into a closet — they don’t take up much space but add a lot to your at-home workout.

6. Play With Different Workouts

Working out at home means you have so many workout modalities to choose from. You don’t just have to lift weights or do a bodyweight workout — you can test your body and have fun with dance, yoga, cardio, barre and others.

Here are a few home workout programs to get your body moving in a new way:

• Hot 8 Yoga
• Hip Shake Fitness
• Pure Barre On Demand
• Les Mills On Demand

Make the Most Of Your Home Workout

You can reach your fitness goals without a gym — you might just need a little help to get there. Hopefully these ideas will help you avoid another boring or unchallenging workout and inspire you to try new workout programs, tools and equipment to make the most of every home workout.

Please note that the information provided in the Polar Blog articles cannot replace individual advice from health professionals. Please consult your physician before starting a new fitness program.