Health & Fitness
Weight Loss
how to get fit without a gym: How to Set up a Plan
Most people buy a yearly membership and stop going after a few weeks.
In short, your money goes down the drain but more importantly, you will be in a negative frame of mind the next time you decide to buy a membership.
This time, why not try a home based exercise plan?
Within a few weeks, you will realize that a cleverly designed home based fitness plan complimented by an equally smart (and simple) diet plan is all that it takes to get started on the road to that dream body.
Having said that, working-out alone at home can sometimes be difficult – keeping motivation going can be a real problem.
However, setting and achieving short-term goals and recording your every little achievement (like your first unassisted pull-up) can help you realize how far you have come and also will keep you interested.
Design a Home Based Fitness Plan
Here are a few pointers to help you design a fitness and diet plan and keep you motivated to reach your goals.
Concentrate on callisthenic, plyometric and body weight exercises. Here is a list of exercise you can choose from:
- Push ups (modified push ups with knees on floor)
- Air squats (body weight, done as quick as possible)
- Pull ups or band pull ups (use resistance bands if not strong enough to lift your own body weight)
- Plyometric moves like box jumps, burpees, jump squats, plyometric push-ups
- Core exercises like hanging leg raises, sit ups or hip thrusts
- Resistance band exercises like shoulder press with band running under your feet, chest press with band running under the bench
How to Design Your Exercise Session
1- Warm Up For 10 Minutes
You can skip, jog in place or run in the backyard. Even burpees started slowly and then gathering pace as you go along can work as warm up.
2- Your Workout Session
Here’s what a typical set should include
- Box jump x 15 reps
- Push-ups x 8 reps
- Burpees x 10 reps
- Air squats x 15 reps
- Box jumps x 15 reps
- Resistance band pull-ups x 8 reps
- Core exercise (any) x 15 reps
All the above exercises done back to back will constitute one set; rest for a minute or two before repeating the cycle again.
4-5 cycles per exercise session should prove enough.
You can change the exercise on different days, but don’t forget that alternating between plyometric moves and callisthenic or resistance band moves will give you the maximum benefits.
3- Mix It Up
Don’t forget to increase the intensity every once in a while so you can keep making progress.
Other ways to mix it up are:
- Increasing the number of reps
- Doing the movements quicker
- Adding new exercises
- Increasing the number of exercises per set
Mixing up your routine can help keep the body confused, forcing it to respond in positive ways.
A day or two of outdoor sports, running, biking or activities that you have never done before will subject your body to a new stress and it will respond in a much better way.
To conclude, it is sometimes better to go in for a home-based exercise plan.
This is especially true when you are getting no-where working-out at the gym, or you’re having trouble to motivate yourself enough to get there!
So, get your pen and paper out, design an exercise plan, get your sneakers out and go for it!
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