Create An Effective Home Workout Program

If the sluggish economy has you paying extra attention to your monthly spending habits, one area you might be cutting back on is your gym membership. Luckily, this doesn't mean you must give up your workouts and let your physical condition suffer. It’s certainly possible to get a fantastic workout at home with a bit of planning and creativity.

Here’s how you can create an effective home workout program that will save you money without sacrificing results.

Determine your method of cardio training
If your main goal is to build muscle, you might think you won’t need to do a great deal of cardio training in the first place. However, including some cardio in your workout program does tend to help with nutrient partitioning, driving nutrients toward the muscle cells rather than the fat cells.

You can either choose to perform bouts of cardio between your strengthening movements, making it more like a calorie-burning circuit training program, or perform cardio all at once, after your strength training. You can also do cardio training in a separate session.

Do note that if your focus is on developing strength, you’re better off resting completely between sets to allow your body to recover, and performing cardio at another time.


At-home cardio options
Some good options for at-home cardio include:
Running up and down a set of stairs Jumping rope Step-ups on an oversize box or step (the higher the box, the better the cardiovascular benefits you’ll get Burpies These options are best used as an interval training excercise (going for 30 to 60 seconds hard, coupled with one minute of rest), which is ideal for at-home workouts since they are quick to complete and help burn fat more effectively.

Factoring in strength training
The next thing to do is plan out the strength training portion of your home workout. Ideally you should purchase a set of dumbbells and a barbell with weighted plates, that would allow you to perform many of the free-weight exercises you would do in the gym (bicep curls, triceps movements, deadlifts, rows, shoulder presses, lunges, etc). If you do not have these available to you, then it’s time to get creative.

Body-weight squats with a wall squat
Start by performing a set of 25 body-weight squats, being sure you are going as low to the floor as possible to the floor. Next, move over to the wall and perform a stationary wall squat, holding for one full minute.


Push-ups on an exercise ball
You can make the standard push-up more difficult simply by placing your hands on an exercise ball and performing the push-up from there. Additionally, you’ll also get the benefit of dramatically working your core muscles, making this an ideal upper body exercise.


Dips with feet raised
Next, move on to triceps dips off the back of a chair. To challenge yourself more, raise your feet up and place them up on a table, stool or bed in front of you. If you want to further increase the intensity, place a weighted object on top of your thighs.


Jump lunges
To work your glutes, hamstrings and quads, perform a series of jump lunges. Repeat until you have completed 10 to 15 reps for each set you do.


Pull-ups
For your lats and lower back area, if you have a sturdy bar somewhere in your house, hang off of it and perform a set of pull-ups. If you don’t, lie a strong broomstick or other pole across two solid surfaces (chairs, boxes, etc). Then lie down underneath it and mimic the pull-up action.


Single-leg deadlifts
Round out your home workout program by performing single leg deadlifts. Stand in front of a bed and place one leg back and up on top of it. From there, with a chair placed a foot or two in front of the body, bend down and grasp the bottom of the chair (note another weighted object can be used for this if you prefer -- a bag of sand, a box filled with cans, etc). Holding the object, rise up while keeping both legs as straight as possible, thinking of squeezing your glutes while you do so. Come to a full standing position and then lower the object to the ground once again to complete the rep.

As with any workout program, be sure you are also performing a good warm-up and cool down before and after the workout.