9 Essential Tips To Compile a Home Exercise Program That Suits You!

I think you’ll agree that it’s difficult to come across a
home exercise program which is specifically suited to you.

For example, I know that a lot of women don’t like jumping, me included, and so most of the fitness dvds or YouTube videos that include jumping won’t be suited to us.

Not only, that but it’s easy to get bored with any given exercise workout overtime, and so you end up exercising less and then eventually stop altogether.

Do you resonate with that?

Ideally, you need to come up with a home exercise program which not only works to help you reach your fitness goals, but a one that you keep-on enjoying and which keeps you motivated.

Because it’s so easy to fall into the trap of following the latest exercise craze or buying that new piece of equipment, that we (well, I) forget to choose something which fits my needs first, instead of following the best exercise program for ‘Jenny’, or ‘Carol’, for example.

The amount of different exercise dvds that I’ve bought over the years are a testament to this.

Along with the

… all of which I have purchased (and sold) over the years in order to try and find the perfect exercise regimen for me.

I believe that I’ve now finally found the best home exercise program which suits me, which is yoga and the kettle bell workouts.  Not at the same time mind you!

I alternate by doing yoga on a Monday, kettle bell on a Tuesday, Yoga on Wednesday … etc.

But of course you don’t have to follow the same home exercise program as me, and I doubt you would want to, because there are so many different ways to exercise from home that it makes it much easier to find a one which suits you and to also be able to switch it around every few weeks or so.

So in order to help you build your own home exercise program today, and to continue to change things up a bit every few weeks before you get bored, I’ve outlined nine essential tips to get your home workout 100% right and specifically tailored to you.

Related Reading: 17 Easy Home Fitness Workouts That Will Whip You Into Shape Fast

Tip #1 – What’s Your Goal?

What’s your goal?  What’s the reason why you want to exercise from home?

I know that this seems like a silly or obvious question, but it will be a big deciding factor on the type of exercise program you’re about to put together.

So make a note of the exact reasons(s) you want to exercise at home for.

Is there a Time-Length Goal?

Do you need to lose weight or be fit for a particular occasion?

You mightn’t even need to lose any weight to fit into that dress or look good in your bikini, you could just do with some serious toning instead.

Remember Callan Pinckney?

I can remember years ago when I used to do Callanetics and Callan Pinckney used to say that you can drop down two dress sizes in a matter of weeks just by toning your body and pulling everything in with her deep muscle Callanetics exercise routines.

And she’s right.

So don’t think you’ve got to nearly starve yourself for that special occasion, because you don’t.  This is why toning plays a crucial part in any exercise routine.

I’ll go into this more later.

Set a Time-Frame Goal

Even if your goal is not linked to a special occasion, I would still set a time-frame goal as a target for motivation.

For example, in twelve weeks time I want my waist to measure 32 inches.  Or, I want to lose 20 pounds by the end of May ready for the summer.

Tip #2 – What Do You Enjoy?

Start thinking about what you enjoy.  Do you enjoy getting hot and sweaty as it’s proof that you’ve had a good workout?  Do you enjoy doing low impact, no jumping exercises the best?

Do you like the bike, walking or running on the treadmill?

If you’re not sure what you’ll enjoy the best as a home exercise routine, then keep reading and I give you a few ideas for you to try.

Tip #3 – How Big Is Your Home?

I don’t mean to be pry, but the size of your house will depend on what type of exercise program you carry out.  If you have a very large house then you can buy some exercise equipment like a treadmill and a rowing machine, for example.  But if your house, or even your rooms, are quite small, then you’re going to have to get creative with what home exercise program your house can accommodate.

But don’t worry, you can still get super fit and super lean in the tiniest of spaces!

My sitting room is quite small and I do all of my exercises in there in front of the TV either by following a dvd or a fitness YouTube channel.  I just make sure that I tilt the blinds!

Tip #4 – What’s Your Budget?

Another important question to ask yourself is; do you have any money to spend on your new home exercise regimen?

If you have a large budget, then you  may want to purchase equipment like a treadmill and a rowing machine, as mentioned above.

If you have a small budget, then you’ll be able to invest in some smaller items such as dvds, dumb bells or a yoga mat, for example.

If you have no budget, then that’s not a problem at all!  You can easily watch free videos on YouTube or get dvds from your local library.  For weights, instead of dumb bells, you can use filled water bottles or large (400g) tins of baked beans.

However, you can still do toning exercises successfully without using any weights equipment at all – you just use your body weight as your resistance!

Related Reading: 17 Easy Home Fitness Workouts That Will Whip You Into Shape Fast

Tips #5 – The Three Types of Exercise

So far you now know:

1. What your main goal is
2. What time-frame you have to reach your goal
3. Established that you either have to find exercises for a small room or if you have the room to purchase large equipment
4. Know if you can afford any type of exercise equipment or not.

When you have the answers to these four questions, then this sets you up in a very strong position to get started on the actual compilation of your home exercise program.

So let’s get started.

First of all, know that there are three different types of exercise:

1. Stretching
2. Cardiovascular
3. Toning

The experts say that the best exercise regimen should include all three.  And you cannot help but agree with them.

Stretching: Wouldn’t it be great to be able to do all those stretches and be very flexible. Think how subtle your joints will be.

Cardio: Cardiovascular is exercise to keep your heart healthy.  It also burns off calories to help you shed any unwanted fat.

Toning: Drop a dress size just by toning your body.  It helps to keep your muscles strong and working.  It burns unwanted fat away, even when resting; when you’re not doing any exercising, i.e. when you’re watching TV or even when you’re asleep!

At this point, don’t worry about incorporating all of the above three into your exercise workouts.  Let’s start by breaking down each one individually to see how really necessary each one is to help you reach your exercise goals.

Tip #6 – Stretching

Whatever your chosen form of exercising is, you’ll want to start with warming up your muscles.  This is very important because if you don’t you’ll pull muscles and damage ligaments and tendons which is something you don’t want to happen.

For warming up, all it takes is a few minutes and be something simple such as marching on the spot and swinging your arms back and forth, and do this for about two minutes.

For stretching your muscles, you’ll want to stretch your arms, legs, outer and inner thighs, front thighs and calves.

If you buy a fitness dvd, then this will have a warm-up section on it.

If you don’t have a dvd, then here’s a 5-minute warm up with no jumping and no equipment

Tip #7 – Cardio

Once you’ve done your stretches, you’ll want to do some cardio exercise to get your heart rate up.

Cardiovascular training:

You don’t need to do anything vigorous if you don’t want to.  It’s not necessary to jump up and down by doing star-jumps for example, as long as you do some form of light moderate exercise that is enough to do the job properly.

Examples of light cardio workouts:

Basically, cardio can be anything which involves you moving your body, raising your heart beat slightly and getting some sweat beads on your forehead.

So just think, what would you enjoy doing the most as part of your cardio workout?

You can of course do a few different things so you don’t get board.

For example, you could:

Or if you have equipment:

So get a pen and some paper and write down what would you enjoy doing the most and find fun as to build up your cardio workout.

Related Reading: 17 Easy Home Fitness Workouts That Will Whip You Into Shape Fast

Tip #8 – Toning

Now comes the toning section.  And this is the bit where you can define and re-shape your body.

Toning is when you work your muscles on a deep level to strengthen them. When your muscles are strong and defined, this in-turn reshapes that part of the outer body too.

If You’re Overweight

If you’re overweight, then you won’t see the definition of the muscles but they’ll still be there.  This can give you great a incentive to lose weight because you’ll want to see your lovely, sexy, sculptured body which is currently being hidden beneath the layer of fat.

And more good news is that when you do toning exercises, it helps burn off unwanted fat because it speeds up your metabolism and keeps burning off fat long after you’ve finished your toning exercises. Fitness experts say that you will burn off fat for up to 24 hours after you finished your workout.

So imagine how much fat you can burn off when you couple cardio and toning!

Toning Exercises

Ideally, you’ll want a good all-round toning workout and us women normally like to have a focus on tightening the upper arms.

You don’t have to have any equipment for toning the arms or the lower body as you can use your own body weight as the resistance.  You just do the exercises.

Or, if you want to push yourself and your muscles more, then of course use some form of weights.

Here’s a video of a 5-minute arm exercise with no weights

Here’s a video of a 10-minute exercise with dumb bells

Tip #9 – Cool Down Stretches

It’s also important to do some cool down stretches.

These are important as they help to:

If you don’t do a cool-down you run the risk of damaging your muscles so you have to take care of them.

A cool-down should last for about 3-5 minutes.

Here’s a video of a 5-minute cool down body stretch

Related Reading: 17 Easy Home Fitness Workouts That Will Whip You Into Shape Fast

Putting It All Together

I hope you’re now in a much better position to put together a home exercise program that suits you.

I know I could have put some 30-minute full workout YouTube videos on here, but they might not be suited to you personally.  Of course, you might find some dvds or Online videos of full workouts that do suit you and you would be happy to workout alongside with, then that’s great.

But the intention of this blog post was to show you ways to put together your own exercise workout which is specifically suited to your:

Exercising can be a ‘chore’ and it can become boring, but it’s the after-effect benefits which is what drives us to do exercising in the first place.  And if we can make exercising as fun and as suited to us personally and individually, then that’s half the battle won straight away.

So let’s do a recap.

What’s your goal? 

What Type of Exercise?

What I mean by this is; do you have any room in your home or money to buy large pieces of fitness equipment such as an exercise bike and/or a rowing machine, for example?

Or, are you happy enough just doing some exercising in your sitting room with no equipment?

Three Types of Exercises

You now know that there are three different types of exercises and the importance of each one.  Therefore, your exercise program should include all three.

And don’t forget about the important cool-down at the end of your workout.

Here’s what a simple 30 minute home exercise program would look like:

#1 Warm up & Stretches – 5 minutes

#2 Cardio – 10 minutes (exercise bike, dancing, climbing stairs etc.)

#3 Toning – 10 minutes (arms and stomach)

#4 Cool-Down – 5 minutes

At this stage, I would get out a pen and notebook and write down your home exercise program, even write two or three different versions of it to keep it different and less boring.

Only you know how much time you can spend on exercise each week, but the general rule of thumb is if you can do 30 minutes at least three times a week, then that’s a good start.  Or, even if you can only do 10-15 minutes each day, then that’s better than nothing.

So in your notebook, make your exercise workout very specific and intentional.

Answer these questions:

To help you further, I’ve written another blog post ‘17 Easy Home Fitness Workouts That Will Whip You Into Shape Fast‘. Here I list out seventeen ways you can exercise from home. You simply choose the ones which appeal to you the most.

Good luck and let me know how you get on!