Home Workouts to Lose Weight

What makes a great weight loss workout is obviously the results. You may feel like you got a great workout, but sooner or later if you’re not seeing results, you’ll probably stop. Who wants to workout without seeing results? However, feeling like you got a great workout is a good indicator of an effective workout. Another problem we run into is that many workouts are too much too soon. When we decide it’s time to start exercising, we often go straight from the couch and workout until we’re laying on the floor exhausted.

I’m not saying that it’s not important to work hard and challenge our bodies, I'm just saying that we need to pace ourselves. Know your limits. If you’re a high school or younger athlete just coming out of the off season of a sport, you can most likely handle more than say a 30 year old that’s hasn’t worked out for years, and has a desk job. It’s important to pace yourself. If we jump right into something that is extremely demanding, most of us will soon give up.

There are those rare individuals who can take on a lot, and adapt faster than others, but that’s the exception. Having said all of that, I know how the mind works when we get that push to get in shape. I’ve had it before. I actually do think that it’s good to charge in and tackle fitness, but it must be balanced with proper nutrition, and rest. Extremely challenging workouts one day should be followed by a less taxing workout the next day.

Often people have the mentality that if they’re not going to work out hard then why work out at all. I understand this mentality, but it has to be approached from a balancing and even scientific perspective. The body heals itself through movement. Movement is life. Our bodies are not like a race car that saves all of it’s mileage for the track. To get the most out of the human body, sometimes we need to just take it for a simple drive.

The workouts that I have for you today are fairly simple. You can do both of them right at home. These home workouts to lose weight are great for beginners, and those that are more advanced as well. The first workout is a basic martial arts circuit using simple punches and kicks. The second is a combination of resistance training exercises called the blast off workout. I’ll go into more detail below. Remember, stretching after you workout will go a long way with recovery.

Kicks and Punches Workout

Circuit - 5x

Front Kicks Rear Leg - 5 reps

Jabs - 5 reps

One, two, duck - 5 reps

Blast Off Workout

5, 10, 15 - Lower Body Push

4, 8, 12 - Lower Body Pull

3, 6, 9 - Abs

2, 4, 6 - Upper Body Push

1, 2, 3 - Upper Body Pull 

For the first set you perform 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 rep(s) respectfully for each different exercise. Then start over this time doing 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2 reps for each exercise. And finally, do it one more time with 15, 12, 9, 6, 3 reps for each exercise. After that, you repeat the whole process until you are significantly exhausted. Record how many times you finish the whole workout, and only do it half as many times on the next day. So your week will look like this:

Monday - Sets to exhaustion

Tuesday - Half of Monday’s workout

Wednesday - Sets to exhaustion

Thursday - Half of Wednesday’s workout

Friday - Sets to exhaustion

Saturday - Half of Friday’s workout

A lower body pushing exercise is any variation of squats or lunges. A lower body pulling exercise is a straight leg deadlift, floor bridge, table maker, etc. The abs exercise is any variation of situps, leg lifts, or side bends. The upper body pushing exercise is any variation of push-ups or pressing movements. The upper body pulling exercise is any variation of pull-ups or rowing movements.

You can choose any sort of resistance training exercise that fits in with those parameters. Just make sure that if you choose a weight lifting exercise that you choose a weight that will allow you to do the exercise in the same way. Here are some examples. If you only have access to a weight that is too light or too heavy for the rep scheme then you can change the amount of reps.

5, 10, 15 - Squats

4, 8, 12 - Toe Touches

3, 6, 9 - Sit-ups

2, 4, 6 - Push-ups

1, 2, 3 - Pull-ups

5, 10, 15 - Close Squats

4, 8, 12 - Close Toe Touches

3, 6, 9 - Leg Lifts

2, 4, 6 - Close Push-ups

1, 2, 3 - Close Pull-ups

5, 10, 15 - Wide Squats

4, 8, 12 - Wide Toe Touches

3, 6, 9 - Side Bends

2, 4, 6 - Wide Push-ups

1, 2, 3 - Wide Pull-ups