Home workouts can be equally as effective as a session in the gym, all you need is some basic equipment, the right fuel, and a healthy dose of motivation.
At-home workouts can be a little but it can be easy to kit out your home as a training space that works for you.
At Klean Athlete, we’re here to help you to maintain your fitness level and stay in optimal health, regardless of where you’re working out.
Do You Need a Gym to Strength Train?
High-intensity strength training is still possible at home. You can still push yourself to the same intensity you would on a machine - you just need to adapt your regular training plan to maintain, or even improve, your overall muscular strength.
Make sure your at-home workout is designed to progressively overload your muscles. Incorporating strenuous exercises into your routine will place more demand on the body, allowing you to experience an improvement in muscle growth and strength, all without having to leave your house.
At-Home Exercises to Improve Muscular Strength
Each of these exercises can help to develop your overall strength and endurance. We recommend holding each one for at least a minute, before repeating five times.
Plank
Targeting all of the muscles in your body, with a specific focus on your core, the plank helps to strengthen your spine, your rhomboid, and trapezius, as well as your abdominal muscles.
Russian Twist
The Russian Twist targets your abdominals and obliques, helping to tone and build your midsection. This is a great at-home exercise to include if you’re focusing on your core strength.
The Russian Twist is easy to execute; sit on the floor with both knees bent and your feet pressed into the floor. Then, sit back at a slight angle (tucking in your core), keep your spine straight, and begin to twist from one side to another.
Scorpion
Working your hips and back, the scorpion is an easily adaptable exercise you can incorporate into your routine, improving overall coordination and flexibility while strengthening your lower back muscles and core.
To perform this dynamic exercise, lie flat on your stomach with both arms straight out to your sides and your feet together, raise one leg off the floor, crossing it over to your other side, while twisting your hips until your foot touches the floor. Hold for a few moments, then repeat.
Squat to Overhead Press
A squat is the perfect exercise to improve leg strength, muscle endurance, and mobility. Testing both your balance and coordination, going from a squat to an overhead press will engage your whole body, including your glutes, quads, and hamstrings.
Overhead Forward Lunge
Lunges are an exercise that specifically strengthens your core, as well as your hamstrings and quads. Incorporating lunges into your routine will help to build muscle in both your legs and lower back, alongside engaging your core, helping it to become stronger and more stable.
This workout can be easily adapted to suit your needs. If you’re finding the routine too easy, we recommend increasing the reps and duration of your routine.
You could also add in homemade weights. This could include filling a backpack with books or even lifting a full tub of Klean fitness supplements to push your body to the maximum.
HIIT Workout Benefits
Strength training and HIIT workouts go hand in hand with each other; they can help you to shred calories quickly and build your strength.
HIIT workouts are perfect for a home environment, as they require very little space and equipment. One of the many benefits of a HIIT workout is the improvement it can have on your oxygen consumption, as well as the potential to reduce high blood pressure.
To reach peak performance, we recommend that a HIIT routine should last for 45 minutes, including a warm-up and cool-down.
It’s up to you which exercises you include, but if you’re in need of some new inspiration, think about incorporating these:
Burpees
Repeating this step for four sets and for a duration of two minutes is guaranteed to increase your heart rate. Start by standing on the floor and move into a squat position with your hands on the floor. Kick your feet back into a plank position, while keeping your arms extended and immediately return to the standing position, repeating this as quickly as you can.
Mountain Climbers
Give your whole body a workout by adding five sets of mountain climbers (lasting two minutes each) into your HIIT routine. Start by getting into a press-up position, remembering to keep your back in a straight line. Bring your right knee towards your chest, then quickly bring it back to the starting position and swap your legs, bringing your left knee in towards your chest and return to the starting position. Increase the speed of the movement to put your body under more intensity.
Flutter Kicks
Get your lower abs in check by doing six sets of flutter kicks. Perform this exercise by lying on your back with your hands behind your head; hold your head and shoulders up off the floor, and keeping your legs long and straight, bring one leg into the air while the other hovers parallel to the floor. Keep switching legs continuously for one minute.
Why a Cool-Down is Crucial
Ending your workout with a cool-down is crucial to allow your muscles to gradually recover, preventing any further injuries from occurring.
The most effective cool-down routines will last for around five minutes, and will usually include a low-intensity exercise. A gentle jog on the spot or a walk around your house will help to relax the muscles you’ve trained and help lower your heart rate and breathing.
However, a cool-down isn't complete without stretches. Stretching your body after a workout can help to reduce the build-up of lactic acid in your muscles.
Here are three stretches to include:
1. Piriformis Stretch
Performing a piriformis stretch, during your cool down can help prevent any strain on both your knee and ankle after working out. For this stretch, you will need to start by sitting on the floor with your legs extended. While keeping your right leg on the floor, lift your left leg to place your left ankle on your right knee and begin to lean forward. Hold for 30 seconds, repeat with the second leg.
2. Cat-Cow Stretch
Stretching your whole body, including both your spine and neck, the cat-cow stretch relieves any stress and tension built up in your muscles. The cat-cow is an easy stretch to execute - begin with both your hands and knees on the floor and relax your posture. Inhale slowly and let your belly sink to the floor, keeping your chest pressed forward. As you begin to exhale, start tucking in your tailbone while pressing your pubic bone forward, repeat this for thirty seconds.
3. Overhead Triceps Stretch
The overhead triceps stretch helps to increase motion and flexibility in your arms. It can also support the muscles by boosting circulation to prevent tight muscles. To perform this stretch, stand with your feet a hip-width apart, raise your right arm up, then bend your elbow to bring your right palm to your back, at the same time bringing your left hand up to pull your right elbow downwards. Repeat this stretch on the alternate side after 30 seconds.
Finish your cool-down with our Klean Recovery formula. Consuming one scoop or sachet 15-45 minutes after your workout can provide the body with all the essential nutrients it needs to support glycogen re-synthesis and muscle protein synthesis.
Discover how to boost your training performance with better sleep here:
How to Get Better Sleep to Boost Your Training Performance
Read our top tips on how to improve sleep quality.
