Why do you need the expensive membership of a fancy gym when you can workout in the comfort of your home without the need for any equipment? Here we list five indoor workout ideas you can practice at the comfort of your home.
Please make note that warming up is important before you begin any exercise, whether indoors or outdoors. This helps to prepare your body for strenuous activity. You can warm up at home by doing spot jogging, jumping, or dancing for a good 15 minutes. Warming up before a workout session helps to increase your body temperature. That makes your body prepare for a workout and prevent any risk of injury. Along with your routine exercise, make sure you do some stretching too.
Cooling down your body after a workout session is as important as warming up. To cool down you can try stretching each body part followed by Shavasana.
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1. Skipping as an indoor workout
This exercise might open the floodgates of nostalgia for you. Ever wondered your childhood game of jumping rope had numerous health benefits? For this workout, all you need is a good jumping rope and a flat surface. It helps to burn calories. It is said that one jump helps to reduce 0.1 calories. It helps to improve your brain and feet coordination. Since the workout focuses more on foot and ankle, it helps to make your feet stronger, improve bone density, improve your heart and lung health, and make you calm. The exercise is fun and can be performed anytime in an empty space in your home.
2. Plank
Plank is one of the effective indoor workout ideas to improve core strength and stability. Doing planks is simple and does not require any fancy equipment except a mat. But what matters is doing it in the right way. While doing a high plank, start with a pushup position. Be comfortable. Keep your back straight and your palms and toes touching the ground. Make sure your posture is right or else it can cause body pain. Doing low plank is similar to high plank, except you need to bring your body lower down to your forearms. Plank is an effective exercise as it involves your entire body. It helps to make your back, chest, shoulders, and abs stronger.
The exercise helps to make your muscles stronger, increase your flexibility, etc. Initially start withholding the position for 15 seconds and with practice increase the time.
If you are looking for some change, there are different variations you can try. Different types help to gain different benefits. So according to your requirement, you can choose the suitable type of plank for you.
If you aim to strengthen your side abdominals and spine, side planks are for you. It also helps to prevent spinal issues. If you are looking out for an exercise that will help you to boost your balance, try arm and leg extensions plank.
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3. Stair stepping as an indoor workout
This is an extremely effective indoor workout that helps you to stay healthy and active. All you need to do is step up and down a stepper for 15 minutes. Start monitoring your steps. If you don’t have a stepper at home, you can also run up and down your home/building staircase.
4. Lunges
The most recommended indoor workout to strengthen and tone your body is ‘lunges’. This exercise helps to improve the fitness of the overall body and improves mobility and stability. The body parts that are involved in the exercise are back, legs, and hips. There are various benefits of doing lunges regularly. Some of the benefits include weight loss and increasing your metabolism since your entire body is involved while doing the exercise. It also helps improve your balance, stability, and posture. Different types of lunges are stationary lunges, side lunges, reverse lunges, walking lunges, curtsy lunges, twist lunges, etc.
As said earlier, lunges help to shape your body and improve your posture, this is because of the exercise targets abdomen, calves, back muscles, gluteal muscles, and quadriceps.
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5. Cleaning your home and participating in other household activities
This is the most underrated exercise we must say. Cleaning your home requires a lot of energy. Cleaning your home is as good as an exercise, and hence you feel tired after cleaning your home. Don’t believe us? Gardening helps in strengthening of your arms and back, cleaning your bathroom is as good as a full-body workout, cooking comprises of chopping, kneading, whisking, isn’t it an upper-body workout? Also, sweeping helps to make your arms, back, and thighs stronger. One time of sweeping helps to burn over 250 calories. Washing your home helps to increase the heart rate and burn over 200 calories. Isn’t doing household chores a workout?
6. Yoga
If you are looking for a workout that will relax your body and mind, then yoga is for you. From suryanamaskar to bikram yoga, there are different types of yoga, each type is different and has different benefits. Yoga helps to strengthen your body and improve flexibility. For mental health, yoga helps to reduce stress, relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety, and relax your mind. There are various online tutorials available for yoga.
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Tips to follow when you do indoor workout
- While working out from home, it is advised you choose a spot where you can exercise daily. A dedicated area for workout may make you motivated. You can even decorate the spot. If possible, install a big mirror that will make you feel motivated every time you work out.
- You do not need to buy fancy and expensive equipment. You can set up your home gym in a budget. All you may need is a mat, dumbbells, skipping rope, stepper, etc.
- Create a playlist for your workout session. Choose peppy songs that will keep you active.
- Keep your workout area clean and tidy. Create a shelf to store all your workout essentials.
- There are several gadgets available that help to track your activities. These apps or accessories also help to monitor your calories, heart rate, blood pressure levels, etc.
- For a change, you can assign a day for an outdoor workout that includes jogging, stretching, brisk walking, etc.
- Set your fitness goal and work towards achieving it.