Home Exercise tips for beginners for weight loss.

Are you struggling with your weight piling up?

Are you noticing you are getting less fit as the years go by?

Are you stuck not knowing what to do to lose weight?

Are you lacking the motivation to keep fit?

 

So much I gotta tell ya here, so keep calm and carry on reading…

I know just how hard it is to get your booty off the sofa and stop watching telly in favour of exercising. You’ve been to work, eat some food done all the things you had to do and now that you have time left to relax there is no way you will want to do anything else but chilling…

Sounds familiar?

Yep…

I get you!

My aim in this posts it to change your mindset so that you look at the “keeping fit” idea from a different perspective.

Imagine fitting in your favourite jeans from 10 years ago…

Or looking in the mirror thinking- I feel fit, healthy and happy with my body…

Now one thing you will not like me saying- sitting on the sofa watching telly won’t improve things. You will not get fitter watching telly (unless you’re watching YouTube working out routine and follow the training). You will have to work hard to achieve the results. And be consistent to sustain them.

By the way- the snacks you are eating while watching telly will only make things worse.

I know you are rolling your eyes but stay with me… I have some good news too.

If you follow the few home exercise tips for beginners I have for you here, you will change the way you utilise your spare time, and use it to your advantage to get yourself on track of being fit.

Fit forever!

You will also lose weight and develop stamina and be healthier too! And the bonus is- You will be an overall happier person as your confidence will grow!

I am not hoping for you to quickly lose weight and tone up only to give up 3 months later and go back to watching telly on the sofa snacking on Doritos or M&M’s.

I am hoping you will change your mindset and treat this “home exercise for beginners” guide as the beginning of your journey towards a new lifestyle, new body, new You!

There are no quick fixes or super diets. The sooner you understand this the sooner you realise that such things are very unsustainable. It leads to yo-yo effects and even worse- health problems if your diet is wrongly chosen.

By the way… I do not expect you to sign up to the gym or spend a fortune on fancy gym equipment. All my tips below can be followed on a very low budget and a little space at your own house.

So hear me out and give it a try and I can guarantee if you keep up with it for 3 months, you will see enough results to fall in love with your new lifestyle and improved fitness level and will never go back to your old habits.

This post contains some affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more information.

1.The diet

Below I will be talking mainly about the way for keeping fit through staying active. But let’s keep it real here. Healthy and a well-balanced diet is 70% responsible for your overall wellbeing and your weight. And keeping fit should always be a combination of a healthy diet and regular exercise.

So until you make changes to your diet, the rest of my tips will not work very well. In fact, you can actually make yourself less healthy if you don’t provide enough nutrients, protein etc to match your new active lifestyle.

Do not overcomplicate things though and get into frenetic calories count, and calculating macros etc, etc.

Keep it simple and basic.

We all know that things like sugar, salt, saturated fats, junk/processed food, alcohol, caffeine etc are bad for us. So either completely eliminate it, or reduce it to a recommended level.

Don’t go crazy cutting it all at once too. Drastic changes are never too good so it’s best to slowly reduce them and as you go along your journey to healthier you hopefully you will understand what’s best and make better choices later on.

At the same time, you want to make sure you increase the good foods in your diet and introduce healthy snacks like fruit, veg or nuts(not the salted or caramelised ones though).

When I said “the diet” I did not mean actually any particular diet like Weight Watchers, Cambridge or Keto. These again are very unsustainable fixes that will only result in a yo-yo effect as soon as you get off it.

The only type of diet which I recommend which is not a diet rally but more like eating pattern is Intermittent Fasting. I follow this from well over a year now and I never looked back.

Unless you develop a healthy attitude towards food and understand that “You are what you eat” and the food that you eat affects your mind and body, you are in for failure.

If you are not convinced, I can recommend you read the book written by a person that has a little more expertise in this field called “Are you what you eat?”.

 

2.The beginning

So where do you start? And when do you start?

Where- will depend on many factors.

There is never “One size fits all” solution to anything and I do not want to tell you “you must do this only” as it might not be right for you. So I gathered it would best if I have few things listed as to what its important as a guide rather than a strict rule type of thing.

Few things to consider:

-What is your fitness level? I know you are a beginner but…

Have you ever done any type of workout before?

I do not mean like ever before as obviously we all have been to school and done PE lessons. You need to know if you are technically able to do correct squats, push-ups or abs crunches. If your answer is yes, you are ok to follow my guide here. If not, I really would recommend you to watch a few beginners work out guides which explain the very basic techniques of how to breathe during work out, position yourself etc, etc. Or if you can, invest in a few lessons to start with a PT so they can guide you on the very basics.

-How is your general health?

You want to change your lifestyle and start being active, but you must ensure you are actually healthy enough to start with. If you are having any health problems, taking any regular medications, had any major operations, are obese or pregnant or just had a baby, you might need to consult your doctor before starting this journey.

-What is your lifestyle/work routine?

If you have a sedentary lifestyle, you will need more activity to those that have a standing/ physical jobs. So ensure you take this into consideration when deciding how much activities you add to your daily routine.

-What is your aim?

Do you aim to lose a little bit of weight and just improve your fitness level? Or do you have a lot of weight to lose with very bad habits to break?

Or maybe you just want a few inches of your tummy?

Your aim should be realistic enough to achieve it. If you want to lose 20pounds in 2 weeks, not only this will be an unrealistic goal, but also unsustainable and unhealthy. The recommended guide to healthy weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week.

Once you have figured out your goals and that you are fit enough to get more active there are few things that I would recommend you do:

-measure yourself

Take the measurements of your body. The main areas to measure are waist, hips and thigh. You can also measure your bicep and chest.

Also, weight yourself. Best to do so is in the morning and only once a week at the very most.

Do not want to focus on your weight too much as the weight can fluctuate due to many factors and it’s not always the best indicator of your fitness. Also as you get healthier and tone up the balance of fat and muscle weight will start changing and muscles weigh more than fat so you might notice at some point that you have stopped losing weight even though you slimmed down and toned up.

-use some kind of tracking tool

I use an iWatch which directly links to my iPhone and tacks the calories burnt, Exercise minutes, steps count etc. I have been using this tool for over a year now and I really like it. But I appreciate iWatch is not the cheapest watch so you can use Fitbit or any other smartwatch or don’t use one at all.

There are many fitness apps where you can record your workouts, or a have an A4 paper with a simple work-out schedule where you mark down when you have exercised, how long for and what part of your body have you focused on.

I have created one like this for myself which I use alongside my phone as I like to have a visual, easy to see (I keep it on my fridge) tracker. Days go by quick and it’s easy to forget when you have worked out last unless you write it down (do you remember what you’ve had  for dinner two days ago?)

If you would like to download my tracker, here is a free .pdf for you to print out. It’s on two papers so you can print it double-sided. This is enough for 6 months but do not stop there! Print some more once you run out of space.

I also record my weight and measurement on it every 4 weeks just to make sure I am keeping an eye on my fitness level.

-plan ahead

This is relating to food as well as the workouts.

Plan your meals ahead so your don’t end up with the take always when not sure what to cook etc.

Scheduled your workouts to ensure you have allowed enough time for it in your busy week.

And stick to it!

As to when do you start: Why not today! Don’t wait until Monday or the new month! Changes are only done by taking Actions! So read on and after reading I hope you prepare and plan your first work out tomorrow (or even today if possible). Threat this Home exercise for beginners guide as the beginning of your new journey.

 

3.The basics of the exercise

Again let’s talk the basics here:

Every single time you get active it is essential to follow 3 simple rules in order to avoid injuries and long recovery process. No Pain=No game– You will get sore muscles which can be rather uncomfortable though so be prepared. But if at any point you feel the pain during the workout, stop! The burn is ok, the pain not! Listen to your body, but also learn to filter what it tells you and when the muscles burn, push through it. When it actually hurts –stop.

So the 3 rules are:

-warm-up

Always start with a gentle warm-up to ensure you get your body prepared for a workout. This could be a simple march in spot or moving around of your limbs. Or even something quicker like jumping jacks to get your heart rate going a little faster. This should take anything from 3 to 10 minutes depending on the work out planned.

-exercise

Now that the muscles are ready you can start your exercise. It is important to remember to breathe throughout the exercise. We tend to hold the breath during muscle strains which cut down the oxygen flow to your muscles.

Always hold your tummy muscles tight and do not arch your back. If you are following the YouTube channel, the Trainers usually remind you what to do, so listen to them as it is important to keep your posture right to avoid injuries.

-cool down/stretch

After the work out it is as important to cool down as it was to warm-up.

You can either just calm your breath down with lying down on your back or stretch the muscles you have impacted with the training.

And most importantly- drink water.

Take little sips of water during the exercise to stay hydrated.

 

4.The actual exercise

The type of work out you should be doing will depend on what do you enjoy doing as well as what is your aim and if you have any restriction (bad back, weak knees or pregnancy- all with prior doctors permission).

Figuring out what you like doing will make things more enjoyable, but don’t worry if you don’t know quite yet. Trial and error are the best ways to test this.

One thing to mention is to be careful not to follow everything you see online. There are a lot of infographics which tell you to do like a squat challenge and follow squat for the next 30 days. The kind of thing to avoid really- you should never work on the same group of muscles a few days in the row.

You need to alternate the areas of muscles you exercise so that you let them recover before tearing them up again. One day gap is ok, but keep a day off between the particular muscle group workouts.

And if you ask how often should you work out?

The recommended NHS guide is 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise. This means you probably want to keep it 3-5 time a week of 45 minutes or 30 workouts. Plan it ahead so that you ensure you do enough. If you do more that’s ok too, you will see your results much quicker.

Do you need any equipment?

You will need an exercise matt and maybe a few resistance bands to start with. And sports gear which includes trainers and some comfortable clothes.

Later when you get a little better at your technique you can start adding some dumbbells.

I have set of 1kg, 3kg, 4kg, 5kg and 10kg. This gives me a nice range of weights to work with and to push myself too.

I also have an exercise ring to work on my inner tights and arms.

And I love my exercise ball for many abs, glutes and back workouts.

I will now list the YouTube Channels videos for all types of workouts for beginners where I believe would be the best starting point. I follow numerous YouTube channel every time I exercise as this keeps me interested and also focuses on various parts of my body.

Try out different workouts so that you get a different range of moves and alternate them so that you don’t get bored over time.

-Yoga

Yoga is usually a good place to start when it comes to home exercise for beginners at all ages and fitness level and all you need is a mat and a sweat towel. NHS has more information on Yoga here.

Also, there is a whole big blog about Yoga called avocadu.com so check it out.

Here is the link to yoga for beginner from Yoga with Adriane channel with 28milion views!

And here is another one with 4.7m views from PsycheTruth which I love too

Yoga is super popular amongst women especially and there are tons of videos to follow so you’re spoilt for choice here.

-Pilates

Pilates is a kind of a step up from a Yoga in terms of the difficulty level but it is great for strengthening core muscles.

Here is a link to a PhycheTruth Channel who also has many Pilates videos

And Or Blogilates Chanel has a very popular POP pilates video with 12m view.

-Cardiovascular workouts

Cardio can be any type of workouts that raises your heart rate and burns a lot of calories. So great for slimming down and shredding. But they can be rather intimidating to start with hence I recommend you start off low impact cardio like this one by BodyProject with 7m views.

Or if you like to dance check this video from PsycheTruth yet another popular video with over 4m views and so much fun to follow.

If you want to try a little more upbeat workouts try this:

-High-Intensity Interval Training

High-Intensity Interval Training in which cardio work out is alternated with short recovery periods that target high calories burn.

Try this one from HasFit channel with little under 1m views to begin with

Or the one from The Body Coach TV with 6.2k views. It’s a real burnout this one.

-Weight training

My personal favourite as after over 15 years of fitness experience I am now at the stage where I alternate a bit of Cardio (HIIT mainly) with the weight training. Weight training focuses on all kind of muscles and makes them stronger leaner and visible.

Being a woman it is much harder to build muscles and my aim was never to look like a bodybuilder but I like to see some definition in my muscles and I think it looks really good.

Since I have discovered Sydney Cummings well over a year ago I am now following many of her exercises as they meet my particular needs.

I really recommend you check out some of the videos like this one which is suitable for beginners.

Also, she does do a lot of very important little talks about fitness at the end of each workout so I love to listen to her expertise.

Try this one once you have been training for a few weeks (or if you like a challenge)

 

Just to add to it all

The one thing that connects every single successful person is Consistency. If you are consistent in every single area of your life: whether this is money, relationship, fitness or parenting you will succeed. I have a great article for you here about this written by Ken from the Humble Penny website. I really recommend you read it.

And one more thing…

Get a training buddy if you can.

It is always so much more fun to do things together so if you can get yourself a workout body. It could be your mum, your dad, your parent or your child (if over 16yrs old).

Working out together brings more joy and fun into the game and you can motivate each other. I like to work out with my husband from time to time but if he can’t I carry on myself and so does he. If your buddy is not able to join you, that’s not an excuse to stop. You carry on on your own. You are working for yourself and unless you keep going you will not see the results.

Please let me know in the comments below if you have any suggestions for more home exercises for beginners.

I really hope you have taken on board a few tips and I wish you good luck on your Keeping Fit journey.

Thanks for reading and remember Sharing is Caring!