Sometimes it’s a struggle to fit in the time for your workout. Despite your best intentions, getting to the gym becomes impossible and that hour that you’ve dedicated for your weight loss workouts has suddenly shrunk to 20 minutes. Don’t despair – in this article we provide you with an awesome weight loss home workout that you can do in less than 20 minutes in the comfort of your own home. All that you’ll need is a little bit of space and the commitment to push your body. If you’ve got those two things, we’ll provide the rest and you will lose weight quicker than you thought.
Before We Get Started
Our weight loss and strength training workout plans for women are extremely effective. However, they are built on the assumption on good fitness nutrition, that you are eating in a way that supports your goals. Healthy eating is at the core of successful weight loss. Be sure to follow a low processed carbohydrate meal plan. Diet plans that are high in lean proteins and healthy fats while reducing calories by around 500 per day have been shown to be very effective for long term weight loss.
Bodyweight Circuit Training for Fat Loss
The most effective weight loss workouts involve bringing the maximum number of calories in the shortest possible time. Many people think you can do that by performing steady state cardio on a treadmill or other cardio machine. However, experience and science tell us that your weight loss workouts will be far more effective if you perform bodyweight exercises that get your pulse racing in a plyometric fashion and if you do them in a circuit. Circuit training involves moving from one exercise to the next without any rest. You perform a string of exercises to complete a round. Only then do you take a short rest before going through the round a second time.
The Bodyweight Workout Circuit
Our weight loss bodyweight circuit involves performing six exercises in a row. Each move is done for 25 repetitions. You then go on to the next exercise without any rest. Once you have completed all six exercises you rest. For the first week, perform just one round. Then, in week 2, challenge yourself to perform two rounds of the workout. By week 4, you should be ready to add a third round.
The Exercises
Air Squats
As well as being a great way to tone the thighs, hips and butt, squats burn a lot of calories, especially if you do the in a fluid, piston like manner. To begin, stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart and your toes pointed slightly outwards. Put your arms directly out in front of you so that they are parallel with the floor. Stand up tall with your lower back pulled in and shoulders arched back. Now start to descend by hinging at the hips and dropping your but down and slightly back just as if you were about to sit in a chair. Keep going down until your upper legs are parallel to the floor. From the bottom position, push your heels into the floor as you drive back upward.
As mentioned, you should perform your squats in a fluid constant manner. Be sure however to maintain proper form throughout. You do not want to round your back or allow your knees to cave in. Perform 25 repetitions.
Renegade Row
Position yourself on the floor in a conventional push-up position. The points of contact with the floor should be your toes and your hands. Your body should form a straight line and there should be no raising of your butt. Now form your hands into fists with the knuckles making contact with the floor. Imagine that you have got dumbbells in your hands and begin pulling your fists towards your body, alternating each side. Perform 10 repetitions on each side.
As you advance you can begin holding smaller weights in your hands as you perform the renegade row.
Power Jumps
Stand in the same starting position as if you were about to do an air squat. However, rather than holding your arms out in front of you, clench your fists together at chest level. Now perform a hip hinge to drop down slightly before exploding into the air as high as you can. Try to bring your knees up to their maximum height. Continue performing these power jumps and hot potato fashion to complete 25 repetitions.
Lunges
Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart and your arms by your sides. Now extend your right leg forward and drop down until that thigh is parallel with the ground. Your left foot should have a raised heel with the only contact being the toes. Now push back through the right thigh to return to the starting position. Perform the same movement with the other leg. Be sure to maintain a slightly arched upper back position and do not lean forward as you allow your legs to do all the work.
Perform 25 repetitions in total.
High knees
Begin running in place with an exaggerated leg movement that brings your knees as high as possible. Place your hands level with your palms outstretched facing the floor. Your goal is to make contact with your hand by your knee on every lift. Try to lift the tempo to a sprint and maintain it for the entire time. Count 25 total palm / knee contacts.
Step ups
Use a bench or a couch with a seat that is at about the level of your knees. Stand in front of it and take a step up with your right foot to place it on the seat. Now push through with that front thigh to bring your body up onto the seat. Use an exaggerated motion with your left leg to drive it up into the air. Reverse the motion to step back down. Now repeat by leading with the left foot.
Perform a total of 25 repetitions.
Wrap up
You now have an extremely effective weight loss workout at home plan that will also provide you with strength training benefits, especially through your lower body, and help build muscle. Perform this work out every other day for six weeks and you will be very happy with the weight loss and body sculpting results that you achieve.
As you have read you can use bodyweight training to lose weight and building muscle. You should always push yourself by changing your workout challenge any time it seems easy. This will ensure you burn calories and therefore fat faster (belly fat, thigh fat and overall body fat). We have given you great weight loss tips to achieve this.
Where you are unsure about anything, sport nutrition or exercises, you could consult a personal trainer for a few sessions to give you the knowledge and confidence you need. If you have injuries than this is a must, as your personal trainer can develop a weight loss workout plan and given you additional fitness tips to accommodate them.
Furthermore, if you have a well-equipped home gym (sets of dumbbells, jump rope, fitness machines) your personal trainer can utilise them for custom workout plans for weight loss (interval training, body circuit training, cardio workout, hiit workout).
Once you have completed this six-week program, check back here for more scientifically proven effective workouts that you can do at home.
