The Ultimate Home Workout Plan

The possibilities for exercises to use at home are endless but it is important to find exercises that support your goals.

Here are some guidelines on the most important basic movements that you don’t want to miss out on. These exercises are staples regardless of whether you are training for muscle growth or just fitness itself. When working out at home we will focus on bodyweight exercises.

• A squat movement; Split squat or Bulgarian split squat
• A hip hinge movement; Unilateral Romanian deadlift or (Unilateral) glute bridges
• A horizontal press movement; Any pushup variant will do, regular pushups, hands elevated push-ups, feet elevated pushups, etc.
• A horizontal pull movement; Inverted rows

By creating a staple training program for yourself you will have a good starting point. All of these exercises will also work your abdominal muscles. If you want to do additional work you can add in the following:

• A vertical press movement: Pike pushups, or eventually handstand pushups. Gradually progress the exercise from pike pushups, to knee’s elevated on a bench pushups and slowly further progress it step by step until you can do handstand pushups.
• A vertical pull movement: Chinups. If these are too hard; ‘cheat’ and throw yourself up on the concentric part of the repetition (going up phase) and control the eccentric phase (lowering phase) until you build enough strength to go upwards yourself.
• You can also add in really good core exercises like: deadbugs, RKC planks, bird dogs, farmers walks (use heavy weights for this).

Workout plan 1:

Upper / lower body split:

Day 1: Upper

1a. Pushups – 3 working sets – 8/10 reps

1b. Chinups – 3 working sets – 3/10 reps

2a. Pike pushups – 3 working sets – 8/10 reps

2b. Inverted rows – 3 working sets – 8/10 reps

3a. Deadbugs – 3 working sets – 3/5 reps L+R

3b. One-arm high carry farmers walk – 3 working sets – 20/30meter L+R

Day 2: Lower

1a. Split squats – 3 working sets – 15/20 reps L+R

1b. Glute bridges – 3 working sets – 20/25 reps

1c. Air squats – 3 working sets – go until you reach REAL muscle failure

2a. RKC Plank – 3 working sets – 30/45 sec

2b. Bird dogs – 3 working sets – 5/8 reps L+R

2c. Unilateral calf raises – 3 working sets – 10/12 reps L+R

Day 3: Rest

Day 4: Repeat day 1

Day 5: Repeat day 2

Day 6-7: Rest

Day 1: Upper (increase repetitions by 1-2)

Day 2: Lower (increase repetitions by 1-2)

and repeat, increasing repetitions

Workout plan 2:

Fullbody split:

Day 1: Full body

1a. Bulgarian split squats – 3 working sets – 15/20 reps L+R

1b. Feet elevated pushups – 3 working sets – 10/15 reps

1c. Deadbugs – 3 working sets – 6 reps L+R

2a. Inverted rows – 3 working sets – 8/12 reps

2b. Goodmorning (with a heavy bag around the back) – 3 working sets – 15/20 reps

2c. One-arm high carry farmers walk – 3 working sets – 30m L+R

Day 2: Full body

1a. Airsquats – 2 working sets – as many reps as possible (reach muscle failure)

1b. Hands elevated pushups – 2 working sets – as many reps as possible (reach muscle failure)

1c. Plank – 2 working sets – 45/60 sec

1d. Chinups – 2 working sets – 3/8 reps

1e. Unilateral glute bridges – 2 working sets – 8/12 reps L+R

1f. Lateral bound and hold – 2 working sets – 5 reps L+R

1g. Sprints (intervals) – 2 working sets – 5 allout sprints for 10 seconds, followed by 20 sec easytempo walk

Rest for 2 minutes before repeating for another time.

There you go! Have fun with the workouts. Make sure you keep track of the progress each week. After 3-4 weeks you may want to add in variations so that the exercises don’t become boring . This is because you want to only adaptafter becoming good and efficient with a particular exercise.

You can also use progression exercises, but some exercises will need additional equipment.

Examples:

• Air squat into Spanish squats (resistance bands)
• Glute bridge into rear banded unilateral Romanian deadlifts (resistance bands)
• Inverted row into inverted TRX rows (TRX trainer)
• Pike push-ups into handstand pushups

And you can also add in new exercise if you have a resistance band, examples:

• Band triceps pushdown
• Band biceps curl
• Band unilateral shoulder press
• Band pushups
• Band lat prayer
• Band lat pulldown
• Band squats
• Band rotational chops
• Band anti-rotational chops

You can also create progressive overload by slowing down the tempo you are using.

Goodluck!

If you have any questions or feedback about this article or if you have any other questions about training, mindset and lifestyle, feel free to send me a message!

Bart de Winter
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dewinterbart
Owner DEWINTER Personal Training
Licensed Personal Trainer & Lifestyle coach.