13 of the Best At-Home Workout & Fitness Programs | SELF

If your living room workouts are feeling a little stale by now, we have you covered: The best home workout programs can breathe some life into your workout routine—and even may introduce you to some new ways to exercise.

At-home workouts are pretty much the way of life now, as most gyms across the country are still shuttered due to the new coronavirus pandemic. For those used to taking fitness classes at gyms or studios, at-home workouts have been a bit of an adjustment. One main reason? When you work out in a fitness class, you don’t have to give much thought to your next half hour or hour: Your body simply moves to follow your instructor’s directions. This can take a lot of pressure off you, and help you just focus on your workout at hand.

But when you’re working out at home, you’re responsible for the whole plan: What exercises should you do? How many reps of each? How often should you rest? Are you feeling a cardio workout? An upper-body workout? Or do you want to fit in a total body workout instead? For many of us, answering all these questions is an added stress we’d rather avoid right now.

And the good news is that’s something you can avoid—without skipping your workout. There are a bunch of at-home workout programs that take the guesswork out for you. They’ll give you the whole exercise plan, and all you’ll have to do is show up and get ready to sweat.

There are so many at-home workout programs, in fact, that it can get daunting trying to pick the best one for you. While you might’ve heard your friends or coworkers sing the praises of their own go-to program, like Tone It Up or Insanity, deciding on the best home workout programs for you is a personal choice based on your lifestyle and your goals.

There are plenty of factors that vary among programs: how much they cost, what kind of workouts are involved, how long each workout takes, whether you need equipment, and more. (If you’re short on fitness equipment—which can be very difficult to find online now—you can follow these tips to make any move harder without adding more weight.)

One thing we’d like to note: Some of these workouts tout exaggerated results and use language that we don’t love—and some even come with meal plans (which are better left to a registered dietitian) or encourage food diaries. It’s important to remember that a lot of this is just unfortunate marketing, and what you’ll get out of a workout is very unique to you and your body and other factors like your health, sleep habits, genetics, diet, and more. The workout that’s best for you depends on your own body, goals, and interests. Keeping food diaries may be helpful for some people, but isn’t for everyone, and by no means do you need to follow a specific meal plan to follow the exercise program. If you don’t want to follow a meal plan or track your food, skip that part and just focus on the fitness.