9 At-Home Workout Plans for Building Muscle, Strength & Fat Loss

So you are unable to go to the gym or you simply prefer working out at home but you aren’t sure what is the most effective way to exercise at home? No worries! This guide has everything you need to create the best at home workout plan, which includes options for both building muscle and weight loss, and both with and without equipment. 

What you are going to learn and get with this at-home workout guide:

In this at-home workout guide, we go over the benefits of working out at home, how to workout at home, what every home workout plan should include, crucial tips to making sure your workouts are effective, best fitness equipment to have at home, and then, we provide you with several workout plans to choose from.

Our home workout plans are based on two simple goals, fat loss or building muscle, with both bodyweight-only plans and plans that incorporate functional training tools like kettlebells, steel maces, and resistance bands (typical home gym equipment). 

The exercises we chose for the workout plans are specific to the goal of either losing fat or gaining muscle and strength.

At the end of this at-home workout guide, we provide more workout resources, videos, and exercises so you can keep your workouts fresh and exciting. 

Note: We also provide HIIT workouts and methods for progressive overload at home, with or without training tools.

Now, before we start, we just want to say…

Your body is a lifelong project. You need to care for it, improve it, fix it, love it. A big part of the project that is your body is working out and dieting. As with any big project, a plan has to be in place first, but it doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective and it can be done at home. So, be sure to follow and read this guide carefully. Whether your goal is to lose fat or gain muscle, or both, we are going to teach you everything you need to know about working out at home so you can achieve that. 

If you want to skip right to the workout plans, scroll on down. You will see the different workout plan sections are in green. 

Benefits of Working Out at Home

For those who are under the impression that the only way you can get a good workout in and ultimately get fit is by going to the gym, you are definitely mistaken.

The following benefits of working out at home are sure to wash away any doubt that home workouts might not be for you. 

1. Convenience, Time-Saving, Consistency & Two-a-Days

Working out at home is obviously the most convenient option. You have 24/7 access to getting a workout in. Moreover, you won’t have to waste time and energy packing your stuff and getting yourself to the gym and back.

With the convenience of working out at home comes consistency. There will be no excuse to “skip the gym” because you “don’t have time”.

That time you save going back and forth to the gym could even be used to do another workout.

Two-a-days, anyone?

Do a cardio-based workout in the morning or an HIIT workout, and a bodyweight or unconventional/functional resistance training workout in the evening. 30 minutes each workout, that’s only an hour a day!

2. Privacy & No Distractions

Although sometimes a good talk at the gym can be fun and it’s good to be social, it can often affect your workout.

Without distractions, you can stay zoned into your workout. This is how you get an effective workout in.

The goal is to get in shape, so eliminating distractions is advantageous. 

What’s more, a lot of times people want to try new exercises and push themselves in new ways, but with people “watching” at the gym, insecurities arise. At home, you will obviously not have to think about this. You can test yourself in new ways and not worry about someone seeing you fail. As much as we’d all like to say we are secure with ourselves, I bet each and every one of us can admit to feeling insecure about doing something at the gym before.

3. Save Money

If you go for bodyweight-only training, home workouts will cost you literally nada. That being said, most of us like to mix in some weights or other training tools.

So, you have a few options for this. Kettlebells, steel maces, resistance bands, and dumbbells are very affordable, space-friendly and most importantly, very effective. They are really all you need unless you are trying to become massive. 

Even with the costs of the above tools, you will make that back with just a few months of what gym memberships cost, depending on what gym. Plus, these tools last forever, so regardless, it will be big savings. It’s just a matter of time.

Want squat racks, barbells, benches, etc.? Even these big purchases will eventually be made up for with the cost of gym memberships. And, as with the other tools, they will last a very long time.

4. Germs

At the current time of writing this, germs are top of everyone’s mind with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) shutting down the world, gyms included. However, this is something that we should think about for the future regardless of a pandemic. If you are concerned about bacteria, viruses, and good old “germs”, working out at home is your safest option. The only germs you will be dealing with at home are yours and your family’s.

Note: If you do decide to go to the gym, make sure you choose a gym that takes hygiene and sanitation seriously.

How to Workout at Home?

To ensure your home workout plan is effective, you need to establish a well-rounded workout routine and stay consistent with it. You also have to understand your goals so you can create the correct path to get there. This includes the types of workouts and exercises you do, how often you do them, and how you will progress. And, of course, you need to diet properly!

We are going to cover all of this below…

What does a well-rounded home workout routine include?

No matter what your goal is, everyone’s home workout plan should include the 4 pillars of fitness.

4 Pillars of Fitness

1. Cardiovascular health

2. Flexibility & Mobility

3. Muscular Strength

4. Muscular Endurance

Each of the four points above are essential to becoming a well-rounded healthy human. So, you need to carve out the time in your workout plan to include all of them.

We will provide you specific resources on each of the above points and workout routine examples that include the 4 pillars of fitness.

What every workout plan should include:

• Warm Up

• Resistance Training

• Cardiovascular (aerobic) Workout

• Flexibility Exercises & Cool Down

Consistency is Key!

How ever you decide to structure your workout, make sure you stay consistent with the routine. Don’t switch it up too frequently. Sticking to a routine allows you to progress, and more importantly, track your progress. You will get far better results if you stick to a plan.

The old saying “you need to keep switching things up to keep your body guessing” is just plain wrong. If you do that, you can’t improve in anyone one area. The only time you need to switch things up is when you hit a plateau, and the only way you should be switching things up until then is with progressive overload (which we will explain a little below).

Here are some tips for creating a routine and sticking to it:

• Stick to fundamental movements, they are all you really need to become fit and grow.

• Simpler the routine, the better the results. Don’t over complicate things, just include the most functional, compound movements and stick to them. Tried and true over fancy and new.

• Don’t “switch things up”, just increase difficulty by adding more reps, time under tension, weight load, etc (again, more on progressive overload below). Moreover, gradually increase/progress. Don’t just jump into kill-yourself-mode, increase difficulty and intensity slowly but surely. If you just jump right into 5 or 10 miles your first run, you probably won’t go running again for a while as you will think “that was absolutely horrific”.

• Minimum of 4 weeks for your routine. Maximum 12 weeks. Then you can switch up to a new routine.

BUILDING MUSCLE & STRENGTH vs LOSING FAT

Working out to lose fat and working out to build muscle and strength require a different approach.

However, both necessitate the following:

• Good, healthy, high protein diet

• Adequate sleep

• Resistance training

• Lots of water

Now, if your goal is mainly to lose fat, that doesn’t mean you can’t gain some muscle in the process. The same goes for building muscle, you can lose fat while gaining mass.

To gain some muscle while losing fat, you need to have a high protein diet with low carbs. To lose fat while building muscle, you also need a high protein diet, but instead of low carbs, you need to do some HIIT and cardio. Also, intermittent fasting is a great way to put on muscle without fat.

Related: Body Recomposition: Gain Muscle While Losing Fat

Diet

We will not talk much about diet in this post, as there are plenty of articles on this out there.

If you want to lose fat, look for a good high protein, high healthy fat, low carb diet.

If you want to gain muscle and you aren’t worried about fat, look to a high carb, low-to-mid fat, and high protein diet. If you want to build muscle while losing fat slowly, try an intermittent fasting plan with high protein or a low carb and high fat, high protein diet.

How to workout from home to Lose Fat?

If your main goal is to shed fat and building muscle is secondary, then you need to workout in a specific way that caters to fat loss. This means high-intensity, full-body workouts with little rest.

Your workout plan should be as follows:

Cardio 25%
HIIT 25%
Resistance Training 50%

Cardio:

• Running (medium to high intensity for 30-50 mins)

• Swimming (only do this if you can actually swim to a point where its a tough workout)

• Hill sprints or Incline Treadmill

• Cycling (medium to high intensity for 30-50 mins)

• Power walking (if you are unable to do the above)

HIIT:

HIIT training is great as it’s a mix of both resistance training and cardio. We will give you a couple HIIT workout examples in this article further below in the Fat Loss At Home Workout Plan section. For now, we will just say HIIT can consist of Tabata workouts, Circuit Training, Sprint Workouts, Ladders, and more. HIIT can be done with bodyweight-only or bodyweight and fitness equipment, or just fitness equipment. Again, we have full HIIT workout videos for you, but first, let’s continue talking the basics of losing fat at home.

Related:

Resistance Training:

Resistance training is going to be somewhat similar to how you would train for building muscle. After all, the more muscle you have the more fat your body will burn while resting. You can do bodyweight and/or resistance training with external weight loads like kettlebells.

The main difference between resistance training at home for building muscle vs losing fat is that with losing fat, you are doing full body workouts and your rest time should be limited, which also means you will be using lighter weight loads, as that’s the only way you’ll be able to limit your rest time. So, resistance training for losing fat is quite similar to HIIT, but maybe down a notch or two on the intensity scale and up a couple notches on muscle tension and good proper movements.

How to Build Muscle & Strength From Home?

If your main goal is to put on mass and gain strength from home, then this is what you need to know…

Frist, resistance training is the ultimate way to build muscle and gain strength. Your workouts should be heavily resistance based.

Cardio/HIIT (25%)
Resistance Training (75%)

Moreover, you should train by muscle groups, rather than full body. You can do an upper/lower split or a typical 3-4 bodybuilding split (i.e. chest/tri, back/bi, shoulders/abs, legs OR legs/abs, chest/back, shoulders/arms). Avoid 5-day “bro splits”, as ideally, you want to work out two muscle groups each workout. Working each muscle group twice a week is proven to be best for hypertrophy. 

If you are a beginner, full body workouts will be ok as well because it’s easy to make gains as a beginner…but switch to splits after 12 weeks or so.

For “cardio/HIIT”, put emphasis on the HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). With HIIT, you get some fat loss, without the muscle loss that can come from long steady-state cardio. If you do run, push yourself hard. It’s better to do 30 mins of running that wipes you out rather than 1 hour of slow steady-state jogging.

CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE WITH BODYWEIGHT EXERCISES ONLY?

Is bodyweight training also resistance training? Yes, you are using your body as resistance! So, you most certainly can build muscle. All of the bodyweight exercises we use in the below plans are tried and true. So you can consider them as “the best bodyweight exercises”. We will link to YouTube videos so you can see how to do them if you are unsure.*****

PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD

Progressive overload is the most important principle of strength training. If you want to get stronger and build muscle, you need to progressively overload the stress on your muscles. If you don’t, and you do the same thing over and over again, you will reach a certain point and then remain the same.

The principle of progressive overload is simple, you gradually increase the stress on your body so you can grow muscle and get stronger. This can be done by adding weight, reps, sets, exercises, or time under tension.

Below, we will look at how you can progressive overload with kettlebells, steel maces, resistance bands and bodyweight-only training.

How to progressive overload with bodyweight & training tools:

Method 1: Decrease the time it takes you to finish a workout.

i.e. week 1: 200 push ups takes you 15 minutes; week 2: 200 push ups takes you 13 minutes. You have successfully accomplished progressive overload.

Note: You have to maintain the same correct form, don’t speed through it with sloppy form just to beat your time.

Method 2: Add repetitions to your sets.

i.e. week 1 you do 20 reps of push ups per set; week 2 you do 25 reps per set. Again, progressive overload accomplished.

Method 3: Decrease rest time between sets.

i.e. week 1-2 you took 90 seconds of rest, week 3 you take 70 seconds of rest.

Method 4: Increase the volume of your workout.

This can be adding more exercises or sets to your workout to make the workout a greater volume.

Method 5: Increase the frequency of your workouts throughout the week

If you workout 3 times a week for the first month, increase it to 4 times the next month. If you reach 5-6 workouts a week, you can start doing two workouts a day a couple times a week.

Be sure to keep overtraining in mind. This method should be a very slow progress.

Method 6: Increase the range of motion, tension, form, intensity & push past failure

BEST AT-HOME WORKOUT EQUIPMENT:

If you want to build some serious strength and increase the efficacy of your workouts, there are some affordable, space-friendly fitness tools that can make a huge difference.

Our favorite home workout tools are kettlebells, steel maces and resistance bands, and here’s why…

Kettlebells offer tons of benefits, but the reason we love them for home training is that they can truly help you build some lean, rock-solid muscle. 

Shop Kettlebells

Steel maces are fantastic implements as they are fun, versatile and extremely effective for certain aspects of fitness, such as stability, balance and coordination (it’s an offset load), core strength, shoulder, grip and forearm strengthening/hypertrophy, and full body conditioning. If there was one tool truly made for HIIT workouts, it would be the steel mace (kettlebells are also great for HIIT). You won’t find a piece of equipment that makes you zone in and have as much fun while getting great full body, multiplanar workouts in than a steel mace. Moreover, it’s a piece of fitness equipment that has been around for centuries. In fact, it’s an ancient weapon turned fitness tool. That’s pretty badass. 

As the mace is one of our favorite fitness tools, we will discuss the reasons we love this as a home workout tool at the end of this guide to working out at home.

Shop steel maces

Resistance Bands can be used for all 4 pillars of fitness. While the steel mace is versatile in the movements you can do, resistance bands are versatile in their overall uses. You can use them for warming up, mobility, resistance training, flexibility and even muscle endurance based cardio. Resistance bands are truly a MUST-HAVE for every single person who workouts, even those who only want to focus on bodyweight training. In fact, they are especially important for those who do bodyweight training, as they can provide both assistance and resistance. 

Shop Resistance Bands

Home Workout Equipment Purposes/Uses:

• Kettlebells for hypertrophy & strength (ballistic training – increases explosive power and brute strength).

• Steel Maces for core strength, conditioning, muscle endurance, and athleticism – great for full body workouts as the best steel mace exercises involve multiple muscle groups and they move you through multiple planes of motion.

• Resistance bands for everything, especially mobility, flexibility, eccentric contractions, and assistance/resistance based bodyweight exercises (i.e. assisted pull-ups, banded push ups). You can also build muscle with resistance bands and/or lose weight.

Although there are other training tools that are good for home workouts, such as dumbbells, we will stick to these three as they are the most versatile. Moreover, these fitness tools complement each other beautifully. You can use all three during a workout in a way that makes sense to achieve a great all-around workout. They can even be paired and used in the same exercise, simultaneously.

Other Progressive Overload Methods Using Steel Maces, Kettlebells & Resistance Bands

With steel maces, kettlebells and resistance bands, you have all the same methods that we discussed, but you also have the options of increase weight, doing drop sets, and other various weight load schemes.

Make a plan for progressive overloading and stick to it.

Can you do more than one progressive overload method?

You can do more than one method of progressive overload at a time.

i.e. your goal for your 8 week at-home workout program can be to decrease rest time, increase volume, and add more reps.

Whatever you choose, be consistent.

Now, let’s start with HOME WORKOUT PLANS FOR BUILDING MUSCLE, then FAT LOSS WORKOUT PLANS…

Want Big Equipment like Barbells and Dumbbells?

Building Muscle & Strength: 3 Bodyweight At-Home Workout Plans

Here are two bodyweight workout programs for building muscle and strength at home.

The exercises in the below plans are the most effective bodyweight exercises. Of course, there other great exercises, but we truly believe in the efficacy of these so we want to push them.

Note: Warm up before every workout and cool down after every workout. 

Bodyweight-only Home Workout Plan #1 (Muscle/Strength)

4-weeks
Beginner-Intermediate level
Full-Body Workouts
(Progressive Overload: Decrease Workout Time)

Day 1:
300 Air Squats
200 Push-ups
100 Crunches
50 Pull-ups (use bands for assistance if needed – Pull Up Progression Plan)

You can split the work into sets. i.e. 30 squats, 20 push ups, 10 crunches, 5 pulls x 10 sets. That will equal the total reps above. 

or…

You can focus on one movement at a time. i.e. first set do as many squats as you can, rest, do another set of as many as, rest, and repeat until you reach 300 squats. Then move on to the next exercise.

Same applies to the below workout on Day 3.

Day 2: HIIT or Cardio & Light Stretching/Flexibility Training

Day 3: 
100 Pike Push-ups
100 Decline Push-ups
200 Glute Bridge March
200 Tricep Dips
50 Chin-ups (use bands for assistance if needed)
50 lying leg raises

Day 4: Active rest

Repeat

**Time yourself for Day 1 workout and Day 3 workout and try to decrease the time each sequential workout. Record your time each workout and see how you do!

**If the rep count is too easy or too difficult, adjust according to your fitness level. The workout should take you 30-45 mins. Be sure to do good proper reps. No cheating. That said, you can be explosive, just use a full range of motion. 

Bodyweight-only Home Workout Plan #2 (Muscle/Strength):

6-weeks
Intermediate-Advanced level
Upper/Lower Split
(Progressive Overload: Increase reps & sets)

Day 1: Lower Body

Dynamic Warm Up: 5-10 mins
Exercise 1: Air Squats – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 2: Alt. Lateral Lunges – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 3: Nordic Hamstring Curls – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 4: Glute Bridge Walkouts – 3 sets x time
Exercise 5: Lunges – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 6: Jumping Jacks – 3 sets x reps
Gentle Lower Body Stretches (hit each muscle group): 5-10 mins

Day 2: Upper Body

Dynamic Warm Up: 5-10 mins
Exercise 1: Push Ups – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 2: Pull Ups – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 3: Pike Push Ups – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 4: Chin ups – 3 sets x reps (chin ups vs pull ups: muscles worked)
Exercise 5: Tricep Dips – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 6: Mountain climbers – 3 sets x time
Gentle Upper Body Stretches: 5-10 mins

Day 3: HIIT (20 mins) i.e. Tabata style HIIT workout

Day 4: Lower Body (45 min workout)

Dynamic Warm Up: 5-10 mins
Exercise 1: Squat Jumps – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 2: Reverse Lunges – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 3: Glute Bridge March – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 4: Jumping Lunges – 3 sets x time
Exercise 5: Tuck Jumps – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 6: Skier Jacks – 3 sets x reps
Gentle Lower Body Stretches (hit each muscle group): 5-10 mins

Day 5: Upper Body (45 min workout)

Dynamic Warm Up: 5-10 mins
Exercise 1: Decline Push Ups – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 2: Pull Ups – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 3: Wall Handstands – 3 sets x time
Exercise 4: Inverted Rows – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 5: Bodyweight Tricep Extensions – 3 sets x reps
Exercise 6: Side Planks – 3 sets each side x time
Gentle Upper Body Stretches: 5-10 mins

Day 6: HIIT

Day 7: Rest

Repeat

Use this schedule for 8 weeks. 

If you need two rest days per week, you can take day 6 to rest too rather than do HIIT, or you can do a light cardio/active rest day.

Progressive Overload – Increase Reps & Sets NOTE: 

– Now, you’ll also notice there are no numbers of reps and time for each set/exercise. You will have to gauge your capability. For the first week of workouts, see what you can do.
– If you think you can do 20 push ups per set for 3 sets, and that will be challenging, then start with that for week 1. Then, on week 2, add 5 reps (unless week 1 was too easy, then you can add more). On week 3, add another 5 reps to your week 2 rep count. On week 4 another 5 reps. Now you are at 35 reps for 3 sets. Then, on week 5, add another set. So you will be doing 4 sets for every exercise. At this point, the workout plan jumps significantly in volume. If you need to, you can drop the reps down by 5 and start from there and work your way back up.

**If 5-reps is too much of an increment or too little, you can adjust accordingly. The point is you are pushing yourself a little more with each week. Also, if you are training to failure, that’s fine. Record what you did and try to do even just a couple more reps the next week. In fact, if you are going to failure for certain exercises, that’s great. You will know for sure you are pushing yourself past your limits, which is what it takes to grow when doing bodyweight training.

**It’s more about the time under tension than the reps. You could do 20 push ups in 20 seconds. However, they could be ineffective if they are basically half reps…So, do 20 with slowly eccentric movement (downward) and explosive concentric (upward motion) – i.e. 3 sec to 1 sec tempo. That will make that 20 push ups a lot more difficult and effective. 

Related: Concentric vs Eccentric Muscle Contraction for Hypertrophy & Strength

NOTE: The only super-effective exercise that is missing in the above workout plan are Hanging Leg Raises. If you are strong enough, add those into your routine as they are one of the best core exercises you can do.

Bodyweight-only Home Workout Plan #3 (Muscle/Strength):

8 Weeks
Intermediate-Advance Level
3-Day Split
(Progressive Overload: Increase intensity/Decrease Rest Time Between Sets)

Note: Exercises with “A” and “B” are supersets

Day 1: Legs/Abs

Dynamic Warm Up: 5-10 mins
Exercise 1: Air Squats – 4 sets x 50 reps
Exercise 2: Nordic Hamstring Curls – 4 sets x 15
Exercise 3A: Jumping Lunges – 3 sets x 1 min
Exercise 3B: Alt. Lateral Lunges  – 3 sets x 20 reps
Exercise 4A: Jumping Jacks – 3 sets x 100 reps
Exercise 4B: Mountain Climbers – 3 sets x 1 min
Exercise 5: Crunches – 3 sets x 20
Gentle Lower Body Stretches (hit each muscle group): 5-10 mins

Day 2: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps

Dynamic Warm Up: 5-10 mins
Exercise 1: Push Ups – 4 sets x 25 reps
Exercise 2: Pike Push Ups – 4 sets x 20 reps
Exercise 3: Wide Push Ups – 4 sets x 25 reps
Exercise 4: Wall Handstands – 4 sets x max holds
Exercise 5: Tricep Dips – 4 sets x max reps
Exercise 6: Tricep Extensions – 4 sets to failure
Exercise 7A: Leg Raises – 3 sets x 10-12
Exercise 7B: Plank – 3 sets each side x 1 minute or more
Gentle Upper Body Stretches: 5-10 mins

Day 3: Back/Biceps

Dynamic Warm Up: 5-10 mins
Exercise 1: Pull Ups – 5 sets x max reps
Exercise 2: Inverted Rows – 5 sets x 15 reps
Exercise 3: Chin ups – 4 sets x max reps
Exercise 4A: Crab Walk – 4 sets x 30-60 seconds
Exercise 4B: Superman – 4 Sets x 10-12 reps
Exercise 5: Side Planks – 3 sets x 1 min each side
Gentle Stretches: 5-10 mins

Day 4: HIIT or Cardio

Day 5: Rest

Repeat

**Adjust rep count according to your fitness level and capacity

**Push to failure or near failure every set, use strict form, and your muscles will grow and your strength will increase.

KEEP A RECORD. Record what you did each workout, so you can track your progress.

KEEP CONSISTENT. Do the same routine each week for a minimum of 4 weeks. If you want to add another exercise into the routine or add some reps, that is perfectly fine. Each week you can increase reps.

After 8-12 weeks, you can change to a new routine or change the exercises you are doing. Of course, you’d want to opt for more difficult ones…i.e. Jumping Squats rather than Air Squats OR Add a slight load to your air squats (backpack weight).

Building Muscle & Strength: 2 Bodyweight, Kettlebells, Steel Maces, Bands At-Home Workout Plans

Here are two home workout plans – upper/lower split and a 4-day split. These workout plans use kettlebells, steel maces, resistance bands and bodyweight exercises.

These plans can be done for 6 to 12 weeks. 6 weeks is the minimum that you should stick to these plans, 12 is the maximum. After you complete one of these home workout plans, take a few days off to rest, then start another one of these plans (even one of our fat loss plans, which are further below).

Assuming you have a minimal selection of tools, meaning not a wide range of kettlebell and steel mace weight sizes, we’ve provided two progressive overload options that make the most sense.

Progressive Overload Option 1: Slightly decrease rest time between sets each week. 

Progressive Overload Option 2: Increase Reps/Sets & Intensity of the tension.

• For intensity, you can increase it by moving slower on the eccentric, and more explosive on the concentric. Also, you can work on more powerful muscle contractions.

• Increase reps each week. For example, if you are doing 10 reps on week 1 for a particular exercise, by week 8 you should be doing 20.

• Increase sets each week. You can increase just a couple exercises by 1 set each week. So week one all 6 exercises are 3 reps; week two, 4 exercises are 3 sets and two are 4 sets; week 3, 3 exercises are 3 sets and 3 are 4 sets…and so on. You should be at 4-5 sets for most exercises by week 8.

   

  Note: If this plan is hard for you, start week 1 with 2 sets each exercise instead of the recommended 3 sets.

Note: The exercises within these workout plans are some of the best exercises you can do to target the intended muscle groups. Towards the end of this article, we will provide more exercises that you can use for your workout plan in case you don’t have one of these training tools, you want a more difficult or easier exercise, or you simply want to do something different. However, the ones we added in these are truly the most effective for each of the specific fitness tools. 

Home Workout Program #1 (Building Muscle/Strength):

6-12 weeks
Upper/Lower Split
Building Muscle & Strength
Kettlebells, Maces, Bands, Bodyweight

Day 1: Lower Body

Dynamic Warm Up/Lower Body Mobility (10 mins)
Exercise 1: Kettlebell Goblet Squats x 3 sets
Exercise 2: Double or Single Kettlebell Sumo Squats x 3 sets
Exercise 3: Kettlebell Single Stiff-legged Deadlifts (or Double) x 3 sets each side
Exercise 4: Steel mace Dynamic Lunges x 3 sets
Exercise 5: Steel Mace Alternating Lunges x 3 sets
Exercise 6: Jumping Jacks x 3 sets
Gentle Stretching/Flexibility Training (5-10 mins)

Day 2: Upper Body

Dynamic Warm Up/Upper Body Mobility (10 mins)
Exercise 1: Pull ups x 3 sets (use resistance bands as assistance if you can’t do many pull ups, as time goes on, use lighter bands – need a set of bands for this)
Exercise 2: Kettlebell Rows x 3 sets each side
Exercise 3: Kettlebell Push ups x 3 sets
Exercise 4: Kettlebell Overhead Presses x 3 sets each side
Exercise 5: Steel Mace Overhead Presses (hard version) x 3 sets (each side, one side after the other equals one set)
Exercise 6: Hanging Leg Raises (or lying leg raises if that’s too difficult)
Gentle Stretching/Flexibility Training (5-10 mins)

Day 3: Rest or Cardio/15min HIIT

Day 4: Lower Body

Dynamic Warm Up/Lower Body Mobility (10 mins)
Exercise 1: Jump Squats x 3 sets, high reps
Exercise 2: Kettlebell Good Mornings x 3 sets
Exercise 3: Nordic Ham Curls (or Nordic Curls with Band assistance) x 3 sets
Exercise 4: Steel Mace 4 & 8 Lunges (Curtsy Lunge) x 3 sets
Exercise 5: Kettlebell Swings x 3 sets
Exercise 6: Steel Mace Switch Squat x 3 sets
Exercise 7: Skier Jacks x 3 sets
Gentle Stretching/Flexibility Training (5-10 mins)

Day 5: Upper Body

Dynamic Warm Up/Upper Body Mobility (10 mins)
Exercise 1: Incline Push Ups x 3 sets
Exercise 2: Wide Grip Push ups x 3 sets
Exercise 3: Chin Ups x 3 sets
Exercise 4: Steel Mace Rows x 3 sets (each side, one side after the other equals one set)
Exercise 5: Resistance Band Overhead Presses Behind the Neck x 3 Sets
Exercise 6: Resistance Band Lateral Raises x 3 sets each side
Exercise 7: Kettlebell Russian Twists x 3 sets
Gentle Stretching/Flexibility Training (5-10 mins)

Day 6: Rest or Cardio/15min HIIT

Day 7: Active Rest

Repeat

Note: Adjust rep count according to your fitness level. Aim for higher time under tension.

**You’ll notice we don’t have any specific bicep or tricep exercises in there. That is because they will be worked through the compound movements. If you want to add an isolated bicep or tricep exercise, feel free. 

Home Workout Program #2 (Building Muscle/Strength)

6-12 weeks
4-Day Split
Kettlebells, Maces, Bands, Bodyweight

Exercises with A/B are supersets

Day 1: Shoulders/Abs

Dynamic Warm Up (5-10 mins)
Exercise 1: Kettlebell Overhead Presses x 3 Sets (if single, each side)
Exercise 2: Steel Mace Overhead Presses (hard version) x 3 sets (each side, one side after the other equals one set)
Exercise 3A: Resistance Band Lateral Raises x 3 Sets (each side, one after the other)
Exercise 3B: Resistance Band Front Raises (or RB or KB Upright Rows) x 3 Sets
Exercise 4: Steel Mace Archers x 3 sets
Exercise 5: Hanging Leg Raises (or lying leg raises if that’s too difficult)
Exercise 6: Plank
Gentle Stretching/Flexibility Training (5-10 mins)

Day 2: Back/Biceps

Dynamic Warm Up (5-10 mins)
Exercise 1: Pull Ups x 3 sets (use resistance bands as assistance if you can’t do many pull ups, as time goes on, use lighter bands – need a set of bands for this)
Exercise 2: Kettlebell Rows x 3 sets (each side)
Exercise 3A: Chin Ups x 3 sets
Exercise 3B: Steel Mace Ballistic Curls x 3 sets
Exercise 4: Kettlebell Deadlifts x 3 sets
Exercise 5: Kettlebell Farmer Walk (with Trap Raises) x 3 sets (if single, each side)
Gentle Stretching/Flexibility Training (5-10 mins)

Day 3: Active Rest or Cardio

Day 4: Legs/Abs

Dynamic Warm Up/Mobility (10 mins)
Exercise 1: Kettlebell Goblet Squats  (or double kettlebell squats)x 3 sets
Exercise 2: Double or Single Kettlebell Sumo Deadlifts x 3 sets
Exercise 3: Kettlebell Stiff-legged Deadlifts x 3 sets (each leg)
Exercise 4A: Steel Mace Dynamic Lunges x 3 sets
Exercise 4B: Steel Mace Alternating Lateral Lunges x 3 sets
Exercise 5: Jumping Jacks x 3 sets (very high reps, feel the calves burn!)
Exercise 6: Mountain Climbers x 3 sets
Gentle Stretching/Flexibility Training (5-10 mins)

Day 5: Chest/Triceps

Dynamic Warm Up/Upper Body Mobility (10 mins)
Exercise 1: Kettlebell Push Ups x 3 sets
Exercise 2: Incline Push Ups x 3 sets
Exercise 3: Resistance Band Flies x 3 sets
Exercise 4A: Steel Mace Tricep Extension x 3 sets
Exercise 4B: Tricep Dips x 3 sets
Exercise 5: Plank Thrusters x 3 sets
Exercise 7: Kettlebell Russian Twists x 3 sets
Gentle Stretching/Flexibility Training (5-10 mins)

Day 6: Active Rest or Cardio/HIIT

Day 7: Rest

Repeat

Note: 

• Adjust rep count according to your fitness level. Aim for higher time under tension.
• If you need extra rest days, take an HIIT/Cardio day to do so. However, still aim for at least 1 HIIT workout per week.

What size kettlebell and steel maces for these muscle and strength workouts at home?

• Ideally, you want heavy maces and kettlebells as these exercises are most effective with heavier weights. 

• We’d say get one heavy kettlebell (i.e. 40-50lbs for men, 30-40lbs for women) and mace (i.e. 20-30lbs for man, 15-25lbs for woman), and one lighter kettlebell (20-25lbs for men and women) and mace (10lbs for men and women). If you get only one of each, go for something in the medium weight and adjust reps accordingly. 

• Get a full set of bands if you can.

Shop Resistance Bands

 

Shop Steel Maces

Shop Kettlebells

Note: If you only have light weight steel mace and kettlebells, that is fine. Just increase tension, perform the exercises slowly/explosively and adjust the rep count/time under tension so your muscle are screaming!

Fat Loss: 2 Bodyweight-Only At-Home Workout Plans

Now, for the purpose of losing fat, we need to take a different approach. We are going to stick to full body workouts with low rest time. The exercises will consist of dynamic compound movements. This will keep your heart rate up, allowing you to burn more calories. 

For the resistance workouts, we will utilize circuit training, ascending/descending ladders, block training, and supersets. We won’t be worrying too much about progressive loading in the same way as do for building muscle. For fat loss, we simply want to aim to burn a lot of calories in the workout. So that means as we progress through a workout plan, we want to keep minimizing rest time and increasing intensity. We can also increase reps and volume of the workout if things start to get too easy. All in all, what we really want is to sweat bullets each and every workout.

HIIT workouts will be short, 15-20 minutes and cardio will be around 30-40 mins at a maintainable pace. Our goal for cardio is to burn fat and improve cardiovascular health, which will also increase our resistance training capacity.

The following workout plans can be followed for as little as 4 weeks and as long as 8 weeks. Stick to the plan and eat a proper high protein diet and the results will follow.

Below the workout plans you will find options for cardio and HIIT workouts**

Note: Warm up before every workout and cool down after every workout. 

Bodyweight-only Home Workout Plan #1 (Fat Loss):

4-8 weeks
Full Body Workouts

A & B exercises are supersets

Day 1: HIIT (15 mins) 

Day 2: Resistance Training 

Exercise 1A: Air Squats x 3 sets
Exercise 1B: Push ups x 3 sets
Exercise 2A: Nordic Ham Curls x 3 sets
Exercise 2B: Glute Bridge Walkouts x 3 sets
Exercise 3A: Pike Push Ups x 3 sets
Exercise 3B: Wall Handstands x 3 sets x time
Exercise 4: Pull ups x 3 sets

 Details:
– Aim for high reps. Ideally, each superset should have you working 60-120 seconds.
– Keep rest time to a minimum.

Day 3: Cardio (30-40 mins)

Day 4: Resistance Training

Block 1 (6 minutes) Chin Ups
Block 2 (6 minutes) Incline Push Ups
Block 3 (6 minutes) Jump Squats
Block 4: (6 minutes) Elevated Pike Push Ups
Block 5: (6 minutes) Tricep Dips

Details:
– Do as many reps as you can each block. Only rest when you have to. A good way to attack this is in sets (i.e. 5 chin ups, quick rest, 5 chin ups, quick rest, and so on until the 6 mins is up)
– Take 2-3 mins rest between blocks

Day 5: HIIT (15 mins) 

Day 6: Resistance Training 

Circuit 1:
Alt. Lunges
Wide Grip Push Ups
Pull Ups

Circuit 2:
Incline Push Ups
Reverse Lunges
Bicycle Crunches

Circuit 3:
Close grip push ups
Glute Bridge Holds
Side Planks (each side)

Details:
– Aim for high reps on each exercise
– Complete the 3 exercises in each circuit without resting then rest 1 min and move to the next circuit. Once you finish circuit 3, go back circuit 1 and repeat. Do each circuits three times. 

Day 7:  Rest

Bodyweight-only Home Workout Plan #2 (Fat Loss):

4-8 weeks
Full Body Workouts 

Day 1: Resistance Training

1. Traditional:

Pull ups x 3 sets
Pike Push Ups x 3 sets
Knee Jumps x 3 sets

– High rep count
– Rest ratio 1 to 1 each set.
– Complete each exercise for all 3 sets, then move to next exercise.

2. Circuit:

Push ups
Curtsy Lunge
Chin ups

– Do circuit 3 times
– Use a challenging rep count, don’t go easy on yourself!

3. Ascending/Descending Ladder:

Burpees x 10 reps
Squats x 1 rep

– Top exercise goes down one rep each set and bottom goes up 1 set each set. Continue until Burpees are at 1 rep and Squats are at 10 reps

Day 2: HIIT (15 mins)

Day 3: Cardio (30-40 mins)

Day 4: Resistance Training

Circuit x 4 rounds:
Squat Jumps
Wide Grip Push Ups
Close Grip Pull ups
Downward Dog to Plank
Leg Raises 

Every Minute On The Minute for 10 mins: Tuck Jumps x 5-10 reps

Day 4: HIIT (15 mins)

Day 5: Cardio (30-40 mins) 

Day 6: Resistance Training

Descending Ladder:

Incline Push Ups x 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
Pull Ups x 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Squats x 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10
Jumping Jacks x 100, 75, 50, 25

– Minimal rest
– Try to complete workout as quickly as possible

OR 

100 Pull Ups
300 Squats
200 Push Ups

– Finish as quickly as possible

Day 7: REST 

Fat Loss: 2 Bodyweight, Kettlebells, Steel Maces, Bands At-Home Workout Plans

The following two workout plan options take the same concepts from the above bodyweight-only workout plans but it includes the use of resistance bands, steel maces and kettlebells. 

In these workouts, you’ll find the best fat burning exercises for each training tool. They are dynamic, ballistic, multiplanar compound movements. Your heart will be pumping fast during these workouts and your body will be shedding fat. 

Home Workout Routine #1 (Fat Loss):

6 weeks
Full Body Workouts
Kettlebells, Steel Maces, Resistance Bands, Bodyweight

Day 1: Resistance Training

Circuit 1:
Pull Ups
Goblet Squats
Kettlebell Push Ups

Circuit 2:
Kettlebell Swings
Steel Mace Switch Squat
Steel Mace Grave Diggers (each side)

Circuit 3:
Kettlebell Snatch (each side)
Steel Mace Thrusters
Chin Ups

Details:
– Aim for high reps on each exercise
– Complete the 3 exercises in each circuit without resting then rest 1 min and move to the next circuit. Once you finish circuit 3, go back circuit 1 and repeat. Do each circuits three times. 

Day 2: HIIT (15 mins)

Day 3: Cardio (30-40 mins)

Day 4: Resistance Training 

Block 1 (6 minutes) KB Sumo Deadlifts
Block 2 (6 minutes) Steel Mace 360s
Block 3 (6 minutes) Pull Ups
Block 4: (6 minutes) Push Ups
Block 5: (6 minutes) Steel Mace Lunge Uppercuts (be sure to hit both sides equally) 

Details:
_ Do as many reps as you can each block. Only rest when you have to. A good way to attack this is in sets (i.e. 5 pull ups, quick rest, 5 pull ups, quick rest, and so on until the 6 mins is up)
– Take 2 mins rest between blocks

Day 5: HIIT (15 mins)

Day 6: Cardio (30-40 mins) 

Day 7: Rest

Home Workout Routine #2 (Fat Loss):

6 weeks
Full Body Workouts
Kettlebells, Steel Maces, Resistance Bands, Bodyweight

Day 1: Resistance Training 

1. Traditional:

Pull ups x 3 sets
Kettlebell Push ups x 3 sets
Kettlebell Squats x 3 sets

– High rep count
– Rest ratio 1 to 1 each set.
– Complete the exercise for all 3 sets, then move to next exercise. 

2. Circuit – 3 Rounds:

Mace 10-to-2s or Steel Mace Overhead Presses
Kettlebell Swings
Alternating Kettlebell Rows

– Use a challenging rep count, don’t go easy on yourself! 

3. Ascending/Descending Ladder:

Burpees x 10 reps
Kettlebell Snatch x 1 rep (each side)

– Top exercise goes down one rep each set and bottom goes up 1 set each set. Continue until Burpees are at 1 rep and Squats are at 10 reps 

Day 2: HIIT (15 mins)

Day 3: Cardio (30-40 mins) 

Day 4: Resistance Training

Circuit x 5 rounds:
Wide Grip Push Ups
Close Grip Pull ups
Kettlebell Sumo Deadlifts
One Arm Kettlebell Farmer Carries (one arm down, other arm back)

Details:
– High reps, relative to your strength
– 1-2 min rest between rounds 

Every Minute On The Minute for 5 mins: Steel Mace Joust x 20 (fast thrusts)

Finisher:
10 Turkish Get Ups (each side)
– As quickly as you can

Day 4: HIIT (15 mins)

Day 5: Cardio (30-40 mins)

Day 6: Resistance Training 

Exercise 1A: Goblet Squats x 3 sets
Exercise 1B: Steel Mace Dynamic Lunges x 3 sets
Exercise 2A: Kettlebell Good Mornings x 3 sets
Exercise 2B: Steel Mace Alt. Lunges x 3 sets
Exercise 3A: Kettlebell Overhead Presses x 3 sets each side
Exercise 3B: Steel Mace Curl to Spiral Press x 3 sets each side
Exercise 4A: Steel Mace Rows x 3 sets each side
Exercise 4B: Resistance Band Push Ups x 3 sets

Day 7: REST 

What size kettlebell and steel maces for fat loss workouts at home?

We’d recommend a 10LB or 15LB mace for the above workouts (7LB will be good for those who are new to mace training and fitness in general).

For kettlebells, we’d recommend an 18-26LB kettlebell for women and a 24-32lb kettlebell for men. It really depends on your strength. The goal is to be able to have longer working sets with minimal rest time in-between, as this is ideal for fat loss and metabolic training. 

Shop Steel Maces

Shop Kettlebells

Overtraining:

Listen to your body and make sure you aren’t overtraining. If your workouts are starting to lag, you are feeling excessive fatigue or noticing decreased performance, give yourself a rest for a couple of days. Your body needs to recover.

Make sure you are eating well and getting enough sleep if you are going to be following these plans as they require a lot of work. That being said, that’s what it takes to build muscle and lose fat from home!

Take a rest day if you feel you are overtraining and need more recovery. Recovery is just as essential as working out.

Ways to Give Yourself More Rest Days And Still Tackle all 4 Pillars of Fitness:

If you want more rest days, you can add your cardio sessions to your resistance training days. You can do them after your workout or you can do them in the morning or evening (we recommend cardio in the morning and resistance training in the evening).

Your training schedule could like this:

All-in-One Workout Structure:

1. Warm Up: 5-10 mins (mobility focused)

2. Resistance Training: 20-30 mins (strength/hypertrophy/muscular endurance)

3. Cardiovascular: 20-30 mins (endurance)

4. Flexibility & Cool Down: 10-15 mins (flexibility focused)

Boom, that’s everything you need. If you do this, you can turn those cardio days into rest days.

**The above workout structure has a minimum of 55 mins and a maximum of 80 mins. That isn’t a short workout. So, you have another option, and one that we personally prefer. Here’s how it will look.

Two-A-Day Gain Muscle & Lose Fat Workout Structure: – INCREASE YOUR FITNESS FAST

Workout 1: Morning

1. Warm Up (5 mins)

2. Cardio/HIIT (15-30 mins) – this can also be an HIIT workout

3. Cool down (3-5 mins)

Workout 2: Evening

1. Warm up (5-10 mins)

2. Resistance Training (20-30 mins)

3. Flexibility Training – gentle stretching (5-10 mins)

Morning vs Night – read to see why we do cardio in morning. In a nutshell, it has to do with cortisol levels in morning and body temperature being lower in morning, which is not conducive for strength training.

We find the two-a-day option the best for maximizing fat loss and muscle growth. When you keep your workouts short, you stay in a good metabolic range, not allowing your cortisol levels to rise, which typically happens after 45-50 mins of working out (especially for those over 40 years old). Moreover, when you go from inactive to active, you shock your metabolism, so doing this twice a day is great for getting in shape and losing fat – Even if you are doing the same total time as you would with an all-in-one workout, two-a-days generally provide better results.

With two a days, you can replace the HIIT/Cardio days from the workout plans with rest days.

Weekly schedule with two-a-days:

Beginner Two-a-Day Schedule:
– Workout out every other day**

Day 1: AM – Cardio; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: AM – HIIT; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 4 Rest
Day 5: AM – Cardio; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: AM – HIIT; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 8: Rest

Intermediate Two-a-Day Schedule:
Day 1: AM – Cardio; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 2: AM – HIIT; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 3: Rest
Day 4 AM – Cardio; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 5: AM – HIIT; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 6: Rest
Repeat

or…

Advanced Two-a-Day Schedule:
Day 1: AM – Cardio; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 2: AM – Cardio; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 3: HIIT (15-20 mins)
Day 4 AM – Cardio; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 5: AM – Cardio; PM – Resistance/Flexibility 
Day 6: HIIT (15-20 mins) or rest
Day 7: Rest
Repeat

Cardio:

• Running

• Cycling

• Swimming

Run at a pace that is difficult but maintainable for a good 40-minute session*

Only choose swimming if you can swim well, as you want to make sure it’s a good cardio workout.

Dynamic Warm Ups:

Do a dynamic warm up before every workout. This will help prime your body for the workout to come and it will help you be more injury resilient.

Below are three great examples of dynamic warm ups…

Bodyweight Dyanmic Warm Up 

Bodyweight Dynamic Warm Up #2

7LB Steel Mace Dynamic Warm Up

Cool Downs:

Do cool downs after every workout. It’s important to do a cool down because it allows your body to gradually return back to its normal state and it helps to avoid injury.

The best way to cool downs is simply walking and doing simpler, gentler movements. Stretching is also great after a workout as your joints, muscles and limbs are warm. 

14 Best Cooldown Exercises

14-Min Follow Along Decompression Flow

Flexibility Training:

As we mentioned at the beginning of this guide, flexibility is an integral part of fitness. You want to make sure you have normal flexibility. The tightness can happen when you workout a lot and don’t maintain flexibility.

Note: You don’t want to be hyperflexible unless you have some specific goal in mind. What you want is normalcy in your flexibility. This will allow you to perform at your best in all aspects of life.

Flexibility training can be done on either resistance training days or HIIT/Cardio days after you finish your workout. You could also do it in the evening or later in the day after your workout. Just don’t do static stretches before your workout or even a couple hours before. Do it anytime after your workout(s) is done for the day.

Here are some of our favorite static stretch routines and exercises.

Full-Body Flexibility Routine

Psoas Muscle Stretches (Great if you feel you have tight hips & low back)

Resistance Band Lower Body Stretches

HIIT

HIIT (high-intensity interval training) is one of the best ways to burn fat while maintaining muscle. This is why we emphasized HIIT in the workout plans. It is perfect for both losing fat and gaining muscle as when you want to lose fat, you don’t want to lose muscle and when you want to gain muscle you don’t want to get fat. Thus, HIIT should have its place in everyone’s workout program.

Here are a couple of HIIT options. The first two are bodyweight only. The third is a kettlebell HIIT workout and the fourth is a steel mace HIIT workout. 

NOTE: None of these workouts are “fun”. They should be brutal. If it gets to a point where they are easy for you, turn up the intensity or find a tougher routine. Typically you can turn up the intensity and it does the trick. That being said, change the HIIT routine you do after a few weeks. Moreover, if you have two HIIT sessions a week (the perfect amount), you should do two different ones. 

Week 1: HIIT A, HIIT B
Week 2: HIIT A, HIIT B
Week 3: HIIT C, HIIT D
Week 4: HIIT C, HIIT D

HIIT OPTION 1:

• Total time is 15 mins.

• 40 seconds work each exercise , 20 seconds rest.

• Do each exercise once then after your 20 seconds rest move to the next.

• Once all exercises are completed, you have finished the workout. 

 HIIT OPTION 2:

• Total time is 15 mins

• 4 rounds of 6 exercises

• 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest.

• No rest between rounds.

• Once all 4 rounds are completed, you are finished.

HIIT OPTION 3:  

• Total time is 15 mins

• 8 rounds (4 rounds each side) of 3 exercises

• 30 seconds rest between rounds.

HIIT OPTION 4:

• 6 Exercises
• 20 seconds each exercise. 

• As Many Rounds As Possible in 15 mins.

• Switch sides each round. 

For those following a fitness equipment workout plan, you can follow the bodyweight HIIT options or the kettlebell and steel mace HIIT options. The same goes for those doing the bodyweight workout plans. If you have kettlebells, steel mace or even resistance bands, you can use them for HIIT.

Related: Best Beginner HIIT Exercises

Resources: Exercises & Workouts for Home Training

Want different exercises to customize the program more to your liking?

Don’t want to follow the workout plans above and you just want some exercise and workout inspiration? 

No problem…

Here are a bunch of great exercises that you can use and workouts that you can do at home. 

We’ve categorized them by bodyweight, kettlebell, steel mace, and resistance band workouts. Then, we have some workouts that use combinations of these home training tools.

Bodyweight Exercises:

Full Length Follow Along Bodyweight Workout

Kettlebell Exercises & Workouts:

Full Length Follow Along Kettlebell Workouts

Full Length Kettlebell Workout

Steel Mace Exercises & Workouts:

Full Length Follow Along Mace Workouts

Want to learn how to do a Steel Mace 360 and 10-to-2?

If you learn how to do a steel mace 360 and 10-to-2, you can add these two extremely rewarding exercises into your routine. Here is the ultimate resource on learning how to perform Mace 360s and 10-to-2s.

66 Steel Mace Swing Variations

Resistance Band Exercises & Workouts:

Full Length Resistance Band Workout

More on our two favorite home fitness equipment

We’d like to end this with a little more info on why these training tools are our favorite and why we think they belong in every household…

Resistance Bands (Every Home Should Have a Set)

Resistance bands are a must have for every home workout enthusiast, even if you are only planning on doing bodyweight workouts.

Bands can be used for the following:

• Warming Up & Mobility: Bands are great for getting blood flowing to your muscles and joints. The tension is effective yet it doesn’t put pressure and stress on your joints the same way weightlifting does. Moreover, they are very useful for mobilizing joints. 

• Flexibility & Stretching: Bands are fantastic for improving flexibility as they allow you to get into deeper stretches and they can stretch muscles that are otherwise hard to target due to a lack of flexibility.

• Assistance: Bands are essential for those who aren’t strong enough to throw around their own bodyweight. If you have trouble with pull ups, dips, and even push ups, you can use them to assist you in these exercises. For example, if you strap a band on a pull up bar and then place your feet through them, your body will become “lighter” as the band pulls you up towards the pull up bar.

• Resistance training: Bands can add more intensity to your bodyweight workouts. They can be used to mimic barbell exercises and they can increase the difficulty of bodyweight exercises (i.e. push ups with bands as added resistance).

• Combine with free weights: You can pair bands with tools like steel maces and kettlebells to increase the resistance. For example, let’s say you only have a 25lb kettlebell, adding a yellow band to any given exercise can turn that 25LB kettlebell into a 40-50lb kettlebell. Here’s how you can combine bands with maces and kettlebells.

Can resistance bands build muscle?

Bands have even more benefits and uses than this.

All in all, bands are useful for all 4 pillars of fitness, so you will find a ton of use for them if you workout at home.

Shop Resistance Bands

Steel Maces (Our Favorite Home Fitness Tool)

Our good friend Jan Libourel wrote for us a little piece on why the steel mace is a must-have for every person who works out at home. So, we’d thought we’d share it here…

THE MACEBELL–AN IDEAL CHOICE FOR HOME FITNESS

By Jan Libourel

At this moment, all the gyms in my region have been closed by government order because of fears of COVID-19. This means hard times for owners of small private gyms. Some had hoped to conduct open-air classes in nearby parks, but this was banned as well. This means that all the many people who relied on training at gyms will be thrown onto their own resources if they wish to maintain a good standard of fitness…so important when the health of each of us is in particular jeopardy. For them, there can be no better choice than the macebell–a true all-in-one home fitness tool.

Why the macebell? It is arguably the most versatile fitness tool in existence: Since it is in effect a leverage bell, you can change the resistance it offers merely by how you position your hands on the handle–closer to the ball of the mace, lighter; further away, more challenging. There are any number of exercises you can perform with the macebell. Every purchaser of a SET FOR SET macebell gets a free 84-page e-book filled with exercises of varying levels of difficulty to work virtually every part of the body. The macebell can be used indoors (if you have a modest amount of floor space and a ceiling that gives sufficient clearance) or outdoors. You can use it to slam tires and similar objects. No extra equipment like squat racks or a weight bench that takes up space in your home is required.

No piece of exercise equipment is more durable. SET FOR SET macebells are of all-steel construction and should last forever. They can be passed on for generation after generation in your family and will give equally good service for literally centuries. By way of contrast, cast-iron kettlebells can break off the their handles if dropped on a hard surfaces. Sometimes this even happens during shipment. (Cast iron is an inherently brittle substance. This is not a fault of the manufacturers.) The collars on adjustable dumbbells can loosen, spilling plates and possibly causing injury. There are no such problems with the macebell.

Compared to many other pieces of fitness gear, the cost of a SET FOR SET macebell is trifling. Current price for a 7-pound macebell is $27.95, for a 10-pounder $39.95, for a 15-pounder $49.95. These are the best starting weights for nearly everybody. Don’t even consider starting with a heavier macebell unless you really have the strength of Ajax. However, as you progress with mace training, you may well find that some recommended exercises will not seem very challenging even with a 15-pound mace. However, they will become very worthwhile and demanding with a heavier (20- or 25-pound) mace. Rare will be the man who doesn’t find plenty of exercises with SET FOR SET’s massive 30-pound mace very demanding, rarer yet the woman. In any event, the cost of even a full complement of SET FOR SET’s macebells will be but a fraction of the cost of many of these high-tech exercise cycles that run into the four figures. They will also take up a lot less room.

This leads to another virtue of the macebell. It is one of the most unobtrusive pieces of fitness gear. This is a real concern to many with limited housing space. You can line maces against a wall, where they will take up almost no floor space, stack them in a corner or a closet or slide them under a bed. Contrast this with the overwhelming presence of an Olympic barbell, a pair of squat racks and a weight bench all wedged into your bedroom, and the space-saving convenience of the macebell becomes apparent.

Consider, then, the macebell, all of you who have been uprooted indefinitely from your beloved gym or who simply prefer the economy, convenience and privacy of home training. As a fitness tool for home workouts it’s hard, maybe impossible, to beat!

If you have any questions about our home workout plans or the guide in general, please feel free to contact us or leave a comment below!