5 Best At-Home Workouts For Women

Facing problems in maintaining your fitness during this pandemic situation? Well, you’re not alone; we all are on the same page! It’s a shocking reality we all need to accept that going to the gym outside is no more a safe thing to do!

But we can’t compromise with our health and fitness, right? So I discovered 5 easy at-home workouts for women. They are currently working for me and can be followed at home easily.

Here are a simple 5 best at-home workouts for women you should also practice to toning your whole body at home.

 1. Dumbbell step-up workout for toned booty

This is one of the most efficient workouts for women who want to tone their butt. It targets particularly the muscles of hamstrings and glutes, knees.

You should add this workout to your regime to create stronger legs and a perkier booty.

 How to do this workout

1. Place a bench or step about 8 inches (ideal height which may vary according to your fitness level) in front of you. And sit straight by making your chest up.
2. Hold a dumbbell in each hand.
3. Now, Place your right foot on the step by putting pressure on your heels.
4. Maintain pressure until your right leg is straight.
5. Step up your left foot on the step now, and stand straight on the step with weights.
6. Now, you have to step down from the height. For that, bend your right knee and make your left foot step down.
7. Similarly, place your right foot on the ground.

How many reps/sets?

Repeat this work out 10 times with right foot. Then lead with the left foot and perform the same no. of reps. Meaning, you should perform 10 reps per side.

You can change reps as per your stamina when you’re a beginner. You can also set a specific duration of time for this workout.

You can face trouble controlling the movement of your glutes, knees and ankles if you’re at the beginner level. But with good practice, you would overcome this problem.

2. HIIT treadmill work out for burning calories in less time

 HIIT workouts are very challenging. They make you go extra out of your comfort zone and take your workout at an intense level.

You can use HIIT with any type of cardio workout, but my favorite one is a treadmill work out. The reason is it can be performed at home and targets several shots with one arrow. And this variety makes it a perfect workout for women.

First, it saves time because it can be performed in a shorter period. Secondly, it helps lose weight, rev up metabolism, along with building your muscle.

Therefore, when you need to burn calories but don’t have much time, this is the most effective work out to do. The most important thing is your body would keep burning calories for about 2 hours after you exercise.

But be careful, you should not perform it daily as it’s intensity is high. Add it into your workout routine twice or thrice a week but not on consecutive days.

This workout is for beginners. If you want to make it more challenging, add incline to the treadmill.

How to do this workout

1. In a HIIT work out, a warm-up is a very necessary thing to do. So, when you’re on a treadmill, warm-up by starting with a walk.
2. Gradually move to the light jogging state for 7 mins, max 10 mins
3. Now it’s time to intensify your workout. Start running at 7-9 mph for 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
4. Slow down your pace now and walk at 3-4 mph for 2-3 minutes.

How many reps/sets?

7 reps.

If the work interval isn’t enough of a challenge, you can add a slight incline to the treadmill.

And if you don’t own a treadmill, consider buying it now. Because it is one of the best selling fitness equipment worldwide and during this corona time, it can help you significantly to stay fit at home.

If you need guidance for purchasing a treadmill, head over to this guide, best treadmills for home use.

3. Bridge workout for healthy legs, back & butt

This is a leg workout which every woman should consider adding it to her workout regime. Why? Because bridges not only are ideal for sculpted butt, but they will also help you keep your back healthy.

You should also consider it incorporating into your routine if you are experiencing back pains.

How to do this workout

1. Lie on the floor. Keep your face towards the ceiling and hands on your side, and palms touching the floor.
2. Bend your knees and let your feet also touch the floor.
3. Now raise your hips and keep raising until your body makes a straight line from knees to shoulders.
4. Remain in this position for 15-25 seconds.
5. Now return to your starting position.

How many reps & sets?

Min 10, max- 20

This is a very basic bridge workout for days when you want to keep it low impact.

This exercise also targets abdominal muscles. According to fitness experts, if this posture is done correctly, it can also enhance your core stability.

This pose is also in yoga; called the ‘yoga bridge posture’.

4. Triceps kickbacks for strengthening your upper body

The triceps kickbacks is an upper body workout that targets the triceps. It increases your physical stamina and helps tone your arms. The work out also aids in burning body fat.

Choose a weight to lift that’s slightly challenging for you. Be sure not to pick the one that puts so much strain that breaks the flow and you find it hard to complete all of the sets.

Start with lightweight dumbbells and gradually increase the weight as you increase your stamina in training.

 How to do this workout

1. Stand straight on the ground with a dumbbell in each hand. Your palms should be facing each other. This is your starting position.
2. Now, bend your knees slightly.
3. You have to lean forward in this step. Follow the below process for that.
4. Straighten your spine, and start hinging forward at your waist.
5. Plus bend your arms in such a way that they should be perpendicular at your elbows.
6. Keep doing so until your torso becomes parallel to the ground.
7. Your posture should be like your head and spine are in line.
8. Now keeping your triceps still, move your elbows, and push your forearms backwards.
9. Your upper arms should be still and close to your body.
10. Move the weights (dumbbells) in your hand upward making your arms straight.
11. Pause now, breath in, and return to the starting position.

How many reps/sets?

Repeat 8 to 12 times. Perform 2 sets. Max set should be 3.

5. Devil’s press – chest workout for nice posture

It’s a chest work out that helps you form nice posture and targets the breast muscles. After a good amount of practice, you would feel that it has helped you to lift your breast and they appear perkier now.

Plus, you will have the advantage of doing cardio and burning full body fat.

How to do this workout:

1. Lay mat on the floor. Make space between your feet wider than the mat.
2. Hold a pair of dumbbells using the strength of your arms.
3. Stand straight. Straighten your arms, and palms should be facing each other.
4. Squat down (sit on your heels) while moving your hips back.
5. Put the dumbbells on the ground in front of your toes.
6. Now jump by moving your feet backwards going into high plank position.
7. Make your feet jump lightly forward. Your hands should be outside your feet’s current position.
8. Swing the weights of your hands between the legs in the backward position
9. Now you have to return your body to the standing position.
10. So when your hands come forward, put force on your hips to squeeze, elevate your torso to stand, and move your arms overhead.
11. Press the dumbbells. Arms should be straight and facing each other.
12. Now, finally, lower weights returning to the original position.
13. This is one rep.

How many reps/sets?

If you’re doing around 5 exercises total at the day, you should perform 8-10 reps. The maximum you can do 12 reps. Rest time – 15-20 seconds.

Now, let’s know some important details about these workouts and other facts related to women workout needs.

Do women need to train differently than men?

No need to mention that there are several physical and physiological differences between the two groups, such as base level strength, body structure, hormones, and the amount of muscle they naturally carry.

So does that mean women need to train differently?

The straight answer is no.

Let me show you what the American College of Sports and medicine says on this issue. As per this study, training recommendations should not be gender basis but should depend upon a person’s target goals, physical capacity, and training status.

In short, it doesn’t differentiate between sexes in their strength training recommendation.

However, there are a few tweaks women can make to get the best results. It simply means that you have to choose the workouts that are more effective for women owing to their body structure, lifestyle needs, and the fitness level.

I have carefully chosen those workouts which would target your full body muscles. There is also one HIIT workout that will help burn calories in a very short period.

Let’s move to the next section where you would know how to make most out of these workouts when you are at home.

How to make most out of these workouts

Here are a few things you need to remember to get the most effective results.

Warm-up

Don’t forget to warm up for 5 mins before you put your body into a full work out mode. Set your body up to be more efficient by a warm-up.

Though it may be tempting for you to save your time and jump directly into the workout. But when you skip a warm-up and just start doing intense moves, you invite a bad pressure on your body that ends up an injury.

A good warm-up routine may look like this:

• Hip circles, 5 reps per side
• Arm circles, 5 reps per side
• Walking 2 mins
• A flexible yoga move
• Jumping rope 1 min

If you need a full-body workout program

For a quick, simple full-body workout, pick 3 of the workouts and do 3 sets of each. For maximum calorie burn, do one HIIT workout the next day.

And then another next day, pick remaining 2 workouts along with a few sets of basic cardio intervals.

If you want to target a specific zone

If you want to tone or focus on one or two areas, in particular, pick the best workouts that strengthen those places.

For example, if you want to focus on the chest area, incorporate triceps kick boxes into your existing workout routine.

Wrapping up

The list of 5 workouts in this article has been chosen considering only one purpose which is performing the workouts which are best suited to women and can be performed easily at home.

Please remember to challenge your body and intensify your workouts by increasing weights and reps as you increase build up stamina gradually. You should also keep trying new exercises to get effective results.