How to Create a Good Home Workout Routine that Actually Works

There are a lot of good reasons to workout at home. You can workout at your own convenience when you feel like, you don't have to pay a gym membership fee, you don't have to drive anywhere, and if you're the shy type, you don't have to workout in front of other people. So working out at home has many benefits, the hard part is making sure your body benefits from it.

A lot of people that workout at home aren't seeing the same results as those that workout in a gym, but that's mainly because they don't have a well put together plan, and/or the right equipment. Once you develop a good home workout plan and get all the necessary equipment, you can workout at home and still get the results you would expect from a gym.

Here's the equipment you will need:

• A bench
• A Barbell
• Dumbbells
• A pull-up bar

Step 1. Think about your goals

Spend some time thinking about your workout goals. What are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to build muscle? Are you trying to lose weight? Are you trying to burn fat? Your goal is going to determine what kind of home workout plan you put together for yourself.

Step 2. Begin writing your plan based on your goal

If your goal is to lose weight, you should focus mainly on cardio. If you don't like jogging outside, you should invest in a treadmill. For optimum results, perform 45 minutes of cardio 4 times a week. Vary up your routine with a mixture of jogging, jumping rope, squat thrusts, and jumping jacks. One day a week, perform a 30-minute weightlifting routine.

If your goal is to burn fat and maintain muscle mass, you'll want a mixture of cardio and circuit training. Three days a week perform a circuit routine. Make the routine a little different each time. To perform a circuit routine, you must move from one exercise to the next without resting. So, for example, you would do 25 bench presses, then 10 pull-ups, then 10 curls, then 50 squats, then crunches, etc... and repeat the circuit 3 - 5 times. One day a week spend 45 minutes just doing cardio intervals.

If your goal is to gain weight, you'll mainly want to focus on weight lifting, with still a little bit of cardio. Yep, even if you're gaining weight, it's still beneficial to have a little cardio. The best way to do this is by weight train four days a week, and every other day doing a circuit routine. So day 1 and 3 you will focus on lifting heavy weights for 3 - 5 sets for each muscle group and then moving to the next after a couple minutes of rest. On days 2 and 4 yu should perform a circuit routine with lighter weights like the one outlined above.