Home Workout for Beginners

Since I’m now on Week 3 of Medifast, it’s time to start re-integrating exercise back into my life. The idea is to let your body adapt to the drastic change in calorie intake before you start burning calories through exercise. For the next month or so, I’m going to be concentrating on a very simple home workout plan that has worked for me pretty well in the past.

I’ve already written an introduction to home fitness that outlines some mental motivation and lays the basic groundwork for this post. I will be writing quite a bit about home fitness and how to customize a home workout plan in the weeks to come. It’s an important part of building and improving your overall health, but it’s often overlooked in favor of some quick weight loss miracle.

The plan that I use is a modified version of the workout plan advocated by The Hacker’s Diet, which is itself a modified version of the 5BX plan. The 5BX stands for 5 Basic Exercises. The 5BX plan was developed for the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950s. The plan was pretty ground-breaking at the time because it required no special workout equipment and only took 10-15 minutes per day. The idea is that you could execute these exercises anywhere. A lot of RCAF pilots were stationed in remote bases and didn’t have access to gyms. Also, by minimizing the amount of time spent per day, it made it a lot more likely that pilots would actually DO the exercises on a daily basis.

The idea is that this is a set of exercises that you can do anywhere, even if your time is very limited. You’ll start very simple and gradually increase the difficulty and intensity. You can move at your own pace.

Let’s get started.

5 Basic Home Workout Exercises (Phase 1)

Exercise 1: Bends (Toe-Touches)

Stand with your arms stretched over your head and your legs apart (approximately lined up with your shoulders). Slowly bend forward and try to touch your toes. Don’t strain to keep your knees straight. Then smoothly bend straighten back to a standing position. Bend backwards a little. Repeat. Perform this smooth and comfortably. It’s about stretching. Don’t worry if you can’t touch your toes yet.

Exercise 2: Crunches

Lie on the floor on your back with your feet approximately 6 inches apart. Rest your arms lightly on the floor at your sides. Slowly lift up until you can see the heels of your feed. Your shoulders must clear the floor. Be careful not to use your arms to help you cheat. Lower yourself back to the floor and repeat.

Exercise 3: Leg Lifts

Lie on the floor on your stomach. Put the palms of your hands underneath your thighs. Simultaneously, lift your head and your left leg. Bend at the knee and hip. Then smoothly lower back to the ground. Perform the exercise again with your right leg. That’s one! The repetition includes both left and right legs. Now, repeat!

Exercise 4: Push-ups (Girl-Style)

Lie on the floor with the palms of your hands just outside your shoulders and your arms parallel to your body. Keep your knees on the floor and straighten your arms, lifting your upper body. Keep your body straight from the knees up and fully extend your arms. Bend your arms again to lower until your chest touches the floor. Repeat! (Everybody freaks out about push-ups, but this is one of the most amazing home fitness exercises out there. Give it some time and you’ll be amazed at how much your strength increases.)

Exercise 5: Stationary Run and Jumping Jacks

I hope you aren’t living in an apartment with neighbors below you, because you’ll definitely make some noise with this one. First, make sure you have plenty of space around you, then RUN in place. Lift your feet about 4 inches off the floor. Count each time your left foot touches the floor. After you reach the number 75, perform 7 scissor jumps (or jumping jacks). Repeat!

Those are the only exercises you’ll need to perform as part of the introductory stage of your home fitness plan. Sounds pretty easy, right?

I will admit that I felt pretty dumb running in place and doing jumping jacks in my living room. But once you cranking away and increasing your number of repetitions, I think you will be pleasantly surprised that this is actually a pretty amazing home workout.

You may be wondering how many of each exercise you need to do. That’s coming up tomorrow in Part 2 of the Home Workout Guide! For today, I suggest trying each type of exercise and getting used to how they feel. Use today as a gauge to see how many push ups and sit-ups you can actually do. Don’t feel bad if the number is low. If you stick with this plan, you’ll soon be seeing improvements in your physical health that will amaze you.