The Perfect New Year At-Home Workout

Happy New Year! I hope this year fills you with happiness and I hope you all reach the personal, financial, and workout goals that you have set for yourself. Let’s make this year a prosperous one!

With the new year among us, maybe you are one of the many people who want to reach new workout goals or want to start adding a fitness routine to your weekly schedule.

If you live in an area where it’s freezing out/snowing 6+ months out of the year, home workouts will be your savior!(Side-note: Need tips for dressing warm? Check this post out.)

I wanted to share my custom at home full body workout that is my go to when I am in a rush or don’t want to spend more than 45 mins working out.

It’s also very convenient as well, since the new strain of COVID is starting to spread. You can stay safe and still get a good workout in while in the comfort of your home.

Workout History

I have been working out since high school while doing a variety of sports as well and then dialed into weight lifting.

I’ve done baseball camps, basketball camps, football camps, track and field, etc. All different workout routines that required intensive training and form control. In college I also took a couple of personal training classes as well.

So I come into this with some good knowledge of the fitness world but as always I’d like to mention that I am not certified (as of yet) so my advice and routines should be taken knowing that knowledge. 

I know that when we think of working out, we immediately think of the gym, weights, treadmill, etc. I was a fanatic for gym workouts and just absorbing that high energy that they give once you walk in. But maybe you’d just like to occasionally do an at home workout.

Look no more, with this at home workout routine that I’m going to share with you, it should give you a nice pump with no weights!

Before I start any of my workouts I like to do a warm up to get the blood flowing throughout my arms and legs. When I am doing an at home workout I like to do 20 push ups and then 20 standing lunges.

Not doing a warm up can lead to cramps, injuries, stiffness, etc. I recommend everyone to warm up before actually starting your workout to decrease any workout injuries.

After you finish your warm up, this is where you’ll start your actual workout. I’m going to name the exercises you’ll be doing because we’re going to be doing a couple of them a few times.

1. Push Ups

Push ups are essential for home workouts. This may be one of the oldest exercises known to man. It’s a simple exercise but without proper form you can actually do more harm than good to your body. In order to do a proper push up you must:

-Have you hands shoulder width apart and parallel to each other at chest level.

-Your feet should be hip width apart and straight.

-You hips should straight and lower back should have a slight curve.

-To keep proper form, pull your stomach in and tighten your abdominal muscles.

-Keep your head aligned straight with your body and you should not be leaning down or looking up.

Keeping these tips in mind will help keep your form straight getting the most benefit from doing push ups. Push ups are targeting the chest, biceps, and triceps the most but also engages the abdominal muscles, hips, and legs.

2. Tricep Dips

Tricep Dips are very beneficial for tricep and chest growth. For the at home workout you will be doing these with a chair. This is a great exercise that focuses mainly on the triceps which can promote tremendous growth.

Grab chair that has a level seat and sit in front of it. Put your arms on the seat raising yourself while keeping your legs straight.

Now push yourself down while keeping your legs straight and stomach tightened, then push yourself back up. That’s one complete tricep dip.

3. Wall Sits

Wall sits are great exercise for body form and leg endurance. This exercise targets you quads, hamstrings, calves, abdominal muscles, and glutes. They also build strength in your lower body while burning calories.

This workout also improves your balance and flexibility while boosting overall stamina and endurance. Wall sits are very beneficial for being such a simple exercise. 

The proper way to do wall sits are to first push your body parallel to a wall. Once you’re pushed against the wall, you then need to push your self down where your knees are bent at a 90 degree angle while keeping your back parallel to the wall.

Keeping your back straight and tightening your core during this exercise is key. This will help make sure that your form is being held while doing the walls sits. 

If you continue to add these wall sits into your home workout routine, you will start to see a huge difference. After all, working out is all about consistency. At first they’re going to suck, but like everything it gets better.

4. Dolphin Dive

Dolphin Dives are a great exercise that also help stretches your entire back. This is one I actually just added into my workout routine because of the results. You really feel the burn in your muscles and the stretch in your body.

This exercise targets your core, upper back, and shoulders. This exercise is sort of like the next level plank.

In order to do this exercise with proper form you have to know how to perform the basic plank stance.

The plank form is first laying down and then pushing yourself up straight so that you entire body is in a straight line. You then need to put all the weight in the front from your hands on your forearms.

So you should be resting on your forearms while still keeping yourself up and having your forearms shoulder width apart.

Your legs should be hip width apart and your feet should be straight. This is how you do a proper plank.

Now, to do a proper Dolphin Dive, you must get in the plank position on your forearms. Then you push your hips up while keeping your legs and upper body straight and then you come back down into the plank position.

What this movement is doing is activating your core muscles and essentially you’re using your body weight to enhance your upper body strength as well as your core strength. 

The Dolphin Dive is a great exercise that helps engage your entire body. This is one of the reasons I added this exercise to my home workout routine.

5. Lunges

Standing in place lunges is a very effective way to target your quads, hamstrings, calves, and glutes all at the same time. I have to admit that lunges are not my favorite exercise to do, but they are very good at growing you lower body. 

The way you do standing in place lunges are by firstly, standing straight. Then you step forward with either your left or right leg and push down to a 90 degree angle while tightening you core.

Your knee should not touch the floor, but should hover right above it. This helps you keep control of your form as well as targeting all the legs muscles without any help. The more burn, the better! After stepping out to a 90 degree angle you then push yourself back to standing straight and then do the same thing with the opposite leg. 

Typically I would do lunges in the gym with dumbbells, but your body weight is sufficient. Since I don’t have dumbbells at home, I typically just increase the amount of reps that I do. The point is that you want to feel your legs burn and actually getting a workout in. 

If you are looking to grow your legs, then lunges are the way to go.

Now that I have explained the workout exercises, I can now provide you the workout split that I use that will give you an intense workout.

My current at home workout split is (number of sets / number of reps):

• 3 x 10 push ups
• 3 x 10 tricep dips (using chair seat) 
• 3 x 90secs wall sits
• 3 x 10 push ups
• 3 x 10 dolphin dives
• 3 x 20 standing in place lunges
• 3 x 10 push ups
• 3 x 10 tricep dips
• 3 x 90secs wall sits
• 3 x 10 dolphin dives
• 3 x 20 standing in place lunges

This workout split is the perfect amount of exercises to give you a good pump and to get you sweating. It’s a repetitive workout split but is an effective workout split. My typical rest in between workout sets is 30 seconds. 

When I first started this workout routine I couldn’t get through the entire routine the first couple of times, so don’t get discouraged.

At the end of the day it’s all about progression, so try this at home workout routine and see the gains start coming in!