8

3 Great Tips! Best Home Workouts for Men


First of all, you’re one of the few people who want to workout at home. Props to you! Men need additional support in ensuring that the workouts they get are challenging enough while not being too easy. Let’s be honest, the biggest challenge with working out at home is the comfort of your bed/couch is just a few steps away.

Having said that, you can make that solid workout happen for yourself, see good results in your fitness, and take care of your body. One thing to remember is that we men are purpose-oriented. So we like to see numbers and results in order to continue with something like working out. So, here are the best home workouts for men.

Bench Press1. Fitness Tests

I favor the ones from the military (I’m impartial), but there are fitness tests you can come up with on your own that’ll give you a baseline to begin your training. Start with this basic fitness test:

-Overhead Squat x25 for warm up (add a barbell and weight if you want). Do some other warm-up exercises as well. Don’t go into this cold-turkey.

-Barbell Bench Press. Go for 75% of your body weight and do as many as you can without losing form.

-Push ups. Do as many as you can without stopping.

-Barbell Back Squat. Set the weight at 50-100% of your body weight and do as many as you can without losing form.

-Burpees for 1 minute. No cheating here! Do a pushup at the bottom!

-Barbell Deadlift. If you’re new to deadlifting, look at a training video then do the weight that you feel most comfortable. It’s also a good idea to record yourself and look at the expert from the video. Do as many as you can without breaking form.

-Pull-ups. Do as many as you can. Start from a dead hang! No cheating with that extra stuff.

That’s a pretty extensive test. The first time I did that was with my personal trainer and he smoked me! Your rest times will vary depending on your fitness level.

If you want one without weights, try the Army Physical Fitness Test. All you have to do is two minutes of pushups, two minutes of sit-ups, and a two-mile run. Look at the point scales and see how you did. For the Army, you must get 60 points in each event in order to pass. Take a 10-minute break between each event (that’s the Army standard). You’ll need it for the run.

2. Sports

Have you ever dribbled a soccer ball or shot baskets in your driveway? It is one way to get some anaerobic activity in you. Count how many baskets you make or how far you can shoot the ball.

If you want more intense training with sports, look up drills you can do. Most of those sports conditioning drills do not require much equipment (aside from a few cones) and it’ll break you off if you try to beat your own time.

See what your 40 meter dash time is. Football players use that as a metric for athleticism and speed down the field. It’s a fun metric to track and see your progress.

Don’t forget about your high jump! Find a wall, get some chalk, raise your arm up on the wall then make a mark. Then jump and make another mark with the chalk. Measure that distance. I used to try to touch a string from my ceiling when I was a kid. My dad would cut it every time I touched it.

3. Burnouts!

Burnouts are critical for your fitness! You need to see how far you can push yourself in order to get better.

Pick an exercise and see how many reps you can do within that time frame. Here are some exercises you can do:

-Push-ups

-Burpees

-Air Squats

-Lunges

-Dumbbell curls

-Ab crunches

-Plank

-Box jumps or step ups

Keep doing sets of that exercise until you’re beat. That’s the beauty of this. When you fatigue your body, you have an opportunity to rebuild those muscles you worked. Muscle endurance is one of the most important parts of fitness, and it makes you adapt to how you approach a workout.

BONUS! Ladders and Intervals

A ladder is a technique where you start out with a higher number of sets, move to a low number, then back to a high number. These are similar to HIIT workouts. It would look like this:

-Set one: 5 reps then rest

-Set two: 4 reps then rest

-Set three: 3 reps then rest

-Set four: 2 reps then rest

-Set five: 1 rep then rest

-Then go back up the ladder for a total of 10 sets

You can do that with just about any exercise you want. And you can do it with or without weights. It’s a great way to create fatigue and get a great workout.

The next one is intervals. It’s similar to ladders except your reps stay constant from set to set. Intervals are popular with running. For example, I’ll do four sets of 400 meter sprints with a one minute rest in between each set. I’m a fan of intervals because I can get a great workout done in a short amount of time.

Here’s What You Do…

Start off with a fitness test. See where you are and then start making your routine from there. You have to start recording your numbers! Men are goal-oriented and like to see results with each workout. If you start tracking your progress right away then you’ll be more likely to stick with your routine.

See how your workouts go in the next six weeks or so. Then, do then test of your choice again. This will help you determine how you’re improving and where you need to tweak your routines to make you see better results.

If you have a routine, leave a comment down below! It’ll be great to hear from you! What kinds of fitness tests have you done to assess your fitness level? Thanks Garage Gym Goers and I’ll see you next time!


Bobby

8 Comments

  1. HI, thank you for this article is full of information. I have always wanted to work out at home. I just never knew how to do it or how to start but then your article gave me insight on the things I need to focus on.
    I have always wonder how Army workout were like, now I have an idea thank to your 3 great tips, best home workout article. I will definitely will give this a try.
    Thank you so much.

    Wilmer

    • Wilmer!
      The Army Physical Fitness Test is a good start for most people! I’m grateful that you got some good insights from this post. It’s absolutely correct that when you have a baseline to start that you’ll see progress as you continue to work out. Let me know what questions you have, and I’ll be more than happy to help! Thanks for your comment!

  2. One of the most difficult parts of working out at home is not having the right equipment. I do have a few things, dumbbells, an ab wheel, chin-up bar at home, so that is a start. I tend to do bodyweight exercises at home, and you mentioned a few of them, burpees, pushup, pullups and then I will do some jumping jacks, running in place and try to make a circuit training environment.
    You have some great options here, with fitness tests, sports, etc. Just being active is half the battle. Thanks for sharing your insight, this is a great place to start for a lot of people.

    • Steve,
      You’re right that not having the right equipment can put a damper on a workout, and body weight exercises are a great way to get started. Sometimes, motivation comes when you get that piece of equipment that you’ve always wanted as well. Thanks for your comment!

  3. I did not do a fitness test when I started working out, but it is never too late. I think it is a good idea to help me focus on improving, so will do one tomorrow morning.
    Burnouts are the best way to build endurance and muscle but sometimes I am a little lazy and do not push to my limits. Your article has given me the motivation to push harder, so now I know I will improve faster than before.
    Many thanks for sharing.

    • Andrew!
      It’s never too late to do a fitness test indeed! Yes, knowing where you’re starting will make you want to continue going. Seeing where you were compared to where you are is a huge advantage when it comes to working out. I’ve enjoyed those burnouts a lot, especially when I don’t have a ton of time to workout. Thanks for your comment!

  4. Hey Bobby!
    I thought this was a very good post that points out how easy is it to get workoing out from home. I have friends that say that they “don’t have time to exercise” but if you spend a few minutes to plan a good home setup, its obviously not that hard to find 30 minutes a few days a week to workout.

    I bounce back and forth between the home and gym workouts depending on what equipment I might need that day. But I assure you, you can get awesome results without ever leaving your living room.

    But as always, remember to eat right and train safe.
    Tyson

    • Tyson,
      Absolutely the time monster gets us all! And again you’re right that when we plan out our fitness goals we’ll be able to maximize our time during our workouts to get results. Training and eating right are paramount to making sure you’re physically fit. Great comment! Thanks so much!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Leave the field below empty!