Save Time and Money with Home Fitness Workouts

What do you do on those rainy days or in the off-season when you can’t get out on the bike? Well, some of us are fortunate enough to belong to a gym where we can go use the fancy expensive equipment. While some of us don’t want to dish out a monthly fee and don’t want to have to fight the traffic to get to the gym.

Don’t fret. There are many ways to get fantastic home fitness workouts without leaving your house and with little or no equipment.

However, if you want to ride your bike indoors you will have to make a purchase.

Resistance Trainer
These trainers attach to your rear wheel and typically have some sort of attachment that pushes against your tire to provide the resistance. You can get the cheaper magnetic resistance version or a more expensive fluid version that provides a more realistic progressive and smooth resistance. Prices range anywhere from $100 to $500.

The resistance trainer is best for interval workouts as compared to the rollers (coming up next). Since the bike is stabilized, you can stand up and hammer without fear of riding off the trainer into your wall. Perhaps a reason to spend a little more!

Rollers
Rollers consist of three metal cylinders attached to a framework. You ride your bike on the cylinders, which give you free movement similar to riding on the road. If you have never ridden rollers, give it some time. It is a strange feeling at first and somewhat intimidating. Getting started is the hardest part.

You might like to have a wall or something handy to steady yourself in case you start to wobble. Once you get the hang of it, rollers will help you develop great balance and form on the bike. They are super for longer distance riding indoors and I like to use them for warm-ups and cool-downs for strength routines.

Speaking of strength training, here are some ideas of how to get great home fitness workouts with little or no equipment.

Bodyweight Exercises
People seem to forget they have over a hundred pounds of weights at their fingertips anytime of the day. There are many exercises that are extremely challenging and require no additional weight or equipment. Most bodyweight exercises also work many muscles at once and are more functional than tradition weight lifting. I also have a nice pull-up, push-up, and dip bar in the garage for some really tough strength exercises.

Yoga
Many people equate yoga with stretching. While flexibility is a big part of the benefits of yoga, let me tell you, it requires a lot of strength. I suggest attending a class where an instructor can help you with the correct application of poses before trying to do these on your own.

Fitness Band
A fitness band is simply an elastic tube, sometimes with a handle or some sort of attachment at either end. Fitness bands are fun, portable, inexpensive and with hundreds of exercises to choose from, provide diverse home fitness workouts. The bands have the added advantage of providing progressive resistance, which will help you see gains even faster than traditional weight lifting.

Fitness Ball
Sometimes called a Swiss ball or exercise ball, a fitness ball is a soft plastic sphere filled with air. There are a ton of exercise variations involving the ball with many being very challenging. The fitness ball exercises are kind of a mix between bodyweight exercises and yoga.

Dumbbells
A nice set of dumbbells with a range of weights can give you the same options as a home gym at a fraction of the cost and take up much less space. You will probably need to get a bench to go along with them in order to perform many of the exercises, although a fitness ball can sometimes suffice. While dumbbells aren’t cheap, they are not quite as expensive as a home gym.

With all these options, who needs to join a gym or purchase a bulky expensive home gym to get great home fitness workouts.

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