Home Gym Workouts for Weight Loss
Here are a few home gym workouts based on how much equipment you have. We’ll start with a barebones workout and progress to a full gym workout.
How to Increase Weight Loss
Before we breakdown each weight loss workout that you can do at home, let’s review some ways to increase weight loss outside of exercise.
Caloric Quality and Value:
On paper, weight loss seems pretty simple: burn more calories than you consume. However, some studies suggest that the quality of the food you eat also plays a role in how much fat you can burn. [1]
With that said, if you’re a beginner to dieting and fitness, focus more on eating less and making small changes progressively.
If you’ve been successful with your nutrition plan, focus more on eating higher quality foods since you’ve already adopted the habit of daily meal planning.
Intermittent Fasting:
As the name suggests, intermittent fasting is abstaining from food for a certain amount of time each day - usually 16 hours.
Intermittent fasting has been shown to be effective for encouraging higher levels of fat burning and caloric expenditure without sacrificing lean tissue mass.
Most people will begin their fast at 8 p.m., only drinking water and calorie-free beverages. At 12 p.m. the next day, the feeding window starts. You can eat all of your day’s meals during this eight-hour window, beginning the fast again at 8 p.m. [2]
Be More Active Overall:
Physical activity doesn’t have to be limited to when you’re officially “working out.” By increasing how much you move each day, you’re directly supporting your weight loss.
Here are some ways you can increase your physical activity level and burn more calories:
- Take a walk
- Clean out the garage / basement
- Do some gardening
- Use a standing desk for browsing and work
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator
- Park further away from your destination and take advantage of the extra steps
Do your knees ache while walking? Consider using a pair of knee sleeves to alleviate soreness and increase blood flow.
Home Gym Workouts for Weight Loss
Below, you’ll find a series of workouts that are ideal for burning excess calories while promoting muscle growth.
We understand that not everyone has access to a full gym while at home so we’ve designed several workouts based on the equipment you might have in your own. We start with a bodyweight workout and advance to a full gym workout.
Bodyweight Home Workout
The following workout is based on the principles of high-intensity interval training. Better known as HIIT, this type of workout uses bodyweight exercises with few rest breaks.
High in intensity but short in duration, HIIT workouts have been shown to promote fat loss and muscle development simultaneously. HIIT is also great for increasing endurance and athletic performance.
To perform this HIIT workout, complete all of the repetitions for one exercise then immediately move on to the next exercise. Do not take a break until you’ve completed all of the exercises in this program. Take a two minute break then repeat the workout two more times.
- Jump Squats: 5 repetitions
- YTWL: 5 (Perform each movement once and this equates to one repetition)
- Romanian Deadlifts: 10
- Staggered Feet Push-Ups: 5
- Sit-Ups: 10
- Mountain Climbers: 30
- Burpees: 5
Check out our article to learn which type of workout is better for weight loss: HIIT vs. cardio?
Dumbbells / Kettlebells Home Workout
This dumbbell or kettlebell-focused workout uses super sets to significantly increase the potential for fat burning.
To perform a super set, perform all of the repetitions for Exercise A then immediately move to Exercise B. Take a break for 90 to 120 seconds then perform the next set.
- Exercise A: Renegade Row: 3 sets of 8 to 15 repetitions
- Exercise B: Overhead Squat: 3 x 8 – 12
- Exercise A: Walking Lunges: 3 x 10 – 15
- Exercise B: Shoulder Press: 2 x 8 – 12
- Exercise A: Russian Twists: 3 x 8 – 12
- Exercise B: Weighted Crunches: 2 x 8 – 12
Want to challenge your grip? Put an alpha grip on to the handle of the dumbbell or kettlebell.
Bench and Barbell Home Workout
For this barbell workout, we want you to focus on an endurance-style workout.
This type of workout involves a higher number of repetitions in your weightlifting exercises followed by a burnout session at the end to send your EPOC levels through the roof.
- Incline Bench Press: 3 sets of 15 to 20 repetitions
- Barbell Side Lunges: 3 x 12 – 15
- Bent-Over Row: 3 x 12 – 15
- Barbell Front Squat: 3 x 15 – 20
- Barbell Rollout: 3 x 15 – 20
Burnout Session: Perform all of the repetitions with no breaks in between exercises.
- V-Ups: 15
- Superman: 15
- Jump Squats: 10
- Burpees: 10
Learn more about the role of high intensity workouts in promoting higher levels of EPOC (excess post-oxygen consumption).
Full Gym Workout at Home
If you have access to a full gym at home, then we’ll have plenty of variety to add into your workout. The following workout focuses on a combination of all the principles we discussed above.
High Rep Exercises:
- Barbell Back Squat: 2 sets of 15 – 20 repetitions
- Reverse Cable Fly: 2 x 12 – 15
Super Sets:
- Exercise A: Barbell Deadlifts: 2 x 8 – 12
- Exercise B: Cable Crossover: 2 x 8 – 12
- Exercise A: Shoulder Press: 2 x 8 – 12
- Exercise B: Woodchopper: 2 x 15 – 20
- Exercise A: EZ-Curl Bicep Curls: 2 x 8 – 12
- Exercise B: Rope Pushdown: 2 x 12 – 15
Burnout Session:
- Jumping Lunges: 10
- Push-ups: 5
- Box Jumps: 10
- Mountain Climbers: 30
Have Your Own Home Gym Workout for Weight Loss?
What are your favorite weight loss exercises? Have a video of yourself doing this routine or your own home gym workout? Tag us on Instagram so we can share it!
References
- Mozaffarian D, Hao T, Rimm EB, Willett WC, Hu FB. Changes in diet and lifestyle and long-term weight gain in women and men. N Engl J Med. 2011 Jun 23;364(25):2392-404. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1014296.
- De Cabo R and Mattson MP. Effects of intermittent fasting on health, aging, and disease. New England Journal of Medicine. 2019;381(26):2541-2551. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1905136.