Losing weight requires not only a change in diet, but also physical activity. These 10 effective weight loss exercises you can do at home will burn calories and build muscle.
Push-ups are an effective fat-loss exercise that targets the chest, shoulders and triceps. For beginners, you can start with knee push-ups to gradually build up strength before moving on to full ones.
1. Leg Lifts
Leg lifts are an effective bodyweight exercise that targets your core and abdominal muscles. Over time, as you build strength, you can gradually lower your legs closer to the floor, which will challenge your core even more.
To make this exercise more challenging, try holding weighted equipment—such as ankle weights or resistance bands—while performing your leg lifts. This will increase your core and hip flexor strength.
2. Towel Pulls
Towel pulls are a great way to build grip strength without using heavy equipment. These bodyweight exercises can be done at home and burn a lot of calories to help with weight loss.
Towel pulls are a variation of the inverted row that focuses heavily on the grip muscles and also trains back and bicep muscles. They look easy at first, but they are a challenging exercise!
3. Rectus Abdominis Exercise
Having strong abdominal muscles can help you reduce back pain and improve your posture. However, many abdominal exercises like crunches, bicycle crunches and sit-ups can aggravate the condition known as diastasis recti by increasing pressure in your ab area and worsening muscle separation.
The hanging knee raise is an effective exercise to strengthen your rectus abdominis and hip flexors without aggravating diastasis recti.
4. Side Plank
This isometric exercise primarily targets your core’s obliques. Adding a weight increases the intensity and demands on the core.
Start in an elbow side plank position, with shoulders directly under your forearms and feet staggered or stacked for more stability. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds.
You can make this exercise even harder by moving in a controlled manner with your hips, says Bonney. This targets the obliques and lumbar erector spinae muscles in addition to core balance.
5. Lunges
Lunges are a great way to train one side of the body independently from the other, and they also help you develop balance and stability. You can practice basic lunges, walking lunges, or even try a barbell lunge to get the most out of this workout.
Walking and lateral lunges work the glutes, hip adductors, quadriceps, and calves. Try adding twists to stationary, walking, or alternating reverse lunges to target these muscles more deeply.
6. Push-Ups
Push-ups are a basic exercise that helps to build upper body strength. To maximize its effectiveness, it's important to increase the number of reps over time, which helps build endurance.
Adding different variations to the pushup also increases its intensity. For example, clap pushups are similar to a standard push-up but requires more explosive power. Performing the same movement on a higher surface, such as a bench or table, makes it easier by increasing the amount of weight being supported.
7. Tricep Dips
Dips, or bench dips, are a bodyweight exercise that thickens your arms and works many upper-body muscles. Tricep dips primarily target your triceps, but they also engage other muscles, including your chest (pectoralis major and minor), shoulders, deltoids, rhomboids, and trapezius.
Try adding tricep dips Transform Your Health with the 7 Best Weight Loss Specialists to your home workout to build arm strength, then mix them into full-body workouts that work all of your muscles.
8. Leg Raises
Leg lifts target your rectus abdominis muscles but also your hip flexors and adductors (the inner thighs). Perform these exercises in sets of 10 to 16 reps on each side.
When performing these exercises, avoid arching your back or swinging your legs up and down. Doing this will compromise your form and reduce the effectiveness of this exercise. It is also a great way to injure yourself.
9. Tricep Dips with Towels or Sliders
Adding tricep dips to your routine can help you build stronger and more defined arm muscles. Whether you have a set of parallel bars or simply use a chair, this simple exercise can make an impressive addition to your upper body strength training regimen.
Try these weight loss exercises in your living room to burn calories and tone your body without the expense of a gym membership.
10. Sit-Ups
Sit-ups (also known as curl ups or rolls) work the ab muscles and promote good posture. The exercise can be made easier by reducing the range of motion or placing your hands farther down, such as on your shoulders or crossed over your chest.
These classic core exercises burn a lot of calories and build strength without equipment. Try to keep the repetitions low to avoid overtraining and injury.
