r/homefitness

1. The workout feels too big
   "I need to train for an hour" is a heavy thing to start when you're tired. So you don't start But nobody ever skipped a 10-minute workout. The problem isn't motivation it's the size of the commitment , Make the minimum version of your session so small it's embarrassing to skip 2 exercises 15 minutes. Just start.

2. You're waiting to feel ready
   Motivation comes after you start, not before. Every time you wait until you feel like training you're waiting for something that rarely shows up on its own. The session that fixes your mood is the one you do when you don't feel like it.

3. Your program doesn't fit your life
   A 6-day program for someone with a full schedule isn't ambitious , it's a setup to fail. A program you can actually finish is worth ten programs that look impressive on paper.

4. Skipping has become too easy
   Every time you skip it gets easier to skip again. Not because you're lazy because your brain learned that nothing bad happens when you don't show up. The streak matters more than any single session. One skipped day becomes three. Three becomes a week. Break that pattern early, before it becomes the default.

The wrong system around your training what make you laizy.

I used to always start a workout with a set of 30 pushups but I recently stopped because I did not enjoy it, felt like a drag Everytime I was about to start working out. Anybody feels the same? I wanna start doing pull ups instead, I know they are significantly harder, but I feel like they are much less boring.

Hey, complete beginner here, currently working out only at home, no equipment, so looking for bodyweight stuff only. Looking for an app that builds the plan for me cause I probably wont stick with anything if Im the one deciding what to do every day. Keep seeing ads for Menletics and Madmuscles. Both promise the personalised plan thing but I know half of that is just marketing. Has anyone actually used either as a total beginner, did it scale to someone who cant do a real pushup yet?

Open to other suggestions too. Appreciate any honest takes.

Idk if this has been asked one too many times here but i’ll just go for it anyway. No matter what kind of exercise im doing, be it squats, glute bridges, step ups- i just can’t seem to feel anything in the glutes? I thought maybe im not doing the right kind of stretching so i incorporated quite a few stretches in my regimen (idk their names sorry😭) but I don’t think I still feel much of a difference. If anything, i feel the tension and the burn everywhere else except for the glutes. Am I doing something wrong? Is there anything specific that works to improve this situation? Any advice would be highly appreciated:<

what is the 3 most essential exercises I should do from home for muscle building?

I've not posted on Reddit before yet so I'm really sorry if I'm doing anything wrong or asking a really repetitive question!

Just want some advice please, I have a tiny flat but as I'm a really anxious person, I am wanting to exercise at home and not the gym. Could someone recommend any small/compact cardio machines, dumbbells and other home bits that I can pull out of storage regularly/leave out without tripping over it!

I go to the gym usually once a week for weightlifting (used to go 3-4x a week but work has cut hours by a lot so I can only afford to pay for drop ins occasionally) anyways.. when I’m not at the gym or hiking it would be nice to have some go to home workouts. My goal is to be healthy and strong and some solid abs would be nice too. Reccomend me some workouts you enjoy or do/ yt videos!

i’m just starting out trying to get into fitness, i’m not fat or anything but not skinny tho, i have little muscle on my arms and some fat on my core where it’s not a beer belly/ dad bod but you also can’t see my abs, i really just need help with exercises i have dumbbells, a treadmill, and a bench at home i want to build a little muscle on my arms and chest area and really want to get my abs and obliques more defined, also ive heard that i shouldn’t do the same workout every day because i need to let my muscles rest idk if it’s true tho can anyone help me? like what exercises would be good o only know like pushups, crunches, sit-ups and planks

When I first started training seriously at home, I was convinced that more was always better.
Sore? Train through it. Tired? That’s just weakness. Rest day? Only if something was actually broken.
So I trained 6 days a week. Sometimes 7. I was proud of it. I thought consistency meant never stopping.
My progress flatlined completely around week 5.
Same weights. Same reps. Same body. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the program — turns out nothing was wrong with the program. I was just never letting it work.
Here’s the thing nobody explains clearly enough at the beginning:
The workout is not where you grow. It’s just the signal.
You’re essentially sending your body a message "this was hard, adapt to it". And then your body, while you’re sleeping, eating, going about your day that’s when the actual work happens. That’s when muscle gets built.
When you train again before that process finishes, you’re not adding to the signal. You’re just interrupting it.
I dropped to 3 days a week. Full days off in between. Felt almost irresponsible at first.
First real rest week , I came back and hit a pull-up PR. Didn’t even feel like I was trying harder, Just had something in the tank for once.
That was enough for me.
I ended up writing all of this down the recovery stuff, the intensity principles, the exact program I followed into something I could actually hand someone and say start here. Took me a while to put together. Didn’t expect it to be as long as it got.
Rest isn’t the opposite of progress. For most people training at home with no coach and no recovery support it’s a direct part of it.

I wasted two years training at home and getting almost nothing from it.
Not because the program was wrong. Not because I lacked equipment. Because I kept making the same mistake without realizing it — I was doing more, not doing better.
Here’s what I changed:

1. One hard set beats three comfortable ones
   I used to do 4–5 sets per exercise because that’s what every program told me to do. Now I do 1–2 sets and make each one count.
   Here’s why it works: the first hard set taken close to failure does the vast majority of the muscle-building work. Every set after that returns less and costs more recovery. You’re not building more — you’re just accumulating more fatigue.
   Cut the junk sets. Make every set mean something.
2. Write down every rep, every session — or you’re guessing
   This one sounds boring. It changed everything.
   When you don’t track, you accidentally repeat the same workout for weeks and wonder why nothing’s changing. When you do track, you can see exactly where you’re stuck and fix it. One more rep than last week on pull-ups is not a small thing. That’s the whole game, compounded over months.
   Your training log is the only honest mirror you have.
3. Progress the movement before you progress the weight
   Most people only think about adding weight. But there’s a smarter order:
   A) Add reps first (bottom of the rep range → top of the rep range)
   B) Slow the eccentric (3 seconds down → 4 → 5)
   C)Add a pause at the hardest point
   •Then increase the weight
   By the time you reach for heavier dumbbells, you’ve already gotten dramatically more out of the weight you have. And you’ve built the control to actually handle more load safely.

I used to be an intense runner and loved treadmill workouts, especially incline walking/running.

Right now I’m out of shape and mainly focused on fat loss and rebuilding consistency. I already workout at my home gym, but I currently go to another gym mainly to use the treadmill for incline walking.

Now I’m planning to buy something for home and I’m confused between:
- a walking pad
- or a cheaper auto-incline treadmill

Part of me feels incline walking is extremely effective for fat loss and worth investing in.

But another part of me wonders if I’m overthinking it and whether I should just focus on getting 10k–20k steps consistently every day, even if it’s just flat walking on a walking pad.

The goal right now is purely fat loss.

Would appreciate advice from people who’ve used both.

Could be a lift, cardio style, mobility work — anything you gave a fair shot but just didn’t click with.

What was it?

"One thing I didn’t expect while researching treadmills was how many people specifically mention scenic workouts helping them stay engaged.

At first it sounded kind of gimmicky to me, but after trying a demo I can honestly understand the appeal now.

Does it genuinely help long term or does the novelty fade pretty quickly?

"

Hi,

forgive me if this is a silly question but what would you say is a substitute for a treadmill at home i.e. in an apartment. I used to do long walks on the treadmill, no running. While I walk outside each day. I still feel like I need to do more to lose 10 kg that I gained recently.

I have a pull up bar, a small convertible bench and also a lot of strong resistance bands.

Maybe it's walking in place? I am doing jumping over the bench back and forth while keeping both hands on the bench (standing parallel at the beginning with hands on bench). Is there any way I can simulate the same effect of a longer walk? Maybe some way to make it harder with bands?

Thank you.

So been doing the low calorie diet, my height is 5’7 I went from 240lbs to 190lbs just on watching the calories and eating more protein. Looking for a good work out routine for a dad that has a full schedule.

I can squeeze in time to do so this isn’t my problem. My biggest problem is I’m tired and wore out all the time from work and life in general (lot on my plate right now)

So got any 30 min workouts that will help me get muscle will I’m losing this weight I’d really appreciate. I do have 3, 10 and 15 pound dumbbell and a bench that also inclines.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DYbvTFdsu4S/

I’m building something on top of Fitbit / Oura Ring / Apple Health data and I’m curious if people would actually use this.

Right now, wearables give you tons of data (sleep score, HRV, readiness, strain), but not a lot of clear direction on what to actually do with it day to day.

So the idea is a simple layer on top that turns your data into daily, specific individualized actions based on one’s metrics and data instead of charts.

Example logic it would use:

Low HRV + poor sleep + high resting heart rate =
“Today should be a recovery day. Light walk only, avoid intense workouts, and prioritize early bedtime tonight.”

Good sleep but low activity =
“You recovered well last night. Today is a good day for a strength workout or higher intensity training.”

High stress trend over 3 days (HRV dropping + elevated RHR) =
“You’re trending toward burnout. Consider reducing training load and adding a 10–15 min wind-down routine tonight.”

Good readiness + consistent sleep =
“This is a peak performance window. Schedule your hardest workout or most demanding tasks today.”

Poor sleep but high caffeine/activity compensation detected =
“You’re masking fatigue. Expect an energy crash later so keep afternoon workload lighter.”

The goal isn’t more data but rather it’s decisions you don’t have to think about.

I’m still in MVP stage and validating if this is actually something people would want. If the MVP is successful and people want this, this would expand to other features as well deck can get more in depth in terms of nutrition, etc..

Honest take: would you use something like this?