Time to wrap things up on the home workout portion of the affordable workouts in New Orleans blog series.  Saving money is almost synonymous with proper prior preparation. Just like you’ll save money by cooking your own meals and taking your lunch in from home to work – in order to get an adequate workout at home, it will require solid proper prior preparation.

For a quick review…in the last post on this topic, we discussed establishing structure by: setting a workout schedule, establishing your home gym, ensuring your write out your weekly workout plan, investing in the proper equipment you will need, setting realistic goals and including activities like walking, running and biking into your routine.

Do It Yourself (DIY) Routines

If you aren’t ready to invest the time in creating your own routines – the best thing to do is to get the right home workout video series.  An example of a great workout series we discussed in the past is P90X. Between paying for the DVDs and the equipment you’ll need – the cost will be approximately $300.

If you want to truly create your own routine…than you can do so for free or very little money with websites like:

Exercise TV: What I like about Exercise TV is that they will put a workout routine together for you and break it down from day to day. I’m a little hesitant to say that following their guidelines is enough…but it’s certainly a good start.

yogadownload.com: Yogadownload.com is a great way for you to include yoga to your DIY routines. Many of the 20 minute workouts are free to download and the cost to download longer videos is very inexpensive.

Don’t Weight To Lose YouTube Channel: Our own local motivator Jacques Courseault created a series of workout videos that you can do with just using a resistance band – which counts as resistance training.

SparksPeople YouTube Channel: To be honest, there are a lot of various workout channels on YouTube – so if you take the time to check them out; you’ll be able to line up the workouts you need to put a good routine together for FREE.

Creating your DIY Routines

1. Watch and Tag Videos – watch a lot of videos of various lengths to know exactly what the video will require of you, the intensity of the workouts and whether or not you would enjoy doing the workout(s). Tag all the videos accordingly, i.e. high intensity cardio, yoga routine, low intensity cardio, bicep, shoulder and back workout…etc.  You might actually want to use a bookmarking site to do this.

2. Mix and Match – Start planning your routines by mix and matching your videos.  If you are trying to lose weight, than you need to be doing 40-60 minutes of cardio…preferably 5 times a week and resistance training 3 times a week. Remember…add going for a walk, run or long bike ride in your routines.

Example One Week DIY Routine:

Monday – 3 miles run/walk (depending on your level of fitness), abs workout video

Tuesday – (2) 20 minutes workout videos medium intensity and arms and back resistance workout

Wednesday – Rest Day

Thursday – 1 hour of yoga video and abs workout video

Friday – Bike ride and shoulders resistance workout

Saturday – Rest Day

Sunday – (2) 25 minutes workout videos ((1) high intensity (1) low intensity) and calves, legs resistance workout, abs workout

Yes…I know – that is a lot of planning!! But that’s what it takes to save money by working out at home.