Just because you don’t want to join a gym, you don’t get a free pass to not exercise. Nice try!  The good news is there are a lot of ways you can get in a great workout right in the comfort of your own home. By choosing the right home exercise program for you, you can improve your strength and flexibility– all from the comfort of your living room!

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Three Home Exercise Programs Ideal for Women Over 40

My favorite three types of workout that use bodyweight exercises are yoga, pilates, and high intensity interval training. Together, these three workout modalities offer full body strength and flexibility training.

Yoga is a fantastic bodyweight workout program

Yoga is a fantastic introduction to bodyweight exercise for at-home exercisers. There are different forms of yoga, but hatha yoga is a great style for beginners or to do at home. It is a simple marriage of breath and movement.

Yoga focuses on moving your body with your breath and keeping your skeleton in alignment. As such, it is a great way to learn a lot about your body and how it moves.

Being mindful of how you move in yoga translates to raising your awareness of how you move all day. As you become more aware of how your body moves, you move more efficiently and with greater strength.

Yoga isn’t just for the young and bendy! Anyone can begin a yoga practice, and you don’t even need any equipment other than your own self and a good quality yoga mat.

I’m a huge fan of Yoga With Adriene, a YouTube channel featuring Adriene Mischler. Her yoga videos are easy to use, even for beginners.

You can choose a yoga video based on an ailment (Yoga for Stress), a body part (Yoga for Core Strength), or by time (30 minutes or less). Adriene’s approachable style and clear teaching is a great introduction to incorporating yoga as one of the best bodyweight workout programs you can do at home.

Pilates offers a bodyweight workout plan you can do at home

Many people assume Pilates and yoga are related. While both exercise modalities focus on breath work as your body moves, they each have their own exercises or poses.

Pilates is another good bodyweight workout plan that doesn’t require weights or equipment but can be done at home. The floor moves of mat Pilates make up a sequence of challenging and effective exercises.

Pilates focuses on core movements, as it teaches that all motion should start with the core. Because of this, focusing on working slowly and with good form is an important part of Pilates.

Please note, if you know you have diastasis recti, working with trained postnatal Pilates specialist is a good idea when you’re starting. You’ll know that when you’re doing the exercises at home you’re doing them correctly and safely for your body.

Even though pilates can be done as a home workout program, you’ll still learn plenty of difficult bodyweight moves to strengthen your core. An added benefit of Pilates is improving your flexibility. Keeping what flexibility you have is important for women over 40. Flexibility helps improve quality of life through ease of movement, and it also reduces injury risk.

A good resource to start your at-home mat Pilates workouts is from Very Well Fit. They have collated an extensive collection of free mat Pilates classes from all corners of the internet. Have a look through the different options and see how easy it is to start doing bodyweight workouts you can do at home.

Adding mat Pilates in to your workout routine is a great way to add a strong core foundation for your other exercise modalities. Seeing how your strength and flexibility will appear in other parts of your life is really motivating!

High-Intensity Interval Training

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is an excellent way option for bodyweight workouts you can do at home. These interval workouts alternate periods of high intensity effort and recovery time to challenge yourself and push beyond your boundaries. HIIT workouts are designed to increase your cardiovascular capacity, endurance, and strength all at the same time.

One of the most appealing parts of HIIT workouts is that they can be done in less time than traditional gym workouts. Even the busiest person can get a good workout with just their own bodyweight and 30 minutes!

If you’re in perimenopause, HIIT workouts are an ideal form of exercise. They’ll raise your core body temperature, which is one of the best ways to help lessen hot flashes.

Even better, the post-workout calorie burn from HIIT workouts helps to fight middle age weight gain by boosting your metabolism in the hours after your workout is over. Who doesn’t want to keep burning calories even after you’re done sweating, showered, and working through your day?!

Because the goal is to raise your heartrate, HIIT workouts often incorporate more high intensity bodyweight exercises, like your jumping jacks, box jumps, and burpees. Any of these exercises can be modified to low intensity so that even people with knee issues or leaky pelvic floors can complete them safely.

A HIIT home exercise program for anyone

My Balance Virtual Bootcamp and Balance Virtual Bootcamp: REBOOT offer structured, at-home workouts using minimal equipment that take about 30 minutes to complete. They also offer exercise modifications to suit a wide range of fitness levels.

The best part of these virtual bootcamps is that they give you a full bodyweight workout plan that you can do right in your own home. It’s like having a personal trainer drop into your in-box three times a week for six weeks (at a FRACTION of the cost)!

Having a home exercise program you know is thoughtfully designed can give you confidence that your workout time is going to work for you.

Not sure you’ll like HIIT workouts? Before you invest in a six-week home exercise program or buy into an exercise class, try one of my quickie circuits and see how it feels to you.

Yoga, Pilates, and High Intensity Interval Training are three different options for bodyweight home workout programs. Whichever style you decide to try, adding bodyweight exercises to your overall workout regimen will build your stamina, strength, and flexibility. Here’s to your health!

Karen Shopoff Rooff is a certified health coach. The Well Balanced Women blog is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please discuss your health issues with a licensed medical practitioner.