12 Week Body Transformation at Home: Get Started

Justina

January 15, 2018

Last updated on December 26th, 2020 at 02:02 am

Female personal trainer Justina helps her readers with interesting articles regarding personal training and related issues.

Articles like this one show how strict diets are not necessary for a body transformation. In this article I'll talk about how to transform your body at home in 12 weeks. Also, I will provide valuable insights on how to prepare for the training sessions at home, what it takes to transform your body and what you can expect after the first month of training.

1. Where to start?

Keep track of everything you eat. Understanding and reviewing your diet is a must before starting any body transformation. Objectively evaluate your daily food intake by keeping a food journal for at least a week. Keep track of each little snack and you will be able to see what can be improved. After reviewing your diet, you can think of your body transformation goals – make them achievable and don’t be too strict on yourself. Meal planners like this one, this one or this one can help you get started organised. Also helpful articles like this one,and this one might be of help.
Find the perfect place. In order to successfully train at home, you have to find the right space for it first. All you need is the space of 2 m x 1.6 m (max) so that you could easily spread your arms in all directions.
Keep motivated. Think about your motivational background: do you perform best in a quiet environment or do you need music or a TV show to keep you motivated during the training sessions? Choose what is best for you!

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2. What equipment do you need?

People often think that in order to workout at home, they need to invest a lot of money in training equipment. Although, training at home requires just a few simple pieces of equipment, which do not cost a lot. Whatever the goals of your body transformation might be (fat loss or muscle gain), you only need a few essentials to start with:

Resistance bands. (See them here). The maximum price for these bands should be up to £30.
Training mat. (See them here). A training mat is essential for safe training at home. The prices can vary from £8 to £50 depending on your budget.
Skipping rope. (See them here). This piece of training equipment is great for cardiovascular exercises. The prices may vary from £2 to £10.
Other equipment (optional). You might need some other equipment, but it is not required for the beginners. If you decide that you can expand you training equipment collection, I would advise purchasing adjustable weights rack (here) or dumbbell set (here) (£15-£150), pull up bar (£20-£50) and ankle/wrist weights (£10-40£).

3. How training session at home looks like (in terms of duration, intensity and frequency)

The duration of you home training session may vary depending on your goal, physical level, availability and many other factors. The average home workout should last for 45 min-1 hour (maximum). 10-15 minutes of warm up exercises will prepare your muscles and joints for the workout. Your warming up part of training programme could include skipping rope, running and sprinting on the spot, jumping jacks, shadow boxing and similar movements for the whole body.

The intensity of your workout highly depends on your fitness level and goals. The idea is simple: the more intense your training programme is, the more calories you are going to burn.

The frequency of you training sessions at home (if you want to achieve visible results) has to be at least 4-6 times a week. Remember one thing: the more dedicated you are, the greater results you are going to achieve.

Have a look at some of my videos to get an idea of different workout/exercises, but I would get started with the ones mentioned before to keep it simple at first.

4. What results can I expect in one month?

Everything depends on your motivation and efforts – the harder you are going to work, the quicker you will boost your metabolism. The safest strategy of body transformation is losing around 700 g of fat every week. So in one month you could expect losing about 3.5 kg, but this amount can vary from 2 kg to 5 kg. Don't forget that slight muscle loss is expected too in the beginning of body transformation.

5) What are the best exercises for body transformation?

The best exercises for body transformation are the ones that involve the whole body:

Squats (Video: squats for beginners)
Lunges (Video: lunges for beginners)
Step ups (use the chair)
Dips and press ups (great for shaping your upper body)
Shoulder press (use dumbbells or plastic water bottles)
Skipping
Burpees (Video: how to do a burpee)
Jumping jacks
Pull ups/chin ups (if you can’t do it at home, you can do these exercises outside – the majority of London parks has pull up bars or monkey bars)

Use your imagination by creating various combinations of exercises and modify your exercise programme often. If you need help, contact a professional. Be careful with social media – not all information and advice found on it can be trusted. Your body transformation will only be successful if you know what you are doing and perform exercises correctly.

6. Is HIIT training enough for body transformation?

Having a HIIT workout plan is great if your main goal is fat loss. But if you want to shape your body and avoid “hanging skin” effect, you should consider having a more versatile training programme.

To sum up, a few simple steps that can create a big change in your body. Having enough motivation and knowledge, you can workout at home and achieve great results. The most important thing to have in mind though is that you have to do it right, otherwise, it won’t be effective and can even be harmful. Contact a professional trainer to help you with your home workout plan if you are not completely sure. I’m here to help!