Did you know you can easily complete anaerobic workouts at home? If you are at the start of your fitness journey, you might think that to complete high-intensity, strength-based exercises you need access to a gym. Well, luckily, that’s not the case!

Anaerobic exercises are used to target muscle groups throughout your whole body and are crucial if your goal is weight loss or overall fitness.

But if you are new to the fitness world or are only just starting out on your fitness journey, you may be unfamiliar with anaerobic exercises and their benefits.

Well, we’re going to take a look at the benefits of anaerobic workouts and tell you the 5 best anaerobic workouts you can do easily at home!

What are anaerobic workouts?

Anaerobic exercise is any type of exercise that doesn’t require your body to use oxygen as energy. In fact, anaerobic exercises use the glucose stored in your body as energy to fuel your muscles as they work.

Anaerobic workouts are usually for short intervals at high intensity, meaning that your body is working hard and releasing a lot of energy in that short space of time.

Man about to lift weight

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So, how is that different from aerobic exercises?

Well, aerobic exercises tend to be longer workouts at a low intensity. In this instance, your body is using oxygen to fuel your muscles. An example of aerobic exercises would be jogging, swimming, or dancing.

So, to simplify it:

Anaerobic: exercise without oxygen as fuel.

Aerobic: exercise with oxygen as fuel.

Anaerobic exercises are incredibly popular, as they can deliver fast results if your goal is weight-loss or gaining muscle mass. Anaerobic exercises are also an important part of other training routines including circuit training – a popular form of group fitness classes.

But what types of anaerobic exercises can you do at home? And what are the benefits to anaerobic exercises?

Let’s find out!

Benefits of Anaerobic exercises

There are many benefits to completing anaerobic exercises, but don’t forget that if this is the beginning of your fitness journey, it can take a little while to see results!

Luckily, changes in your physique aren’t the only benefits you’ll get from anaerobic workouts. In fact, there are many reasons to try this form of exercise.

Let’s take a look at them!

Promotes muscle mass

Woman exercising at gym

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Anaerobic workouts are crucial to building muscle mass, and because anaerobic exercises are short bursts of high intensity training, they incorporate a lot of weightlifting.

If your goal is to build muscle and tone up, you’re on the right page!

Aids weight loss

When you build muscle mass, you increase your body’s ability to burn fat. In actual fact, the higher muscle mass you have, the more fat you will burn – not only during anaerobic exercise, but during aerobic exercise too.

Increases metabolism

As above, your body’s metabolism increases as your muscle mass develops. This is a particularly important benefit as we get older, as when age increases, our metabolism slows down.

Improves mental health

This benefit is by no means exclusive to anaerobic exercise but actually relates to all forms of fitness.

Anaerobic workouts – and all workouts – release endorphins in our brains, decreasing the chance of depression and improving our mood drastically. So, even on the days when a workout is literally the last thing you feel like doing, you will more than likely feel so much better for it – if you can drag yourself through it!

Improves endurance and performance

If you are new to anaerobic workouts, it’s worth remembering this particular benefit.

Why? Because high-intensity workouts can be brutal in the beginning. In fact, any workout that requires high amounts of energy can be tough going at first – but don’t let this put you off!

If you are creating a fitness plan and incorporating regular anaerobic workouts into it, you will start to see your endurance and your performance improve. You may even start to find some workouts too easy!

So, now we know the benefits to completing anaerobic workouts, let’s look at doing anaerobic workouts at home!

Anaerobic home workouts

As with any form of exercise, there are anaerobic workouts you can do from home and fit into a daily workout routine.

One of the great things about high-intensity and short interval workouts like these anaerobic exercises is that, unlike aerobic exercises such as jogging, they can be completed in a short space of time!

So, let’s take a look at the 5 best anaerobic workouts at home.

Sprints

Person running outdoors

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Sprints are a great anaerobic exercise you can do without access to a gym. You can either do this as road running outside, or visit a track or local park nearby.

Obviously, sprints are much more high intensity than jogging or running. To complete this anaerobic workout, you will need to sprint at your fastest possible pace for 50 metres, 100 metres or 200 metres, depending on your fitness level. If you have no way of measuring the distance, set yourself a target ahead to sprint to.

Between these bursts of sprinting, jog at a low speed for a couple of minutes and repeat.

HIIT workouts

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) routines are a great way to do an anaerobic workout at home.

To do HIIT at home, you can set a timer of 30 seconds and complete an exercise such as burpees, push-ups, squats or high-knees in that time. Rest for another 30 seconds, and then complete another round of either the same, or a different exercise and repeat for 20 minutes.

If you are struggling to come up with HIIT exercises, there are plenty of free HIIT videos available on YouTube that will leave you sweating!

Weightlifting

Of all the anaerobic home workouts available, weightlifting may be the most popular. Many people regularly weightlift without even realising they are completing an anaerobic exercise, but it is definitely an effective workout that will give you results.

Person lifting dumbbell

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Samantha Gades via Unsplash

You can weightlift at home by purchasing dumbbells from your local fitness store, or online, or you can easily make your own weights by using bags of flour, bottles of water or tins of food!

When weightlifting, make sure you are using proper form to avoid injury. You can start by doing fewer reps and sets and building up as your endurance and performance improve. Try and include all muscle groups and complete the workout in around 30 minutes.

If you are unsure where to start with weightlifting, you can read beginners’ guides online to teach you some basic routines.

Plyometrics

Another popular anaerobic workout at home is plyometrics.

These exercises can be completed indoors, but if you have access to a garden or outdoor space you may find it easier.

Plyometrics is a form of jump training that uses your body weight to its advantage. Plyometric training can be done using the following exercises:

  • Squat Jumps – complete as many squat jumps as possible for 60 seconds and rest for 30 (repeat).
  • Box jumps – if you have no suitable equipment to jump on to, you can use cones or another household item with the aim of jumping over it rather than on to it. Complete for 60 seconds and rest for 30 (repeat).
  • Lunge jumps – go into a lunge, then jump to lunge on the other side. Complete for 60 seconds and rest for 30 (repeat).

These exercises should be completed for 20 minutes at a time using as much power and strength as you have.

If you have bad knees, jumping might not be suitable and could put you at increased risk of injury. But don’t worry! Take a look at these 7 simple body weight exercises that protect bad knees!

Isometrics

Isometrics are a highly effective form of anaerobic workout and can easily be completed at home with no equipment. This is another form of weight training that uses your own body weight to build strength and muscle.

To use isometrics as an anaerobic workout at home you can:

  • Wall sit – sit with your back against the wall as though you were on a chair.
  • Plank hold – get into plank position, either arms extended or on forearms depending on your ability.
  • Glute bridge – lie on your back with your legs bent. Bring your feet to the back of your bottom and lift your bottom as to make a bridge. Tense your glutes and hold.

Complete each of these for 5 rounds at 30 seconds each. As the exercises get easier, increase your holding time.

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to incorporate anaerobic exercises into your home workout with very little equipment needed.

Anaerobic workouts are extremely effective when it comes to meeting your fitness goals. But it is also important to include aerobic exercises into your routine too. This way you can be sure you are working your whole body and getting your heart rate up too!

Remember, if your goal is weight loss, a healthy diet will also promote your overall results, and eating protein-rich foods and superfoods such as acai berries will keep you feeling fuller longer. We love acai berry bowls which are healthy but tasty too!

The articles on this site are not medical or certified advice, all content that has been created is simply our opinions,experiences and independent research. We strongly advise seeking professional,qualified expert advice from either your GP or a certified medical practitioner before making any changes to do with your health,diet, exercise or habits.