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Home Workout Plans and Calendars: FAQs

By: Lindsey Bomgren, CPT | March 22, 2022

Train like an athlete – in your own home. Our FREE Home Workout Plans are designed to build strength at home with motivating, follow-along guided videos on YouTube. Here you’ll find answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about our workout programs.

FAQ Quick Links:

Which Workout Plan Should I Start With?

I offer free workout plans for all fitness levels, including pregnancy and postpartum recovery.

You can find my entire Program Guide here, which includes more information on how to choose the appropriate workout program for your fitness level and goals, and how I recommend progressing through these programs.

This is the order I recommend following as you progress through my signature workout programs:

  1. Beginner Workout Plan
  2. Strong 20
  3. Stronger 25
  4. SplitStrong 35
  5. Perform 20
  6. Build 30
  7. MetCon 100
  8. HIITStrong 35

Each program should be repeated x2-3 times (making each 2-week program a 4-week or 6-week program).

This encourages progressive overload (or muscle growth) as it allows you to gradually increase the intensity or volume of your training over time, leading to improvements in strength, endurance, and overall fitness.

How The Workout Calendars Work

How Do I Access The Daily Workouts?

  1. Each challenge has a unique blog post that includes a PDF Calendar Download with clickable links to each day’s workout.
  2. Hover over and then click on the bold text each day to access the workout video on nourishmovelove.com. Alternatively, you can bookmark the webpage for reference.
  3. You’ll find clickable links to each daily workout broken down week-by-week in the blog posts. You’ll also find a YouTube playlist with all the videos for that specific challenge linked within the post.

What Equipment Is Needed?

A set of dumbbells.

Most of the workouts require a set of dumbbells, but they can also be done with just your bodyweight. Each workout will have a recommended dumbbell weight, usually between 8-20 pounds. Here are the dumbbells I recommend for at home workouts.

You can always perform the dumbbell exercises without weights if you don’t have equipment available. There are also options to add additional pieces of equipment like a mini loop resistance band, kettlebell and foam roller. Find more of my home gym essentials here.

When Can I Start The Calendars?

You can start these challenges at ANY TIME. No special sign up needed, all the information you need is within each challenge’s blog post. If you’d like to follow along with the workout plan that our team is doing, join our email list to get weekly workout plans delivered to your inbox every Sunday.

What Types Of Workouts Are Included?

The workout challenges consist of a variety of workout formats — from weight training and strength training, to HIIT cardio, barre and yoga sculpt. That means you might come across workout formats that are new to you, or not the kind of workouts you typically do.

I encourage you to give every workout format at try! Adding variety to your fitness routine is an important way to continue challenging your body and avoid fitness plateaus.

Adapting the Plans

How Do I Adapt The Workout Plans As A Runner?

Strength training is so important for runners. I recommend choosing 3 workouts for the week and filling in your runs on alternating days. I would recommend choosing:

  • (1) Full Body Strength Workout
  • (1) Upper Body Strength Workout
  • (1) Lower Body Strength Workout

We also created a 2-Week Strength and Running Plan #1 and 2-Week Strength and Running Plan #2 for runners.

How Do I Adapt The Workout Plans For My Fitness Level?

Each workout included in our fitness plans can be scaled up or down to match your fitness level and goals. You know your body best.

Although most of the workout videos include modifications, you can always adapt exercises to better suit your needs and goals. For example, you may choose to take low-impact modifications, or perform exercises with just your bodyweight rather than use dumbbells.

How To Determine How Fit You Are

Take my fitness test with specific metrics to assess your strength, endurance, flexibility and mobility. Complete the fitness test, then use the results to set fitness goals and track your progress.

If you are postpartum and wondering if you’re ready to return to running or HIIT training after pregnancy, take this postpartum fitness test.

How Often Should You Test Your Fitness?

If you follow a regular strength training workout plan, you will want to be retesting roughly every four to eight weeks. This gives your body time to adapt to training and improve your cardiovascular function or muscle endurance depending on your fitness goals.

Trainer Tips from Lindsey

How To Warm Up Before A Workout

Properly warming up and cooling down are essential parts of any workout (that often get skipped, I’m guilty of this too). If you’d like a longer warm up, I recommend adding on this guided 5-Minute Warm Up Video for At Home Workouts.

How To Cool Down After A Workout

The goal of a cool down is to bring down your heart rate and body temperature. I personally like to cool down with this 10-Minute Full Body Stretch Routine.

What To Do On Your Rest Days

Rest! It’s so important to give your body time to repair the muscle you’re working so hard to grow. You can go on a walk or do some gentle stretching if you feel like you need it, but I really encourage you to take your rest days seriously. You can find my go-to mobility routine here.

This post does include affiliate links and I earn a small commission on products purchased using these links (at no additional cost to you). All words and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Nourish Move Love.

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