F45: Home Based/Holiday Program

Generally during a week, F45 break down their sessions to each have a slightly different focus, meaning that every training day is not the same. Each day, the workout is either cardio focused with lots of high-heart rate exercise and small amounts of rest, resistance training or a combination of the two.

If you are new to this type of training and you haven’t used weights before, or you are not used to High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) with lots of jumping and plyometric exercises, I recommend you try this at-home workout first with lighter or no weights to help build up your base level of strength. Plyometric exercises are great to increase power and get the heart rate up, which is why they are often used in F45 workouts. However, if you haven’t yet built up enough strength yet you can overload your joints which can cause injury. It is also important to slowly increase the load you put on your body, so taking it a little bit easier for the first week is a good idea to allow your body to adapt.

Here are a few at-home variations that you can do to help build up your strength capacity for F45 or home versions, great to try out on holiday or for those who travel for work and can’t make their normal F45 gym session.

Generally these exercises in a typical F45 class would be put together in a circuit style of training with different intervals.

One example option could be:

• Each exercise for 30 seconds with 15 seconds rest in between each exercise and repeat the circuit 3 x depending on your desired workout length.

There are many different possibilities for the work:rest ratio, and the best ratio really depends on your specific goals. This ratio is a good one to prepare your body for joining F45 or a home/holiday work out option when you can’t make a session.

Lunge Walking

This could be done at home with or without the weight. The weight adds a little more resistance and incorporates using the abdominals at the same time with the twist which is great.

Alternative Home Ideas: You don’t have to use a medicine ball but could use anything that has a little bit of weight such as a wine bottle or small backpack.

Jumping Jacks with Dumbbells

This is a great exercise that gets the heart rate up, needs minimal co-ordination and requires minimal space.

Alternative Home Ideas: You can still get your heart rate up high doing these quickly and bringing your arms up higher rather than using the mini dumbbells. But you could also use something else at home that weights 1-2kg that is easy to hold in your hands.

Lateral Jumps Over Hurdle

This is another great exercise to get the heart rate up as well as work on your jumping and power.

Alternative Home Options: The hurdle does make you jump perhaps a little higher to make sure you clear the hurdle but you could easily jump over a line or imaginary hurdle and get a great work out at home.

Bosu Push ups

 The bosu ball definitely provides and extra challenge with the instability of the ball creating more stabilising in the shoulder to work as well as creating a different angle for the chest to have to do the push up.

Alternative Home Option: Normal push ups on your knees or on your toes are still challenging and a good basic exercise which is great to do when away to maintain strength or to help build up a base level of strength before starting the more intense and higher level exercises.

Plank Lateral Walks

Alternative Home Option: This exercise is pictured being done in the ladder to guide the participant how far to move laterally and provide some structure but in reality it’s not needed. The only thing you will need for this one is a little bit of space. Remember to keep your core muscles on and not arch your lower back with this one!

Ladder Squat Combo

Alternative Home Option: Any of the ladder exercises that you may learn in F45 you are able to replicate at home with chalk or imagining the lines. This is a great example of one as it adds resistance to it with the medicine ball and the squat element which adds more strength. There are many other variations that work more on fast footwork which helps with calf strength and increasing the heart rate.

Bosu Sit up with Rotation

Alternative Home Option:  This exercise is a great challenge with the bosu ball but it can certainly also be replicated at home just on the floor.

Spider Push ups

Alternative Home Option: This exercise is already equipment free! It’s a great one to work on your core with a push up position and knee to outer elbow movement creating more work in the obliques.

Mountain Climbers

Alternative Home Option:  Another great exercise that is equipment free. This can be down with quick movements with the individual swapping which knee is at the chest creating a great increase in heart rate but can also be slowed right down which makes it harder on the core muscles.

Box Jumps

Alternative Home Option: As long as you have a platform or bench that is stable you can definitely do these at home. They are a great power exercise that gets the heart rate up but also burns the quads. If you are knew to this exercise I would recommend starting on a much lower bench.

We’re here to help

Let us know how you go! To learn more about F45, or to ask any questions about the exercises and training, give us a shout!