It’s no surprise that we keep actively looking for no equipment workouts at home. Staying home has become the new normal and with so many changes to your lifestyle, before you know it, your sedentary time has increased without even realizing it! Even if you have no equipment and no gym membership, you can do it. Thanks to our list below of the top 10 no equipment workouts at home, you now have no excuses. These 10 exercises can literally be done anywhere. These are also the perfect at-home workouts for beginners because they can be done at your own pace.
Keeping active at home can be easy and simple. You don’t need a bunch of fancy equipment, just your own body weight to provide the resistance. It’s important to move your body as often as possible so try to break up your sedentary time with this full-body workout that you can do in the comfort of your own home!
If you’re looking for a workout that fits in cardio and strength training, this is the routine for it. Do two to three sets of 10 to 20 repetitions for each exercise. Set aside 20-30 minutes for the below exercises to target the major muscle groups and get your heart rate pumping. No equipment is needed.
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Best No Equipment Workouts by Mark Lauren
Table of Contents
ToggleIn our fast paced world, maintaining an active lifestyle at home can be challenging. As we adapt to a new normal that includes spending more time indoors, finding ways to stay physically active becomes crucial. But fret not – even without fancy equipment or a gym membership, you can achieve a great workout. Here are the top 10 no equipment workouts that you can easily do at home anytime, ensuring that there are no more excuses for not staying fit and healthy.
Explore the Best 10 No Equipment Workouts with Mark Lauren
1) Bodyweight Swimmers: An excellent exercise that safely targets your entire backside- your hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors, and shoulders will all get worked with this one simple movement.
2) Sumo Squats: Targets your lower body muscles, including quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. This is a good option for beginners since it’s easier to maintain good form and it works the glutes more than regular squats.
3) Hands Elevated Push-Ups: Builds upper body strength, working on your chest, shoulders, and triceps. As you get stronger, place your hands on progressively lower surfaces.
4) Bear Crawl: This is a full body exercise that’s great for your shoulders and coordination. As you bear walk, move your opposite limbs at the same time, and make sure to make a loud bear noise!
5) Lunges: Works on leg strength and balance, targeting quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. These are basically giant backward steps, and the single best overall leg exercise in my opinion.
6) Mountain Climbers: A high-intensity exercise that boosts heart rate while engaging core muscles.
7) Burpees: A total body workout that combines strength training and cardio.
8) Let Me Ins: This exercise targets your back, biceps, and forearms, but it’ll also work your legs. Make sure your feet are ahead of your hands.
9) Good Mornings: This is a great exercise for strengthening and lengthening your entire backside, especially your hamstrings. Bend forward with a straight back until you feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings. Then stand up tall and straight.
10 ) Hip Extensions: Works on strengthening the glutes, lower back, and hamstrings. Place a chair against a wall so it won’t slide, and then place your feet on it for these Hip Extensions. Further, go all the way up and down.
A great way to use these exercises is randomly throughout the day to break up too much sitting and typing. I like to do tiny sets of just 4-6 reps with about 5-15 minutes between exercises, so I never break a sweat. But believe me, if you do that consistently, it’ll add up to a ton of full body work that can transform your fitness. Moreover, the key is to stay consistent! Start small, and progress gradually. Enjoy!
Start your journey to a healthier you with these top 10 no equipment workouts today!
List of Top 10 No Equipment Workouts at Home
1. Arm Circles
Arm circles are uncomplicated and undemanding exercises that are great for beginners, recovering from injuries, and warming up before something more demanding. Moreover, they don’t require any equipment, so you can do them anywhere and anytime.
Biggest Benefit
- Warm up and mobilize your neck and shoulders before doing harder exercises.
- It’s also a great way to relieve pain and tension that builds up from too much sitting and working at a desk.
How To Do Arm Circles?
- While sitting or standing, extend your arms to the T position, parallel to the floor.
- Make small circles with your arms going forward, and then make small circles going backwards.
- Also, try going 30-seconds in each direction.
- You can switch between small and large circles.
2. Wall Pushups
Pushups are a fast and effective exercise for upper body strength for your chest shoulders, and triceps. Also, they can be done virtually anywhere and require nothing except a wall or sturdy desk.
Push ups with your hands elevated are excellent if regular push ups are too difficult. As you get stronger, place your hands on progresseively lower surfaces.
Muscles being trained:
- Strengthens the chest, shoulders, triceps, and core.
3. Sumo Squats
Sumo Squats are an exceptional exercise for beginners looking to strengthen their legs, glutes, and lower back. Whether you’re picking up your kids or grandkids, moving boxes and furniture, or cleaning and organising around the house, you’ll want strong legs and the coordination needed to maintain ideal alignment while lifting.
Biggest Benefit:
- Strengthens the lower body, especially the glutes that tend to get smaller and weaker as we age. Strong healthy hips are beautiful because they’re essential to moving well.
How To Do A Squat?
- Stand with feet wider than shoulder-width apart.
- Point toes outward about 15-30 degrees.
- Push your hips back while bending at the knees.
- Keep your chest up as you squat down.
- Return to a tall standing position while squeezing glutes.
- Repeat!
4. Forearm Plank
The forearm plank is a static core exercise similar to holding the top of a push-up, with both the elbows and hands making contact with the floor. Moreover, the pose engages multiple muscle groups at once, simultaneously building core, back, leg and arm strength.
Biggest Benefit
- Overall exercise but mainly core
- The forearm plank is effective because it works your entire body all at once.
- This one is perfect for overall strength, but especially for those looking for core stability.
- There are several variations of the plank that include a variety of challenges, but in this case, we’re covering the forearm plank.
How To Do A Plank?
- Place your forearms on the floor.
- Elbows should be aligned with your shoulders.
- Arms will be parallel to your body at shoulder width.
- Hold the position while staring at a spot on the floor.
- Keep your core engaged to protect your lower back.
- Hold for 20 seconds, if possible.
- Breathe and repeat!
5. Mountain Climbers
Mountain climbers are an effective bodyweight exercise that works many muscles.
Your shoulder muscles, triceps, chest muscles, serratus anterior, and abdominal muscles work mainly to support your body against gravity while holding a plank position. Also, Your glutes, quads, hip flexors, hamstrings, and calves all fire to move your legs during the exercise.
Biggest Benefit
- A full-body workout to increase heart rate
- This exercise is a favourite for boot camp instructors to give new recruits.
- That’s because it combines cardio and strengthening all into one workout.
- If you only have a few minutes to burn calories, make this your go-to exercise after a light warm-up. It’s basically like “running” while in a plank position.
How To Do Mountain Climbers?
- Start in a full plank position.
- Pull your right knee up to your chest, then switch to the left quickly.
- Keep your abs tight.
- Be sure your spine is straight as you move quickly.
6. Bicycles
The bicycle crunch is excellent for activating the rectus abdominis, your upper abdominal muscle, and it is second only to the captain’s chair for activating the obliques. Moreover, American Council on Exercise (ACE)- sponsored study reveals best and worst ab exercises. Because you are raising your legs, you also engage the transverse abdominis, which is the deep ab muscle that is difficult to target.
Biggest Benefit
- Works all areas of the abs
- If you want to be beach-ready for the summer, this version of a crunch works practically every inch of your abs, including the “side abs.”
- This all-in-one exercise will make your abs routine much shorter, too.
How To Do Bicycles?
- Lie on the floor with your hands behind your head.
- Bring your legs up so that your knees are above your hips.
- With your core engaged, twist the right knee towards the left elbow.
- Slowly switch sides.
- Do three sets of 20.
7. Crunches
Biggest Benefit
- Works the core
- Do crunches actually work? Paired with sit-ups, if you do several sets of each daily for a few months, you’ll see the difference in stomach tone, for sure.
- Crunches will help you build a strong core.
How To Do Crunches?
- Lie down on the floor with feet hip-width apart. The knees should be bent.
- Cross your arms across the chest in an X. Inhale and engage your core.
- On an exhale, lift your upper body with your abs.
- Keep your head and neck relaxed.
- Inhale as you lower to the floor.
8. Burpees
Burpees are a callisthenics exercise. This means they use your body weight for resistance. With burpees, the focus is on a full-body callisthenics workout that aims to build muscle strength and endurance in both your lower and upper body. A standard burpee exercise works to strengthen the muscles in your legs, hips, buttocks, abdomen, arms, chest, and shoulders.
Biggest Benefit
- Overall body exercise with cardio benefits
- Stronger heart and lungs.
- Lower risk of heart disease and diabetes.
- Improved blood flow.
How to do a Burpee?
- Stand straight with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms at your sides.
- Lower your body into a squat position.
- Put your hands flat on the floor directly in front of your feet.
- Shift your weight onto your hands.
- Step your feet back into a plank position.
- Step your feet back to the starting position.
- Jump up into the air with your hands overhead in a Y shape.
- Upon landing, immediately lower back into a squat.
- Repeat!
9. Bridges or Hip Raisers
The bridge exercise strengthens your glutes (butt) and hamstrings (back of the thigh) while enhancing core stability. It’s easy to add to a warm-up routine or strength-training workout and is even a good rehab exercise for improving core and spinal stabilization.
Biggest Benefit
- Targets glutes, abs, and hamstrings
- If you need a core and bottom strengthener, this move is it.
- Doing a bridge move daily can help strengthen the muscles of the lower back and hips. It also will enhance your core stability, a must if you sit at your desk all day or don’t engage your core often.
How To Do A Bridge Or Hip Raise?
- Lie down flat on your back with knees bent and arms at your sides.
- Engage your core and buttock muscles.
- Raise your hips toward the ceiling (a straight line between your shoulders and knees).
- Hold for 20-30 seconds.
- Lower slowly and repeat.
10. Leg Lifts
A leg lift, also called a leg lowering exercise, is a core exercise you do lying on your back. It involves lifting and lowering your legs in a controlled manner. Leg lifts are a very effective core exercise.
This at-home, easy-to-modify exercise targets several hip and core muscles, including your abs, lower back, and hip flexors. (Your hip flexors are the muscles at the top of your thigh that allow you to flex your hip and bend your knee).
Biggest Benefit
- Targets your upper and lower abs
- This abs isolation exercise is ideal for folks who aren’t fans of crunches.
- When done correctly, leg lifts can target those often hard-to-reach and tone lower abs muscles.
How To Do Leg Lifts?
- Lie on your back with arms at your sides and palms down.
- While exhaling, lift both legs off the floor a few inches.
- Further, hold for 30 seconds or longer.
- Inhale while lowering your legs back to the floor.
Workout at Home With No Equipment Anytime
If working out is a goal of yours this year, now you know you don’t even need a gym membership to do it. Work out at home with no equipment whenever you want to exercise but you would rather not be bothered with purchasing workout gear or heading to a gym.
This list of exercises without equipment can be done daily anytime, anywhere. Even if you travel for work, if you have space to stretch out, you can work out.
As you advance through the exercises, you may find it gets easier. If that happens, consider which exercises might work well with resistance bands (a bridge) or even light weights (squats).
Now you can get your sweat on anywhere, anytime. No excuses.
FAQs on Top 10 No Equipment Workout At Home
Q. What is the best non-equipment workout?
A: These are a few best non-equipment workouts –
- Bodyweight squats
- Push-up
- Walking lunges
- Plank
- Jumping Jacks
Q. Is it okay to work out at home without equipment?
A: You can work out using only your body weight. Even without dumbbells and other equipment, you can get in shape and improve your health.
Q. Can a 10-minute workout be effective?
A: The short answer is yes. You can get fit in as little as 10 minutes a day, but the intensity is key. Moreover, much of the research compares a single workout to several shorter workouts –– of the same intensity and total length –– to show that both approaches provide similar benefits.