Getting in shape is something that most of us have thought about at least once or twice in our lives, but it can feel like there are endless roadblocks and obstacles. We don’t know where to start, we don’t have the time and the biggest one to overcome: gym memberships are expensive. It’s hard to know how to navigate health and fitness with all the contradictory information you can find online at the click of a button, but one thing that cannot be disputed is that fitness doesn’t have to cost you anything. While a gym membership or some equipment in your home can be helpful, all you need to get in shape is a little space and your own body. Here are some resistance training exercises to get you stronger than ever without leaving your home.
Pull-Ups
Being one of the most difficult bodyweight exercises, mastering your pull-ups is a great way to build upper body strength and work on your back, shoulders and core. You might need to invest in an inexpensive pull-up bar to put up in a door frame, otherwise, there are alternatives to investigate such as a sturdy tree branch or door. As a beginner, you might want to try some modifications and start by simply hanging from the bar for as long as you can. Pull-ups are a great exercise to master at home since you can constantly work towards improving your reps, and there are so many variations you can learn more about.
Push-Ups
Yet another great upper body workout and this one requires nothing but your own body, your bedroom floor and a mat or towel. This is a great movement to work your chest, shoulders and triceps for beginners, all the way to advanced gym-goers. If you don’t feel strong enough to full push-ups just yet as a newbie, you can start on your knees and simply lower yourself down to the ground as far as you possibly can before pushing yourself back up. Practice this until you can comfortably do 10-12 knee push-ups and then try progressing to a full push-up. Once you’ve mastered the basics, this is yet another movement with many variations to target different muscles and keep your home workouts fun and exciting but still challenging.
Tricep Dips
So long as you have a chair, a couch, a bed or some kind of bench, this is another accessible upper body exercise for people who want to work out at home. As a beginner, you might want to start on the floor, and simply lift yourself up off the ground by extending your elbows. When you’re feeling comfortable with that, you can graduate to a low chair or bench and gradually make it higher as you get stronger and more capable. This exercise will help you to build strong arms at home without the hassle and contribute to a balanced upper-body physique.
Bulgarian Split Squats
This is a great lower body movement that will target your quads and glutes to give you strong and toned legs. Once again, all you need for this one is a chair, a couch, your bed or even a coffee table – anything raised off the ground to rest your leg on. The movement is performed by placing your back foot on your raised surface and squatting downwards in a lunging position. Working one leg at a time means that greater resistance is placed on your muscles to give you big strength gains. Another bonus of this movement is it will force you to work on your balance and posture while you’re getting stronger!
Step-Ups
Yet another isolated leg movements, step-ups will require you to step up onto your raised surface one leg at a time and clench your glute muscles at the top of the movement, putting strain on those same muscles as above, but includes your hamstrings as well, putting almost your entire lower body to work. This movement can be done slowly and more controlled to work those muscles as hard as you can, or it can be done faster and more explosively to put more of an emphasis on raising your heart rate, burning fat, and getting your sweat on.
These are but a few of the many options for effective home workouts that require little to no equipment and most certainly don’t need you to spend money on a gym membership. Taking your health and fitness into your own hands is important, and knowing that you can do it from the comfort of your own home makes it all the better.
