Workout routines are hard enough to stick to without adding the price tag of the latest fancy equipment. A lot of exercise machines these days are expensive and definitely unnecessary for a complete fitness program. Now I’m not saying they are useless, and I’m not saying that even if you have the money you shouldn’t get them.
There is no doubt something appealing about them, but if you do decide to get one or more make sure you do your homework first. I can help you with that in a later article but as for the purposes of this article I want to show you how easy it is to get in shape on a small budget while working out at home.
Specifically I’m going to open your eyes to the numerous possibilities of the workouts that can be done without any equipment. However, there are some very affordable and very effective pieces of workout equipment that I do recommend which I’ll go over in a separate article.
That’s enough about equipment for now, because today’s article is all about workouts without equipment. The important thing to remember is starting from the basics, so here are the 5 building blocks for great at home workouts without equipment.
Block #1 - Include enough exercises to hit all of the major muscle groups. An example would be Body Weight Squats for the Leg muscles. Pushups for the chest, triceps, and shoulders. Overhead Iso. Pulls for the upper back, and obliques. Front Leg Front Kicks for the Abs and Legs, and Floor Bridges for the glutes and hamstrings.
Block #2 - Don’t waste time and energy on too many exercises. That example has 5 exercises which is great, especially for beginners. If you want to do more I don’t recommend not going over 10 exercises.
Block #3 - Prioritize your time schedule. Figure out if you want to work out 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 days a week. I’m not saying that you won’t get results with 1 day or 7 days but there is a reason there not that common. Remember, the more days you workout a week the less time should be spent working out. This is especially important with full body workouts.
Block #4 - Manage your workout intensity. This one coincides significantly with the last one. You may be able to get results if for 6 days a week you do one set of as many pushups as possible, but it won’t last forever. As many reps as you can is called going to failure, and one way to switch it up is to go to failure one day, and the next day do half that many reps. It worked great for me when I hit a sticking point in my pullups along time ago.
Block #5 - At least every 12 weeks take a break, or do a week of lighter training. If your goals have changed then switch your workout to something new. You can change the speed at which you perform the reps. You can do explosive reps, and so much more. If you're happy with the old workout, keep at it.
For more ideas, check out more of my articles. With some hard work and a little bit of imagination you can come up with a host of different workouts that can be done right at home without any pricey machines.
Here are some exercises to do at home.
