How to Work Out at Home With No Equipment

Want to achieve your fitness goals but lack the equipment? Actually, you have all the equipment you need! It's called your body.

We break down the basics of bodyweight workouts to help you get started on your fitness journey.

Key Takeaways

• Many people have built muscle without any equipment.
• Bodyweight exercises use your own body weight to provide resistance.
• It's important to approach bodyweight workouts with the same mindset as normal workouts.
• That means good form, progressive overload, and training to near-failure.

See More: Gym vs. Home Workouts: Which Is Better for You?

Building Muscle Without Equipment

Carriejune, founder of Minibeast, says:

"Bodyweight exercises are a fantastic way to build strength and muscle. Doing so requires good form, progressive overload, and knowledge of the best exercises."

When you envision working out, what comes to mind? If your mind went to the gym, you aren't alone.

But a gym membership isn't necessary for a great workout. Neither is fancy equipment.

In fact, you can build muscle and strength with just your body weight.

There are plenty of reasons to try no-equipment workouts. They're handy for when you're traveling and don't have access to equipment. They can save you a ton of money. Home workouts offer nearly unmatched flexibility and privacy.

And, once you discover the many bodyweight exercises out there, you might find them more fun than traditional ones.

Many of the core principles of exercising remain. That means progressive overload, proper form, and so on.

But bodyweight workouts also have some unique features that might need explaining. By the end of this article, you should be prepped for the best bodyweight workout of your life.

The Secrets Behind No-Equipment Workouts

There's a persistent myth that bodyweight workouts are somehow less serious than traditional exercises with equipment.

To be fair, serious bodybuilding sometimes requires heavy weights that simply aren't possible without equipment.

But for the vast majority of people who are looking to build strength, muscle, endurance, and generally improve their fitness, bodyweight workouts can be just as effective as traditional ones.

For one thing, most bodyweight exercises are compound exercises. That means they work multiple muscle groups simultaneously, which is fantastic for building strength and muscle mass.

Take push-ups. They target your chest, shoulders, and triceps.

Or squats. They hit your glutes, quads, hamstrings, and even your core.

Engaging your whole body like this is beneficial for a bunch of reasons. One of them is efficiency. By working multiple muscles at once, you can build multiple muscles at once.

The secret to a great bodyweight workout lies in approaching it with the exact same seriousness, intention, and energy you'd bring to the gym.

Warm Up

That starts with a proper warm-up.

Look, we get it. You want to get down to business. You're busy, you don't have much time.

But skipping your warm-up is a bad idea. It's one of the most common reasons people get injured. And we don't have to tell you that an injury will set you back far more than the five minutes you spend warming up.

Five minutes is all the time you need, though some people prefer doing more. The basic idea with a warm-up is to get your blood pumping, raise your body temperature a little, and loosen up your joints.

You're preparing your body for the challenges ahead, both to improve your performance and prevent injury.

One great technique is dynamic stretches. It's also a good idea to do easy variations of the movements you're going to tackle in that workout. Think arm and leg swings, marching in place, jump rope, slow squats, hip circles, cat/cow, and so on.

Chances are you'll feel better during your workout if you warm up properly.

Proper Form

Another non-negotiable is form. Good form is often the only thing separating a successful rep from an injury.

That's important in itself. But proper form also helps with efficiency. With poor form, you often end up using unrelated muscles.

Form is more important than the number of reps you can complete or the difficulty of your exercise. Before you advance to a more challenging variation, make sure you've absolutely nailed the form.

Progressive Overload

If you've worked out in the gym, you'll likely be familiar with the concept of progressive overload. It's basically the fundamental principle underpinning all of strength training.

The idea is simple. Over time, your muscles will grow and adapt. That means you need to continuously increase the challenge in order to keep them growing.

In the gym, that often means adding more weight. But without equipment, things look a little different.

Some techniques involve adjusting how you approach a set. You could increase the number of reps, which increases the total volume of resistance your muscles face. Alternatively, you could reduce your rest time between sets.

One interesting technique is slowing down your movement. That increases the total time your muscles are under tension. It also gets rid of momentum. The result is that your muscles are forced to work harder than before.

Then there's exercise progression. Practically every bodyweight exercise has a series of variations, each more difficult than the last. Once one version becomes too easy, you can advance to the next.

For example, you might start with knee push-ups, then advance to regular push-ups, then to decline push-ups, then to elevated push-ups.

Experts generally recommend aiming for 8-15 reps per set. Once you surpass that with ease (and good form), it might be time to advance to the more challenging variation of a particular exercise.

High-Intensity Interval Training

High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, is a great style of bodyweight workout. Many people use it to lose weight, burn fat, and enhance cardio fitness.

HIIT exercises are, therefore, often designed to get your heart racing. Think high knees, mountain climbers, burpees, and jumping jacks.

A HIIT workout involves alternating between intense bursts of effort and short rest periods. You might work for 30-40 seconds, then rest for 15-20 seconds, and repeat over and over until the whole workout is complete.

Sounds tiring, right? That's the idea.

The alternation between maximum effort and brief rest provides a few specific potential benefits. For example, research shows that HIIT can enhance your metabolic rate, not just during exercise but for hours afterward.

Circuit Training

Another fantastic way to structure a bodyweight workout is with circuit training.

Circuit training is straightforward. You pick a handful of exercises and perform a set of each without any rest. Once you've completed the whole circuit, you can take a break. Then you repeat.

The secret lies in variation. Choose exercises that hit different major muscle groups. That way, the group you just worked can rest a bit while you focus on another.

One of the great benefits of circuit training is how variable it is. You can adjust pretty much any aspect of it, from the number of rounds to the rest time, to match where you are on your fitness journey.

Bonus: The Best Time to Take Fat Burners for Optimal Results

Full-body Workout With Bodyweight Exercises

We've covered the basics and some popular workout structures. Now it's time to dive into some of the best bodyweight exercises.

We'll cover some great exercises, grouping them based on what part of the body they target. For each, we'll give you some tips for progressive overload.

Upper Body Strength

You can't talk about upper body workouts without mentioning the push-up. In fact, we've already mentioned it. It's possibly the most iconic bodyweight exercise of all time.

As we mentioned, push-ups work your chest, shoulders, and triceps. But like any great compound exercise, they do more than that.

When doing a push-up, you need to brace your entire body and keep it stable. That means activating your core and stabilizer muscles throughout the full range of motion.

To do a push-up, start in a plank position. Your hands should be on the floor (or gripping handles) a little wider than shoulder-width. They should be level with your chest, not your face, with your fingers pointing forward.

Brace your core, squeeze your glutes, then lower yourself to the floor, tucking your elbows to your torso. Once you're low, push yourself back up. Make sure to keep your body in a straight line.

There are plenty of push-up variations. Some help target specific muscle groups.

For example, diamond push-ups are fantastic for hitting your triceps. They involve shifting your hands to the center, forming a triangle or diamond shape.

Another example is the decline push-up. These help target the upper chest and front shoulders, and can be a serious core workout, too.

Decline push-ups are also an example of a more challenging variation. If you find a normal push-up too easy, you could progress to decline push-ups. But if a normal push-up is too challenging, start by keeping your knees on the floor.

Lower Body Strength

If you want to build your lower body, the bodyweight squats (or air squats) are your friend. As we mentioned, they engage your glutes, quads, hamstrings, and core.

Start standing with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Lower down with control, making sure your knees remain in line with your toes, and your chest doesn't collapse in.

Then stand back up, squeezing your glutes and driving through your heels.

As with push-ups, squats come in all shapes and sizes.

For example, squat jumps are a great way to increase resistance and build power in your legs. They also add an element of cardio to the mix.

Another example is the squat pulse. That means staying low to the ground and pulsing up and down, as if you were only doing part of the full range of motion. These are tougher than they sound, and are fantastic for building endurance.

If you're just starting out and a squat is too much, consider trying step-ups. Make sure you're stepping up onto a sturdy surface.

If you have the opposite problem, and a bodyweight squat isn't challenging enough, consider single-leg variations. You could start with lunges, then progress all the way to single-leg squats and pistol squats.

Core Strength

As you may have noticed, many bodyweight exercises involve your core. A strong core is foundational to pretty much every aspect of bodyweight training.

That's helpful, because a strong core also happens to be important in practically every movement you do in daily life.

One classic bodyweight exercise that targets your core is the crunch. For a classic crunch, lie on your back with your knees bent. Engage your core to lift your shoulder blades up, then lower down slowly.

As with other bodyweight exercises, crunches come in many variations. Bicycle crunches, for example, help engage your entire core and burn calories, too.

Sit-ups are another fantastic core exercise. Make sure to press your lower back into the floor throughout the movement.

Conclusion

It's entirely possible to achieve muscle growth and weight loss without any equipment. The key lies in approaching bodyweight workouts with the same intensity you would a workout in the gym. Make sure to use proper form, stick with progressive overload, and combine your exercise with a healthy, balanced diet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is It Possible to Work Out Without Equipment?

Yes. Bodyweight exercises are an effective way to build strength, muscle, endurance, and enhance your overall fitness level.

Can I Build Muscle Without Weights?

Many people have built muscle and strength with just bodyweight exercises. Make sure to follow progressive overload by advancing to more challenging variations of each movement as you improve.

What Is the 3-3-3 Rule for Working Out?

The 3-3-3 rule is a framework for working out. It involves three workouts per week. In each workout, perform three sets of three exercises.

Keep Reading: What Does a PR Mean in the Gym?

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