You Never Knew it, But Your House IS A Gym

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The 21 Best Exercises You Can Do At Home With No Equipment

1 Jumping Jacks or Star Jumps

Here's a good place to start. Performed by jumping to a position with the legs spread wide and the hands touching overhead and then returning to a position with the feet together and the arms at the sides. A great warm-up. Sometimes known as star jumps. It's a high energy exercise that is sure to burn calories. 

2 Broom Twists

Sweep unwanted inches from your waistline with waist twists, which are good for slimming your midsection. While seated, hold the broom behind your shoulders, and twist to the right side, and back to center. Then twist to the left, and back to center. Just make sure you’re using slow, controlled movements.

3 Doorframe Press

Stand in the middle of a doorframe with your arms extended to the right and left. Press on each side of the frame as hard as you can. Keep your hands flat. This isometric exercise activates the shoulders, biceps and triceps.

4 Dining Room Table Press

It's the place where you can pile on the carbs and calories. Why not use it as a place you can lose them too? Use the table for standing pushups to sculpt your pecs. Focus on technique and you’ll really feel it in your pectoral muscles. As you perform the move, make sure you keep your abdomen muscles tight to get the most out of the exercise.

5 Wall Workout

Using a wall will help strengthen your legs and especially your quads in no time. Place your back flat against the wall and bend your knees until they are parallel to the floor. Try to hold the seated position for a minute or longer. The wall is also commonly used in yoga workouts.

6 Towel Workout

A small hand towel is all you need for a creative towel workout. Use it as a resistance band, slider, and more for a home workout that's anything but boring. Use it to strengthen your shoulders.

Straighten your arms over your head while holding an end of the towel in each hand about 18 inches apart. Keeping your arms over your head, pull with each hand as hard as you can, creating resistance. Hold for several seconds and repeat. A towel also makes a great stretching tool. While lying on the floor, loop a towel behind one ankle. Grab the towel from both ends, and bring the towel and leg toward your chest.

7 Couch Stretch

Exercise can happen at the most unlikely of times, provided you want it to. What about on your couch or sofa at home? You can absolutely stretch out while you sit. You can improve your posture and increase your flexibility with moves like the back and traps stretch, and elbow curls.

8 Stair Cardio Workout

What to do when it's too cold to run outside and you don't have a treadmill? A stair workout makes it possible to sweat it out in the comfort of your own home.

The workout includes strength-training moves that can be done anywhere; dumbbells are optional for some of the moves but not required. Stand on the edge of a step on your tiptoes and lower your heels as far as you can. Then slowly push up as high as you can and repeat. Your calf muscles will become defined quickly.

9 Kitchen Chair Dips

Use a sturdy chair to perform triceps dips. This is similar to how you would use a bench at the gym. The kitchen chair workout is a free alternative however, provided you have a kitchen chair. Just remember when you lower your body, do not allow your elbows to bend to more than a 90-degree angle.

10 Water Bottle Dumbells

Use water bottles as dumbbells. Since water isn’t that heavy, try filling them with sand.

A 1.5 liter bottle of sand weighs in at 3.3 pounds. They’re great for biceps curls or shoulder presses. Soup or vegetable cans are also an easy stand-in for lightweight dumbbells.
For a greater challenge, trade in your water bottles for gallons of milk. A gallon jug of sand weighs about 13 pounds. You can also substitute a full bottle of laundry detergent.

11 Plank

This is the name for holding the 'top' position of a push-up for extended periods of time. The primary muscle involved in this exercise is the rectus abdominis. The longer you can hold, the more of a workout you'll get! It is named the 'plank' because the idea is to hold the body straight and rigid for an extended period of time. This position is used commonly in yoga.

12 Flutter kick

Lying on your back, hands in fists under buttocks, move feet up and down near the ground. Repeat this motion. It's designed to work out your hip flexors, abdominal muscles, and leg muscles. The flutter kick is commonly used in military training.

13 Calf-raises

Standing on a platform with an edge where the heels can hang (e.g. A curb), lift the body on the balls of the feet. Then slowly return to starting position. This trains the gastrocnemius and to a lesser degree the soleus. A seated calf-raise trains the soleus.

14 Paper Plate Valslide

Did you know you can make your own Valslide?Try using paper plates underneath your hands while performing a slide out.
Alternatively, if you want to target your quads, place a paper plate under your right foot and then slide your right foot back into a lunge. Workout inspiration can come from anywhere.

15 Standing Squats

Get your glutes going! Stand with feet shoulder width apart, squat down as far as possible, bringing the arms forward parallel to the floor. Then return to standing position.

Squats train the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and gluteals. It's a great overall leg workout.

16 Pillow Press

You can use pillows to work your inner thighs. Place the pillow between your knees and squeeze as hard as you can for 30 seconds. Repeat at least three times.

To create your own incline bench, stack a couple of firm pillows against the wall or your couch. Sit down, lean back and perform an incline dumbbell bench press.

17 Push-ups

One of the best upper-body exercises: Performed face down on the floor, palms against floor under the shoulders, toes curled upwards against the floor. The arms are used to lift the body while maintaining a straight line from head to heel.

The arms should go from fully extended in the high position to nearly fully flexed in the low position, while the subject makes sure to avoid resting on the floor. Resting is only done in the high position of the exercise. Chest, shoulders, and triceps are trained with this exercise.

18 Crunches

Similar to the sit-up. Except instead of bringing the whole torso area closer to the knees, only a concentrated but shorter movement of the abdominals is performed.Shoulder blades are lifted off the floor, and abdominals tightened. Adding this exercise to your workout should increase your core strength.

19 Sit-ups

A classic ab sculpter. Performed by lying down with the back on the floor, knees bent, and bottoms of feet against the floor. The shoulders are then lifted off the floor by tightening abdominal muscles and bringing the chest closer to the knees.
The final movement is to lower the back to the floor with a smooth movement. This trains the abdominal muscles.

20 Shampoo or Conditioner Bottle Lifts

This is another good habit exercise. Try to get into these habits as much as you can. Before you lather up in the shower, squeeze in a few triceps presses. If your form is good, and you keep your elbows right next to your ears, you’ll feel the burn even if the weight is light.

21 Lunges

These are performed by bringing one leg forward and almost kneeling on the back leg. Once the front leg creates a perfect 90 degree angle you stand up and alternate legs. Great for your quads. Keeping your back straight and chest out is important for proper form. There are many variations for lunges.