Workouts You Can Do From Home: The Best Ones to Try Today

Maintaining an active lifestyle is important for preserving your health. Working out is one way to keep active and healthy. You may not want to join a gym due to costs, crowding, or privacy reasons. This leaves few alternatives; however, there are effective workouts you can do from the convenience of your home. 

With abundant options for in-home exercise, there are workouts to do at home comparable to those you’d do at the gym. The best way to workout from home is to focus on short bursts of high-intensity exercises. This route to fitness emphasizes cardio, body resistance training, and weightlifting. All you need is a little creativity and a couple of common household furniture items.

1. Stations

Here is where you can use your creativity to make the workouts comfortable and akin to being in a gym. Create “stations” in different areas of your designated fitness room, each representative of a different form of exercise. Perform a circuit of body weight exercises, focusing on completing one exercise at each station. Do 10 to 12 repetitions of the exercise at each station, and then rest for a couple of minutes. Perform the entire circuit twice more. 

2. Cardio

When you think of cardiovascular exercises, you might picture treadmills, ellipticals, or rowers. There are ways to get a cardio workout minus the machines. These movements are great for toning muscles, burning calories, and losing weight:

• Jumping jacks
• Jogging in place
• Burpees
• Mountain climbers
• Squat jumps
• Bear crawls

3. Plyometric

Plyometric exercises incorporate bursts of up-and-down movements and jumping over stationary objects. In addition, squats, lunge jumps, and bench jumps will provide a similar benefit. These exercises build strength, speed and agility, and have fat-burning capability. 

You can also use your staircase as if it were a stair climber at the gym. If you have a staircase with more than six stairs, you can create a cardio circuit by alternating laps up and down the stairs with the other cardio-based exercises listed above. 

4. Boxing

Boxing is a great way to tone the arms and buttocks. You don’t need gloves or a boxing ring to get in a good circuit training routine, just a little space in your living room. Start off with a light warmup of short punches and jogging in place. Next, squat and alternate punches for approximately one minute. Give some attention to your lower body with a minute of lunges or squats in between rounds of freestyle boxing performing jabs, upper cuts, roundhouse punches, and various kicks. 

5. No Weight Circuit 

If you have access to a set of weights at home, you are in luck. You can perform the same dumbbell exercises you would perform in a gym, such as chest presses and flys, bicep curls, and dumbbell squats. 

Conversely, there are some basic exercises you can do at home that do not require weights. You can intensify these workouts by incorporating pieces of furniture in your home. As long as you have a sturdy chair or bench to use, there are a myriad of exercises you can perform to add intensity to your home workouts. 

6. Pushups 

Add a decline to your pushups by putting your feet up on raised areas such as the stairs, couch, or your bed. Contrarily, you may add an incline by placing your hands atop these surfaces instead to increase the difficulty of your pushups. Challenge yourself even more by turning regular pushups into Spiderman pushups. As you lower yourself into a pushup, pull one knee toward your elbow on the same side of your body. As you rise back up, bring your leg back to its starting position. Repeat on the other side. Alternate back and forth. 

7. Squats

Try this heel-to-toe sumo squat to work the glutes and legs – stand in front of a chair with your feet wider than hip distance and your feet and legs slightly turned out. Shift your weight to your heels, and lift your toes before lowering down into a squat, keeping your chest high the entire time. Straighten your legs, return to a standing position, and extend your arms overhead. Repeat this sequence 15–20 times.

8. Lunges

You can practice lunges by extending one leg backwards and placing the back of your foot on a chair or ottoman behind you. Simultaneously elevate your back leg as you bend your frontal leg and descend straight down. 

Further increase focus on your legs by doing single-leg chair squats. Face away from the chair, and lift one leg. Sit down on the chair, and raise yourself back up without putting your leg down. Repeat on the other side, then alternate back and forth.

9. Hip Raises and Planks

Target your hamstrings even more during hip raises by placing your heels on a piece of furniture. Lie on your back, position your heels on a step or stool and lift. Do as many sets as you feel comfortable with. 

Make your planks more difficult by alternating between sides. Place your forearm on the ground perpendicular to your body. Keep your body straight, glutes squeezed, shoulders back, and hips raised. Twist your body toward the ground to switch arms and do a plank facing the opposite direction.

10. Leg Raises

Target your thighs and hip flexors with the one-leg circle, in which you lie on your back and lift one leg high into the air. Use your abdominal muscles to keep your pelvis stable as you move your leg in a full-range circle. 

11. Triceps

Tricep dips are another exercise that require a sturdy piece of furniture. Use a coffee table, couch, chair, or something that comes up to about knee height. Sit at the end of the furniture with your hands facing down. Place your palms securely on the furniture or chair next to your sides. This will stabilize your weight as you get ready for the movement. Lift your hips and walk several steps forward. Bend the elbows back and lower your hips down a few inches. Straighten your arms and repeat.

12. Abs

Yoga and Pilates are also very easy to do at home. In just 15 minutes, you can complete an at-home Pilates class with these basic moves. The ab scoop is one such move, targeting your abdominals and obliques. The scoop movement is not the same as crunches; it varies in that the abs are engaged by pulling the lower body inwards towards the chest as the upper body simultaneously curls towards the center. 

Another movement, referred to as the “hundred,” not only similarly targets the abs but also helps you control your breathing. Pull your abs in and lift both your legs and shoulders off the ground. Place your arms at your side and pump them up and down 100 times.

Whatever your reason may be for choosing to exercise at home, there are plenty of time-efficient workouts that don’t require you to purchase costly equipment. In the comfort and privacy of your own home, these movements can provide the same effect as working out in a commercial gym. If you require further motivation to help you achieve the ambience of a traditional gym during your workouts to do at home, there are various mobile applications and online video resources to guide you to completion.