Here it is again! In an effort to continue to give you ideas about how to effectively work out at home (without using your baby or a toaster as a dumbbell), here is a full-body workout you can do with no equipment.
Remember the goal with at-home workouts doesn’t completely change from what you would normally do in the gym just because you are looking at your coffee table instead of a squat rack. You still want to provide your muscles with sufficient stimulus by focusing on quality reps, one just has to get a little more creative with the workouts and the order of exercises.
Feel free to give this a try and modify intelligently as necessary. If something calls for a jump but you have an injury or aren’t too keen on jumping, then perform the movement with the same level of effort as if you were going to jump without actually leaving the floor. This type of workout is only as useful as you make it, simply rushing through reps will leave you feeling like this was quite easy and that it didn’t do much. Continue to use the eccentric isometrics protocol as discussed in this previous blog and you will see just how tiring an at-home workout can be.
WORKOUT
So this workout contains 3 different groups, each with 3 exercises per group. You start with the first group, perform 1A, 1B, then 1C with minimal rest in between each exercise, then after you finish 1C, rest the designated amount. Then you complete the number of designated sets until complete, then move to 2A, 2B, and 2C, and so forth.
There are videos to go along with each exercise listed as well as some key points to follow with each. The rest times are meant to be followed fairly strictly, but if you find you haven’t recovered yet, then take as much time as needed. Just don’t be scrolling through Instagram for 6 minutes in between sets!
CIRCUIT #1 (1A, 1B, 1C)
Single Leg Plank
Key Points:
Focus on staying on your tippy toes and your elbows driving through the ground.
Keep your hips a little higher than shoulders with your core hollowed out the whole time (pretend someone is trying to poke your belly button with a knife from beneath and you want to avoid it).
Bodyweight Good Morning
Key Points:
Keep knees with a consistent slight bend and focus on hinging at the hips so your butt pushes behind you and your torso comes almost parallel to the ground.
Drive back up through your hamstrings and don’t extend past a neutral hip position; come back to a normal standing position.
Single Leg Stand w/ Eyes Closed
Key Points:
Make sure that the toe of the stance leg is pointed straight.
Push the stance leg knee away from your body so the foot “hugs” the floor.
Brace core and focus on maintaining tension.
(no kettlebell is fine)
CIRCUIT #2 (2A, 2B, 2C)
Single Leg Hip Bridge w/ Knee Drive
Key Points:
Keep both toes pointed towards you the whole time.
Don’t overextend when you push hips up, find the point where you feel glutes/hamstrings contract the most, stick that position, and slowly lower back down.
(skip to 0:55)
Bodyweight Bulgarian Good Morning
Key Points:
Make sure to keep the knee of the leg in front at a slight bend the whole time, never lock out that knee.
Focus on proper hinge mechanics, you should feel it mainly in the hamstring/glute of the leg in front.
(no kettlebell is fine)
Split Stance Lunge Jump
Key Points:
This is a more advanced movement so if you don’t feel comfortable, simply perform without the jump.
Don’t speed through the set, treat each rep as separate.
Keep a constant slight hinge so your butt pokes out and your torso has a slight forward lean.
CIRCUIT #3 (3A, 3B, 3C)
Water Bottle Renegade Rows
Key Points:
Use a water bottle instead of a dumbbell, it will be plenty if done correctly.
Don’t let the bottle touch the ground in between reps.
Keep core hollowed out and don’t over-rotate your hips; keep them relatively square and pull the bottle towards the hips.
Bear Crawl Bird Dog
Key Points:
If this is too difficult, simply perform without moving the arms, just extending the leg straight behind.
Brace your core and don’t let the hips rotate throughout the movement.
Suicide Plank
Key Points:
When you move your hand, bring it to where your elbow was, and push from there.
Minimize rotation of the hips on both the way up and down by keeping the hips tall and bracing your core.
Don’t rush through the reps.
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There you have it. A full-body workout that can be done at home with no equipment and should leave you feeling accomplished and tired. Again, focus on the quality of the reps and you will find you extract much more value from the workout as a whole. Enjoy!