The 8 best at home workout routines the ultimate guide for training without a gym

Fitness2022-11-18

So you want to start working out, but you don’t want to leave the house?

No problem!

Our online coaches specialize in helping people get fit from home.

If you’re in a hurry, sign-up for our free weekly newsletter and we’ll send you PDFs of our “Work Out at Home” guides!

Let’s go over the 8 Weightier At-Home Workouts so you can start training today: no gym or equipment required!

A note on warming up and cooling down
Home Workout #1: Beginner Bodyweight (Start Here)
Home Workout #2: Wide Bodyweight
Home Workout #3: The 20-Min Hotel Routine
Home Workout #4: High-Intensity Interval Training
Home Workout #5: Attack of the Angry Birds
Home Workout #6: Train like Batman
Home Workout #7: The PLP Progression
Home Workout #8: The Star Wars Workout!
Bonus No-Equipment Workout: The Playground Circuit
Can home workouts build muscle or help with weight loss?
How to build your own at-home workout

Let’s jump right in!

At Home Warm-ups and stretching routines

No matter which at-home workout you pick, I want you to start with one important thing:

Warm-up!

I imbricate why you should unchangingly warm up in an vendible found right here. It doesn’t have to be much though, requite it well-nigh five minutes to get your muscles zippy and your heart rate up.

This will help you do exercises properly and help prevent injury. You can run in place, do air punches and kicks, or some jumping jacks.

Here is NF Senior Mentor Staci (you might know her incredible story) showing you many beginner options you can use to warm up as well:

If you’re curious, here’s my personal (advanced) warm-up:

Advanced Warm-up Routine:

Jump rope: 2-3 minutes
Jumping jacks: 25 reps
Bodyweight squats: 20 reps
Lunges: 5 reps each leg.
Hip extensions: 10 reps each side
Hip rotations: 5 each leg
Forward leg swings: 10 each leg
Side leg swings: 10 each leg
Push-ups: 10-20 reps
Spider-man steps: 10 reps

Our goal isn’t to tire you out, instead we want to warm you up.

That’s step one.

Completing your chosen at-home workout would be step two.

Below, you’ll find 8 sequences you can follow withal with!

Home Workout #1: Beginner Bodyweight

This at-home routine, as we lay out in our Beginner Bodyweight Workout article, is as follows:

Bodyweight squats: 20 reps
Push-ups: 10 reps
Walking lunges: 10 each leg
Dumbbell rows (using a gallon milk jug or flipside weight): 10 each arm.
Plank: 15 seconds
Jumping Jacks: 30 reps

We moreover turned it into a fun infographic with superheroes, considering that’s how we roll:

The whilom is what we undeniability “circuit training,” with the objective stuff to run through the workout sequence once, then again, then again.

Note: Not a milk drinker?

If you don’t have milk in the house for the rows, find something of roughly the same weight with a good handle.

Also, if you want to download this Beginner Bodyweight Workout as a worksheet, you can do so when you sign up in the box below:

It’ll help you track your progress as you uncork your training.

Home Workout #2: Wide Bodyweight

If the beginner at-home workout whilom is too easy for you, move on to our Advanced Bodyweight Workout.

The Wide Bodyweight Workout:

One-legged squats – 10 each side [warning: super-difficult, only struggle if you’re in good unbearable shape]
Bodyweight squats: 20 reps
Walking lunges: 20 reps (10 each leg)
Jump step-ups: 20 reps (10 each leg)
Pull-ups: 10 reps [or inverted bodyweight rows]
Dips (between bar stools): 10 reps
Chin-ups: 10 reps [or inverted bodyweight rows with underhand grip]
Push-ups: 10 reps
Plank: 30 seconds

Not familiar with these moves? Trammels out the 21 Weightier Wide Bodyweight Exercises for a full breakdown.

I warn you, the whilom sequence will hurt… in a good way. You should be proud if you can get through this three times.

Do you want to get as strong as possible so this workout ain’t no thang?

Sign up in the box unelevated to grab our guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know. It’ll teach you all of these wide bodyweight exercises!

Home Workout #3: The 20-Min Hotel Routine

Sometimes, you just plain find yourself stuck in a hotel room. Maybe you can find the hotel gym, but I bet it’s terrible! It probably has 2 machines, a wrenched treadmill, and no self-ruling weights.

Ugh.

Instead, how well-nigh a 20-min workout you can do in the room itself! Utilize the furniture to its full potential.

Hotel Workout Level 1:

Bodyweight squats: 20 reps
Incline push-ups: 15 reps (feet on floor, hands on whet of bed or desk)
One-arm luggage rows: 10 reps (each arm, use your suitcase as your weight)
Reverse crunches: 10 reps

Hotel Workout Level 2:

Overhead Squats: 25 reps
Push-Ups: 20 reps
Inverted Rows using the sedentary in your hotel room: 10 reps
Reverse Crunches: 15 reps

Set the watchtower clock to 15 minutes from now and see how many circuits you can do!

Check out our full post on hotel circuits if you want Level 3!

We have a LOT of merchantry travelers throughout the Rebellion! Learn how they stay fit on the road with the Nerd Fitness Starter Kit!

Home Workout #4: High-Intensity Interval Training

You don’t have to throne to the gym to do High-Intensity Interval Training. You can do a well-constructed routine right in your own home!

HIIT is just pursuit a specific regimen where you vary your speeds and intensity throughout a shorter run, swim, bike, or row.

Unless you have a giant backyard, running at home might be tough.

But you know what doesn’t require a lot of room?

Burpees!

To well-constructed a burpee:

Start standing up, then squat lanugo and kick your legs out.
Do a push-up, bring your legs when in, and explode up into a jump.
For a HIIT workout, try to do 20 repetitions, then rest for two minutes.
Repeat until you hate yourself.

Check out our full guide on How to Start Interval Training for some increasingly ideas on HIIT workouts.

You can moreover trammels out our post “The 20-Min HIIT Workout for Home” for flipside living-room-friendly interval routine!

Home Workout #5: Attack of the Angry Birds

The Angry Birds Workout is designed to be washed-up when you have 5 or 10 minutes to kill.

Sort of like playing Angry Birds…

Here’s how The Angry Birds Workout Plan works: it’s deceptively simple – only four major movements.

If you don’t have time to run through the whole sequence, no problem!

Depending on how much time you have during the day, you can do your whole workout at once, or unravel up your training into four variegated sessions throughout the day (with each session stuff ONE of the exercises).

Here’s a sample day for your No-Equipment Workout:

Wake up, do 40 jumping jacks to warm up, and then do bodyweight squats.
At lunch, you grab your suitcase (if you’re at work, milk jug if you’re at home) and do inverted rows.
After work, you do flipside 50 jumping jacks and then do your push-ups.
After dinner, you do your planks while watching TV.

You could plane split it up over two days if needed, but the goal would be to do it the whole sequence at once.

The main Angry Birds Workout vendible describes in detail Levels 1-6, but here’s Level 3 for you:

Bodyweight squats: 50 reps
Push-ups: 50 reps
Pull-ups: 10 reps
Planks: 3-minute hold

Once you’ve washed-up the well-constructed routine, you have my permission to whip out your phone and play the very game!

Home Workout #6: Train like Batman

We love the Caped Crusader here at Nerd Fitness, so naturally we have The Batman Bodyweight Workout for you to try!

Bonus points if you somehow do this no-equipment workout in a cave, as that’s how Bruce Wayne would roll.^[1]

This workout is separated into two days for you.

Here’s a video for the first day:

Batman No-Equipment Workout Day 1:

Rolling squat tuck-up jumps: 5 reps
Side to side push-ups: 5 reps
Modified headstand push-ups: 5 reps
Jump pull-up with tuck / Pull-up with Tuck-up: 5 reps
Handstands versus wall: 8 seconds

Here’s a video for the second day:

Batman No-Equipment Workout Day 2:

‘180 Degree’ jump turns: 5 reps
Tuck front lever hold: 8 seconds
Tuck when lever hold: 8 seconds
Low frog hold: 8 seconds

This is a relatively wide workout already, but if you want to progress to the next level, trammels out the main Batman Bodyweight Workout for tips on how to do just that.

Home Workout #7: The PLP Progression

The PLP is a progressive program in which you well-constructed one spare rep of three exercises – Pull-Ups, Lunges, and Push-Ups – every day, for two months.

NOTE: This is NOT a beginner program, and should not be attempted unless you have been training unceasingly and can do multiple repetitions of pull-ups and push-ups with unconfined form.

Like this perfect push-up:

And this perfect pull-up:

Here’s how the PLP Progression works:

Day 1:

Pull-ups: 10 reps
Push-ups: 10 reps
Lunges: 10 reps (each leg)

Day 2:

Pull-ups: 11 reps
Push-ups: 11 reps
Lunges: 11 reps (each leg)

Day 3:

Pull-ups: 12 reps
Push-ups: 12 reps
Lunges: 12 reps (each leg)

How long do you alimony doing this?

As originally envisioned by Chad Waterbury, the PLP Workout lasts 60 days.^[3]

Yeah…by the end of it you’ll be doing increasingly than 50 pull-ups.

There are two versions:

If you can do 10 straight pull-ups: Start day 1 with 10 reps of each.
If you cannot do 10 straight pull-ups: Start day 1 with 1 rep of each.

Complete your required reps each day in as many sets as you need, whenever you need to. The goal is to do it in as few sets as possible, but unbearable so that you can well-constructed each rep with proper form.

Want to learn more? Trammels out my results on the PLP Workout.

Home Workout #8: The Star Wars Workout!

Do you have wangle to a hallway that you can commandeer for a bit?

Then you can do our Star Wars Workout!

It’s designed to be washed-up in a very small space, like your home’s hallway…or an escape pod.

The “Padawan” Level of this workout is:

30-second knee or feet front plank (3 Sets)
10 assisted squats or squats (3 Sets)
10 doorway rows (3 Sets)
A 60-second Farmer-carry (Farmer’s Walk) dumbbells (or milk jugs) (2 sets)
March in place for 3 minutes of intervals (6 sets of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off)
8 elevated or knee push-ups (4 sets)
60-second Doorway Leans (2 sets)

If you want to whop to the Jedi Knight or Master Levels, trammels out The Star Wars Workout, which will moreover offer you a full unravelment of each move.

Bonus No-Equipment Workout: The Playground Circuit

Do you have a nearby playground? Why not work out there! If you have kids, you can do it together. Or let them ignore you.

I’ll requite you a Level One workout, and a Level Two. Trammels out The 20-Minute Playground Workout for some Level Three exercises.

Playground Workout Level One:

Alternating step-ups: 20 reps (10 each leg)
Elevated push-ups: 10 reps
Swing rows: 10 reps
Assisted lunges: 8 reps each leg
Bent leg reverse crunches: 10 reps

Playground Workout Level Two:

Bench jumps: 10 reps
Lower incline push-ups: 10 reps
Body rows: 10 reps
Lunges: 8 reps each leg
Straight leg reverse crunches: 10 reps

After you’ve gone through a well-constructed set three times, go lanugo the slide!

Can Home Workouts Build Muscle or Help With Weight Loss?

Throughout our Online Coaching Program, we get two worldwide questions for those wanting to train at home:

Can working out at home help me build muscle?
Can working out at home help me lose weight?

The wordplay to both of these: yep!

Let’s tackle them one by one.

#1) Can working out at home help me build muscle?

You can 100% build muscle mass at home.

Just ask out friend Jimmy here:

Read increasingly on how Jimmy turned into Spider-Man from home!

The trick is to follow a progressive overload strategy, as Mentor Jim outlines in this video:

With progressive overload, we want to make our workouts increasingly and increasingly challenging, thus putting spare strain on our muscles.

So to build muscle with home workouts, focus on:

Increasing your repetitions.
Decreasing your rest periods between exercises.
Performing increasingly difficult variations (knee push-ups to push-ups).
Increasing your time under tension (by going slower).

That will help you build strength and muscle from your casa.

Next up:

#2) Can working out at home help me lose weight?

You can totally train at home for a successful weight loss strategy.

Again, we have a unconfined example with one of our Online Coaching Clients, Sarah the Supermom:

The trick here is to couple your home workouts with adjustments to your nutrition.

We’re big believers that you can’t outrun your fork, so any successful weight loss plan will include a focus on towers a healthy plate.

That will squint something like this:

If you want some help on adjusting your nutrition, I’ve got two unconfined resources for you:

The Nerd Fitness Guide to Healthy Eating. This massive resource will help you slowly retread your nutrition, without forcing you to requite up the supplies you love (yes, you can still eat pizza here and there). No increasingly diets, instead we’ll work on towers habits together.
Nerd Fitness Coaching. If you want to take it to the next level, one of our trained professionals can help you retread your way of eating to help you reach your goals. No shame. No judgment. Just a like-minded nerd who will show you the way.

How to Build Your Own At-Home Workout

We just went over 8 workouts you can do at home (plus a workout you can do in a park).

You don’t have to stick to these though!

I have two resources to help you diamond your own no-equipment workout:

The 42 Weightier Bodyweight Exercises: This guide will teach you how to perform the weightier bodyweight exercises – no equipment required! Trammels it out if you are unfamiliar with any of the movements referenced in today’s guide.
How To Build Your Own Workout Routine: Once you’re well-appointed with a handful of bodyweight exercises, use this guide to pull them all together into a full-body workout!

That should get you going on towers a workout you can do in the repletion of your own home.

Want more? Alright, eager beaver, I got you.

We built THREE options for people just like you:

1) If you want step-by-step guidance, a custom workout program that levels up as you get stronger, and a mentor to alimony you accountable, trammels out our killer 1-on-1 coaching program:

2) If you want a daily prompt for doing workouts at home, trammels out NF Journey. Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise increasingly frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).

Try your self-ruling trial right here:

3) Join the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.

Sign up in the box unelevated to enlist and get our guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know. It’ll help you start incorporating these bodyweight moves into your training.

Alright, your turn: I’d love to hear how your home training is going!

Which workout whilom did you try? Did you make one of your own?

Leave a scuttlebutt unelevated with your results or any questions you have on working out at home.

For the Rebellion!

-Steve

PS: If you were going to buy one piece of equipment to utilize in your home, a kettlebell would offer you a lot of versatility:

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Photo Sources: Home Sweet Home 2, good dog, The minifigures of this series are really beautiful, it’s a rap, my friend:), Ekaterina Minaeva © 123RF.com, Hotel Room, af8images © 123RF.com, Tithi Luadthong © 123RF.com, Vintage House Bicycle,

The post The 8 Weightier At-Home Workout Routines: The Ultimate Guide for Training Without a Gym first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

The 8 Best At-Home Workout Routines: The Ultimate Guide for Training Without a Gym

At Home Warm-ups and stretching routines

Home Workout #1: Beginner Bodyweight