By Marnie Kunz, NASM-certified trainer, USATF-, RRCA-certified running coach

If you’d like to do home workouts without equipment, this guide will help you figure out what to do. There are many bodyweight exercises that can help you get stronger, burn calories, and improve your fitness level. The key is knowing which exercises to do. As a trainer, I enjoy designing workout routines to help people meet their fitness goals, and home workouts are a great option for many people. Doing these home workouts without equipment can help you improve your fitness even if you are pressed for time, traveling, or have no access to a gym.

What Are the Options for Home Workouts Without Equipment?

First, let’s go over the basics of home workouts. There are two general types of exercise you can do at home - cardio workouts or strength training. Once you know more about each, you can decide what types of workouts are best for you and your fitness goals.

Related Post: 10 Best Exercises You Can Do at Home

Home Cardio Workouts

There are exercises you can do at home that are cardiovascular in nature - also called aerobic exercise. Cardio exercise raises your heart rate with rhythmic movement and has a host of benefits from burning fat to improving heart health and reducing chronic diseases. Cardio exercises include walking, running, cycling, swimming, and dancing, among other exercises.

When it comes to home workouts without equipment, cardio workouts include exercises such as walking or running in place, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, burpees, squat jumps, push-ups, stair climbing, and butt kicks. Cardio workouts burn calories and help with losing or maintaining weight.

High-intensity interval training includes intense bursts of cardio exercise like running or jumping. Check out our Running HIIT Workout Guide for running-based HIIT workouts you can do to step up your fitness using your own body weight and running exercises.

Here are a few of the benefits of cardio workouts:

Increases stamina
Improves heart strength
Reduces your risk of chronic diseases and conditions
Burns calories and helps with weight management
Boosts mood

Strength Training Workouts

Strength training - often called resistance training - involves exercises that make the muscles work against a weight or force, thereby getting stronger. For home workouts without equipment, strength training exercises involve bodyweight exercises and those you can do with ordinary furniture like a chair or bench. Some examples of bodyweight strength training exercises include lower body exercises like squats, lunges, and step-ups, and core and upper body exercises like push-ups, planks, dips, pull-ups, and burpees.

Benefits of Cardio Workouts

Cardio workouts help strengthen different muscle groups, including your heart. Here are a few of the benefits of cardio workouts:

Increases stamina
Improves heart strength
Reduces your risk of chronic diseases and conditions
Burns calories and helps with weight management
Boosts mood
Improves your mobility so you can move more easily and with less risk of injury

As you can see, there are many benefits of both cardio and strength workouts and doing a combination of both for a full-body workout is best for your overall health. You may have noticed that some exercises are categorized as cardio and strength training. Some exercises have cardio and strength benefits (such as HIIT workouts). As a trainer, I recommend these exercises and a combination of strength and cardio for the most effective home workouts without equipment.

Related Post: How To Do Circuits Workouts

Beginners Home Workout Sample Program - No Equipment

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Keep in mind you can also adapt your home workout program to suit your needs. You can focus solely on strength exercises, for instance, if you already do cardio on your own such as walking, running, or cycling.

Benefits of Home Workouts

In addition to fitness benefits, a home workout program also offers advantages that include:

Easily accessible. You can do these workouts anywhere, whether you are at home or traveling in a hotel room.
Privacy. No getting gawked at or fighting for a turn on a piece of equipment at the gym.
Convenience. If you have long work hours or are a stay-at-home parent (or your dog keeps you busy like mine!), you can still get in your workouts. You can even break up your workouts if you need to and do a few exercises at a time throughout the day.

Getting Started with a Home Workout Program

If you are just getting started with a home workout program, check with your doctor to get cleared for exercise and make sure you avoid any activities that could worsen any injuries or health conditions you may have. See my tips for setting up your home gym for ideas to create an efficient home workout space.

When you begin an exercise program, ease into it slowly, and build up your fitness gradually. This will help you prevent injuries and burnout from doing too much too fast. According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine, you should increase your duration, intensity, or weight (if using weights) amount by no more than 10 percent week to week to make fitness progress without overloading. So if you do three 20-minute workouts in a week, for instance, you can add 10 percent to do 22-minute workouts the next week. Keep this principle in mind as you build your home workout program.

Sample Home Workout- No Equipment Needed

Here is a sample program of home workouts without equipment for beginners. As you advance, or if you are already at an intermediate level, you can add intensity by using dumbbells for some of the strength training exercises or add more time to the cardio segments.

Note this is a sample program and will give you ideas for getting started. I recommend doing stretches after each workout. For a customized training program, check out my virtual personal training. I will assess your fitness level and goals and create a full workout program with custom training.

Here is the beginners’ workout program:

Day 1

Warm-up cardio: Jumping jacks, push-ups, mountain climbers. Do 30 seconds for each exercise and 3 sets.
Strength training: Squats, lunges, side lunges. Do 3 sets of 10 for each exercise.

Day 2

Warm-up cardio: Walk in place, jumping jacks. Do 30 seconds and 3 sets.
Strength: Planks for 30 seconds. Side planks for 20 seconds on each side. Do 3 sets of each.

Day 3

Warm-up cardio: Mountain climbers for 30 seconds. 3 sets.
Strength: Seated dips, push-ups, squats, side lunges. Do 3 sets of 10 reps for each exercise.

Day 4

Warm-up cardio: Walk in place, jumping jacks. Do 30 seconds and 3 sets.
Strength: Planks for 30 seconds. Side planks for 20 seconds on each side. Do 3 sets of each.

Day 5

Warm-up cardio: Jumping jacks, push-ups, mountain climbers. Do 30 seconds for each exercise and 3 sets.
Strength training: Squats, lunges, side lunges. Do 3 sets of 10 for each exercise.

Exercise Descriptions

Push-Ups:

Begin by lying on your stomach on a gym mat or other flat surface. With your toes resting on the ground and your body in a straight line, push up to straighten your elbows. Keep your core muscles tight and imagine a line running from your head down past your hips to your heels. Don't let your hips fall or rise above the rest of your body. Your spine should be in a neutral position with your head looking down but not straining at the neck.

Modified Pushups:

If it's too hard to maintain good form with regular pushups, do these modified ones to build up your strength. Bend your knees slightly and allow your knees and lower legs to rest on the ground while tightening your abs and keeping your body in a straight line from your heels to your head. Begin by lying on the floor on your stomach and then from the starting position, push up, straightening your arms. Keep your right hand and left hand planted on the ground and your knees on the ground. Push up to straighten your arms and then lower your body back toward the ground to complete the push-up. Repeat.

Mountain Climbers:

Begin from a plank position with your core engaged and your arms straight and hands and feet planted on the floor. Bend your left knee, bringing your left leg up toward your chest, keeping your core tight. Then bring your left foot back to the ground as you bend yoru right knee and bring your right leg in toward your chest. Return your right foot to the ground and then alternate your legs

Check out my article on How to Do a Straight Arm Plank and How to Do Lunges for tips on those exercises.

Let me know if you try these workouts. Follow and tag me on the @Runstreet Instagram to share your workouts and get cheered on. Happy sweating to you!😊

Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified personal trainer and USATF- and RRCA-certified running coach based in Brooklyn, NY. Marnie likes helping people get and stay active to enjoy a better quality of life. When she’s not doing fitness things, Marnie enjoys exploring with her dog, a mischievous rescue Akita.

How to Do Home Workouts Without Equipment Plus Sample Program