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Mar22Home Workout Guide: Bodyweight Strength Training

Does self-quarantining from Covid-19 got you down? Trying to stay home to survive the apocalypse? Or maybe you’d rather get a quick workout in from the comfort of your own home; in either case, working out from home doesn’t have to be a bore or that hard to do. In fact, you don’t really need any equipment (although I do recommend some cheap investments to make training from home a more worthwhile experience). In this post, we will go over body weight training – aka calisthenics – that you can perform in the comfort of your own home.

 

Most people equate bodyweight training to light endurance exercises, but you can make it so that it provides a good strength training stimulus as well! We’ll give some examples of exercises below, with variations to make it easier or harder.

 

Lower Body

1. Rear foot elevated split squat (aka Bulgarian split squat) 

Place one foot on the bench, and the other foot straight out in front. From a standing position, lunge straight slowly downward until your knee almost or lightly grazes the floor, then push through the foot and back to a tall position. To make it harder you can do pulsing reps, or add a jump. There are plenty of different variations to choose from for varying degrees of difficulty.

 

      2. Pistol Squat to a box

Pistol squats are a great exercise for the lower body. They are generally a more advanced move, but you can adjust the difficulty by performing them from a seated position (the lower the seat the harder it is, the higher the seat the easier it is). This is a great exercise to work up to!

 

      3. Hamstring curl on sliders

This exercise does require some minimal equipment, but nothing fancy; all you need is a pair of furniture sliders or a small towel, and a slick surface like hardwood floors or tile.

 

Check out all three exercises listed above right here, in the same order:

 

4. Hip Thrust/Shoulder Elevated Glute Bridge

Placing your upper back onto a stable cushioned surface (like a sofa), put your feet flat on the floor with a vertical shin angle. From there, push through your heels until your hips are level with your shoulders, and squeeze the glutes hard while tensing your abs. Adding a pause on each rep or a long pause on the last rep can make it more challenging. To make it harder simply do a single leg hip thrust.Same motion as the regular hip thrust, but this time with only one leg. Keep the leg centered, and push through the heel upward. You can also add a pause at the top for 5-10 seconds on the last or each rep.

 

Upper Body

1. Body weight row

 Here is a pulling exercise you can do with any old table! Just make sure the surface is sturdy, last thing we need is a table falling apart on top of you. You can also add weight by placing a dumbbell on your stomach, or use a backpack full of books for extra resistance.

 

 

2. YTW’s on Floor

 Start by laying on the floor, face down. Raise the arms straight above like the letter Y, then a T, and then a W, all while keeping the arms off the floor. Hold each position for 3-5 seconds. That is 1 rep! I’ll list how many you should do below.

 

3. Full Push-up

 This movement may be undervalued by some, but it still ranks as a staple movement for pressing. You can make the push-up easier or harder in two ways: to make it easier, do knee push-ups or push-ups on the wall or a chair. To make them harder, focus on slowing down the movement, and add pulsing reps.

 

4. Shoulder Push-up

 This movement is similar to a push-up, but gets the shoulders more involved like in a traditional shoulder press. To perform it, start in the position in the bottom half of the picture below. Lower your head to the floor, and once it touches, press the arms through the floor back to the starting position.

 

5. Isometric Lateral Raise

 Standing in-between a doorway, stand tall with shoulders down and back. raise the arms until the back of the hands touch the door frame, and continue to press the arms upward against the frame like you’re trying to break out of it.  After that, perform 10-12 reps of bodyweight lateral raises, with a good focus on the contraction.

 

Bonus: Add weight were you can

 Some of these exercises simply not challenging enough? Add weight to a backpack by filling it with books, canned goods, or water bottles. Now you have some extra weight that can be added to things like split squats, hip thrusts, rows, etc. Get creative!

 

To Wrap It All Up

 There we have it! Some basic, easy to perform body weight movements you can do at home and practically anywhere else. And remember, don’t let the absence of the gym keep you away from your fitness goals!