Exercise At Home Without Weights

Precautions

Make sure to warm up properly before each workout. Old injuries and the like can resurface and become a big issue if you're not careful. When in doubt, consult with your doctor before embarking on a new exercise schedule.

How to Exercise At Home Without Weights

Push-ups

The simple push-up is a staple of military training around the world for a simple reason: It works very well. Push-ups hit the chest, shoulder and tricep areas, building core strength and overall power.

Execution

Lie facedown. Keep your feet together and palms on the floor, but angle your arms slightly down towards your waist so your thumbs are about on the level of your lower pecs. Tense up your abs and keep your whole body straight while pushing yourself up and down to failure. For beginners, you can stand on your knees for less resistance.

Triangle Push-ups

Very similar to the regular push-up, except you put your hands together for more emphasis on the tricep area.

Execution

Same as above, except you put the tips of your thumbs and index fingers together on the floor. You should see a clear triangle between your hands. That triangle should just about touch the dead center of your chest as you exercise.

Dips

Dips is another simple but extremely effective exercise for hitting the chest, tricep and shoulder areas. Find two sturdy chairs (same height) and set them back to back so you can comfortably fit between them.

Execution

Grasp the backs of the chairs, then hoist yourself up so you can bend your knees and thus have your bodyweight on your hands. Bend your elbows and slowly descend until your upper arms are about parallel to the floor, then make a smooth turn and push back up. You can bend forward a little, but be careful not to overstretch the shoulder joint in the bottom position.

Pull-ups

For overall back development, few exercises can compete with the classic pull-up. There's a reason people regularly do them even at state-of-the-art gyms packed with the latest whiz-bang back machines.

Execution

Find something that will support your weight like a beam in the attic, a tree branch, or anything else that allows you to hang and pull yourself up. Make sure to get a good stretch at the bottom. Purposefully squeeze your scapulas together as you ascend, and don’t forget to resist on the way down. Alternate wide grip with thumbs away from you with close grip and thumbs facing you to hit different parts of the back. As a bonus, the latter position hits the biceps too.

Lunges

Lunges work the entire hip and leg area, building core strength and giving your metabolism a jolt. It also helps overall balance, as the exercise involves all the important stabilizer muscles.

Execution

Keeping your upper body erect and your head held high, take a big step forward. Let the rear knee sink until it almost touches the floor, then make a smooth turn and push back up to standing. Either alternate legs as you go or do 10-15 reps with one leg and then switch.

One-legged Squats

This exercise is similar to the lunge, except you put more emphasis on the quadriceps (front thigh). Remember, when you exercise at home without weights, it's the small variations on similar exercises that make all the difference in providing a well-rounded workout.

Execution

Stand straight and hold on to a chair or simply put your palm against a wall; the important thing is to stay balanced without "helping" too much. Bend one knee so the shin is parallel to the floor, then slowly descend bending the other knee until the first knee almost touches the floor. Push with your heel as you ascend.

Abdominal Crunches

The abdominal crunch is a common workout finisher, and we'll do the same here. Not only is the benefit cosmetic (sixpack abs are nice), but it's also an important factor in preventing back problems.

Execution

Lie down on the floor with your knees bent at a 90 degree angle and your hips at a 45 degree angle. Either cross your arms over your chest or put your hands behind your neck (not back of head). Press your heels down and back as you crunch up, pressing your lower back into the floor. The idea is to decrease the distance between your ribcage and your pelvis, which is a fairly short movement. Once you've accomplished that goal, you're not hitting abs anymore so there's no real need to go beyond lifting your shoulders a couple inches off the floor.