Six Tips for Getting Stronger Without Leaving the House

You don’t need a gym, a personal trainer, or even weights to get a great workout. Your body is its own best piece of exercise equipment. Depending on the many ways that you can position your body, you can challenge different muscle groups—your chest with pushups, your legs with squats, and your core with planks just to name a few.

Below is a list of sxeffective bodyweight exercises. Many of these exercises challenge different muscle groups at the same time. The more muscle you build, the more you elevate your metabolism and torch fat.

1) Pushups- The pushup is one of the most basic, yet perhaps the best bodyweight exercise around. The pushup trains muscles in your chest, triceps, abs, lower back and glutes. The critical piece of performing a pushup is to keep you core nice and tight and to keep your lower body rigid so that you are concentrating all energy in your arms and chest. If you struggle to do a regular pushup, try doing pushups with your knees on the ground. If this is still too tough, start with doing push-offs against a wall.

2) Squats- The muscles in your lower body are huge, which means that they burn a lot of calories when you exercise them. The squat may be the most effective exercise for burning calories because it works you quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes all at once. To do a squat, start in a standing position and separate your legs to hip width. Sit back at your hips and bend your knees (it helps to pretend you are sitting down in a chair.) Go as low as possible without losing the natural arch in your spine. Push yourself back up to the starting position by pushing through the heels; you should be able to slide a pencil under your toes.

3) Plank- The plank builds a rock solid core by forcing you to stabilize your entire body. To perform the plank, lie on your belly and raise your upper body up onto your forearms. Then raise the lower half of your body off the floor so that only your toes and forearms are touching the ground. Be sure to keep your body flat like a plank; make sure your bottom doesn’t sag or stick up. See how long you can hold the position.

4) Stick Up- Although it may look simple, this is a tough back exercise. Stand with your back against the wall and your feet six inches away from the wall. Stand with your arms over your head and keep your wrists, shoulders, and elbows against the wall. Slide down the wall while, tucking your elbows into your sides.

5) Lunges- The lunge is a unilateral leg exercise, which means that you perform it on one leg. Doing an exercise on one leg brings in the element of stability, which forces you to use your hips and core. To execute the lunge, in one fluid motion bring one leg forward, step with your heel first and bend the knee to 90 degrees. Continue this same motion until the back knee is nearly touching the ground. Your feet should be in one straight line to your knee and perpendicular to the floor in order to avoid pressure on the knee joint. Alternate to build up strength in both legs.

6) Calf Raises- Standing on a solid surface push yourself up onto your toes so your heels are off the ground. Do as many repetitions as it takes for you to feel the burn all the way up the back of your legs.

If you are looking to do a total body workout, these six exercises are a great way to start. One great way to do this bodyweight workout is to combine all of these exercises in a circuit. In a circuit, you do all of the exercises back to back with minimal rest in between. So rather than doing a set of pushups, and then resting before doing two more sets and then moving onto the next exercise, try doing one set of pushups, then immediately doing the squats, followed by the plank, and so forth. Once you get all the way through the list and finish the sixth exercise, you will have completed one full circuit. Try to do 2-3 full circuits for your workout. Not only will you build strength with these exercises, the circuit format will challenge your endurance and improve your cardiovascular health. Your muscles will burn and your heart will pump—a strength training and endurance workout wrapped into one.