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By James Cousins, CIMSPA Gym Instructor Practitioner

In this post, we will talk about some fitness exercises you can do at home.

Home workout has many benefits. You can do it any time, without commuting, you get to play your music, and don't have other people around asking you how many sets you have left. 

And even if you have a gym membership, working out at home can be a great way to sneak in an extra workout when you don't have time to go to the gym, which will help you stay fit.

This article will tell you more about strength training at home, giving you some options that require little to no equipment. Let's dig in a bit deeper!

Bodyweight Training

Calisthenics are more popular than they ever were, and there's no better place to do bodyweight exercises than at home. Bodyweight workout is a safe way to exercise, and a very effective one too, if you know how to do it.

While it doesn't require any equipment, it is good to have a pullup bar. Not only that it will help you with chinups and pullups, you can use it for inverted rows, but also hanging leg raises and similar lower ab exercises.

So pullups, chinups, pushups, squats, lunges, split squats, squat jumps, situps, crunches, planks, side planks, inverted rows, hanging leg raises, inverted shoulder press, those are some options when it comes to body weight strength training. You can even put in some old school exercises like jumping jacks and burpees to create cardio workouts you can do in your living room.

All of the exercises from above have many variations, and you should use them in your training. Take pushups, for example. You can do that movement in at least fifty different ways by changing the incline, or your hand position. The same goes for squats and lunges. With home bodyweight training, it is all about switching things up, giving your muscles new stimuli.

A Quick Bodyweight Workout

Here's a sample workout that requires no equipment, if you don't feel like experimenting:

* 20 pushups

* 50 squats

* 50 situps

* 20 split squats

Do these exercises without breaks in between, and perform the cycle again 2-3 times.

Dumbbell Training

While you can have great workouts just with your own body, every house needs a pair of adjustable dumbbells. The amount of exercises you can do with just a pair of dumbbells is astounding, and you can literally hit every single muscle in your body with no other equipment but dumbbells. They are by far the most flexible piece of fitness equipment money can buy. Best of all, they are very cheap, and last a lifetime, so don't hesitate to buy a used pair.

Dumbbells will allow you to target muscles that are hard to hit without weights, such as side deltoids for example. It will also give you the opportunity to perform deadlifts and similar hip hinge movements. Plus,  dumbbells allow you to train unilaterally, which will fix some imbalances. And if you want developed shoulders and arms, you will need a pair of dumbbells.

Dumbbell Exercises For Each Muscle Group

Here are some exercises you can do with dumbbells:

* Chest - floor press, dumbbell flys

* Back - dumbbell rows

* Biceps - standing biceps curl, hammer curl

* Triceps - lying triceps extension, kickback, overhead triceps extension

* Shoulders - front/latera/rear lateral raise, shoulder press

* Quads - dumbbell lunge, split squat, squat variations

* Hamstrings - dumbbell Romanian deadlift, good mornings

* Calves - standing calf raise

* Abs - weighted situp (hold a dumbbell across your chest)

Mix And Match, Continue Improving

Everyone, you don't need to choose clans, and only do bodyweight, or only train with weights, use both to your advantage.

Combine pullup, pushup and squat variations with dumbbell isolation exercises to create a balanced physique. Make training fun, and it will become addictive, in a good way.

And think about progressive overload. In short, that is getting better through time. In gyms, you achieve that by adding more weight. But, in home conditions, that is harder to do, especially if you only have a pair of dumbbells.

One approach is to increase the total volume or the number of sets and reps you do. The other option is to increase the frequency or the number of days you train. But even a better idea is to use variety and to introduce timed workouts, and supersets.

So if pushups become too easy, don't do them in straight sets with rest in between. Create a mini chest workout involving different pushup variations, doing each for 30 seconds. That will be so much more challenging than doing five sets of twenty pushups you always do.

The same goes for any other movement. Doing timed sets will make it challenging, as you don't have time to rest between sets. And it works for any fitness level—beginners will do fewer reps than advanced lifters, which will make the workout equally challenging for everyone, no matter what the start position is.

Conclusion

As we said in the introduction, home workouts are a great way to lose weight and build muscles even if you have a gym membership. By having basic equipment like dumbbells and a pullup bar, you simply know you won't have excuses to skip workouts even if it's pouring rain outside.

But, as you can see, home workouts are a great option on their own. As long as you are dedicated and creative, you can build a great looking, healthy body with minimal equipment and in-home conditions.

James Cousins is a CIMSPA Gym Instructor Practitioner with over 10 years of fitness training experience. He owns and manages www.SmartFitnessResults.com. Together with experts in the fitness world, they provide valuable information to help their readers improve their fitness and diet programs