My favorite no equipment exercise – free and easy to start!

No equipment is needed to start an fitness program. You don’t have to have a home gym. If you start a home gym, that does not have to cost much either. The best way to start is to plan out what exercise you are going to do and set up a scheduled time that you will commit to for doing this. If you don’t know what you will like, have a plan B one in mind.

The fastest way to get into shape and lose weight is to do both muscle building and cardio. All exercise is beneficial, so just take this in small steps. You will reach your goals if you stay at it and are consistent. You should be doing exercise a minimum of 3 times per week.

Do what you can and progress – no equipment required

If you don’t feel like you can do cardio… focus on muscle-building exercises. As you get stronger and capable of doing more, you can improve what you are doing. Start where you are and build up to being able to do more. Strive for 20 minutes when you do cardio, but do as long as you can. Maybe with consistent working out, you can do more.

Bodyweight exercise

Make it FUN!

FIND WHAT YOU ENJOY DOING! When you look forward to it, when it makes you feel great… it is easy to stick with and make a part of your healthy lifestyle. Try different exercises out. Joining a gym early on gave me the opportunity to build my workouts. I was able to try out a wide range of equipment and types of exercise.

Again, this does not have to be expensive. Maybe you have a community rec center that is an inexpensive option. I now have a feel for what equipment I love and don’t like. I know what types of exercises I enjoy and work well for me. You can find this out without a gym membership too!

Body weight exercise

Use the equipment at your local playground. Chairs are good for Dips. Structures like attic or basement rafters can be good for Chin-ups/Pull-ups. I do not have a workout bench, I prefer to use an exercise ball that engages more muscles for balance when doing crunches and weight-lifting too. These are not free, but cost very little.

Muscle building work needs to have a day of recovery. You can do the same ones every other day if you like. Another option can be alternating the type of workout so that you can keep going through the week.  Upper body work can be one day, then lower body can be the next one for instance.

These are GREAT body weight ones

Planks (many variations)

Push-ups (many variations)

Dips/Reverse dips

Lunges/Squats (many variations)

Chin-ups/Pull-ups

Hanging leg-lifts (these are so GREAT for core!)

Crunches (many variations)

Standing leg lifts (these are ones that Cindy Crawford loves to do)

Cardio

Cardio gives benefits for you if you can raise your heart rate for 20 minutes minimum. You can use a piece of rope, a platform to step on, or stair steps for some of these.

Marching in place

Jumping rope

Stepper block

Dance aerobics

Long walks (preferrably brisk ones)

Weight-lifting

No cost required… use cans, jugs full of water that have handles, create some out of cement and pipe… lack of dumbbells does not have to be a problem. You have the option of doing small weight for many reps or heavy weights for a small number of reps. This works different muscles. I feel both types of weight-lifting are valuable.

Lift small weight amounts and increase this amount as you can. If you feel you don’t want to be lifting large amounts of weight, then mix up the type of weight lifting by using different weight and repetition combinations.

Arm moves

Arm circle workouts

All the weight-lifting moves can also be done without weights (might be a good beginning)

Glute (gluteus maximus or buttock muscles) moves

Squeezes

Bridges

Not favorites, but also great and very worthwhile…

Burpees

Jumping Jacks

Wall sits

V sits

Are there equipment items that you would love?

There are some equipment ideas that you probably would know if they would be ones that you would really enjoy…. Maybe you can find equipment that has lost out after the New Year’ resolution passed for a lot of people, at a second-hand store or flea market. You can look for the ones that you know you would like…

Here are the cheap equipment items I MOST appreciate

Exercise ball

Step aerobic block (this can be a platform of appropriate height or some stair steps)

Dumbbells

If you want to look at information about home gym equipment that is worthwhile, I have an article about that…

I appreciate the exercise equipment that has the ability to give you many exercise possibilities, is very effective, easily affordable, and easy to store. You can also have a home gym without spending much money. Maybe you would like to get an idea of the possibilities…