Considering the times that we are going through, I can’t help but think about how to stay healthy. I wanted to put together one of the best full body at home workouts that can be done quickly, without the need for equipment and get you feeling a little like your old self again.
A number of my friends have been asking for ideas that they can use at home to stay in shape or just get started with exercising since they find themselves with time on their hands and nowhere to go at the moment.
So I thought about workouts that I used to get started when I was getting back into shape.
I also considered easy to do exercises that people who can’t get to the gym can do at home without the need for lots of space or even any equipment.
So this routine, which has served me well, can be done using just your own bodyweight and is great for strength training and maintaining your cardiovascular fitness.
Basically, I’ve put together a variety of exercises that are great for beginners to physical fitness and can be adapted for those more experienced, looking to keep their regular workouts going when they are at home.
Here it is. A great routine to get in shape if you’ve never been in shape before. Also, for those more familiar with exercise, a way to get moving again.
So there you are. Sitting in your home. All ready to start getting healthy and you’re wondering what you should do first. What should you include in one of your full body at home workouts?
Should you jump as high as you can? Start doing wind sprints up and down your hallway at full tilt? Maybe even try lifting your couch over your head a few times to see how strong you may be?
I wouldn’t recommend any of those things. Well not now anyway.
Despite the fact that you may be a bit stir crazy sitting at home or just anxious to get started on getting in shape, you don’t want to skip a couple simple things before you get going.
Warming up before you exercise is critical. You’ve probably seen basketball players out on the court before a game shooting hoops and gently running around.
They’re doing that because they’re warming up. If you don’t watch basketball, don’t worry about it. I’m sure you get the message.
But you should watch basketball sometime. It’s amazing.
Warming up is critical for preparing your body for physical activity. It will help reduce muscle soreness and reduce the risk of injury.
I find warming up great for getting the blood pumping and loosening up my joints so the movements become easier and more fluid.
A great warm up exercise that should be included with one of the best full body at home workouts for beginners is the ever faithful high knees.
This movement is highly effective, great for strength training and cardiovascular fitness and best of all… easy to do.
You don’t even need much space!
Here’s how you do it:
Start by standing up. Feet together with a little space in between. Relax your arms at your sides.
Easy so far right?
Now imagine you’re going to walk in place. But instead of just lifting your foot up a little bit, lift your knee up high enough so that your thigh is parallel with the ground.
You can allow your arms to swing by your sides as you would walking normally, you can leave them hanging or you can place your hands palms down in front of you as a target for your knees to make sure they go up the same distance with each repetition.
Try doing it standing in place or allow yourself to walk forward throughout the movement. It’s up to you.
Sometimes when I’m warming up with high knees I’ll go in different directions. Forward, backward and side to side. Give it a try and see how it feels.
That’s all there is to it. You can increase the speed of the high knees and the repetitions depending upon how brisk you’d like your warm up to be.
Keep in mind you’re doing the movement as a warm up right now. You don’t want to get fatigued. You’re aiming to get limber and ready for your workout.
It should also feel pretty good.
Here’s a great demonstration of the high knees movement as a warm up from Andree Hafley.
A couple quick notes to keep in mind. Make sure when you start to do it faster that you are keeping your weight forward. This will prevent undo pressure on your back.
Also as an added bonus to get you warm, pump your arms while keeping them at a comfortable angle.
After trying high knees, I’m sure you’ll make them part of your regular warm up.
This movement is without question one of my favorites. It pretty much has everything.
In my experience, the burpee is great for strength training, endurance, cardio fitness, balance and whole bunch of other things. When done correctly and with minor variations, it can be a workout onto itself.
I also happen to believe it’s awesome for your warm up because it gets the blood and lungs pumping while pulling the whole body into the exercise.
Here’s how you do it:
Start by standing upright, your feet about shoulder width apart and your knees slightly bent.
Squat down and forward allowing your hands to come down flat in front of you lined up with your knees.
From this position, kick your feet back into the squat position so that they are flat on the floor as you prepare to lift your hands up.
As you lift your hands up, explode upwards with your legs so that you jump off the ground, raising your hands above your head.
Then repeat.
That my friend is the legendary burpee. Try and do 5 to 10 repetitions.
There is one variation that I like to do. Try it when you get more comfortable with the movement.
When you are holding your body up and your legs are straight out behind you, before tucking them back into the squat, do one push up.
If you don’t have the upper body strength yet to do the push up, don’t worry about it. Stick with the standard burpee and you’ll build that upper body strength soon enough.
Here is one of my favorite demonstrations of how to do the burpee by Kelsey Lee for XHIT Daily.
As I’m sure you noticed, Kelsey likes to include the push up as part of the movement.
Remember if you’re just starting out, you can skip the push up. Again, we’re just using the burpee here as part of your warm up. You don’t want to get fatigued.
As you get stronger and better at this move, you can start adding the push up and include the burpee as part of your workout by increasing speed and repetitions. Enjoy!
The last movement I’m going to suggest that should be part of one of the best full body workouts for beginners is the jumping jack.
I really enjoy this movement because it’s simple and really incorporates the whole body for an incredible full body warm up.
This exercise when done correctly will really get you warm and does a great job of engaging your shoulders, hips, glutes and a few other muscles along the way.
Here’s how you do it:
Start by standing up straight, shoulders back, arms comfortable at your sides, knees slightly bent and feet about shoulder width apart.
As you jump, keep your arms straight as you lift them out to the sides and up over your head.
Also as you are jumping, allow your feet to go a few inches wider apart.
This is so that as you come back down on the ground, your feet should land in the wider stance and your arms should be up over your head.
Then, jump up again allowing your arms and legs to return to the original starting position as your feet land back on the ground. That is one complete jumping jack.
Throughout the movement you should be engaging your shoulders, core and glutes so as to maintain good body position all the way through the exercise.
Here is a terrific demonstration of the jumping jack by Rachel Buschert Vaziralli for the good people at Howcast.
A couple quick things about the video.
First of all, the jumping jack is great for women and men, don’t be thrown by the description.
Also, if you find the full jumping jack a little too difficult out of the gate, take a shot at the easier variation that Rachel suggests.
Remember, you’re just doing this to get warmed up. Try and do 5 to 10 for starters.
If you try them and still feel cold. Go through all three again for another round and add another 5 repetitions to each.
Another great way to get warmed up if you’re a little more experienced with fitness is setting a timer for each of these movements.
Try setting a timer for 30 seconds and do as many reps of each exercise as you can. That’s how I like to warm up. I usually do a few rounds of each and it really gets me limber for my workout.
So now you should be plenty warmed up and ready to go!
I don’t think it can be considered one of the best full body at home workouts for beginners without including …
I attribute most of my developing upper body strength and endurance over the years to working with the push up.
It is great for your arms, shoulders, chest, core and back. It is a simple movement that when done correctly will really help you build upper body stamina, strength and overall muscle development.
The push up is a great indicator of your current strength and muscular endurance and is an amazing tool to help you improve.
This movement will help you with developing the power that you will need as you get more advanced and start focusing on other upper body muscle groups.
For now, as part of this beginner workout, it will give you plenty of what you need to develop your upper body.
I still use many variations of it today in my workouts. I enjoy it (as much as you can enjoy exercising) and I hope you will make it part of your regular routine.
Here’s how you do it:
Lie down on the ground, face down, legs together with your hands palms down next to your shoulders.
From this position, push up so that your arms nearly straighten out and you are supporting your weight on your palms and toes.
From this upright position allow your body to come down all together, maintaining the straight line, with your elbows out a little from your sides.
Try and press up gradually. Also, bring yourself down slowly, resisting the urge to let gravity do all the work.
Once you press up and come back down, consider that a single repetition.
I like to perform the push up gradually in both directions to get the most out of the movement so that the muscles being used are engaged the entire time.
By the way, you’ll want to keep your core tight as well because you’re doing a little work there also.
Try and keep your shoulders back and down during this exercise, this will help you squeeze your scapula together and really concentrate on the chest.
By altering your hand positions you can change the angle you are working on your chest and change the muscles being worked as well.
For now, focus on the standard position and maintaining good form. This will pay huge dividends in building upper body strength and help with other exercises as well.
From the same starting point, instead of going up on your toes, press up on your knees, so that your knees and hands are bearing the weight.
You should find that a little easier since your upper body will not be in play the same as the standard position.
Work on this technique until it is coming easy to you and return to the standard position.
Another alternative is placing your hands on a bench, having them elevated above the ground, with the rest of your body lined up the same way.
This should make the move a little easier. It targets the chest on a different angle and keeps the core engaged. Using your knees removes your core from the movement.
Here’s a great demonstration by Anna Renderer for Popsugar fitness of how to complete a proper push up.
That’s a great demo and it gives you a thorough explanation of all the muscles at work.
Remember, if you’re still building your upper body strength do one of the easier modified versions first. Don’t worry, you’ll be doing the standard version in no time.
Try and do 5 to 10 repetitions to get started. Don’t rush. Developing good form and technique now will make all the difference down the road.
Now that you’ve got a great exercise to begin developing upper body strength, here’s one to get started on your lower body.
This is definitely one of the more classic exercises that will help to strengthen and tone your lower body.
I will often incorporate a variation of it into my warm ups and it is always a part of my leg day workout.
If you’ve never worked out your legs before, besides walking to get where you needed to go, you’re going to feel this one.
This is another movement where you will want to take your time and focus on getting the technique down so that you get the most out of it.
Here’s how it is done:
Start by standing straight up with your feet slightly more than shoulder width apart.
Allow your arms to hang loose by your side.
Now gradually begin to squat down as if you were sitting into a chair. You can bend your arms at the elbow allowing your hands to come up but keep your elbows down and in front of you.
While you are squatting down you want to keep your head up and your chest out. This will help you keep your back straight and maintain good form throughout the squat.
This exercise really targets your quadriceps and hamstrings. Those are the large muscles on the front and back of your thighs.
It also works your glutes. AKA your butt.
If you want to alter the movement slightly to get all of your lower leg involved, once you return to the standing position, continue to press up through the balls of your feet until you are up on your toes. Then slowly lower yourself back down until you’re flat on your feet.
With this small variation you’ve just incorporated your calves into the move and are working the whole leg.
Try and repeat the full movement 10 times.
Here’s my favorite demonstration of the proper way to do the squat with Anna Renderer again and the good folks over at Popsugar Fitness.
So many great tips in there!
If this is a movement that you find difficult out of the gate, don’t worry.
Try doing it where you are actually squatting down into a chair. Then simply stand back up, keeping good body position and technique in mind.
Do this easier variation until you find you’ve built up the strength and balance to do it without the chair. Stick with it and it won’t be long.
So now that you’ve got a great exercise to get started on your upper body and you’ve got another one that takes care of your legs, lets round out this routine with an amazing exercise for your core.
The great thing I learned about working out your abs a while ago is that all those “old school” ideas about doing a million sit ups really don’t do much for you.
You don’t have to knock yourself out doing full sit ups because your abdominal muscles really only benefit from a short range of motion.
Trust me, this is good news for your full body at home workouts.
So instead of the sit up, along came the crunch. It’s great.
It’s an incredible tool you can use to strengthen your core which is vital for a wide variety of physical activity and helps to prevent muscle injuries and lower back pain.
Lie down flat on your back with your knees bent up so that your feet are flat on the ground. Keep you legs together.
Point your arms straight up in the air so they are reaching straight up towards the ceiling or sky depending on where you are.
Inhale as you lower yourself back down to the ground and exhale each time you sit up.
You should really be feeling this movement in your core.
Remember, you only have to lift your upper body up enough to get your shoulder blades off the ground and you want to keep your arms straight up to the sky the whole time.
Consider each time you go up and down as a single repetition. Try and do 5-10 for starters. This is a great addition for full body at home workouts for beginners.
Here’s a good demonstration of how to do the straight arm crunch from the folks over at Fitastic.
That’s all there is to it. This simple move will deliver great benefits. It will strengthen your core and help you out will all kinds of other activities.
If you’ve never worked on your abdominal muscles before you should really be feeling these.
In the event that you are one of those rare people who can do these forever and just don’t feel anything, try holding some kind of weight while you’re doing them.
That will make it a little more of an advanced movement and I’m sure you’ll be feeling it after that.
The Warm Up:
High Knees 10 Repetitions Each Leg
Burpees 5-10 Repetitions
Jumping Jacks 5 -10 Repetitions
Repeat the full sequence of movements 2-3 times or until you are warmed up
The Work Out:
The Push Up 5 – 10 Repetitions
The Squat 10 Repetitions
The Arms Up Crunch 5 – 10 Repetitions
Repeat the full sequence of exercises 2 – 3 times
In my humble opinion, that is one of the best full body at home workouts for beginners that you can put together. When I was first starting out, this circuit beat me up.
If you are an absolute beginner to fitness, I imagine you’re going to feel this big time.
Remember, go at your own pace. The most important thing to keep in mind is to maintain good technique throughout. This will get you where you want to be in the shortest amount of time and prevent any unwanted injuries.
If it’s a little much for you right now, try it with the easier variations that are noted throughout. Also, just try it one time through without multiple sets.
As you get stronger, you’ll be able to do all the standard variations for the movements and get through the whole thing no problem.
If on the other hand you find the whole workout to be really easy, well congratulations, you’re probably not a beginner anymore and are ready for a more advanced routine. You can always try adding sets and repetitions until you feel challenged.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this full body at home workout for beginners that you can do most anywhere and in a short amount of time.
Stay tuned and much continued success on your fitness journey!
