10 Bodyweight Exercises for your at home program

Do you need bodyweight exercises that you can do at home without fancy gym equipment? Perhaps you are going on vacation and won’t have access to a gym, or you just don’t like to battle the crowd. Regardless of your reasoning for needing a body weight exercise routine your options are almost limitless. A bodyweight workout program can be even more challenging then doing traditional body building programs at the gym.

A major advantage of bodyweight exercises are that you can mix them together into a circuit program and do some interval training just by stacking them together. Just pick three to five of the bodyweight exercises and do them one after another with no rest. Once you complete the entire circuit rest for about a minute or two and repeat three to five times. You can get a full body body weight workout without equipment and complete the entire workout in less than 20 minutes.

Here are 10 bodyweight exercises that you can incorporate into your at home workout program.

1. Jumping Jacks - This should be fun since most people did these in their school gym class or as kids having fun. They’re good warm-up exercises as well as good cardio exercises.
2. Pushups - Pushups can be hard to do, but you can do them on your knees instead of keeping your legs straight. You’re building up arm strength and working out muscles in your chest area, so there’s no need to put strain on your legs by doing them with your legs straight.
   You can also try doing an even lesser impact version where you do push-ups against a wall, so that you’re not using your legs except for support in a standing position.
3. Leg lifts - These are good for toning up your legs. If it’s too hard to do with your legs straight, try doing them with your legs bent.
4. Sit ups - These are good to tone up your abdominal muscles. You don’t have to raise your head all the way in order to touch your knees. Just raising your head part way until you start to feel the abdominal muscles stretch would be fine to get started.
5. Jogging in place - Jogging is good for your heart. You can jog in place in your home while watching television or listening to music. This would require a good pair of shoes to eliminate unnecessary stress on your legs, but otherwise no other equipment is needed.
6. Squats - These are good exercises for your legs and buttocks. If you find that doing these are too hard, try just sitting down in a regular chair and standing back up again. You’ll get pretty much the same effect and it enables you to complete several repetitions without losing interest too fast.
7. Burpees – This is the king of all bodyweight exercises and will improve your conditioning more than anything I can think of. The exercise is a 5 part movement.
   1. Squat down and put your hands on the ground
   2. Kick your feet back so you are in the pushup position
   3. Bring both legs back to the squatting position
   4. Jump as high as you can
   5. Repeat (10-15 reps is pretty tough)
8. Sprints – Get you a stretch of yard or road and run as fast as you can. Turn around and jog back to your starting point and then repeat. Simple, low tech, kick your butt exercise.
9. Lunges – Step out with one foot, lowering your other knee to the ground. Stand back up and switch legs. This will work your thighs, hip flexors, and lower back really well. The lunge motion is use in almost every sport so it is practical functional fitness as well.
10. Animal Walks – The bear walk is a really tough exercise where you crawl like a bear (legs and arms straight) for a far as you can. This will work your entire body. The crab walk is another killer. Like the bear but this time your belly up and hands behind your back.