9 Best No-Equipment Home Workouts For Men

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This article features advice and insights from Michelle Furniss, a qualified group fitness instructor and Chief Commercial Officer of Health & Fitness, ANZ at Xplor Technologies.

Who’s ready to ditch their overpriced gym membership and practice a quality home workout routine instead? If the answer is “you,” then you’ve certainly come to the right place. As it turns out, there are plenty of ways to exercise at home without modern workout equipment. In fact, you can see results using little more than the power of your own body weight.

What remains vital is the same underlying formula of setting goals and refusing to stop until you reach them. One might say that this very approach is the key to success in most of life’s endeavours. To help you make it happen, we present some of the best no-equipment home workouts. But first: let’s answer a common question and then cover some basics about exercising at home.

Can You Build Muscle Mass with Bodyweight Exercises?
Yes, you can build muscle mass with bodyweight exercises at home, presuming you employ a method known as progressive overload. As your workout advances over time, you should increase your reps, decrease your rest times between each exercise, incorporate new and more challenging variations, push yourself to failure, and increase your time under tension by slowing your movements so as to put more strain on your muscles. When equipment is involved, performing mechanical drop sets is also part of the progressive overload strategy.

“While we may not have access to the gym, we can absolutely get creative to ensure we stay on track with our fitness, and strive towards our goals,” Michelle Furniss tells Man of Many. The qualified group fitness instructor and Chief Commercial Officer of Health & Fitness, ANZ at Xplor Technologies believes there are a wealth of adaptations around the house you can use to replace equipment or supplement your workout.

“We’re also so fortunate to be living in a time where technology is so readily available and a number of gyms, PT’s and fitness facilities have done a great job at adapting their gym-based exercises to suit Zoom or digital-led,” the fitness expert says. “There are also so many virtual and online sessions, so support your local fitness instructor when you feel like you need something different, whether that be HIIT, pilates, yoga, or a running coach – real instructors, keep us accountable!”

At Home Stretching & Warm-Up
Whether you’re at the gym or at home, you’ll want to stretch and warm up before your actual workout. Doing so will increase muscle flexibility so as to prevent injury, reduce soreness, and improve your range of motion. Some experts will say that’s also important to stretch again after your workout is completed and for similar reasons.

There are plenty of ways to get your body warmed up at home with no equipment. Examples include jumping jacks, bodyweight squats, lunges, hip extensions, forward leg swings, spider-man steps, push-ups, and even jogging in place. Keep the intensity level light and stick to about 5 minutes of stretching and warm-up, since you don’t want to wear yourself down before the real workout begins.

Best No-Equipment Home Workouts
You’re at home with no equipment and you want to maintain a high-quality workout. What do you do? What. Do. You. Do. You check out the at-home workout routines below, that’s what. Remember, the best way to get results is to employ the progressive overload strategy, which is as follows: increase your reps, decrease your rest times between each set, incorporate new and more challenging variations, push yourself to failure, and increase your time under tension.

As you may soon notice, there’s a decent amount of overlap from one routine to the next. We’ve also broken some of these routines down according to experience level. Naturally, you should determine where you stand physically and then proceed accordingly. Kick things off with a beginner’s routine and then work your way up to a more advanced regimen. And if you’re crunched for time or feeling experimental, we’ve included two versions of an intense bodyweight routine known as the 7-minute scientific workout.

“There are so many no-equipment exercises we can do, to stay fit, and mix up our routines,” Furniss says. “My favourites are bodyweight exercises such as planks, push ups, squats, lunges, chin ups (find a sturdy tree branch!), and tricep dips (find a step, park bench or stool). These compound exercises work multiple muscle groups so are a great all-body workout for those who are time poor or don’t have access to gym equipment.”

Without further delay, here are nine effective workouts and their equipment-free exercises to do at home:

1. Beginner Home Workout
This at-home workout is for when you’re just starting out. It covers a number of basics without pushing your body to extremes. One of the exercises asks you to swap in a local form of weight like books, which we’re not counting as equipment. Complete the following circuit 5 times:

Air Squats x 20 reps
Walking lunges x 10 reps each leg
Push-ups x 10 reps
Dumbbell rows x 10 reps (use a stack of books or other weight)
Plank x 30 seconds
Jumping Jacks x 30 rep
Complete entire circuit 5 times
Time: 20 minutes
Rest: 10 seconds between exercises
Reps: 5 circuits

2. Advanced Home Workout
This no-equipment home workout is quite similar to the beginner home workout but also more intense. It likewise asks that you perform the entire circuit 5 times and involves the following exercises:

Air Squats x 20 reps
Walking lunges x 20 reps each leg
Box Jumps x 20 reps
Push-ups x 20 reps
Pistol Squats x 10 reps each side
Triceps Dips on Chair x 10 reps
Plank x 1 min
Complete entire circuit 5 times
Time: 20 minutes
Rest: 10 seconds between exercises
Reps: 5 circuits

3. 20-Minute HIIT Workout
HIIT stands for “High-Intensity Interval Training,” during which you increase intensity levels and decrease rest times to the point of exhaustion. This particular version takes just 20 minutes and goes easier on the joints than most counterparts. Perform the following circuit 6 times:

Side Kick-Through x 30 seconds
Rest x 10 seconds
Air squat x 30 seconds
Rest x 10 seconds
Jumping Lunges x 30 Seconds
Rest x 10 seconds
Frogger x 30 seconds
Rest x 10 seconds
Bicycle crunch x 30 seconds
Rest x 10 seconds
Complete entire circuit 6 times
Time: 20 minutes
Rest: 10 seconds between exercises
Reps: 6 circuits

4. Full-Body Cardio Challenge
There’s no treadmill or stationary bike required for this full-body cardio routine. In fact, you don’t need any equipment at all. Perform as many reps as possible (AMRAP) of the following exercises:

Side Plank Twist x 30 seconds AMRAP
Squat Pulse x 30 seconds AMRAP
Tuck Up x 30 seconds AMRAP
Plank Rock Back and Forth x 30 seconds AMRAP
Push Ups x 30 seconds AMRAP
Mountain Climbers x 30 seconds AMRAP
Bicycle Kicks x 30 seconds AMRAP
Time: 20 minutes
Rest: 15 seconds between exercises
Reps: 5 circuits

5. Scientific 7 Minute Workout
According to a study from 2013, this HIIT workout improves overall fitness levels and even helps with weight loss. We go into way more detail in a separate article, which you can read here. In essence, squeeze the following at-home exercises into a 7-minute window:

Jumping Jacks
Wall Sit
Push Ups
Abdominal Crunch
Step-Up onto Chair
Air Squats
Triceps Dips on Chair
Plank
High Knees Running in Place
Lunge
Push-Ups with Rotation
Side Plank
Time: 7 minutes
Rest: 10 seconds between exercises
Reps: 1 circuits

6. Advanced 7-Minute Scientific Workout
In keeping with the progressive overload strategy, we present an advanced version of the 7-minute scientific workout. Again, you can find a more detailed rundown of this particular routine by checking out our dedicated article. In the meantime, here’s the at-home workout in a nutshell:

Reverse lunge, elbow to instep with rotation, alternating sides
Lateral pillar bridge – left
Push up to row to burpee
Lateral pillar bridge – right
Single leg RDL to curl press – left
Single leg RDL to curl press – right
Plank with arm lift
Lateral lunge to overhead tricep extension
Bent Over row with alternating arms
Time: 7 minutes
Rest: 10 seconds between exercises
Reps: 1 circuits

7. PLP Progressions
Taking the concept of progressive overload to heart, this exacting routine asks you to push yourself a little harder on an escalating basis. The letters PLP stand for three common exercises—pull-ups, lunges, and push-ups—which you’ll perform every day for two months at a time, increasing the reps by a factor of one with each passing day. And yes, we’re firmly aware that a pull-up bar technically counts as equipment, but on the other hand, alternatives do exist (tree branches, for instance) so get creative if you must.

We’ll list out the first three days and let you take it from there. Can you make it for the whole two months? Let’s find out!

Day 1:
Pull-ups: 10 reps
Push-ups: 10 reps
Lunges: 10 reps (each leg)
Day 2:
Pull-ups: 11 reps
Push-ups: 11 reps
Lunges: 11 reps (each leg)
Day 3:
Pull-ups: 12 reps
Push-ups: 12 reps
Lunges: 12 reps (each leg)

8. No-Equipment Arm Workout
“Which way to the gun show?” you ask aloud, flexing your arm before realising that you’re at home and there’s no one else around. Alas, what a bittersweet scenario, but at least you still have those bulging arms. Here’s how to make it happen:

Triceps Dips on Chair x 20 reps
Push Ups x 20 reps
Shadow Boxing x 30 seconds AMRAP
Plank Taps x 30 seconds AMRAP
Decline Push Up x 20 reps
Inline Push Up x 20 reps
Inchworm x 30 seconds AMRAP
Diamond Push Up x 10 reps
Burpees x 30 seconds AMRAP
Time: 20 minutes
Rest: 30 seconds between exercises
Reps: 3 circuits

9. No-Equipment Leg Workout
You know what would go great with your no-equipment arm workout? This similarly effective leg workout. Here are all the exercises:

Reverse Lunges x 45 seconds AMRAP
Side Lunges x 45 seconds AMRAP
High Knees x 30 seconds AMRAP
Hip Raises x 45 seconds AMRAP
Box Jumps x 20 reps
Air Squats x 45 seconds AMRAP
Burpees x 20 reps
Time: 20 minutes
Rest: 30 seconds between exercises
Reps: 3 circuits

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