Full Body Workout Without Weights or Equipment to Try Now
A full body workout can make you lose weight, burn calories, and boost your metabolism. What we usually do is to visit the gym on a regular basis to exercise our body.
However, due to our busy schedules at work, school, and at home; our full body workout time decreases, and we sometimes tend to forget to exercise in the long run.
Amazingly, you can now do a full body workout at the comforts of your home without weights or any equipment. You can do this at any time of the day: on daytime before leaving home for school or work or at night time before going to sleep.
Thus, check out this bodyweight exercises that you can combine all together to have a Full Body Workout.
Tips on Having a Full Body Workout
Here are some of the rules to remember before we discuss the various types of exercises that you can do even without any equipment or weights:
Always Breathe
This may seem obvious, but sometimes we tend to forget to breathe especially during exercises. When you do the hard work, make sure to exhale. Another rule is to inhale on the easy parts.
Do it Slowly
Make sure to do the exercises slowly but surely. If you work slowly, your muscle will work more, and it will make you stronger!
Don’t do your workouts as quickly as possible and try not to have long breaks in between full body workout.
Take Note of Your Form
Before starting the exercises, make sure that you are doing it correctly. Whenever you do an exercise in a wrong way, your initial progress might dissipate, and you will be prone to injuries.
You can ask a professional or a friend to guide you in forming the exercises. Although this article will explain the proper form of the exercises, it is still your duty to make sure that your body is in its right form.
Never Give up!
If you are feeling tired of your full body workout, always remember never to give up! Push yourself to the limits of your strength but be extra careful.
Do not fret about how many times you do the sets but do concentrate on how hard you can work.
More push-ups don’t necessarily mean that you are now stronger. On some days, you’ll have more energy than the others thus you can perform better. On a few days, expect that you’ll perform on your worse.
The secret is to always to do your best with all the energy that you have. Remember that every failure will ultimately lead to success, so carry on.
Full Body Workout Examples
Cardiovascular Exercises
Cardiovascular or Cardio exercises are a set of activities that aim to develop the heart health. Aside from this, it works the various muscle groups in the body which brings health benefits too.
Most people don’t like doing cardio even if it brings great benefits to the body because it is tiring and sometimes it requires an expensive gear.
Luckily, there are variations that you can try to make cardio exercises effective, even without the use of any equipment.
These are some of the full body workout cardio that you can try:
Climbing the Stairs
Climbing the stairs is a simple activity and good cardio. You can perform it at home or anywhere there are stairs.
In films, you can see athletes running up and down on staircases in stadiums and indeed this is a great exercise!
To do it effectively, make sure that you run up and down the stairs as many times as you can. Try to skip the steps in-between and remember to stop when you are feeling tired and cannot continue it anymore.
Make sure to have a 60 to 90 seconds break in between each set. Push yourself further and increase the number of times you climb the stairs.
Of course, not everyone has a staircase, and some wouldn’t want to go out and exercise on the public. What you can do alternatively is to add stair climbing to your regular activities.
For example, instead of using the escalator/ elevator whenever you go to the office or school, just use the stairs instead. This is a good way to work your legs and develop your heart health.
Interval Training
Other people don’t like to run at all because you need to do it for quite some time and it makes your entire body exhausted. What people do is they train their body for endurance which is not always necessary.
Interval training is a good full body workout alternative because it makes your body work harder even for a short period of time only.
There are various techniques in interval training. For example, you can have a light jog for about 2 to 5 minutes to get your body moving.
Next, you can have a minute of high-speed running then alternate it with low speed running which must be repeated for 5 to 10 times depending on your stamina. Finally, you can end it with a light jog so your body can cool down from the full body workout.
Core Exercises
You will be doing lots of sit-ups in core exercises. In addition, there are variations on sit-ups that are very effective for your core. Some of these come from Pilates exercises, however, people try to avoid it since it requires the use of expensive equipment.
Luckily, there are sit-ups that don’t require the use of equipment other than your body.
Here are some of the examples:
Plank
Plank is one of the best exercises that can develop your core. At first, it requires a little practice, but once you’ve got it down, you just need to hold yourself to maintain the proper position.
To do this, first, lie on your stomach, put your elbows close to your side and under your shoulders, with your palms down. Next, engage your abdominal muscles and lift your torso off the floor slowly.
Make sure to maintain your legs and your torso stiff. Avoid sagging of your lower back or the hiking up of your hips. Hold this position for 15 seconds or more and breathe properly.
Perform 3 sets of 6-12 repetitions as your starting goal, and you can increase it gradually. Make sure to have some rest also in between sets.
Roll Up and Roll Down
The roll-up is similar to sit-ups with only a few difference.
To do this, first, you need to start with your arms behind you and bring them forward until you come into a sitting position. Bend your body until you stretch your arms unto your feet.
Make sure you breathe properly and do the process slowly.
Meanwhile, the roll down exercise is like a reverse sit up. To do this, start with your feet flat on the floor and create a 45-degree angle.
Place your hands on your thighs and hold yourself sitting up, just to get in the right position. You can leave your hands in this position or extend them out in front of you.
Extend down until your shoulder blades slightly touch the surface below you. Remember not to try to go down so far, just go down far enough that you know you’ve completed the first full range of the motion.
Then, your back will curve slightly and be sure to lift your head. Next, put your back in a straight back position and breathe as you get back to starting position. You can do multiple sets of the exercise but make sure not to do more than 15 reps each set.
Lower Body
Sometimes, it could be a little excessive to work your lower body since you now have cardio, core, and the upper body exercises. You can now be working the muscles you already targeted.
However, you can still neglect multiple areas in the lower body. Thus, here are some of the exercises that you can try that does not need any equipment:
Step Up or Stairs Step
You can build the strength of your lower body by performing the stairs step or step up exercises. Unlike climbing stairs, the key to this activity is to find a staircase which is a bit higher than the height of your knee.
At home, you can use a wide stool, park bench, or other furniture that can support your weight as you step up.
To do this, step on the stairs one leg at a time. Start with your left foot and place it on the stool. Then, push yourself upward and bring your right foot on the stool.
Do this 10-12 times repetitions. Make sure to have 60-90 seconds break in between each set. You can also consider adding weight to your arms or your legs.
Squats
Squats can strengthen the bones and the muscles in your legs, hips, buttocks, and lower back.
To do this, first, stand up straight with your feet firm on the ground and shoulder-width apart. Focus on an object directly ahead of you at eye level to maintain a straight back.
Bend your legs and knees and contract your abdominal muscles. You can stretch your arms out ahead of you, or you can put your arms behind your ears, or hold it at your side. Then, slowly lower yourself into squatting position on the floor. Return to the starting position and repeat it.
Just like push-ups, you can do the squats anytime, anywhere. Indeed, it is easy to fit in a set of squats in your spare time.