What Is The Best Home Workout Routine – With Little Or No Equipment

Have you ever wanted to get a great workout without having to drive anywhere, pay for a gym membership or buy expensive equipment? This “what is the best home workout routine with no equipment” schedule and guide provide everything you need to know to make the switch to home exercise.

We will discuss the best workouts that can be done at home or outdoors with little to no equipment and how they can help improve your fitness and health.

Best Home Workout Routine – Overview

Since many of you may not have any exercise equipment lying around your home, I’m going to divide this routine into two sections. The first section will be the best at-home workouts with no equipment. These bodyweight exercises show that an effective home workout program can be built on this alone.

For my exercise routine, I eventually purchased just a few key pieces to intensify my at-home workout routine. Adding just a pull-up bar for the home and a couple of the dumbbell sizes you will use the most will really multiply the options for your home fitness routine.

Exercise resistance bands are another inexpensive option. They take up little room and offer an entire low-impact workout if you know how to use them correctly.

The 21 Best At-Home Workouts You Can Do Without Any Equipment 

Push/Pull/Legs Workout Schedule

The main goal of the workout would be a balance between building muscle and burning calories in order to lose unnecessary weight. These best at-home workouts with no equipment are aimed at beginner or intermediate athletes and we would rely strictly on our bodyweight in order to stress our muscles.

If you’re wondering what you’re going to pull since we are literally talking about no equipment, you’re about to find out.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Push	Rest	Pull	Rest/Jogging	Rest	Legs	Rest

You can swap the position of the workout days as much as you like, as long as you keep a rest day between them. The two consecutive rest days should be placed before your hardest workout in order for your body to fully recover from previous stress.

Push Day	Pull Day	Legs Day
Warm-Up	Warm-Up	Warm-Up
Handstand Push-ups 5 x Max	Lying Lat Superman Pull Downs 3 x 15	Squats 5 x 30
Push-Ups 2 x Max	Good Mornings 4 x 20	Bulgarian Squats 5 x 60 %
Push-Ups 5 x 50 %	Towel Rows 5 x 12	Lunges 3 x 20
Shoulder Push Ups 3 x 70 %	Dolphin Kicks 3x Max	Towel Knee Tucks 3 x 20
Lateral Towel Raise 3 x 12	Towel Biceps Curls 5 x 10	Standing Side split 3 x 12
Bodyweight Skull Crushers 3 x Max	ABS Crunches 3 x 20	Towel Hamstring Curls
Diamond Push-ups 3 x MAX	ABS Leg lifts 3 x 10	Calf raises 3 x 30

Repetition count:

During your first training day, after having warmed up, perform each exercise to test your limits and write down the number of reps you reach. Calculate the percentages so you know how many repetitions you would have to make.

For example, if your maximum number of push-ups is 50, then you should do 2 sets of maximum and 5 sets at 50% of that. In this case, it would be 25 repetitions per set.

Progression:

Each consecutive week, aim for 1 clean repetition more on each separate exercise.

Rest between sets: Your rest time should be 60 seconds between all sets.

Form: All exercises should be performed with perfect form and no cheating.

Push day (Monday)

Each day you should start with a good warm-up and work from the hardest to the easiest exercise by muscle groups.

Handstand Push-Ups

Hands down, this is the hardest exercise to perform during the entire workout week, and that’s the reason why we start with it. Prop your legs on a wall and spread your arms a palm wider than shoulder-width apart. Push yourself up without locking the elbow or shoulder joints. Perform as many repetitions as possible.

If you are unable to perform it due to a weaker form, prop your legs up a wall and simply maintain your handstand for 10 to 15 seconds. This would be one set. Perform three sets. Then substitute the exercise with shoulder push-ups.

Push-Ups

Just regular Push-ups. Keep your shoulders back, and don’t lock your elbows at the end of the repetitions. Perform 2 sets of maximum repetitions and 5 sets of 50 percent.

Shoulder Push-Ups

Place your hands in a standard push-up position, elevate your but so that your legs form a 90-degree angle with your torso and push yourself up and down without locking the joints. For extra difficulty, you could lift your legs over on a chair.

Lateral Towel Raise

Grab a towel, the shorter, the better, and grab it with both hands. If you’ve ever performed lateral dumbbell raises, it’s practically the same thing but with a towel.

Apply as much pressure as needed with your other hand by pulling the towel in the opposite direction. Keep the stressed arm’s wrist facing the ground. The reason why you see reps here instead of percentages is that you can easily gradually increase the stress with your other hand each week.

Bodyweight Skull Crushers

Finishing off your triceps with a couple of exercises after the chest and shoulder ones is a good idea. Bodyweight skull crushers can be performed by propping your hands either on a chair, couch or on the ground.

Diamond Push-Ups

Diamond Push-ups are a more complex exercise, which stresses the entirety of your triceps and uses the chest and shoulders as stabilizing muscles.

Pull Day (Tuesday)

Typically most pull day exercises are either rows or pull-ups but since we have no equipment for this workout, we are going to use a simple towel and our advanced anatomy knowledge.

Lying Lat Superman Pull Downs

Lie down on your chest and grab a towel with both of your hands in front of you. Place your hands on the ground in front of your eyes, while still holding the towel. Arch your back backwards and pull the towel below your chest. Return the towel in front of you. This is one repetition.

Good Mornings

Perform four sets of good mornings with 20 repetitions each. With the bodyweight version of this, spread a towel over your head by holding it with both hands with locked elbows while pulling sideways, applying pressure on the towel. Or grap any weighted item around you and hold it to your chest.

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hands placed behind your head. Stand upright, brace your core and pull shoulders back. Take a breath and hinge forwards at your hips, rather than waist, while allowing a slight knee bend keeping your back flat. Lean forwards until you feel your hamstrings stretch, about horizontal with the floor. Then stand up straight as you exhale.

Towel Rows

In order to perform this exercise, you would need a slightly longer or average length towel. Sit in a position where both of your legs are stretched in front of you. Place the towel under your feet and grab both ends with your hands. Grab the towel in such a place that your arms would be fully stretched in front of your torso.

Pull as if you are performing a dumbbell row. And slowly release the pressure with your legs. The good thing is you get to modify the resistance by pressing harder or easier with your legs. This can be done leaning back on a wall or lying on the floor.

Dolphin Kicks

Lie down on a bench, couch or a table, chest facing the ground with your legs hanging and your torso on the surface. Slowly lift both legs and arms at the same time toward the ceiling without bending your elbows or knees.

If you find it difficult to raise all limbs at the same time, alternate them one by one.

Towel Biceps Curls

Grab your towel, sit down on the ground, stretch your legs in front, place the towel under one of your feet and spread it in front on the level of your face without bending the knee. Then pull by bending your elbows as if performing a bicep curl.

Adjust the resistance with the help of your leg.

Legs day (Saturday)

After stretching, warming up your joints, tendons, and muscles, or going for a jog, proceed with squats into Bulgarian squats. For other movements beyond the ones listed here, see my Best Exercises for Stronger Legs.

Bodyweight Squats

Use proper form and try not to lift your heels off the ground while performing the exercise with a straight back and shoulders back. When you feel the pump in your quads it’s time to go for our muscle-building exercise – Bulgarian Squats.

Bulgarian Split Squats

If it’s your first leg day, perform as many Bulgarian Squats as you can on your weaker leg. This is your maximum. Multiply your max by the percentage given (60 %) for your number of reps in a set. For example, if your maximum is 15 reps per leg, then perform 9 repetitions per leg.

Lunges

Nothing too special here. If you don’t have enough space to perform them in a straight line, you can always do them in one place by alternating legs.

Towel Knee Tucks

Place a towel under your feet and position your body as you would when you perform a push-up. While propping your weight on your arms, shift the weight toward your shoulders and slide your feet toward your chest. Stretch your feet back. This is one rep.

Towel Knee tucks is a great exercise not only for your quads and hamstrings but for your core.

Standing SideTowel Split

Stand up with feet shoulder-width apart. Place the towel under one of your legs and spread it apart from the other as much as you can without falling to the ground. Return it to the initial position by sliding it back, this is one repetition.

Towel Hamstring Curls

This is an amazingly simple yet effective hamstring exercise. Lie down on your back on the ground and place the towel under your feet. Prop your shoulders on the ground and pull your legs toward your body by lifting your waist up. Return your legs to the initial position, this is one repetition.

Calf raises

You can perform calf raises on a book or on a doorstep in order to increase the range of motion. However, you can also perform them straight on the ground.

Intermediate Home Workout with Pull-Up Bar and Dumbbells

In addition to this best home workout with no equipment, simply take the same program and add a few inexpensive items.

The same push, pull, legs workout plan can be easily transformed into a 5 or 6-day program for an intermediate or advanced athlete to perform. My personal preference is to leave Saturday and Sunday as rest days but you can do what fits your schedule.

You can do 5 or 6 workouts, focusing on whatever part of your body you feel needs it most. If your legs are behind, you can perform two leg workouts. If you want to focus on your upper body, place the legs workout in the middle of the week and train other muscles twice as shown in the table below.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Push	Pull	Legs	Push	Pull	Rest/Legs	Rest

Push Day	Pull Day	Legs Day
Warm-Up	Warm-Up	Warm-Up
Handstand Push-ups 5 x Max	Wide-grip Pull-ups 5 x 10	Dumbbell Squats 5 x 20
Push-Ups 2 x Max	Good Mornings 4 x 20	Bulgarian Squats 5 x 60 %
Push-Ups 5 x 50 %	Dumbbell Rows 5 x 12	Lunges 3 x 20
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 x 70 %	Dolphin Kicks 3x Max	Towel Knee Tucks 3 x 20
Lateral Dumbbell Raise 3 x 12	Dumbbell Biceps Curls 5 x 10	Standing Side split 3 x 12
Dumbbell Skull Crushers 3 x 12	ABS Crunches 3 x 20	Towel Hamstring Curls
Diamond Push-ups 3 x MAX	ABS Leg lifts 3 x 10	Calf raises 3 x 30

What’s Changed By Adding Dumbbells and Pull-Up Bar?

If you have dumbbells with adjustable weight discs at your disposal, then instead of increasing the repetition count each week, make sure to increase the weight each second week.

The exercises that have been changed from the initial program have been highlighted in the table above.

Push Day

During push day, we replace the towel and bodyweight exercises which can be better performed with the help of an adjustable dumbbell.

Moreover, if you have resistance bands at your disposal, you can also use them to increase the difficulty of the push-ups and perform half the repetitions with an increased stress level in order to spike muscle growth. You can do the same by placing weight discs on your back.

Pull Day

Honestly speaking, it is pretty tough to come up with a great muscle-building home workout without the help of a pull-ups bar. This is the minimal piece of equipment anyone working out at home should have to get a jacked back. If you don’t have a pull-up bar, see my Best Pull-Up Bar For The Doorway.

Moreover, the rows and curls have been replaced with real weights instead of using a towel and our own resistance levels.

Legs Day

Legs day remains unchanged, but you can lower the squats number of reps to 20 and perform them with weights.

What Is The Best Workout Routine At Home –

Wrap Up

You can get an intense home workout with bodyweight only or by adding minimal workout equipment. Consistency is the largest factor, and this can be an even bigger challenge when working out at home. Establishing a certain time each day will bring you the greatest success for getting results.

Push yourself as much as possible, but to avoid injury don’t go too far outside your comfort level. On the bodyweight shoulder presses, for example, slowly build up with this exercise to keep from tearing your shoulders. Bulgarian Split Squats can be challenging as well, so work up to your goals rather than outperforming all in one day.

Slowly add just a few dumbbell sizes at a time, resistance bands, and a pull-up bar as expenses allow. Just a few items will quickly multiply your exercise options. To expand your at-home workout routine, see my ideas on the best exercise equipment for the home.

If you have any questions or comments on this “what is the best home workout program” guide, please leave a message below and I will respond.