Slowly but surely the COVID-19 quarantine is catching up on all of us. Now that you have a lot of time at hand and you are done watching everything on Netflix and Prime, you see the protruding belly and you want to do something about it.
Or you are just a regular gym bro or broette who can’t go to the gym anymore.
So you are just wondering if you can figure out the best home workout program and start working out again. The answer is yes! With an effective home workout plan with no equipment and a few home workout hacks, you can do a really get the best home workout program to suit your body demands.
Even after we all are free from the COVID-19 Quarantine, you can still use these when you can’t go to the gym or you can just add a few variations to your daily gym routine.
Chest
The chest workout, at home and done without weights, is going to revolve around push-ups – different variations of the push-ups. Unless you have weights at home or you are using our home workout hacks you might have to just stick with the push-ups.
There are just 1 or 2 arm motions that actually trigger the chest muscles and push-ups are the most effective when it comes to chest. So, let’s start with them.
Push-ups
If we are doing push-ups the first and variation of the push-ups are is going to be the standard push-ups. So, don’t even think that this is too difficult or too easy for you, just get down on the floor and start doing the push-ups.
Also, do your sets till fatigue. Don’t consider 20,30 or even 100 reps as your goal in each set. You need to keep on doing the push-ups until you cannot lift yourself up anymore, where you crash on the floor. Initially, for me, the fatigue rep in 3 sets was 30. 10-reps in each set, but hey see who got to 200 reps eventually, just follow the best home workout program, it works!
So don’t set your mind at doing 40 reps, but aim for a 1000 reps you will definitely fail before that. If you think you won’t then aim for 10000. Your fatigue number can be as small as 10, but the point is you did till fatigue. So, just get down and push-up.
Decline Push-ups
Coming to work on the upper pecks, we get to the decline push-ups. For the declined push-ups we need just one thing, and that is your legs to be above your head. With your face closer to the floor and your legs above your head, it will put more weight on your arms.
Also, this might be a little counter-intuitive but the decline push-ups actually work on your upper pecks and not lower. The reason being that you are upside down and facing downwards unlike what you do when you are on a bench.
Again just like the push-ups don’t aim for any number of reps, just keep doing it until failure.
Wide Push-ups
Doing the chest flys in a home workout with no equipment is one of the most difficult things to do. There is literally no approach to it without dumbbells or cable, except for the wide push-ups.
The posture for the wide push-ups is pretty simple. Instead of keeping each hand 2 spans away from the other, increase the gap to 4 spans and fingers facing outwards. This will almost mimic the movement of the chest flys. Also, if you almost touch your chest to the floor and rise all the way up it will increase the effectiveness of the workout.
The variation is however difficult and you will approach fatigue a lot quicker than the previous variations.
Plyometric Push-ups
Next up, let’s do some jerky and quick movement workout where you can burn a lot of calories in short bursts of time.
The plyometric push-ups or commonly known as the clapping push-ups are just like regular push-ups for more than half the rep. Just when you are almost half-way through coming back up you need to give out a burst of energy to the push. It should be strong enough to give your torso some air time.
Now, when you are up you can either clap or just go back down. It’s just that clapping makes it more fun, appealing and gives you some style points while you are following the best home workout program.
Back
Now let’s hit some reps to get those massive back muscles. Working out on the back could be another challenge for a lot of people because most of the workout revolves around a pull-up bar and tonnes of weights. Now you might have one of those or you might not have either. But don’t worry we got you covered with our best home workout program.
Sliding Floor Pull-ups/Pull-ups
The first thing you do when you enter the gym on a back day is to get some pull-ups going. If you don’t have a pull-up bar at home doesn’t mean you can skip out on them. We will use the floor for them.
So, lay down on the floor and keep a carpet or pillow under you. Keep your hands on the floor and then pull yourself up to your hands. Once you are all the way up, you can either push yourself down and get some tricep action going or you can just reset.
Doorknob Pull-ups
The doorknob pull-ups are another variation to get those traps moving. These are just the reverse of the wall push-ups. You just cling on to something, touch your feet to the wall and fall back. Now using just your arms get back up straight.
You can use anything that will hold your weight and you can get a good grip on – a doorknob, wall edge, pillars, or anything you can cling onto. These are a lot easier than actual pull-ups and even easier than our previous variation. Just because you are working on these after the Sliding Floor Push-ups, these will become difficult and get those muscles tight.
Back Widow
In the next workout on the best home workout routine, we are getting into the pro league of gym-bros, this might take some time and skill to master. The back widow is a version of the back rows – you can compare it to the seated rows or bent over rows for the back. Just that we don’t have weights to do it, we will use our body weight.
So, for the back widows, lay down on your back. Keep your hands by your sides and touch your elbows to the floor; only elbows. With your fists facing upwards, push your elbows down. Push hard enough to lift your back up from the floor, don’t use your abs. All the pressure should come from the elbows.
Don’t lay your head on the floor until you are done with the workout. This is a great exercise to get the traps real hard, real fast.
Back Extension
The back extension is one of those workouts that you should add to your back routine in the gym as well. It is a great bodyweight exercise for the lower back that everyone should do and it can be done without equipment too.
So, for the back extension, you can just lay down on the floor and do the workout or just hang from the edge of your couch to increase the range of your workout. The more the range of the workout the more the stress and gains.
Shoulder
Let’s move up a notch, in the best home workout program, and go from the back and start with the shoulders in the home workout with no equipment. Most of us are out of ideas when it comes to shoulder workout at home. Let’s face it, none of us ever did a shoulder workout without weights when we were at the gym, think about it.
So, doing something like that in the constraint of your house might be a little more challenging, but we got you covered.
Power Pushaways
The power pushaways are a variation of the push-ups. The only difference being the direction in which you raise up. Instead of raising back up straight, like in ordinary push-ups, you have to push yourself away and back using your hand until your knees fold.
The power pushaways are very effective if you push yourself until your arms completely stretch out. This puts all your weight on your shoulders and that’s what we want, lifting weights with your deltoids.
Pike Push-ups
The pike push-ups just like the power pushaways focus on balancing all your weight on your shoulders. Just that instead of having all the weight on your shoulder during the latter half of the rep, your shoulders are loaded during the course of the workout.
So, you get down in the push-up position, and then you lift your glutes up and stretch your legs as much as possible. You will be in an upside-down-V or the mountain pose. Now that your hands are on the floor and your weight is balanced on your shoulders and toes, do the push-up.
Bend your elbows until you are all the way down, this will add more weight on your shoulders and hand. Then stretch your arms back up again, lifting all the weight you hand on your shoulder. This is just a bodyweight version of the overhead shoulder press.
Cobra Push-up
The cobra push-ups are a combination of power pushaways and forward stretches. The workout is based on loading your shoulders and triggering a full circle movement from the shoulder balls.
Starting off at the push-up position you push yourself back until you have your knees bend. Then you go back down in the lowered position and then rise up as your head and chest keep moving forward.
The cobra push-ups work the entire shoulder muscle and are a great way to do a loaded shoulder ball exercise. Since it uses no weights, it fits perfectly in our home workout with no equipment regime.
Arms
Most of our arm workout depends on weights. Doing arm workout without any equipment is next to impossible. So for our workout too we will need a pull-up bar. In case you don’t have a pull-up bar don’t worry using our home workout hacks you can create a bar for yourself in a few easy steps.
Start whenever you are ready, and get those big biceps working in the best home workout routine.
Chin-ups
For chin-ups, you need a pull-up bar to perform these. The chin-ups are a variation for biceps, unlike pull-ups which are meant for the back muscles. The key difference between chin-ups and pull-ups is the direction your palm faces. For Chin-ups your palms should face towards you.
When you pull yourself up during a chin-up repetition, all the pull should come from your biceps. Remember to go all the way up above the rod, there’s a reason why we call them chin-ups, then leave your body down until your arms are completely extended.
Bicep Curl-ups
The bicep curl-ups are just like the chin-ups and follow almost the same posture. The only thing that makes the bicep curl-ups different is the way you lift yourself up. Instead of going straight up, you follow a curved path up.
The workout mimics the posture of the bicep curls, just that instead of moving the bar up in case of the bicep curls, here the bar remains at one spot and your body moves all the way up. The workout triggers both shorthead as well as longhead bicep muscles. A perfect addition to our home workout with no equipment program.
Upright Tricep Dips
The upright tricep dips are one of the easiest ways to work only the tricep muscles making it one of the most effective home workout exercises for the triceps. The upright tricep dip should be done with arms at either side of your body and your feet folded up so that they don’t touch the floor.
This can be easily done using the corner of kitchen countertops. Keep one hand on either counter and you can do the workout. In case you don’t have a corner, you can do the monkey tricep dips using just a flat platform.
In either case, don’t have a preset number for every set that you do just keep doing each set till failure. Since we don’t have any weights or difficult variations to look forward to, doing each variation until failure is the best way to train your muscles for massive gains.
Bodyweight Tricep Extension
The bodyweight tricep extension is next up in the best home workout program and might turn out to be a little difficult for a lot of bros if you haven’t lifted a lot of weight on the triceps. The only thing you need to do the variation is a platform that is as tall as your belly button or one that ends right under your chest. Any platform in that range will do that job.
Keep your hands at the edge of the platform and keep your legs at a significant distance from the platform. Balance most of your weight on your hands loading your arms with the weight. Once in position, bend your elbows and move closer to the platform. Make sure your head at least aligns with the edge of the platform if it does not go under.
The tricep extension can turn out to be a difficult variation for those who have not lifted a lot of weights earlier or have just resumed workout after a long break.
Do all reps till failure, but in case you think it is going to be easy, just know that I failed at 25 reps in the first set – and my failure for push-ups was 200 reps.
Legs
Let’s be honest here, without weight there are not workouts that can be really effective for legs. The idea is simple, our legs are already accustomed to lifting your bodyweight every single day. The only things that can make the leg workout effective at home are climbing or mimicking a climb, carrying additional weight during the workout, and single-leg workouts.
Just for the sake of keeping it simple and doable by everyone at home, we will skip out on the single-leg workouts for now. If you want you can replace squats with single leg box squats.
Most sitting and elevation related movements of the body capture the climbing movement so we will focus on those. Adding weight to these workouts will make them effective. In case you don’t have weights at home you can use our home workout hacks to learn the most effective ways to add weights to the best home workout program.
Step-up
Let’s start off with some light workout to warm our bodies as well as get some blood pumping through the muscles. For the step-up, you will need an elevated platform that is neither too tall nor too short. If you have a fleet of stairs in your house or outside your apartment you can use that too. For some challenge skip one step and use the alternate stairs for the same.
During the workout keep alternative the legs or do an equal number of reps with each leg going first. Also, don’t use your hands to pull or push yourself up all the pressure should come from your legs.
Squats
It is not a leg workout if you don’t squat.
So even if you are at home, we are going to do squats. The only difference for someone who is used to pulling a lot of weights on the squats will be to do single-leg box squats, for everyone else squats work. If you think that squats are too easy and one-legged squats too difficult, then maybe our home workout hacks can help you.
Either way, remember your squats posture and don’t squat going beyond your toe line, also do the full rep. Don’t set a number of reps in your head, just do it till fatigue.
Sumo Squats
The Sumo Squats are a great variation to work the hamstrings. Working glutes and quadriceps is easy even if you are at home. Hamstring workouts are generally difficult to manage in a home workout with no equipment considering they can lift a lot more weight and there aren’t as many free form workouts.
The Sumo squats are, however, one such workout where you can effectively work the hamstrings, be able to lift weights in the goblet position, or do them on bodyweight and that gives them the spot in the best home workout program.
So, just stand with your legs spread wide, toes facing outwards and a decent stretch in your thighs.
Abs
Thinking that most of your workout related to abs comes from floor exercises and it would be easy to mimic is correct but it won’t have the same results. When you go to the gym or do intense workout sessions the fatigue helps the ab workout. You might have even added a twist with inclined or decline benches and a few weights during your abs workout.
So, this means that your workout at home won’t be as effective as that in the gym unless you do something differently. You need to train harder and longer for the same results now – well it needs to be the best home workout program, right?.
Crunches
For starters, just like any other ab day workout start light with some regular crunches. You know what to do and you know the posture too. Just remember do the full repetition and do your reps till failure. Reaching complete failure is very important when it comes to any home exercises.
Fig 8
In figure 8, just like the name suggests, we create a floating figure 8 – with our legs. The idea is to move the legs in such a way that it creates a horizontally lying “8”. This creates rotational motion triggering the obliques, and since your feet are in air during the course of the workout it works the central core as well.
Figure 8 is a very effective home abs exercise.
Wiper
In wiper, we are to mimic the motion of the wiper moving from one side to the other using our legs. You should keep your hands by your sides to prevent yourself from toppling off.
Ideally, you should almost touch on either side, while swinging your legs.
Rest and Recovery
Even though the workout is not very intense at home and resting at home almost feels like you are at the workout place and not working, it is important. Rest is one of the crucial elements of the workout. Without a proper rest day, the body will fail to recover and the exercises on the following days will become more difficult and less effective.
The rest and recovery period needs to be scheduled at least once every week. Depending on what day you start the workout, you can take rest either mid-week and before starting the next week – it makes your week 8 days long but who cares? Who remembers what day it is during the quarantine or rather which month is it?
Wrapping Up!
Okay, bros and broettes, that’s it from Cannot Cardio on Quarantine home workout for beginners and intermediate level gym-bros. Let’s get our gains back from quarantine and use the best home workout program. Remember to check out our other guides for rest day, home workout hacks or just to know more about the individual day workouts. Also, follow us for more such articles on workout.
Remember to Stay Fit and Stay Awesome!
Cannot Cardio 