Many of us have busy schedules and lives. With limited access to a gym you can find achieving your fitness goals getting harder and harder. Finding effective ways to achieve your goals and build muscle without equipment is becoming more popular than ever. The great news is that you don’t need a fully stocked gym full of machines you don’t even know what they do to achieve a strong, muscular physique. With the right exercises and commitment, you can start building muscle without equipment, only using your body weight.
Our Top 7 Workouts for Building Muscle Without Equipment
1. Push-Ups
Muscles Targeted:
Chest, shoulders, triceps, and core.
One of the most simple exercises than can be done anywhere, the push-ups. They are a classic bodyweight exercise and are incredibly effective at building upper body strength. Start with the standard push-up, doing small reps and as you progress try harder variations. You have exercises like the diamond push-up (hands closer together to target your triceps) or wide arm push-ups (focus on the chest).
A great bit of kit that helps you with the hand placement is a ‘push-up board’, a cheap bit of kit you can pick up online.
How to Do a Basic Push-Up:
- Begin in a plank position with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
- Keep your body in a straight line from head to heels.
- Lower your body until your chest nearly touches the floor.
- Push back up to the starting position.
Pro Tip: Keep your core tight throughout the movement to avoid sagging in the hips or back.
2. Squats
Muscles Targeted:
Quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves.
Squats are a fundamental lower body exercise. These not only build up muscle but also helps enhancing mobility and balance. Squats target the major muscle groups in your legs such as glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings and calves. Little less known is what squats do above the waistline, including your core, obliques and subject to the type of squat it can also work out you back.
How to Do a Basic Squat:
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, toes slightly turned out.
- Lower your body as if you’re sitting back into a chair, keeping your chest up and knees over your toes.
- Go as low as your flexibility allows, ideally until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
- Push through your heels to return to the starting position.
Pro Tip: To increase intensity, try single-leg squats (pistol squats) or jump squats
3. Plank
Muscles Targeted:
Core, shoulders, and lower back.
The plank is a super powerful isometric exercise that strengthens your core and stabilises muscles, essential for overall muscle development. Core muscles play a part in almost all athletic exercises so should be a priority muscle group. Planks also engage your shoulders, arms and glutes making it a full body workout.
A plank might look easy but believe me the longer you go the harder it gets! And like with every exercise once you find it easy there are ways to make it harder.
How to Do a Basic Plank:
- Start in a forearm plank position with elbows directly under your shoulders.
- Keep your body in a straight line from head to heels.
- Hold this position, focusing on squeezing your core and glutes.
Pro Tip: Increase the challenge by adding leg lifts or side planks to target different muscle groups.
4. Lunges
Muscles Targeted:
Quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves.
Focusing on your lower body, lunges are an excellent way to build strength and muscle. Not only that they are also good for improving balance and coordination. This is an exercise that targets multiple muscle groups and can easily be modified for greater intensity.
Check out walking lunge, lateral lunge and barbell lunge exercises.
How to Do a Lunge:
- Stand upright with feet hip-width apart.
- Step forward with one leg, lowering your hips until both knees are bent at about a 90-degree angle.
- Ensure your front knee is directly above your ankle, and your back knee hovers just above the ground.
- Push back to the starting position and repeat on the other leg
5. Dips
Muscles Targeted:
Triceps, chest, and shoulders.
Dips are a great way to target your triceps and for home workouts one of the easiest to do. All you need is a sturdy chair, bench or raises surface. The exercise also engages your chest and shoulder muscles, providing an excellent upper body work out.
How to Do Dips:
- Sit on the edge of a chair with your hands next to your hips, gripping the edge.
- Slide your hips off the chair, keeping your legs straight out or bent at a 90-degree angle.
- Lower your body by bending your elbows until your upper arms are parallel to the floor.
- Push yourself back up to the starting position.
Pro Tip: To increase the difficulty, extend your legs fully or place them on another chair.
6. Glute Bridges
Muscles Targeted:
Glutes, hamstrings, and core.
For targeting your glutes and hamstrings you want to incorporate Glute bridges into your home workout. Not only do they target your glutes and hamstrings but also your core. This exercise is particularly effective for strengthening your posterior chain and improving lower back stability.
How to Do Glute Bridges:
- Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart.
- Push through your heels to lift your hips off the ground, creating a straight line from your shoulders to your knees.
- Squeeze your glutes at the top and hold for a moment.
- Lower your hips back to the starting position.
Pro Tip: To make it more challenging, try single-leg glute bridges or place your feet on a surface higher up.
7. Superman
Muscles Targeted:
Lower back, glutes, and hamstrings.
At number 7 we have the superman, another work out for targeting your glutes and hamstrings. Its also a great exercise to strengthen your lower back. It help you improve posture and balance by targeting these often-overlooked muscles in the posterior chain.
How to Do the Superman Exercise:
- Lie face down on the floor with your arms extended straight in front of you and legs straight behind you.
- Simultaneously lift your arms, chest, and legs off the ground as high as you can.
- Hold this position for a few seconds, squeezing your lower back and glutes.
- Slowly lower back to the starting position.
Pro Tip: For added difficulty, try alternating arm and leg lifts (lifting opposite arm and leg simultaneously).
Conclusion
These are just a few of many workouts you can try at home. As you can see building muscle at home without equipment is entirely possible. You just need to make sure you are doing the right exercises and be consistent!
Bodyweight exercises can without doubt help you develop strength, increase muscle mass and improve your overall fitness. Remember the key to muscle growth is progressive overload, so challenge yourself by increasing repetitions, slowing down the tempo or adding variations as you get stronger. Combine these workouts with balanced diet and adequate rest to maximise your results.
Combining all this with a balanced diet and plenty of rest and you will be on your way to achieving your goals.
