Top 10 Best at Home Workout Ideas

So…What are the Best Ways to Workout at Home?

Whether you are stuck at home because you’re busy taking care of your kids, you can’t stand the scene at your local gym, or you simply think there’s no place like home, you can get all the benefits of physical activity in or around your house!

There are many ways to workout at home whether you have a $10,000 home gym, $100 worth of cheap fitness equipment, or even nothing at all.

Here are what I believe to be 10 of the best at home workout ideas, some of which you can do with fitness equipment that costs less than $200, and others you can perform for absolutely free by using your body weight alone.

So without further ado, here are the top 10 best at home workout ideas!

The Top 10 Best at Home Workout Ideas

#10. Walk, Run, Step, Climb

For most of those looking for ways to workout at home, they need not look any further than the home itself. Unless you live in a prison cell you will have some space in and around your house in which you can move your body. The American College of Sports Medicine and US Federal guidelines recommend at least 30 minutes of exercise 5 days per week. We are willing to bet you can stay moving for 30 minutes in and around your home. Whether it is running circles around your backyard, jogging up and down the street, climbing up and down the stairs, or even climbing up and down off of the couch, getting a cardio workout in your own home is simply a matter of you having the will and desire to get that workout session in.

#9. Play with your dog

Don’t have a dog? Exercising with your friend’s dog is great excuse to hang out and be social in addition to burning extra calories. You can burn l Hopefully the presence of the dog will help you Perhaps the best part about hanging out with your friend and their dog, is you get all the satisfaction of owning an energetic pet without having your own, not to mention don’t have to pick up the poop.

#8. Jump Rope

If you want a heart pumping cardio workout and have limited space and funds look no further than the not-so glamorous jump rope. You can pick one up from your local sporting goods store for a few bucks or if you’re flat broke, you can even use an electrical cord from that old TV in your basement. The caloric expenditure from jumping rope is on par and likely to exceed most other forms of cardio such as jogging. Perhaps the best part about jumping rope is you can alternate with other exercises for tough interval workouts.

#7. Resistance Train with Bands

You don’t need a bunch of bulky weights in your home to achieve all the benefits resistance training can offer. If your goal is to build muscle, or become more defined, sets of resistance bands these days can provide more than enough resistance. On a good set of resistance bands, you can use various attachments, handles and other add-ons to be able to have a huge variety of resistance band exercises. Just because bands are one of the ways to workout at home doesn’t mean you can’t use them anywhere as they are very portable and can easily fit in any bag for when you travel.

CLICK HERE to Learn more about Resistance Bands & Watch Videos of Exercises

#6. Workout with the TRX Suspension Trainer

While you were looking for ways to workout at home a Navy SEAL was looking for ways to workout while deployed in combat. Facing the same obstacles of what many who work at home face, the SEAL created the TRX suspension trainer.

All you need to use the TRX is something to anchor it to such as door or tree. The TRX has spawned a fitness revolution all around the blog because it is so great.

You can get great resistance training and core strengthening workouts with the TRX whether you are in your bedroom or in your back yard.

CLICK Here to see Videos of the TRX Suspension Trainer in Action

#5. Workout Using a BOSU Balance Trainer

At first glance most people don’t know where to begin with the BOSU. Others see people in the gym doing exercises which seem quite ridiculous are quickly to dismiss the BOSU balance trainer as a serious piece of workout equipment when in fact training on the BOSU is one of the very est ways to workout at home.

CLICK HERE to Read More & Watch Videos about BOSU Ball Exercises

#4. Start Martial Arts or Kickboxing Training

You don’t have to want to be the next Chuck Norris or UFC fighter to start training for martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, muay Thai. Anyone who is looking for a functional cardio workout that can improve mobility, flexibility, power and endurance can take up martial arts training in the comfort of their own home.

Whether it is Tae Bo cardio kickboxing in your living room or beating your frustrations out of a punching bag in your garage, martial arts training provides a lot of different ways to workout at home. What about instruction you ask? Well if Billy Blanks isn’t showing you on a DVD or you’re not watching Chuck Norris’ “The Octagon” for the umpteenth time, there is a wealth of training videos online on sites such as youtube.

You can pick up a punching bag for pretty cheap at your local sporting goods store, and a used one for even cheaper at a garage sale or even a “Bob” punching bag dummy. Perhaps the best part about having a “Bob” punching bag dummy in your home is it will drastically reduce the chances your house gets broken into.

#3. Workout with Exercise Balls

There are many different kinds of exercise balls but the most useful are Swiss (aka stability) balls and medicine balls. Stability balls can be used as a core training tool, a strength training base as well as an office chair substitute. Medicine balls are great for strength and explosion exercises but can also be used extensively for core and obliques training. Perhaps the best part about exercising with stability and medicine balls is you can constantly use them to modify and increase the difficulty of other exercises in your repertoire so you will never get bored in addition to keep making progress in your workout program.

• CLICK HERE to read more about Stability Ball Exercises & Watch Videos
• CLICK HERE to read more about Medicine Ball Exercises & Watch Videos

#2. Learn Exercises You Can do Without Equipment

Perhaps the very best way to work out at home is to simply learn exercises in which you don’t need any equipment whatsoever. Calisthenics which are not limited to sit-ups, crunches, push-ups, pull-ups, burpees, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, mountain climbers are great functional exercises using your body weight as resistance. These types of exercises are great because they train not only your muscular strength and endurance but can give you a cardio workout at the same time. The most important part of performing body weight exercises is to master the form. Once you have great form, you will easily be able to implement any future fitness equipment you get into your home workout program.

• CLICK HERE to Watch Videos of Exercises you can do with No Equipment

#1. Build Your Own Awesome Home Gym

A home gym is the very best of the ways to workout at home. You’re thinking at this moment that it’s not financially possible or you don’t have enough space you will no doubt try to come up excuses for why you can’t have a home gym. In reality you don’t need a huge budget to build an adequate home gym. Whether you want to work out in a spare room, the garage, backyard, or even your living room there is plenty fitness equipment to choose from.

If you’re looking for any ways to workout at home building your own home gym could include anything from buying some of the low priced equipment listed above to hiring gym design professionals and buying high end fitness equipment.

3 of the Most Versatile Pieces of Home Gym Equipment

• Total Gym Home Gym
• Free Motion Dual Cable Cross
• Bowflex Adjustable Dumbbells

The Bottom Line

For those who are looking for new ways to workout at home, there are tons of options, many of which we’ve covered here. In fact, I find these to be the best at home workout ideas at your disposal.

Even if you don’t have space in your home to dedicate for large pieces of fitness equipment such as a complete home gym setup, you can still get a great workout at home for less than a few hundred bucks, or even with no equipment at all.

Best of all, if you consistently workout at home, over time you be able to combine different exercises with the various pieces of equipment you will likely eventually acquire.

As you combed through this list you discovered that some of these at home workout ideas require you to invest in low priced yet effective home gym equipment. However, many are body weight exercises that require just your body, the latter allowing anyone to benefit and get a great workout at home.

As you see, there are no excuses not to workout at home, so go and get it done!

About Michael Behnken

Mike Behnken is a personal trainer who holds multiple NASM certifications and a MS in Exercise Science. Mike loves fitness, travel, and photography among many other interests.