No more excuses, says Mike Donavanik, C.S.C.S., a Los Angeles-based personal trainer. Getting in an effective workout is as easy as tossing a cushion on the floor.
“You can make all the excuses you want,” says Donavanik, who’s also one of the top trainers for Jillian Michaels’ online workout-streaming platform, FitFusion. “But at the end of the day, this workout is proof that you can get in a great workout anywhere, anytime.”
Whether you’re a high school student or geriatric adult, living in a dorm or traveling on the road, novice or experienced fitness pro, you can build strength, gain size, and unleash plenty of calories with this easy-to-follow, total-body workout. The secret? You just need to grab some everyday objects lying around your house—like a chair, a couch, or one of those ubiquitous tubs of protein on top of your fridge.
“I think it would benefit everybody,” Donavanik says. “My hope is that it will inspire people to think a little more outside the box, and to show people that your body is the best piece of fitness equipment out there. You don’t need a gym membership to work out or get fit, you just need to stop making excuses and find a way.”
Whether you’re performing pushups with a protein jar or using your couch to crush your quads with Bulgarian split squats, this 11-exercise workout provides you with all the moves you need. You can perform it at any time of the day you feel like doing it.
“I’ve used all these individual moves with clients and in my own workouts—protein jars for medicine balls, a couch or chair for a bench,” Donavanik says. “As for the pillow exercises? Yes, I’ve actually used pillows in my workouts.”
