Have you ever found yourself scrolling through social media, like I do, regularly ogling those elaborate home garage gym set-ups and thinking, “Well, if only I had all that fancy equipment?” But here’s a little secret: your home is a treasure trove of workout gold. Those household items you walk past and use daily are about to become your new best friends.
Or your worst enemies, depending on your perspective. With a bit of thinking outside of the box and yours truly, you will look at your household items in a different light.
In a world where gym memberships fluctuate as our daily schedules, innovation in your workouts isn’t just cool; it’s essential. So, let’s dive into the art of turning the mundane into muscle-building and fat-burning tools.
Are you ready to turn your house into a workout mecca? Here are three ways you can get a sweat on in the comfort of your own home.
Transform Your Living Room Into A Gym
Imagine you’re short on time and wishing you had some dumbbells at home, but then you glance at a stack of books. Maybe I could use that as a weight? Books, water bottles, and even that hefty dog food bag can double as weights for squats, lunges, and overhead presses.
In case you didn’t know, your body doesn’t know the difference between a book or a dumbbell. Resistance is resistance.
3 Couch Exercises To Defeat The Couch Potato in You
Now, let’s talk about that couch. It’s not just for Netflix binges anymore because your couch can also double as a torture device. Use it for leg lifts to chisel your abs, split squats, and dips to strengthen your triceps. When you’re feeling energetic, incline, and decline, push-ups will make your living room feel more like a gym.
Couch Leg Lifts:
Sit on the edge of your couch and place your hands beside you for support. Extend your legs in front of you, keeping them together. Slowly lift your legs upward as high as possible, engaging your core throughout. Then, lower them back down without letting your feet touch the floor.
Coaches Tip: Perform with tempo, focusing on using your lower ab muscles to lift your legs.
Couch Decline Push-Ups:
Place your toes on the couch and your hands on the floor, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and assume the plank position. Bend your elbows and lower your torso towards the floor. Then, push back up to the starting position.
Coaches Tip: To support your lower back, keep your core and glutes engaged.
Couch Elevated Split Squats:
Stand away from the couch and place one foot behind it. The other foot should be positioned forward, flat on the ground, and then find your balance. Lower yourself by dropping your back knee and letting your torso lean forward. When your front thigh is parallel to the ground, squat back to the starting position.
Coaches Tip: Grip the floor with your working foot to help keep your balance.
5 Kitchen Exercises To Get Your Fitness Cooking
I’d be the first to admit that the kitchen and its utensils are a bit of a stretch for workouts. But turning your kitchen into a mini-gym is easier than you think. With creativity, everyday kitchen items are tools for a full-body workout. Here, I’ll explain how you can whip up a fitness feast right in the heart of your home.
Milk Jug Weights
Dumbbells and kettlebells are fantastic tools when you can access them, but when you cannot, filled milk jugs with water or sand are a solid alternative. Here are a couple of exercises you can perform with milk jugs.
Fill Up: Grab a couple of water jugs and fill them with water. If you have some play sand, it’s even better.
Lift Off: Use these weighted milk jugs for swings, deadlifts, front squats, and unilateral rows. The handle makes them easy to grip, and the water adds a dynamic challenge for your core and stabilizing muscles as they shift during movement.
Coaches Tip: Control your movements to prevent water from sloshing around too much.
Towel Sliders for Core & Leg Strength
Your kitchen floor just became another workout tool, thanks to a pair of towels:
Setup: Place each foot on a hand towel (or paper plates if you’re on carpet) on a smooth kitchen floor.
Hamstring Curls:
With each heel on a towel, perform a hip extension and slowly perform an eccentric curl. When knees are extended and glutes are just above the ground, slide back to the starting position, reset, and repeat.
Coaches Tip: The slower the eccentric, the better.
Mountain Climbers:
Slide one foot back at a time, quickly switching feet to increase your heart rate and engage your core.
Coaches Tip: Perform slowly to start before adding speed.
Sliding Reverse Lunge:
Place one foot on the towel, slide it back into a lunge, and then pull it back to the starting position. This trains your quads, glutes, and hammies and challenges your balance and core stability.
Coaches Tip: Due to the instability of the sliding surface, engage your core and glutes throughout to maintain balance.
4 Stair Exercises To Elevate Your Heart Rate
Your staircase is not just a connector but a built-in equipment tool for cardio pleasure. It’s a fantastic way to mix cardio and strength training without leaving your house. Staircases prove that workouts don’t require a lot of space or equipment—just a bit of creativity and your willingness to sweat.
Let’s step up your workout game with some stair-based exercises.
Stair Sprints:
Sprint up the stairs as fast as possible and walk down for recovery. This high-intensity move boosts your heart rate, improving cardiovascular health while burning calories.
Coaches Tip: Land on your toes each step and focus on driving your knee up to your chest.
Step-Ups:
Place one foot on a step and push through your foot to lift your body, bringing your feet together. Step back down and repeat. Alternate legs or complete a set with one leg before switching to the other leg.
Coaches Tip: Add a knee lift at the top of the step-up for an extra challenge that strengthens your balance and hip flexors.
Incline Plyo Push-Ups:
Place your hands on a step slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. With your body in a straight line from head to heels, lower your chest to the step and explode up[ with your hands leaving the staircase. Land soft and repeat.
Coaches Tip: If you’re uncomfortable with your hands leaving the stairs, perform the push-up quickly.
Triceps Dips:
Sit on a step with your hands next to your hips. Move your hips forward off the step, bending your elbows to lower your body, and then push back to the starting position.
Coaches Tip: You can have your knees bent or your leg straight for the triceps dips. It is just a matter of personal preference.
Tero Vesalainen
At-Home HIIT Workout
Let’s bring this together with a full-body workout performed in your home when time and access to a gym are limited. Each of the above sections will be a separate triset, which can either be performed for rounds or as many rounds as possible within a chosen time frame.
Staircase Triset
1A. Stair sprints 6 to 8 reps
1B. Incline Plyo Push Ups 6 to 8 reps.
1C. Triceps Dips AMRAP
Kitchen Triset
2A. Milk Jug Rows 15 + reps on both sides. Use tempo to make it more difficult.
2B. Hamstring Curls 8 to 12 reps
2C. Mountain Climbers 10 to 20 seconds as fast as possible
