7 Excellent Ways To Stay Fit At Home (No Equipment Needed!)

So many of us have been forced to spend an extended time at home over the last few months. For some, this must continue for the foreseeable future. For others, you might always spend a lot of time at home, so this goes on for the rest of your life! Either way, many people struggle to stay fit when they’re stuck at home. There’s something about being at home that makes it hard to get a good workout in!

For me, there are two main reasons for this. Firstly, you don’t know what to do to stay fit at home! Funnily enough, this leads to the second reason of not having any equipment at home. A lot of you probably know how to work out, but you assume it’s impossible at home without all the right gym equipment. On the contrary, there are lots of home workouts you can try at home that require absolutely no equipment at all.

That’s what we’re going to look at today! In this guide, I’ll show you some excellent ways to stay fit at home without any equipment. There’s a mixed bag of ideas, so you’re sure to find something that appeals to your personal fitness goals and tastes.

Running

Obviously, we’ll start with running. Going for a run is such a simple way of staying fit without needing any equipment. The benefit of running is that you can make it suit your ability with ease. If you’re a beginner, you can run for a set distance, then gradually look to increase that distance with time. Then, as you grow more confident, you can start looking at your times and try to run faster. This adds a competitive element to proceedings, which provides an extra motivating factor, encouraging you to keep up with your running routine.

Running is also a great activity to take advantage of nice weather and to see some great scenery. Plus, you can run with friends for a more social element, or run on your own and listen to music for extra relaxation. If you’re looking to improve your cardiovascular fitness and lose weight, running is perfect!

Stair Workouts

Do you have some stairs in your house? Most of you do, and this means you have a great setting for a workout. Stairs are fantastic as you can do so many different workouts using them. The video above gives one example, but there are many more out there. Running up and down your stairs (safely!) is a great way to burn calories, improve your cardio, and strengthen your legs.

If you don’t have stairs in your home, don’t worry! You can do a lot of these workouts on a hill as they mainly utilise the incline of stairs for added resistance. Or, you can find some public stairs to try these on, but I’d advise working out at a quiet period if you choose this approach.

Bodyweight Workouts

Are you looking for a workout that targets more muscle growth than fat loss? Many of you might want to build muscle, but you have no equipment at home. Weights and barbells can be expensive, so it’s good to know you can get a great workout in without any equipment at all – not even resistance bands!

With bodyweight workouts, you use your own bodyweight as resistance. This means doing exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, squats, lunges, etc. Essentially, it’s your body versus the force of gravity! Pretty quickly, you’ll realize you can get a serious workout without any weights at all. You can train almost every main muscle group without equipment, apart from maybe your back and biceps. There are exercises that target these muscles, but they’re quite hard to do and not overly effective. I know this goes against the no equipment rule, but if you did want a more effective muscle-building workout at home, get some resistance bands. They’re cheap and unlock lots of new exercises.

HIIT Workouts

This is a style of working out that you can incorporate the other three ideas into. Effectively, HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training. Most workouts are at moderate intensity and last anywhere between 20-60 minutes. Usually, you have sets and reps that you follow until the workout is done. HIIT training is different in that it can only last around 10 minutes. Plus, the way your workouts are structured also differs. They tend to include intervals of working hard for a set time, then resting. This could mean 30 seconds of intense work, 30 seconds rest, then repeated for a set number of rounds.

HIIT training has long been seen as a brilliant way of burning fat in a short amount of time. The concept revolves around keeping your heart rate as high as possible during the workout. In turn, this means it enters the ‘fat burning zone’ so you burn a lot of calories very quickly. It’s a wonderful choice for people who are keen to lose weight but perhaps don’t have much free time. Maybe you work from home or you have a young child that demands lots of attention? These workouts don’t take up much time and will keep you fit. Here’s a video that shows a very quick and tough HIIT workout to do at home:

Dancing

Yes, dancing is actually a phenomenal way to stay fit in general, but especially at home. You need no equipment, just some room to dance. It also helps if you have a video or something to follow along. There are lots of dancing routines you can watch on YouTube, including more fitness-based ones as well. Or, if you wanted to take things more seriously, you could find an IPA Dance School that offers an online dance studio. Here, you can learn how to dance properly and stay fit at the same time.

I love the idea of dancing as it feels so relaxing and releases a lot of positive energy. It’s also great if you’re not really into the more traditional fitness ideas. Some people find it super hard to stick to a fitness routine as they don’t enjoy what they’re doing. If you’re more of a dancer, this can help you stay fit by doing something you like!

Pilates

Pilates is a fine way to keep fit while also developing lots of strength. It mainly focuses on the idea of creating a strong core. This means you train the muscles of your abdomen, glutes, hips, and lower back. If you have a strong core, you will instantly be much stronger generally. These are the key muscles for generating stability and power in the human body. Similarly, pilates helps with things like chronic back pain and poor posture. If these are common issues for you, it could be a great thing to try.

Again, there are tonnes of pilates routines online you can try out. It’s another thing where you can progress it as you get better and stronger. Start off with beginner routines to learn how to do certain movements and to build your strength. Then, you can move into more intense routines that add a cardio element alongside the strength. Pilates is awesome because you really don’t need much space at all to get a workout in. All you need is enough room to lie down!

Yoga

Now, yoga is probably best to try before doing pilates. Effectively, it’s a less intense version of it. Of course, there are different types of yoga, with some being harder than others. Still, it’s mainly about holding your body in different positions and stretching. A 30-minute yoga routine can do wonders for your body and get rid of a lot of niggling aches and pains. Again, it can also develop strength throughout your body, particularly the core.

Pilates is generally considered to be harder and more intense than most forms of yoga. Hence, if you’re just getting started, it might help you to try yoga first. Get used to holding your body in positions for a long time and develop some base core strength. From here, you can transition into pilates for a more rigorous and intense workout. But, if all you care about is developing flexibility and a stable core, yoga will be fine on its own. Ultimately, it comes down to your ability level and your personal goals. Of course, no equipment is necessary for yoga at all. However, with both yoga and pilates, you can buy some equipment to make it easier for you – like blocks, straps, and bands. This is entirely up to you, but if you’re willing to buy some equipment it might help.

All of these ideas let you develop a healthy lifestyle from home. Remember, staying active is only one half of the puzzle. If you truly want to become healthier and fitter, you need to follow good eating habits as well. This doesn’t mean following a strict diet, just eat balanced meals and keep track of your calories. From here, you will live your best life and become the healthiest version of yourself!