Well, most of us are forced to weight train at home in this current time of quarantine due to the Covid-19 virus. We all have to go through not being able to hit the gym every day to kill it on the weights, which is likely killing many of us. If you have a home gym setup already, that’s great. However, not all of us do, and we have to make do with what we have at home and what we can find available online and at stores that are still open. Fortunately, working out at home with minimal equipment will keep you in shape.
Working Out at Home Without Weights
If you have no equipment at all, you’ll have to rely on your bodyweight for your training. Thankfully, weight training without weights is possible. This means you’ll do plenty of push-ups, pull-ups (as long as you have an overhead bar to perform them on), squats and ab exercises. Each of these popular bodyweight exercises can be done in a variety of ways to hit all of the major muscle groups. on push-ups, you can hit your chest with a normal hand placement, or move them closer together to hit your triceps. While pull-ups are a well known back exercise, you can hit your biceps hard while doing them as well. For legs, you can do a variety of squats with different foot placements and do various lunges as well. Since you likely already train your abs without using any, or much, weight, you won’t have to change very much.
Add Some Basic Equipment
With just a little equipment, you can add a lot to your home weight training workouts. One of the most basic and inexpensive pieces of equipment you can get to train at home is a set of cables with handles. If you can get your hands on light or medium weight dumbbells it will give you plenty of other options for home workouts with minimal weights.
Bench Pressing With Minimal Equipment
A bench for bench pressing is a staple piece of equipment for any lifter. If you are limited in the amount of space or money you have for equipment, I’ve found that a folded up workout mat with a pair of dumbbells can mimic a bench press. You can lie with you back on the mat and lower the weights just like you’re lying on a normal bench. You can also move your body into positions to do incline and decline bench presses as well.
Some Weights are Better Than None
At this time, the heaviest weights I have are two 30 pounds dumbbells. It doesn’t sound like much, but you can certainly get a great lifting workout with just that amount of weight, even for the large muscle groups like the chest, upper back and quadriceps.
High Rep Sets
It can be tough to use a couple of 30 pounds dumbbells while working out at home. If you were a gym regular you can certainly handle much more weight on major exercises. A seasoned lifter is going to be able to do a ton of reps with only this much while training these major muscle groups. For the smaller muscle groups of the shoulder, biceps and triceps, 30 pounds or lighter dumbbells should be enough to get a great workout with.
Push-ups
If you didn’t have any weights to train chest with, the go to exercise would be push-ups. With only medium weight dumbbells to train with, it’s possibly the best chest exercise to do at home. This is especially true if you can get a dumbbell on your upper back. If you don’t have somebody to place a dumbbell on your back for push-ups, it’s really not to difficult go do it yourself. Try getting the dumbbell between your shoulder blades. You can then do push-ups to failure, get the weight off your back, and continue repping out until failure.
One Arm Rows
Rows are going to be the back exercise to do if you only have so much weight to work with. One interesting option to go heavier is to use a strong bag to put weights in and do one arm rows with it. A gym bag should work, or maybe reusable grocery bags if that’s all you have available. In my situation, I can do rows with a 30-pounder in each hand. With a gym bag to put weights in, I can go up to 85 pounds for one arm rows.
Leg Training at Home
When you train legs at the gym, you are probably using a lot of weight on exercises like squats, leg presses and deadlifts. For home workouts with light weights, you’ll have to go for high rep sets and do exercises that don’t require much weight when you train legs. One great leg exercise you can do with a light dumbbell is the goblet squat. Standing and walking lunges with a dumbbell in each hand are also great for working your legs.
Boost Intensity While Working Out at Home
Lifting at home with light weights will require some intensity boosting techniques to get the most out of your workouts. Two of best are favorites for many weight trainers – supersets and drop sets. I’ve found that one of the best ways to really boost your intensity with light weights is to go to failure, rest for 10 seconds, then continue repping out again until failure. You can continually do these reps-rest-reps sets to shoot for a high number.
Work With What You Have
Of course if you have more equipment and have a nice amount of space you’ll have more options on what you can do to get in a great home workout. With some creativity, you can also come up with your own alternative ways to do many popular gym exercises. As long as you’re doing something to stay in shape, you can’t go wrong.