Motivating yourself to get the exercise you need every day can be extremely hard. The extra effort it takes to leave the comfort of home to go to the gym can be enough to stop it from ever happening. It’s not always a lack of motivation either. Your work schedule can interfere with workout times, especially if you’re on-call and work is always hanging over your head. If you’re caring for children or family members, their needs can often come first and you may not have complete control over your schedule.
Don’t despair! No matter what your circumstances, there is always a solution. Regular exercise is vital to a healthy life, and you have the right to be healthy and happy.
So how can you make exercise work for any schedule? How about an easy full-body workout that you can do at home any time that suits you? Today I’m going to share a workout plan that you can squeeze in whenever you have time. The best part: you don’t have to leave your house! So no excuses 😉 You can also modify this workout for your needs. For example, if you don’t have time to do the full workout in one go, you could do half of the workout in the morning and half of the workout at night if that works better for your schedule.
I have included an easy, moderate and hard version of this workout plan. The idea is to progress to the next level when the current level becomes too easy. That way you will see your progress and fitness improve. You can also return to an easier level if you need to take time off or you don’t feel your best on a particular day.
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It’s time to take control of your fitness and health! Let’s get into the full-body home workout that you can do any time.
Easy Home Workout
The ultimate goal of the easy workout is to perform 3 sets of 15 repetitions for each of the exercises in the routine. You may not achieve that right away, but that is what you should be aiming for. If you cannot do 3 sets of 15, try to do at least 2 reps of 10 and work up from there. Once you achieve 3 sets of 15 consistently and it becomes easy, it’s time to progress to the Medium workout routine.
Push-ups
Sets: 3
Reps: 15
How-to:
Good form is really important. Start with push-ups from your knees if you can’t do full push-ups right away. If you can’t keep your back straight or touch your nose to the floor without breaking form, scale it back to knee push-ups or fewer reps until you can do them with proper form.
Lunges
Sets: 3
Reps: 15
How-to:
On the leg that steps forward, make sure that your knee stays in line with your ankle and does not go over your toes. If you feel unstable or weak, you can balance with one hand on a wall or back of a chair until you feel strong enough to perform the lunge without support.
Squats
Sets: 3
Reps: 15
How-to:
When doing a squat, make sure your feet are hip-distance apart and your knees do not go over your toes. It should feel like you are sitting down into a chair without actually sitting down. You can even place a chair behind you to use as a guide at first. When you feel your bum lightly hit the seat, come back up. Perform the squat with slow control to get full muscle-sculpting effects.
Planks
Sets: 3
Reps: Start with 15 seconds. Progress gradually to 90 seconds as you get stronger.
How-to:
Planks are an amazing exercise to develop your core muscles. Start on your knees if you don’t feel strong enough to perform a full plank up on your toes. Try to progress as quickly as possible out of this modified position though. It’s better to push yourself and try the full plank for less time than remain in the modified plank for too long.
Moderate Home Workout
Once you are comfortable with the Easy workout and you’re doing the full 3 sets of 15 reps of each exercise, it’s time to progress to the moderate workout to start seeing some fitness gains. To start, keep doing the exercises from the easy routine, adding a couple of the exercises from the moderate routine.
You will need a set of dumbbells for these exercises. Start with 1kg weights for each hand, and progress by 1kg increments as you get stronger. Be sure to progress slowly and carefully so you don’t get injured. As you improve, you can add more exercises from the moderate plan and even swap out some from the easy plan.
Aim to do 7 exercises in total per workout session, selecting from both the Easy and Modern routine depending on how you feel and what muscles you would like to work on. This also prevents your routine from getting too boring due to repetition. Again, once you achieve 3 sets of 15 comfortably, it’s time to start adding exercises from the Hard routine. You can also up the weight of your dumbells to keep pushing yourself.
Bicep Curls
Sets: 3
Reps: 15
How-to:
Stand with good posture and your feet hip-width apart. Raise and lower the weights slowly without rushing through any of the movements so you target the whole bicep muscle.
Tricep Kickbacks
Sets: 3
Reps: 15
How-to:
Rest your knee and hand on one side of a chair or bench. You want to be bent over with a straight back. Hold a dumbbell in your other hand and bend your elbow up in line with your back, leaving your forearm dangling down point towards the ground. Your elbow should be at a 90-degree angle. Keep your elbow fixed as you raise your forearm up and back. Your arm should be in a straight line parallel with your back as you complete the movement. Slowly lower your forearm back to its original position and repeat.
Bent Rows
Sets: 3
Reps: 15
How-to:
From a standing position with one dumbbell in each hand, bend at the hips with a straight back until your body is at a 90-degree angle. Your arms should be dangling down in front of you, pointing towards the floor. Pull the dumbells up towards your chest so that your hands end up on either side of your chest with your elbows pointing straight up behind you. Lower slowly with control.
Lateral Raises
Sets: 3
Reps: 15
How-to:
Stand with good posture and feet hip-distance apart. Have one dumbbell in each hand at the sides of your body. Raise your arms straight out to the side up to shoulder height with your palms facing down. You should be making a T-shape with your arms.
Overhead Press
Sets: 3
Reps: 15
How-to:
Sit in a chair with a straight back for support. Have your arms down by your sides with a dumbbell in each hand. Keeping your arms at your sides, raise your arms overhead with your palms facing forward at the top of the motion. Lower them down to the same position at your sides.
Wall Squats
Sets: 3
Reps: Start with 15 seconds. Progress gradually to 90 seconds as you get stronger.
How-to:
Wall squats are deceptively tough. Stand with your back against a wall. Lower yourself down until your thighs are at a 90-degree angle to your torso, like you’re sitting in an invisible chair. Your shins should be 90 degrees to your feet so that your knees are over your ankles and not over your toes. Start by holding this position for 15 seconds, progressing to 30, 60 and 90 seconds as you get stronger.
Hard Home Workout
Congratulations for making it to the Hard home workout! You’re really going to see some progress with your fitness now. To complete these exercises, you will need to add a resistance band and exercise ball to your equipment.
As with the Moderate routine, start by adding one or two of the advanced exercises, and add more as you get stronger. Once you get comfortable with all of the exercises, you can create new custom combinations every time you workout. Keep your total number of exercises to 7 or 8 total per workout session so that you’re not overdoing it.
Exercise Ball Push-Ups
Sets: 3
Reps: 15
How-to:
This is a more advanced version of the push up from the Easy routine. Make sure your form is dialled in before you attempt this. Assume the push-up position, but place your feet on your exercise ball so that your lower half is elevated off the ground. This makes the push up much harder because it lengthens the push-up and you don’t have your feet to support you. It’s all up to the arms and core.
Resistance Band Side Steps
Sets: 3 on each side
Reps: 5
How-to:
Lay your resistance band on the ground and stand with your feet on top of it in the middle. Reach down and grab either side of the band with your hands. Step one foot to the side, keeping the other planted in place to create resistance. Do five steps for one set.
Lunges With Overhead Extension
Sets: 3
Reps: 10 reps per leg
How-to:
Perform a lunge like the one from the Easy routine, but this time have a dumbbell in each hand while you do the lunge. Once you have stepped into your lunge and you have sunk down as low as you are going, raise your arms overhead into an overhead press, like the one from the Moderate routine.
Face Pulls
Sets: 3
Reps: 15
How-to:
Tie the middle of your resistance band to a sturdy doorknob or pole. Take the ends of the resistance band in each hand and step back from the band so that your arms will have some resistance to pull against as you pull either side of the bank up to face level. Pull your fists to your ears with palms facing down at the top of the movement. Your upper arms should form a t-shape with your body. Your forearms and hands are pointing up towards the ceiling. Lower back down and repeat.
There you have it! A full-body workout routine that you can do at home whenever it suits your schedule. The beauty of this routine is that you will progress and improve over time, and you can customise it so you never get bored.
Do this routine at least twice a week to see results. Ideally, you should do this workout plan three times a week.
Fitness and better health should be accessible to everyone. It’s a right, not a luxury. What do you do to keep fit with limited time? Comment below.
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