3 Ways To Add Excitement to Your Home Workouts

Working out at home can be rewarding with some creativity.

Photo by dnevozhai on Unsplash

Ever since the start of the pandemic, gyms have either been closed or in a constant flux between being opened and closed depending on where you live. This has made it more difficult to get in a good workout. However, that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. Even if you don’t have access to barbells and dumbbells to use, you can still craft yourself a rewarding workout with a bit of creativity and innovation. With the gyms currently closed where I live, I have begun to think of ways to make my home workouts more challenging and exciting.

Here are 3 exercises you incorporate into your home workout routine that don’t require much equipment:

1. Pistol Squats

Photo by Men’sHealth

Pistol squats are essentially a one-legged squat. This is a great leg exercise to incorporate into your at-home workouts since you don’t need any equipment. These are very challenging and require a great deal of balance in addition to strength.

Here are two variations I have incorporated into my routine:

Pistol Squat with a Chair

Simply place a chair behind you and pistol squat until your butt touches the chair, then squat back up. This is easier than the traditional pistol squat since it reduces the range of motion. You can add difficulty to this movement by holding onto a dumbbell or any heavy objects you have at home (i.e. water jugs) to add further resistance.

Pistol Squat with a Support

Another way you can do pistol squats if you cannot do it unassisted, is to do it with one arm holding onto a chair or the wall. This reduces the amount of balance required, and gets you to practice the movement with full range of motion until you develop the strength and stability to do it unassisted.

2. Bulgarian Split Squats

Photo by coachmag

Bulgarian split squats are definitely an exercise I have a love-hate relationship with. I have been doing these regularly at the gym for the past few years and find them very effective in working my legs (especially my glutes). This exercise is one that you can do at home even without weights. Simply use a stool or chair in place of a bench for your back leg. If you have dumbbells or any objects of significant weight, you can use those to add resistance.

3. Pull-Ups

Photo by ljcrayton on Unsplash

To do pull-ups at home it would require the purchase of a pull-up bar. Pull-up variations are great exercises to target your back and biceps. A pull-up bar isn’t nearly as expensive as purchasing weights, and can be used to perform several variations with different grips (pronated, neutral, supinated grips). Doing these exercises with simply your body weight is already quite challenging for most individuals, and increasing the amount of repetitions over time can be done to increase difficulty.

Another exercise I like to perform with the pull-up bar are hanging leg raises. Leg raises are great for targeting your abdominal muscles. I like to use the neutral grip (you can use any grip) to do this movement. With leg raises, you can begin by doing them with your knees slightly bent if you cannot do them with straight legs. Eventually, you can gradually transition to doing them with your legs straight.

Take-Away Points:

Even with gyms closed (or if you don’t feel ready to return to the gym), it is still possible to create an enjoyable workout. It does take some creativity, but you can very much build an at-home workout that is challenging. At the very least, these workouts will allow you to retain most of the strength/muscle you have built from going to the gym while they are closed, and will keep you physically active.

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