Here’s some of what we saw our clients learn.

Don’t Forget the Warmup

It is as important as ever to warm up, not only to avoid injury, but also to prepare muscles and oxygen exchange for making the most of your exercise – even when the workout is without equipment. For some reason, the sans-equipment outlook leads a lot of people to skip warming up. It is as important for an equipment-free workout as it is for any other kind of workout.

Jumping jacks, bodyweight squats, lunges, hip extensions, hip rotations, leg swings (forward and side), and 10 reps of the Spiderman walk – all those are Step One. Now that your circulation is open, your muscles warm, and your oxygen exchange is receptive, let’s work out.

Beginning Body Weight Workout

Let’s start with more bodyweight squats. (You know we are disciples. Squats just make you strong.) Next are push-ups, the old standby for arms and chest and core. Follow that with walking lunges and dumbbell rowing motions. (Are we cheating? Dumbbells? Not when you use milk cartons filled with water.) After your dumbbell rows, go back to that pushup position and hold it still for 15 seconds of plank. Finally, finish with 30 jumping jacks.

Advanced Body Weight Workout

How do you get advanced without equipment? Try this and see if you don’t feel challenged. First, warm up, remember? Here’s why. Your next move is one-legged squats, 10 reps on each side. Now that those quads are warm and truly talking back to you, take them through 20 more regular bodyweight squats. Next is 20 reps of walking lunges, followed by 20 step-ups. Next up is 10 pullups if you have a bar, or inverted bodyweight rowing motions if you don’t. (Ask us how – be careful.)

What comes after chin-ups? Dips without equipment can be done between chairs or stools. Now we wrap it up with pushups and plank.

Factoring-In the Element of Time

We’ve long appreciated the dimensions that duration and rest time can add to a workout. Circuit training has long been recognized for its ability to marry cardio benefits with strength training by strictly regulating time for intensity. These lessons can be applied to your no-equipment workout, too.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) and Tabata are two particulars in this field of time and motion. We especially are interested in the research behind Tabata, because of what it suggests for any training program. Research at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo compared the fitness gains of two groups of experienced athletes.

Group One worked out five days a week, an hour at a time, for six weeks. Sounds pretty normal, right? Group Two worked out four days a week, for only 4 minutes and 20 seconds per workout, also for six weeks. The results? Group One increased their aerobic efficiency but showed little or no improvement in muscle strength. Group Two, working out one day less per week and for a much shorter, more intense duration, increased aerobic efficiency more than Group One AND improved their anaerobic (strength) performance by 28%.

These findings got plenty of attention and made the name of the scientist who conducted the study, Dr. Izumi Tabata, synonymous with a high-intensity kind of workout.

Time and intensity are elements you can use without equipment, and you can use them to make your no-equipment workout just as challenging as anything you could experience in a gym.