7 Effective Exercises For Beginners At Home

Are you the lazy bones who have to drag themselves out of the bed every morning? 

Are you someone who has gym membership but all that money is going in the gutter as you cannot get yourself out of your PJs? 

Working out does not have to mean going out or going to the gym. I am someone who likes to exercise daily but without the hustle of catching time. 

I absolutely can’t wrap my head around the idea of trekking to the gym every morning and then rushing to work. That is a lot of hustle for mornings!

Especially if you are a beginner, getting up and going outside for a workout might feel like a lot of effort. So, what’s the solution?

As a beginner, you should start with basic exercises. You can achieve a lot by giving only a few minutes to exercise at home. 

Easy And Effective Exercises For Beginners At Home

• Stretching
• Bridge
• Squat
• Chin Ups
• Sit Ups
• Push Ups
• Planks

Disclaimer: Consult your physician before starting a new routine. Especially if you have any health conditions.

Stretching 

Before you begin, you must prepare your body for the exercise. And the best way to do that is by warming up. I can’t emphasize enough on the importance of warming up. One of the best ways you can do this is by stretching.

Stretching in the morning has several benefits like increased flexibility, improved blood circulation and better posture. It also prepares your body for your workout routine.

Research has shown that warm muscles perform better than cold muscles. A 2014 study suggested that stretching activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which controls your body’s rest and digestive functions.

What Stretching Exercises Can You Do Everyday?

Stretching after a long period of inactivity can help boost blood flow to your muscles and relieve stiffness. This is why stretching feels wonderful after waking up or sitting for a longer duration of time. 

Below is a list of 6 Stretching exercises for beginners at home:

Trunk Rotation 

A trunk rotation is a strengthening exercise that targets certain upper-body muscles. There are different ways to perform trunk rotation while standing and sitting. 

Trunk rotation exercises typically do not require a gym membership and can be included in routine workout for beginners without equipment.

The stretch focuses more on your abdominal muscles and certain arms, back and legs muscles.

How to do it:

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Face forward.
• Pull your shoulders back. Don’t arch your back.
• Start off with your arms out straight in front of you. 
• As you exhale, begin to slowly twist your upper body to the left.
• Move your left arm to the left while your right arm remains pointed forward.
• Your head, chest, and torso in a single vertical line as you move. 

Pro Tip: Do not bend your body in the direction of your movement.

Standing Side Stretch

This stretch will focus on your side muscles. It will also help tone the muscles that support your spine. 

How to do it:

• Stand tall and place your feet and legs together.
• Relax your shoulders away from your shoulders and reach your arms overhead.
• Align your biceps with your ears and interlace your fingers together.
• Squeeze your thighs together to get the better balance and take a deep breath.
• Now gently bend your body sideways while exhaling. Hold the pose. Engage your core.
• Take a few breaths, inhale and return to the center.
• Perform 5 reps on each side.

Leg Swings

This stretch includes calf muscles, inner thighs muscles and glutes. Leg swing prepares your ankles and your legs for upcoming exercises.

How to do it:

• Stand with your feet aligned with your shoulder
• Stand on one leg and slowly start to swing the other back and forth.
• After 10 swings switch your sides.

Pro Tip: Start with smaller swings and slowly progress it into larger swings

Lunges

Lunges are a powerful exercise that shapes and strengthens practically every muscle in the lower body, including the hips, glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. 

It strengthens your lower body, increases core strength and muscular tissue, and gives you the ideal buttocks you’ve always wanted. 

Lunges are “the best” among Stretching exercises for beginners at home.

How to do it:

• Begin by standing straight. 
• Engage your core and take a large stride forward with your right leg. Shift your weight so that your heel comes down first. 
• Then lower your body such that your right thigh is parallel to the floor.
• Keep your right shin vertical to the ground. 
• Press down on your right heel to return to the beginning position. 
• Repeat with the left leg. Perform 10 reps on each leg.

Standing Quad Stretch

The knee is one of the most active joints in your body. It is engaged in everything from walking to moving up and down stairs to squatting to pick something up off the ground. 

Stretching can help prevent and treat various types of musculoskeletal pain, especially in the knee. One of the most basic Stretching exercises for beginners at home is the quad stretch. 

How to do it:

• Stand straight with your feet together. 
• Raise the heel of one leg behind you and draw it up to your buttocks with your hand. 
• Continue to draw your leg up until you feel your quad stretching, but not to the point of pain. 
• Hold the stretch for many counts before switching sides.

Butt Kicks

These are effective aerobic exercises which stimulate your cardiovascular system while increasing muscle strength and endurance. Butt kicks stimulate your hamstrings and glutes while also providing a dynamic stretch for your quads.

Using your arms while executing butt kicks. It will help to work the muscles in your core, arms, and back. Start out slowly before increasing the pace.

How to do it: 

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Keep your arms at the side. 
• Raise the heel of your left foot off the floor and bring it towards your glutes, while raising the opposite hand up to your shoulder. 
• Then quickly switch to the right side. 
• It’s as if you are running at one spot with your feet kicking your butts with every jump.
• Remember to keep your shoulders back and your core active throughout the stretch.
• Perform this for 20-30 seconds.

Pro Tip:

Make sure you land gently on the balls of your feet.

Do not push off the ground. Instead, contract your hamstrings while lifting your leg. 

Bridge

Your butt must be looking F-I-N-E, but can it manage your tantrums throughout the day? Can it carry you through the day?

The bridge exercise is one of the best workouts for beginners at home. It strengthens your glutes (buttocks) and hamstrings (back of the leg) while improving core stability. 

It’s simple to incorporate into your everyday routine, may serve as a warm-up, and is even an effective rehab exercise for stabilizing your core and spine.

How to do it:

• Lie on your back. Rest your hands on your sides.
• Bend your knees, and place your feet flat on the floor beneath your knees.
• Tighten your abdominal and buttock muscles and raise your butt hips to create a straight line from your knee to your shoulders.
• Tighten your core. Squeeze your bellybutton back towards your hips.
• Hold for 20-30 seconds and lower your hips to come back to the starting position.

Pro Tip : Do not raise your hips too high or allow it to sag.

Squats

Squats are one of the best exercises for beginners without equipment. It is not only for athletes but can be easily included in your daily exercise routine. 

Squats focuses on your lower-body and provides several health benefits. It increases your muscle strength, prevents injury and also helps in alleviating pain. Research has also shown that it can help in weight loss.

Apart from hip muscles, Calves, Hamstrings, and Obliques also benefit from Squats. They also reduce the risk of knee and ankle injuries. 

Squatting strengthens the tendons, bones, and ligaments that surround the leg muscles. It helps to relieve pressure on your knees and ankles and stabilize them.

Best thing about it is that you can do it anytime, anywhere.

How to do it:

• Stand with your feet wide apart and parallel to one another.
• Look up and put your hands in front or together interlacing your fingers.
• Uplift your chest.
• Bend your knees at 90-degree and place all of your weight on your heels. Slowly sit back. Use a wall or chair behind you as a beginner.
• Hold this position for 5 seconds.
• Rise back up, pressing through your heels.
• Repeat five times.

Pro Tip: Your knees should not go ahead of your toes, and your head and chest should remain erect.

Chin Ups

Since we are using body weight to exercise, Chin ups wins the title of the best body weight exercises for beginners at home. 

Not gonna lie, but it is not going to be easy and the best way to do it is start practicing.

Chin-ups can increase grip strength, and posture, as well as strengthen muscles that support the spine. This, in turn, can help the chances of back pain and injury. 

Even if you can only do one or two chin-ups at a time, this exercise has numerous benefits, particularly for the back, shoulders, forearms, and biceps. 

How to do it: 

• Grab the bar with both hands, palms up (overhand grip). There are two types of grips: under-hand and overhand. Overhand is  a bit more beginner friendly.
• Keep the spine long, lift the chest, and brace the abdominals to produce stability throughout the trunk.  
• Now try pulling the body up to the bar. Consider raising the chest to the bar by pulling the elbows past the rib cage.
• Pause briefly at the top before slowly returning to your starting position. 

Pro Tip: Do not quickly drop back down; going slowly maintains the muscles under strain for a longer period of time, allowing for greater strength and definition. 

Sit Ups 

Situps are basic abdominal exercises that include lying on your back and raising your torso. They use your own weight and are one of the perfect exercises for beginners without equipment.

Sit Ups target the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and obliques, as well as the hip flexors, chest, and neck. They improve posture.

Sit Ups work more muscles than crunches and static core exercises because of their wider range of motion. This makes them an excellent supplement to your daily fitness routine. 

There are several variations in sit ups such as V sit Ups (traditional sit ups), Military sit ups, dead bug, JackKnife sit ups etc.

Since we are focusing on  workouts for beginners at home we are going to learn how to do the traditional sit ups which looks exactly like the one above in the picture.

Traditional Sit ups

How to do it:

• Lie back with your knees bent and your feet anchored to the floor.
• Tuck your chin into your chest. This is done in order to extend the back of your neck.
• Interlace your fingers at the base of your skull. You can also cross your arms with hands on opposite shoulders.
• Exhale as you raise your upper body toward your thighs.
• Inhale and slowly lower yourself back to the floor.
• Repeat this 10-15 times as a beginner and slowly increase it as per your capacity.

V Sit Ups

V Sit Ups promote balance, strength, and coordination. If you are looking for an intermediate level workout, go ahead with this.

How to do it:

• Lie flat on your back. Keep your knees straight, arms extended overhead.
• Raise both your feet and your arms toward the ceiling.
• Keep your chest and legs extended at an angle so that your body forms a V with the floor.
• Try to bring your arms parallel to the floor.
• Hold this position for five seconds.
• Return slowly to the starting position.

Push Ups 

If I had to suggest only one workout for beginners without equipment, it would be push ups. 

Push ups are known to burn calories, improve your balance and posture, increase flexibility and protect your shoulders and lower back from injuries.

Push ups can put your body on fire by working out your arms, chest, abdomen, hips and legs muscles. That way it is one of my favorite exercises for beginners at home. 

Even if you are not doing any other exercise and are doing pushups, it is enough as it can benefit your entire body. And the best part, it can be done anywhere, anytime.

Some beginner friendly variations in push ups include wall push ups, Knee push ups and high low bench push ups.

Wall Pushups

If the traditional push-up is too difficult, you might try variations to increase your strength. 

How to do it:

• Try doing push-ups while leaning against a wall. 
• Place your hands on the wall and your feet on the floor slightly away from it. 
• Slowly bring your body close to the wall and raise yourself back up while pushing the wall away. 
• Keep your body inclined at an angle of 45 degrees with the wall
• This requires less of your body weight, only about 35-40 % as compared to 70% in traditional pushups.

Bench Pushups

How to do it:

• Face the bench, table, or edge of a bed.
• Place your hands on the edge of the bench, a little wider than shoulder width. 
• Your arms are straight, but not locked. Align your feet and arms such that your body is perfectly straight
• Bend your elbows and gradually lower your chest to the edge of the bench while inhaling. 
• Maintain your body’s upright and firm position throughout the movement.
• Push your body away from the bench, keeping your elbows extended but not locked. Exhale as you push up.
• Continue with slow, steady repetitions.

Knee Pushups

How to do it:

• Kneel on the ground.
• Extend your arms and place them shoulder-width apart on the floor.
• Tighten your abs as you bend your arms and descend your torso until your chest reaches the floor.
• Straighten your arms to push your torso back up. Slow and steady.

Pro Tips: Keep your back straight, shoulders rounded and push the floor with the whole wrist. 

Planks

Planks are generally more effective than crunches. Planks like pushups, work your entire body.

Planks engage your arms, legs, and abs all at once, making them a more complete and effective workout.

Planks can improve your posture if you experience back pain from prolonged sitting. 

Planks also help you build isometric strength in the muscles of the core, giving you the ability to avoid hunching while seated or standing for extended periods of time.

How to do it: 

• Assume the top or start of a pushup position. 
• Maintain a strong footing, a straight back, and a tight core. 
• Avoid sagging your back or bottom during planks to prevent lower back problems later. 
• Don’t allow your head to sag.
• You can also start with a low plank which requires your elbow to the ground.
• Lower down to your forearms, maintaining the same positioning and form as the high plank while touching your elbows to the ground.

The Bottom Line

Do not forget to cool down your body after the exercise. Cooling Down exercises for beginners at home include walking and pranayama. Take a short walk around the area where you are exercising or on your terrace. So simply perform pranayama and deep breathing exercises.

Health Selfcare wellness

Last modified: February 7, 2024