4 Simple Exercises You Can Do at Home with No Equipment

Have you every tried strength training? Maybe you’ve seen some videos about lifting weights on social media. Or you’ve read an article or two about how beneficial strength training can be. Maybe you’ve even gone to a class or two or tried a few exercises at home!

The issue? You don’t really feel confident in what you’re doing and you find it tough to stay consistent.

It can be a challenge to:

• understand how the strength training exercises work and not get hurt.
• find the time and energy for workouts.
• stick to a workout plan and know what to do when it’s exercise time.

A lot of people never even get that far because they feel like they’re not in-shape enough to strength train. Many would rather avoid exercise altogether because they’ve had too many experiences of feeling awful or ashamed while exercising (usually thanks to diet culture and/or bad coaches).

I didn’t start strength training until after I graduated college. I never played school sports, and I definitely didn’t know what to do in a gym. But here I am: I’ve been a strength coach since 2020 and have been lifting weights myself since 2015.

It’s so common to feel a little intimidated or even scared of strength training because it seems so intense and technical. But I’ll shout from the rooftops about how cool strength training is because of all the amazing things that happen when you start lifting weights.

The key is starting small and just doing the necessary basics! “Lifting weights” looks less like a gym with complicated equipment and looks more like a couple small exercises using things you have around the house.

Let’s dig into how getting stronger can make your life look a bit different…

Your Stronger Self

I want you to meet your stronger self! The you that has gotten stronger and felt strength ripple throughout your life. The person who moves easier day-to-day and feels more confident saying “yes” to new activities.

I call this living your life in full color.

When you’re living in black and white, you hold yourself back from things that involve movement because you’re nervous about not being able to do them or getting hurt. You feel like your body is always broken—tweaked back, rolled ankle, sore shoulder—and it makes you just not want to do anything at all.

Your Full-Color Life

When you start strength training and help your muscles, joints, and bones support your body, you can do things like:

• take your dog for longer walks
• run around and get on the ground with your kids
• go to that get-together your friends are always bugging you about
• try a fun new hobby like roller skating, rock climbing, or gardening
• go to a dance class
• join an adult sports team
• and soooo much more!

Your full-color life could include anything that excites you! I want you to go out into the world feeling confident in how your body moves.

With this goal in mind, the following list of exercises is your Strength Training Step One. Most beginner workout plans expect you to go from 0-60: multiple workouts a week, 30-60 minutes per workout. But our bodies and behaviors don’t usually work that way. To be able to stick with it, starting small is the way to go. You’ll be able to build on this foundation over time and create a sustainable workout plan that fits into your life!

Here are four exercises you can do to start getting stronger at home:

4 Simple Exercises You Can Do at Home

1. Wall Push Up

What to do: Walk up to a wall and put your hands on it out in front of you! Move your feet slightly back so the wall is holding you up. Bend your elbows so your body gets close to the wall, then push back out.

Form tip: Keep your elbows down so your body makes an arrow shape ↑ instead of a T.

Try it: Do 3 rounds of 5 wall push ups per round, with rest in between each round.

2. Chair Squat

What to do: Sit down in a chair. Making sure your feet feel planted and stable, shift your weight forward. Push your feet into the ground to stand up! Then in a controlled way (use arm rests or a wall for more support), sit back down in the chair.

Form tip: Keep your knees pointed in the same direction as your middle toes as you sit and stand.

Try it: For 3 rounds, stand up and sit down in your chair 3 times, with rest in between each round.

3. Farmer’s Carry

What to do: Find two bags or objects of a similar weight that you can hold onto (water jugs, grocery bags, backpacks, purses, etc.). Fill your bags with a weight that you can carry. More weight=more challenge. Hold them by your side then walk around or march in place while holding your “weights.”

Form tip: Keep your torso as upright as possible; don’t let your body bend over in any direction.

Try it: Walk or march for 60 seconds.

4. YTW

What to do: While standing, make the shape of a Y with your arms- bring them out to the side but above your head. Then, bring your arms straight out to the side to look like a T. Finally, pull your elbows in toward your ribcage so your arms make a W. When you make each letter, squeeze your shoulder blades together as your arms move slightly backward.

Form tip: Keep your shoulders gently rolled down and back throughout the movement.

Try it: Do 3 rounds of 3 YTWs, with rest in between each round.

These simple at-home exercises cover four of the five basic strength exercises <<link>> and help you get stronger. Do them all a couple times a week or throughout your day for the best results. You don’t need a perfect schedule to get stronger, just do them occasionally or when you need a movement break!

Strength Snippets

As an answer to people struggling with strength training, I created Strength Snippets!

Strength Snippets is a (free) five-day home workout email experience that helps you get stronger in just a few minutes every day. It reframes your feelings about exercise from “bleurgh” to “ohhhh this could be something I actually like doing.” The four exercises you just did are part of it! The exercises alone aren’t the whole experience though…

The 3 Parts of Strength Snippets

There are three parts to each of the five Strength Snippets emails:

1. Your exercise of the day.
You’ve already seen how these work! The emails give you a bit more accountability. Each email includes a video where I introduce the exercise and give you some tips to make it work for your body.

2. A challenge booster.
This is an optional add-on if you want to make the above exercises a little more challenging. Never required, but it can be a fun way to explore your movement.

3. An exercise reframe.
This is where the change is really happening! What you currently believe about exercise and the rules you’re trying to follow are actually holding you back. These reframes help you begin to adjust how you think about fitness so you can cultivate a more positive relationship with moving your body.

My favorite part about Strength Snippets is that it’s actually a challenge! The more days you complete, the closer you get to rewards. BUT, you’ll have to sign up to see what those rewards are.

You can start getting stronger right now! Sign up for Strength Snippets and get your first exercise today.

Are you ready to meet your stronger self? Click here.