A Complete Guide To Home Workouts: Legs, Arms, Abs & More

Want to tailor your home workout to target certain areas of your body?

This guide will help you put together the ideal routine, whether you want to focus on your legs, arms, chest, abs, back, or core. You can also mix and match from each section for a well-rounded general workout.

Leg Exercises At Home

Being stuck at home is no excuse to skip leg day! Keep your lower body strong by adding these sets to your leg workouts at home:

• Squats – Add some variety to your leg exercises at home by trying a combination of regular squats, pistol squats (one leg stretched out in front of you), squat jumps (jumping out of the squat position rather than just straightening your legs), and split squats (one leg raised behind you with the foot resting on a couch, bench or other surfaces).

• Lunges – Apart from standard lunges, try some side lunges (one leg out to the side), reverse lunges with knee lifts, and curtsy lunges (one leg goes diagonally behind you).

• Glute bridges – For an extra challenge, try doing single-leg glute bridges, alternating legs.

Advanced tip: You can hold a dumbbell in each hand to increase the intensity of your squats and lunges.

Arm Workouts At Home

You don’t need advanced gym equipment to do a decent arm workout at home. Try these moves:

• Push-ups – If regular push-ups are a breeze for you, try alternating between push-ups and planks or doing decline push-ups (i.e. with your legs raised off the ground on a surface such as a couch or stool). On the other hand, if you’re having trouble with push-ups, you can let your knees stay on the ground or try some incline push-ups with a wall.

• Dumbbell arm exercises – If you have dumbbells or a creative substitute, you can build a home workout routine with bicep curls, lateral raises, overhead extensions, tricep kickbacks, and bent-over rows.

• Planks – Add some variety to your plank routine by mixing things up with side planks, plank taps (tapping your shoulder with the opposite hand while in the plank position), and plank reach-outs (stretch one forearm out in front of you, pull it back, repeat). These extra steps will target your arm muscles while the plank itself works your core.

Ab Exercises At Home

Doing core workouts at home will help your body build a strong foundation. Try these exercises if you’re determined to build some definition around your abs:

• Planks – These are essential for a good ab workout at home. When you’re comfortable with a standard plank, kick the difficulty up with plank hops, spinal rotations, plank jacks, or mountain climbers.

• Dead bug – Lie on your back with arms and knees raised. Stretch one arm above your head while extending the opposite leg. Bring them back and repeat with the other arm and leg.

• Bird Dog – This is an inversion of the dead bug exercise. Place both hands and knees on the ground. Tap an elbow to the opposite knee, and then extend that arm and leg. Switch sides and repeat.

Related: How To Get Abs.

Chest Workouts At Home

Develop your pecs with these chest exercises at home:

• Push-ups – No surprises here; push-ups are the quintessential chest exercise. Keep things interesting and challenging with a variety of incline/decline push-ups (depending on your fitness level), tension push-ups (slow the move right down and focus on your form), Spider-Man push-ups (raising a knee towards your wrist each time you lower your body), and corkscrew push-ups (twist your hips while lowering your body).

• Chest presses – Another one for people lucky enough to have dumbbells at home. You can alternate between chest presses and chest flies, adding an incline or decline to your back to raise or lower the difficulty.

Advanced tip: For a great combination of conditioning and cardio, do star jumps or mountain climbers between your push-up reps.

Back Exercises At Home

Don’t neglect your back while you’re stuck indoors. Use these back workouts at home to keep your posterior chain in shape:

• Twister – Squat as if you’re about to sit in a chair. Place your hands together in front of your chest. Twist your torso to one side, hold, then return to the centre. Repeat in the opposite direction.

• T raises and delt raises – These are some of the best back exercises to do at home if you’ve got dumbbells handy.  

• Superman and Aquaman – Don’t worry; no capes or spandex are required for these moves. Superman: Lie on your front with arms stretched in front of your face, then raise both your arms and both your legs off the ground and hold for as long as you can. Aquaman: From the same position, lift one arm and the opposite leg. Switch sides as rapidly as you can.

You don’t always need a gym to make decent gains. If you need to workout at home, choose from the exercises above to create an effective, tailored program to target the areas you most need to work on.

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