No equipment? No excuses! No time to get to the gym and no equipment at home? Never fear here is a four week program packed with six different workouts that you can do at home without any equipment.
The format stays the same to keep it simple, and all you need each day is the 5 exercises you need to do. This workout provides you with a well balanced, times interval strength training workout that you will finish in 20 minutes. The idea is simplicity and ease, so each time you step up to workout, all you need is a timer and you keep the format the same.
All these exercises are outlined in 34 Exercise You Can Do At Home, so if you haven’t download your free copy yet, head to the sidebar enter your email and you can instantly download it.
Alternatively don’t forget to check out my full living room workout guide.
Instructions
- Warm up stays the same for each workout and will take 3 minutes to complete.
- The rest and work intervals for each exercise vary for each level. Beginners: 30 seconds work 30 seconds rest. Intermediate: 40 seconds work 20 seconds rest. Advanced: 50 seconds work 10 seconds rest.
- You have 5 exercises to complete, each one will take a minute in total.
- Don’t rest between each exercise and do them in order as written.
- Pick your level and do each exercise accordingly. I.e 30 seconds pushups and 30 seconds rest for beginners. Move onto the next exercise without rest.
- Between each circuit (after you finish the five exercises) take one minute to rest.
- Do each circuit 3 times through.
Special Notes
- If an exercise uses one leg or side to side, split the work interval in half for each leg or side. Eg. Single Leg Squats/ Beginner program- 15 seconds right leg, 15 seconds left leg.
- You control your intensity, so don’t cheat yourself. Try to get as many reps in the work interval as possible.
6 Living Room Workouts
Warm Up
Pillow Stabilisations- 30 sec each leg
Elbow to Instep- 1 minute
Inchworm- 30 seconds
Prone Walk- 30 seconds
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1.
Push Ups
Squats
Russian Twist
Couch Hip Thrusts
Single Arm Door Pulls
2.
Tricep Dips
Lunges
Prone Hold
Side Step Land
Bird Dogs
3.
Spiderman Walk
Fast Feet High Knees
Wall Squat Calf Raise
Chair Rotation Step Ups
Upper Back Prone Lifts
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Push Up to Plank
Burpees
Split Squat
Bridges
Upper Back Prone Lifts
5.
Supermans
Squat Jumps
Single Arm Door Pulls
Russian Twist
Step Ups
6.
T Push Up
Squats
Jumping Lunges
Killer Abs
Ski Jumps
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The Four Week Program
Week 1: 1, 2, 3
Week 2: 1, 2, 4
Week 3: 6, 5, 3
Week 4: 6, 5, 4
- Pick your starting level but increase the work time if it is too easy after the first workout.
- Do this workout three times a week, I suggest Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday it’s a very good idea to go for a long walk (45 minutes).
- Combine this with a healthy eating plan (nutrition is more than half the battle).
Here is an example using Workout 1/ Beginner:
- Complete the warm up in 3 minutes.
- Immediately start with pushups for 30 seconds. Stop and rest for 30 seconds.
- Immediately start with squats for 30 seconds. Stop and rest for 30 seconds.
- Immediately start with Russian twist for 30 seconds. Stop and rest for 30 seconds.
- Immediately start with Couch Hip Thrusts for 30 seconds. Stop and rest for 30 seconds.
- Immediately start with Single Arm Door Pulls for 30 seconds. Stop and rest for 30 seconds.
- The first circuit is complete so rest one minute, and restart the second round following the above instructions. Complete the circuit 3 times, your workout will finish exactly after 20 minutes.
My Little Disclaimer
Fad workouts, diets and fitness products are not what I do. Consistent hard work is what get’s you results, and that doesn’t involve a quick fix. First thing, this is not a quick fix or a fad, you still have to work hard to get through this plan. Second thing, this isn’t the ideal workout.
Before the swamps of doubters come at me, let me explain a few things and the rationale behind this workout plan. This gives you a way to workout, raise your heart rate and stimulates some muscle growth in just 20 minutes a day. It’s not an easy workout and will help you burn calories efficiently. The great thing about this workout is that every can do it. Timed workouts have their advantages and disadvantages. This workout promotes consistency and is very easy to do. You always follow the same format, but you get a ton of different exercises stimulating different things. You only need a stop watch and your own body. Once you have your list of exercises down, theres no worrying about how many repetitions you need, you work to the time and you push out as many as you can do. 
If you are looking for the idea program for muscle building, this rep range isn’t for you. If you are looking for a way to get a good workout in 3 times a week for only 20 minutes, that can help you improve your general fitness, burn calories and provide you with a balanced workout… then this will help you.
If you like this post, don’t forget to subscribe to Laurens Fitness on the right hand side to download your free eBook… 34 Exercises You Can Do At Home.
For a full guide, check out this ebook by me, No Equipment. No Excuses. You get over 100 exercises you can do in your living room, plus 66 tailored workouts and 6-10 week plans.
Pedro says
That’s awesome! I was trying to create something similar to this awhile back but I became stuck figuring out the rest periods so it just left me too burned out to effectively get through the rest of my day, I find morning workouts easier to stick to. I never thought of using a full circuits either so that’s just brilliant, IMO.
I enjoy workouts like these. Years ago, I had a basic Olympic barbell set and built a fair degree of muscle, at 5’8″ 215lbs I held a steady body fat of 15%, but as I was forced to move for family, work, and now school, it became far too cumbersome to carry a heavy barbell set around with me. I tried dumbbells but I outgrew them so quickly that constantly reinvesting in them on a students budget was impossible so I switched to bodyweight workouts. Bodyweight workouts are more effective than most people realize too, I recently tested my strength and was able to press 80lbs dumbbells overhead with relative ease, so it’s not fair to criticize bodyweight workouts as being a poor substitute for strength training. Granted, I don’t have the raw lifting power that I had when training with heavy barbells but I still have a fair degree of strength so I’m happy with it. I also find bodyweight workouts more intellectually stimulating because of the challenges involved with progressions, vs simply adding more weight to the bar. There are things I miss about weight training but I’ve become such a fan of bodyweight workouts that I doubt that I’ll return to weights anytime soon. Anyway, I’m rambling.
Thanks for the workout!
Lauren says
Love the rambles! Yep, body weight is definitely a good option. In my opinion in combination with weight training it gets you amazing results. Gives your body another stimulus and often activates muscles that we don’t use in common weight lifting movements. HOWEVER, you can get a very effective and exceptionally efficient workout in this way. Let me know how it goes after you try a few!
Pedro says
Will do!
Pedro says
I tried as many as of the workouts as I could so I could give an informed reply. The only problems that I had were in regards to the the single limb exercises. It was difficult to keep track of the time once I approached the end of the circuit because I was tiring and my focus shifted completely towards keeping my form while maintaining a quick pace. I was able to use an interval timer to help with that but once I stopped it took me a moment to get back into a groove with the alternate side. At a quick pace even the basic squat started to wear me out by the end though. At one point I even had to drop to my knees to keep cranking out pushups so even the simpler exercises became very challenging.
The first circuit tended to be a warmup of sorts. On some exercises it took a moment to find a good pace. I also used an interval timer so I could focus 100% on the exercises. The first time that I tried it I simply set a timer but it slowed me down quite a bit because I would constantly check the time remaining instead of working. My weak areas became clear too because I would become tired on some exercises very quickly in relation to others. Being made aware of my strength imbalances was great but it caused me to mix levels instead of choosing a specific one, beginner, intermediate, or advanced. I eventually decided to aim for the advanced level and let my weak points determine if I needed to stop a bit early on that particular exercise. Any time spent adjusting the intensity in the beginning or on individual movements didn’t matter though because by the time I finished the last circuit I was always exhausted.
Overall, the workouts did exactly what you designed them to do!
Lauren says
Awesome great feedback thanks! Will help a lot with my ebook 🙂
You did the right thing, stay with the advanced level and let your weak points catch up. Just finish the time, even if you slow right down on some exercises, it doesn’t matter. The point is to keep going as much as you can during those intervals. Great work!
Pedro says
Thanks for always been receptive to my replys, and always having a positive attitude while giving helpful advice 🙂
Pedro says
I just noticed that my door is a little offset. I have to assume that this is because of the door rows; is there any substitute for this exercise?
I didnt think that the door pulls would cause that problem because unlike door pullups it isnt supporting my full weight at weak angle. Usually, I just go outdoors and find a place to do pull-ups in the summer and use some inexpensive exercises bands for maintenace during the winter, but I’m curious to know if you have any ideas about an alternative to the door row.
Lauren says
Hey Pedro here you are requiring me to be creative again so I might need some time 😉 anything that can support a towel, I’ll walk around my house and test a few ideas for you when I get home!
Lauren says
Ok actually if you have a table that can support you, you can do rows underneath it. Like lying pullups. Or if you have a strong broomstick, put that on two chairs and do lying pull-ups.
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Natasha says
Hi Lauren,
Thank you SO much for inspiring me to get my body back to what is was – Im not in need to loose mass amounts of weight but I do need to get back into shape desperately.
I love your workout section to do at home, and I plan to implement is asap – the MINUITE i come to understand the tems used such as Russian Twist
Couch Hip Thrusts
Single Arm Door Pulls etc etc – Is there a section where it explains what movemnts relate to each term – or indicates what excatly needs to be done as most of these terms I dont understand 🙁 PLEASE HELP!!
Thank you 🙂
Lauren says
Hi Natasha! Yep you just have to sign up to the blog and you’ll get the free ebook with all the exercises explained! Just do it in the sidebar or at the end of the post 🙂 If you have any more questions don’t hesitate to contact me!