Exercise Without Equipment - 9 Exercises You Can Do At Home

The excuses come from every which direction. I have no time. It's too expensive. I don't know what to do. I have no time. I have no time. I have no time. Having no time to exercise is the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. If you can make time to sit on your butt and watch TV, you can make time to exercise. If exercise and good health is a priority to you, and it should be, YOU MAKE TIME FOR IT!

Now if you don't have any equipment to exercise with, that's another lame excuse. You don't need all the bells and whistles to get a good workout in. Here are 9 exercises to do that will only take you 20 minutes and that you can do at home:

Exercise #1 - Jog
Go for a little jog in one place for 3 minutes. Ya, exercising is simple. This may be the easiest thing you could do to get yourself moving, your heart rate up, and burning calories.

Exercise #2 - Jumping Jacks
Do 25 or go for a minute straight. Ya, it's seriously that easy. The good old jumping jack has been around since your middle school gym class and for some reason its gotten swept into the cracks because it doesn't bring any flash. Not only does it get your heart pounding, but you're taking your muscles through movements it doesn't get to do all the time in our daily lives. So it's going to increase your mobility and loosen you up.

Exercise #3 - Lunges
15 each leg. This is an awesome exercise if you want to build muscle and burn calories. Just take a big step forward and bend that leg until you have a 90 degree angle, and your back knee should just touch the ground causing another 90 degree angle. Push back to your starting position and switch legs. Nothing complicated about it. Hold something heavy in your hands to add a little resistance and you'll start to build more power and strength.

Exercise #4 - Hip Bridges
10 repetitions. Lie on your back. With your hands at a 90 degree angle to the floor, lift your body off the floor to form a straight line, a sort of a bridge, from the shoulders to the knee. The position should resemble a table. Your hands and legs as the legs of the table and your upper body to your knees as the surface. Hold this position for a couple of seconds. Squeeze your glutes and then lower yourself. This is a great exercise to work your lower back, glutes, and hamstrings.

Exercise #5 - Step Ups
1 minute without rest. All you need is a chair, or something elevated that you can step up onto. All you do is step up to the chair and push yourself up with your one leg until that leg is extended (straight). Step down and repeat with the other leg. Do this for one minute and I bet you start to breathe a little heavier. If it's too easy, then grab something with some weight and do it. Just like the lunges, this exercise will help you create power and strength in your lower body.

Exercise #6 - Reverse Crunches
15 repetitions. Lie on your back with your hands on your sides. Keep you knees bent. Bring your knees towards your head until your hips come slightly off the floor. Hold this position for a second, and then lower your knees. This is one of the best and safest exercises for your lower abs and obliques. As a society we sit around so much and don't realize that we're constantly flexed forward at the hips and rounded forward at the shoulders, causing our back muscles to become loose and more vulnerable to injury. Reverse crunches are great because we're not forcing our spine to bend into positions that will continue to put us into forward flexion.

Exercise #7 - Mountain Climbers
1 minute. Get ready for a killer. Assume a pushup position with your arms straight and bring one knee up to the same side elbow. Bring the leg back down and repeat with the other leg. Make sure you're keeping your back straight, core tight, and butt down. You're going to hammer at your obliques for 1 minute straight. Have fun!

Exercise #8 - Push Ups
15-20 repetitions. Back to another good old fashioned exercise. A great exercise to whale on your upper body. If 15-20 repetitions become too easy, then go up to 30 or 40. In fact, keep going until you reach a minute if you're so inclined.

Exercise #9 - Prisoner Squats
1 minute. Hold your hands behind your head like you've just been arrested. Make sure to retract your shoulder blades so your chest is open. Position your feet about shoulder width apart with your toes pointing outward slightly. Sit your butt back until you're parallel with your knees at first, then push back up. All your weight should be pushed through your heels. Now try getting your butt deeper than knee level. This is another great lower body exercise to burn up calories fast.

After that stellar workout routine you should be breathing a little heavier than normal, so walk around for a couple minutes, shake yourself out, and give yourself a good stretch for 5 minutes.

When you first start out with a workout like this, make sure to take 30 seconds to a minute rest in between exercises. You don't want to kill yourself right off the bat, and leave discouraged before you finish your first try at it. Do what you can for each exercise and then go to the next one. Try to get better each workout. Record what you do for each exercise and see if you can improve the next time.

So don't give me the excuse that you have no time. It's lame and it's a total lie. You have time. More than enough actually. All you have to do is start making your health more of a priority and you'll soon have more time than you know what to do with. But above all else, make sure you enjoy what you do for exercise. Otherwise, you'll be right back on the couch complaining.

By Conor Doherty