Exercise At Home Without Equipment To Get In Shape By Incorporating This Bodyweight Routine
It seems more and more we are realizing that we really don’t need a gym membership to get into great shape. Granted, there are some definite advantages to working out at the gym versus trying to exercise at home without equipment, but then again, there are advantages to working out at home as well.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a basement, garage or any other place transformed into your dedicated workout room, you can get in some amazing workouts from your house without the hassle of going to the gym.
I can remember the first time I tried this bodyweight routine — I literally “fell” 😉 asleep as I gasped for air trying to gain my breath on the living room floor. If you aren’t convinced that you can’t get ripped doing exercises at home without equipment, just give this one a try.
“The” Exercise At Home Without Equipment Routine
This routine comes from Craig Ballantyne, the author of Turbulence Training.
Do each exercise back-to-back without resting. It is important that you do not rest and catch your breath between the exercises as that is a key element to making this routine so effective. Once you’ve gone through all eight exercises without resting, you can take a 1 minute rest and start over again.
- Jumping Jacks – 60 fast, while maintaining proper form.
- Spiderman Pushups – 15-20 with perfect form. Do “normal” if this is too hard.
- Walking Lunges – 10-15 lunges on each leg.
- Spiderman Climb – 20 reps nice and slow and keep your core tight.
- Wall Squat – 1 minute with legs parallel to floor.
- Plank Exercises – 1 minute.
- Burpees – 5 reps
- Running in place – 25 reps for each side. Run fast.
The actual workout consists of doing this circuit a total of 3 times. If this is your first, or even second or third time, you may want to consider doing this for only 2 sets until you’re ready.
Here is a video Ballantyne performing this Crazy 8 Workout.
As Ballantyne mentions, if you are feeling up to it, add 10-15 minutes of steady state cardio on a treadmill or stationary bike to take advantage of your body’s primed fat loss state. If you are planning to exercise at home without equipment, Turbulence Training is definitely an effective system.
For some more great videos, checkout Ballantyne’s site.
Turbulence Training Author, Craig Ballantyne
Created by Craig Ballantyne, a writer for Men’s Health, the Turbulence Training workout routines focus on losing fat and gaining muscle in as little as 45 minutes a day and for only three days out of the week.
“… I had to get maximum results in minimum time and I combined everything I knew from bodybuilding to athlete training to interval training to research studies.” – Craig Ballantyne
If you haven’t checked it out, it really is a solid way to exercise at home.
Dave - Not Your Average Fitness Tips
April 1, 2011 @ 6:04 pm
Yep, Craig’s circuit is a killer.
April
April 26, 2011 @ 7:16 pm
Turbulence Training and bodyweight exercises was what made me finally lose my baby weight-for good. At least till my current pregnancy…lol. I am so glad I know what I know now as opposed to last pregnancy when I ran marathons to lose baby weight with not much success. 3 years and 3 personal trainers later, I finally found Craig Ballantyne. His stuff works!
Kevin - Fitness B&W
April 27, 2011 @ 1:45 pm
That’s awesome April -> I now know Craig’s methods work for women too … I’ve seen you’re one handed pushups!
Matt
August 4, 2011 @ 9:02 pm
So, I was clicking around the Internet looking for help putting together a workout plan and stumbled across this page (and the whole site, but this page is the one that caught my attention the most).
I’m a mid-20s male who’s always been active (work in collegiate athletics, though not as a coach/trainer, so I’m with active people to begin with (we’ve put together some staff intramural teams, for example))… Basically, I’m looking for a little structure to help tone everything up and compensate for the fact that as I move further away from my own college years, there’s less opportunity/time for regular, organized, physical activity…
That said, what type of calendar would you suggest with something like the workout on this page… Every other day? 3-4 times a week?… I doubt I’ll be able to jump right in and complete all three circuits, but I don’t anticipate having a ton of trouble getting there with a little dedication… Should I consider mixing something else in as well, or will the Crazy 8 pretty well work the entire body over time (it sure looks like a good mix of things)… Thoughts/opinions welcome.
Kevin
August 5, 2011 @ 8:54 am
Hey Matt,
Since you’re a pretty active guy it really shouldn’t take you too long before you can do all three sets with the type of intensity that will really make it count … I’d say by week 2 you’ll be ready to rock!
As far as a calendar I think you’re right on — 3-4 times a week should be sufficient since this workout really does target the whole body.
There are actually a lot of different workouts that Ballantyne gives you when you get his TT system but this just so happens to be one of the ones that he published without requiring you to purchase his program — obviously I am not allowed to give the others out but I can tell you that there are different workouts and there are workouts for different levels of conditioning. Eventually it would be a good thing to mix it up a bit.
You said you were looking to tone up so if that’s the case I do feel that mixing in some weight lifting will really make a difference too. It’s not “required” but I’ve found that I get a bit more toned by combining weights with body weight exercises. I’m not sure if you read my post on muscle definition workouts so check that out if you haven’t.
If your only option to working out is to exercise at home then maybe consider picking up some dumbbells and an adjustable bench. You can get in some great workouts with just those pieces of equipment.
Anonymous
September 1, 2012 @ 11:34 am
Hi there
I was googling some workout tips and I found this site
I have some questions here and hope you will be able to answer
Appreciate for your time
I am 172cm and 59kg
I look really thin except that I have a small belly
1. Is the crazy8 workout suitable for me? because I noticed that its more like weight losing rather than building muscle
2.Do you have any guide on food consuming? For example what to eat for breakfast,lunch n dinner, and before and after workout
3.If the crazy8 workout is suitable for me, I will be doing it everyday
However, one of my friends told me that its not encouraged to do everyday, you have to let your muscle rest, so his routine is gym,rest,gym,rest,gym……
4.At the end of the video, you mentioned that this has to be done by 3 times per day
Will it be more effective if I do it 3 times in a row or split it into day,noon and night?
Thanks a lot Kevin
Harold
September 4, 2012 @ 10:40 am
Great article Kevin! I realised that a lot of people are unable to carry out proper workout plan at home due to the lack of motivation. Therefore, be consistent and motivated are very important to reach your goal 🙂