nogymworkout
Julie Hambleton
Julie Hambleton
March 8, 2024 ·  5 min read

10 Week No-Gym Home Workout Plan – No Equipment

Every year come January first, millions of Americans make the same resolution: to get in shape. As they clink their glasses in celebration, these well-meaning goal-setters envision finally dusting off their old sneakers, donning their best spandex, and achieving the level of fitness they’ve always wanted. Sadly, most of these optimistic resolutioners will have given up long before Valentine’s day, declaring “next year will be the year!” But next year remains the same.

So what gives? Why is it seemingly impossible for so many Americans to stick to an exercise regime? There are, of course, any number of reasons why someone might abandon their fitness routine- time constraints, family obligations, or just a lack of motivation. For some, however, it could be the gym itself that is their downfall. This is why a no equipment home workout plan can be so helpful – there are fewer barriers.

Read: One Important Thing To Do After You’ve Set That New Years Resolution

Fitness is Big Business

Fitness gyms are big business in the United States. Approximately one in five adults across the country are members of a gym in some form or another. That equates to almost seventy million people. There are nearly forty thousand gyms and health clubs in the U.S., with a collective annual revenue of more than thirty billion dollars [1,2].

According to a study conducted by UC Berkeley, the average gym member uses the facility 4.17 times per month- that equals out to about fifty times per year. The average annual cost for a regular gym in the United States is about $696 per year. At only four visits per month, that means you’re spending nearly fifteen dollars per workout [3].

Read: 5 stretches for office workers

Barriers to Going to the Gym

For many people, this cost is prohibitive- not everyone has fifty or sixty dollars every month to spend going to the gym. Even if they do, they don’t necessarily want to. For those who are on a tighter budget, the gym is just not a high enough priority.

Cost, however, is not the only barrier that prevents people from going to the gym. Convenience plays a major role, and despite the thousands of gyms and health clubs across the country, not everyone has one close by. A twenty-minute drive to the nearest health club turns into a forty-minute round trip. Add that on to a one-hour workout, and before you know it you’ve taken two hours out of your day just to work out.

This brings us to time. Family, work, and household obligations take up much of our days. This leaves little extra time to go to a gym to work out.

Finally, one fairly significant barrier for many who are trying to start a fitness routine is a lack of self-confidence and skill. When you are first starting out, gyms can be very intimidating places. They’re full of odd-looking machines and fit people who already seem to know exactly what they’re doing. This environment can be discouraging for someone who is perhaps a bit embarrassed about their current fitness level, and who is self-conscious about looking out-of-place at the gym [4,5].

The Solution? Work Out At Home.

All of these barriers can be solved with a home workout plan. Working out at home allows you to operate completely on your own schedule, and with no commute, you can squeeze a workout in whenever it is convenient. Finding an extra thirty minutes in your day is much easier than an extra two hours.

At home, there is no one else there to see your pain-face or completely disheveled hair. You can wear what you want and try new home workout plans without feeling self-conscious.

Finally, you will save money. You can use the extra cash that you’re not spending on expensive gym fees to put towards purchasing healthier food to get you even closer to your health goals. Perhaps that extra money can be spent on some self-care, to help you relax and take care of equally as important mental health[6].

Read: No Drugs Required: Hand Exercises That Reduce Arthritis Pain Fast

Try This Home Workout Plan

The big question is: Can you get a good workout in with no equipment in your living room? This depends on your goals. If your main goal is to improve your fitness or to simply stick to a regular routine, a home workout plan is a perfect solution.

Lucky for you, we have a ten-week home workout plan for you that checks all the boxes:

  • It’s challenging
  • It can be done anywhere in a short amount of time
  • It requires no equipment

If the weather is nice, you could even take your workout outside.

The Home Workout Plan

The 10-week workout plan is as follows:

Monday25 crunches
15 lunges
35 jumping jacks
5 push-ups
20 squats
25-second wall sit
15-second plank
10 sit-ups
10 butt-kicks
Tuesday20 crunches
10 jumping jacks
25 lunges
10 push-ups
10 squats
25-second wall sit
30-second plank
35 sit-ups
20 butt-kicks
Wednesday30 crunches
25 lunges
50 jumping jacks
10 push-ups
15 squats
35-second wall sit
40 second plank
30 sit-ups
25 butt-kicks
Thursday20 crunches
15 lunges
25 jumping jacks
20 push-ups
30-second plank
35 squats
60-second wall sit
35 butt kicks
50 sit-ups
Friday30 crunches
60 lunges
55 jumping jacks
30 push-ups
25 squats
25-second wall sit
60-second plank
40 sit-ups
50 butt-kicks

Cardio

Included in the workout program is a little bit of cardio. The cardio part of the plan is as follows:

WeekExercises
130 seconds sprint, 30 seconds jogging, five times
235 seconds sprint, 45 seconds jogging, six times
345 seconds sprint, 1-minute jogging, times 7
450 seconds sprint, 45 seconds jogging, times 8
555 seconds sprint, 30 seconds jogging, times 7
61-minute sprint, 45 seconds jogging, times 6
765 seconds sprint, 1-minute jogging, times 5
870 seconds sprint, 45 seconds jogging, times 6
975 seconds sprint, 30 seconds jogging, times 7
1080 seconds sprint, 45 seconds jogging, times 8

Health is a Lifestyle, Not Just a Home Workout Plan

Getting healthier requires more than simply exercising. If you really want to improve your overall health, or if you are looking to make body composition changes, you have to look at your overall lifestyle.

For example, drinking enough water is essential for good health. If you’re a soda drinker, replacing soft drinks with water can go a long way toward achieving your health goals. Ensuring that you get enough sleep every night is equally as important. As always, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is an essential part of any healthy lifestyle [7,8,9].

It is important to keep in mind that trying to adopt new, healthy habits can be very overwhelming if you do too much all at once. Start with one thing, like exercising regularly. As you have success with that goal you can begin incorporating other changes. Remember to be kind to yourself, and use exercise and a healthy diet not as punishment, but as a form of celebration for what your body can accomplish.

Keep Reading: Intuitive Eating: Saying Goodbye to Fad Diets

Sources

  1. https://thehustle.co/gym-membership-cost
  2. https://www.ihrsa.org/about/media-center/press-releases/ihrsa-2018-global-report-club-industry-revenue-totaled-87-2-billion-in-2017/
  3. https://eml.berkeley.edu/~ulrike/Papers/gym.pdf
  4. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/fitness/art-20045099
  5. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adding-pa/barriers.html
  6. https://www.active.com/fitness/articles/the-benefits-of-at-home-workouts
  7. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/7-ways-to-jumpstart-healthy-change-in-your-life
  8. https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/ss/twelve-habits-super-healthy-people
  9. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/healthy-lifestyle-5-keys-to-a-longer-life-2018070514186